At Sonrisas Spanish Schoolwe talk a lot about creating rich, fun, and engaging contexts for children learning language. It is one of the reasons we are advocates for using authentic children’s Spanish literature which so naturally does the job of giving students a rich and engaging language-learning experience. It is also why we have always […]
The Importance of Early Language Education This is an excellent article by Kathleen M. Marcos from The ERIC Review, 6(1), 2-5. It reaffirms the importance of the work we are doing teaching preschool and elementary Spanish to young children. Second Language Learning: Everyone Can Benefit Kathleen M. Marcos* The 1990s have been a decade of […]
We continue with our series on engaging the imagination through the senses. In this post: SEE, SMELL AND TASTE. To engage the visual imaginations of your preschool and elementary Spanish students, you can use books, photographs, puppets, maps, globes, and artwork. When teaching the seasons, for example, you can bring in pieces of colorful construction paper, […]
In this series we will discuss the importance of engaging the imagination for preschool and elementary Spanish, and we will look at different ways to do this. Engaging the imagination through the senses is a methodology that can make teaching and learning preschool and elementary Spanish almost effortless. At Sonrisas Spanish School, we value the depth […]
We continue with our discussion of the benefits of reading children’s Spanish literature in the elementary Spanish class: Reading books provides the opportunity for review of previously taught material. An authentic children’s book (as opposed to a “reader” that has been written to teach a specific topic) usually has multilayered themes within it. For example, […]
In the previous blog post I reviewed how to do shared reading in preschool and elementary Spanish classes. Now let’s look at some of the different kinds of books that are effective for shared reading. In each Sonrisas lesson, there are several choices of books for Story Time. The books have been chosen on the basis of […]
What is shared reading? At Sonrisas Spanish School, when we read stories during our preschool and elementary Spanish classes, we use a form of storytelling that is commonly called “shared reading” in the educational world. In her book Invitations, Regie Routman defines shared reading as “any rewarding reading situation in which a learner—or group of […]
The National Standards for Foreign Language Learning represent an important guide for the preschool and elementary Spanish teacher. These standards were first published in 1996 in the document, “Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century.” The standards were developed out of a collaboration among the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and […]
In our previous blog post we explained the theory of multiple intelligences and listed what the individual intelligences are. Now we are going to examine how you can use the theory of multiple intelligences to help you teach, assess, and communicate with parents in the preschool and elementary Spanish classroom. While some children may have different strengths than others, […]
For the greater part of the twentieth century, most psychologists and educators believed that a student’s intelligence could be measured in a standard test known as the Intelligence Quotient, or IQ test. This test consists of taking individuals out of their natural learning environment, asking them to do isolated tasks that they have never done […]
