Planning for the first few weeks of school is the hardest part of the year. There are so many logistics that are involved in getting started. You need to set out all of your procedures and routines while getting to know your students and engaging them in interactive ways. The first week with middle school spanish students is additionally challenging because you want to set a tone of Spanish Only, without scaring them.
This year, distance learning will present even more challenges. As I read over my previous plans now, it’s comical how interactive my pre-Covid classroom was!
- Pass out and recollect materials – Nope
- Trade cards with another table – No way
- Talk to your elbow partner – Not happening
- Sing loud enough for the next class to hear you – Not this year!
- Get as many different classmates’s signatures as possible – HA!
So, the bottom line is, I needed to adapt most of my lesson plans. And while I was doing that, I thought I may as well share them with you, dear reader. Here are the original and the adapted plans for the first week of middle school Spanish. I hope this is helpful in some small way!
In Person Lesson Plans for Middle School
Online Lesson Plans for Middle School
What has changed
The concepts between the two plans are the same. We are starting with cognates and storytelling. I’m going to prove to them on day one, that they can understand so much more than they realize.
However, instead of passing out cards, I’ll project all the images.
Instead of turn-and-talk, we will use breakout rooms.
Instead of dry-erase markers, we will use whiteboard.fi and some other interactive tools for polling.
Or at least, I think this is what we will do. Because to be perfectly honest, I am just as lost and clueless about this back-to-school season as everyone else! However, if this helps you in some way, teacher friend, then I will feel good about sharing. After all, that is my main goal with this blog: to make teachers’s lives easier.
Stay safe.
Virtual hugs,
Stephanie
Hola, Ciao, Super Senorita! My name is Mrs.D and I am a teacher of WL Italian and French at Columbia Middle School and Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights, NJ. I am an old(er) teacher who has , at times , struggled with technology. I have learned to overcome many of my techno fears through trial and error and with the help of my two grown up children to the benefit of both my Middle Schoolers and my students at GLHS. After I had announced to my kids, only two days ago, that ” Wow, Mommy is all ready for school:)”, I stumbled across your awesome Quizlet idea with the classroom rules and your blog filled with clever and original ideas. I have since told my kids “Guess what? Mommy still has more work to do to be really ready…”. I will definitely modify your ideas regarding the cognate cards and the mini presentation for the 1st day of school. I will be using Bitstrips and wear a beret for my French kids and use typical hand gestures for my Italian kids. Thanks so much for sharing your passion for teaching Spanish with all of us. Best of luck for the academic year 2017-18! Ciao, Mrs. D
Thanks so much for your kind words, Mrs. D.! I’m so glad you were able to find some of my ideas helpful! I’d love to hear how the students respond! Have a great school year!