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  2. This is great! Are the readings about the TV Show? Is there ever some sort of discussion about the show or a write and discuss for it? Thanks!

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  3. Are you on Block scheduling? We are and while it’s good to have all the time to watch 15 minutes of a show I can’t see us watching two seasons. Also, when I show a movie, I always show Spanish/Spanish, but after reading what you wrote maybe I’ll consider doing Spanish w/Eng. subtitles and doing W&D afterwards. Thanks for the idea.

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    • In the past I used Spanish audio w Spanish subtitles, discussed in Spanish, but this time that fell apart. I felt bad, wondered if I was failing them, but in the end something good happened. I’m not arguing that this is the way I’ll always do it, and this is not meant as a full support of using English subtitles! My argument is that shared narrative + consistency + anticipation can reshape student engagement—even when the input itself isn’t “pure.”

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      • Yes, we have 90 minutes together every day for one semester.
        There is an illusion that we have a lot of time together!

  7. The video will go great with my lesson! I am teaching “tiene miedo de” “mira hacia” and “le pega”. Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Thanks, Mike. As I enter my 3rd year of return to the ELD (ESL) classroom, after teaching Spanish for over 15 years, this is exactly what I needed to say☺️

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  10. First comment thread: Teachers always ask about how I create the music activities. Here is a break down to help you problem solve if you want to make your own music activities (but you can always use mine in the CI Master CLass: https://mygenerationofpolyglots.com/10837-2/#voices (Scroll down to #11)

    1- You’ll need a program to download music videos onto your computer. Currently I use a freeware program called 4K Video Downloader +
    2- You’ll need a program to change the file types. You’ll need to change the downloaded into different file types depending upon whether you are preparing to use Audacity or caption the video. I tend to search “change file type online program” and find one when I need to do this.
    3- You’ll need a program to splice the audio into segments. I use Audacity (freeware).
    4- You’ll need a program to make the matching activities. Luckily we have a wonderful basic program that does this designed by language teachers! It’s called “Hot Potatoes 7” from the University of Victoria.
    5- The Matching Activities in Hot Potatoes will create a matching game with text on both sides. YOU NEED to learn the HTML code to embed the audio files.
    6- There is a free java script library to enhance the basic Hot Potatoes activities so that they look better. The first “Carinhoso” activity is the basic version, the 2nd is enhanced. This is not vital… if you want it then search on the internet… I don’t remember exactly where I found it.
    7- You’ll need a program to caption the video (nowadays I don’t show any video without captioning because it helps comprehension so much). I use a freeware program called “Shotcut” to edit and caption my videos.
    8- Finally, if you want to share online then you’ll need a root server to upload all of the files. If you don’t know what a root server is… seriously consider using my songs instead.

    Feel free to send me recommendations of school appropriate songs that you’d like to see in my database.

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    • I give them orally (because I make them up at the moment based on whatever we talked about in class, which is rarely planned out to the extent that I’ll know students’ responses to the questions I ask). However students do write their answers (one or two words, not a whole sentence) so that I can quickly scan through them and identify students who were not following the class conversation. I can do this between classes, so that I find the one or two students who need my attention before the next class comes in. I put their quizzes on top, note their grade, fasten the pile with a paperclip and then return to the pile during a prep period or after school to quickly put grades in the grade book. Then I’ll make a list of students in each period that I need to track the next day. Altogether it might take 15 minutes after school, but it is very effective to make sure that nobody ever gets left behind.

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  13. Hi Mike – I am having trouble getting the activities to load. Is this because flash is no longer supported in my Chrome browser? Thanks!

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    • Hi Tiffany,

      That’s right, Flash isn’t supported anywhere anymore.
      I have an HTML activity for the song that isn’t quite as good, but will at least help students become familiar with the song if you plan to watch the movie:
      Casas de cartón

      Refresh the activity when done & it will refresh with new music clips.
      Here is a link to the full video. No subtitles, though… adding captions would help make this more comprehensible:
      Javier Alvarez – Casas de cartón – YouTube

      Best wishes,
      Mike

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  16. This was recommended to me by a colleague and my students adored it. They immediately asked to read book two, LA bella mentira.

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  18. LOVE exit quizzes: instead of being first to leave, the “slackers” who didn’t pay attention are at the end of the line begging other students to quickly teach them what they need to say to get out…and the student-teaching-student dynamic is the best for longterm storage!! And a good occasion to give praise.

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  22. Hi, I know you said W and D can be about anything. What is your process to decide what to do it about on a daily basis? If you had a good discussion about what a kid is going to do after school in the first few minutes, and you had a good “main” lesson with commercials and songs relating to the World Cup, how do you decide what to wrap up with? Thank you for these helpful videos and posts!

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    • Hi Melissa,
      It does not matter so much what you summarize, as long as you are creating a written text that reviews what was orally created in class. I have to say that I am partial to student-directed summaries because they give me an insight into what was important or memorable from the perspective of students. However if there is something that I want students to remember, for instance when we are watching a movie in small installments each day and I want them to have an ongoing journal so that they can refer to the texts for a later assignment, then I will take charge and determine exactly what is written. Or ask leading questions so that the information I want is recorded. Nonetheless I do want to warn you that students will come to infer that “the important information” is in the W&D, so if you never include the casual information brought up in student interviews (and only record your unit-based information) you will develop a perception that the first part of the class dedicated to student-centered activities is not important, and thus some students may not pay as close attention in class to something that they don’t think is important. We want them paying close attention to the entire class, of course, so I sometimes highlight the unplanned discoveries about students’ lives and include those discoveries in subsequent exit quizzes so that students perceive all conversations as equally “important”.
      Mike 

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  23. Hi,
    This looks like a great fit for my summer! I’m really working to incorporate more Comprehensible Input at all levels of my Spanish classroom. Will we be speaking Spanish and working in Spanish int his class? I just wanted to clarify before signing up!

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    • Hi Joy,
      We have teachers of many languages, so the common language is English. We start with a prompt in English and I recommend that you do the writing in your target language. We discuss in small groups in English, and then when we look at each other’s drafts we read in the target language but often authors include a google translated version so that all teachers can comment on the draft. We do not proofread or copy edit… we are commenting on the development of characters, plot, theme, and everything that makes the writing compelling.
      Mike

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