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I'm excited to offer my first full-day solo workshop in Braintree, MA on Tuesday, July 8th: Teach for Proficiency, No Matter the Circumstance!. Here is my message to teachers from the flyer below: "Many world language teachers strive to embrace the ACTFL guidelines for proficiency which emphasize language acquisition as a whole; yet adopting this framework takes time and adjustment. How can we teach for proficiency even if (especially if) our curriculum is linked to a sequence of isolated grammar topics? This workshop equips teachers with strategies that can work with any curriculum. Learn techniques that give students the repeated exposure to and understanding of the language structures that they need, while at the same time leaving room for student voice. Build proficiency and community with ready-to-implement activities, including my Summary Strategy and unique approach to Star of the Day, as well as exercises that teach grammar in context and promote connection. Join me for a full-day workshop on teaching for proficiency, no matter the circumstance."  
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Want a hands-on activity to do with your students? Looking for an arts-infused take on foundational vocab? How about a creative way to engage in self-reflective work? Consider doing an “I AM” watercolor and Sharpie drawing with your students! This pretty little project takes about an hour of time and is always a win. The pics below are from an art workshop I randomly taught today, but as the students were working, I was thinking: Man, this assignment is perfect for the world language classroom! More thoughts below.
First of all, this assignment works with all ages. I've tried it with lower schoolers and high schoolers and, no matter how young or how old, they love it! It's gone through several iterations. The first time I introduced it was as an art activity for 5th graders in an after-school program. My co-teacher stumbled across it on Pinterest and the two of us decided to give it a go; then I adapted it for use at my high school's Tiger Unity Summit, which is a week of workshops and speakers dedicated to diversity and inclusion work. We just wrapped up this year's Summit today, and as I was watching over 30 students draw and paint, I thought: Why haven't I ever done this activity with my Spanish classes? I AM Drawings in the World Language ClassroomHere's how I think it can work in a world language classroom:
TOTAL: $60 Here's the text from the sample packet I handed out -- again, you can adapt the description and prompt for your use in the world language classroom. Sample PacketI AM Drawings Tiger Unit Summit Tuesday/Thursday, February 25th/27th 2025 Ms. Lodge & Mrs. Zukauskas Our identities are made up of countless elements —our histories, relationships, personal values, and cultures, to name just a few. Some aspects of our identities may be visible to others, whereas others go unseen. Similarly, some parts of our identities stay fixed, while others shift over time. Reflecting on the elements that make us who we are is one of the best things we can do to help us consider the complexity of other people’s lives and viewpoints. When we take time to better understand ourselves, we can begin to understand others’ experiences and to create spaces where different types of individuals can be seen, valued, and respected. Join us in reflecting on who you are today and please create an I AM drawing inspired by the prompts below! Categorías Sociales / Social Identifiers
Accountable Adaptable Adventurous Alert Ambitious Appropriate Assertive Astute Attentive Authentic Aware Bravery Calm Candid Capable Certain Charismatic Clear Collaborative Committed Communicator Compassionate Complicated Connected Conscious Considerate Consistent Contributor Cooperative Courageous Creative Curious Dedicated Determined Diplomatic Directive Disciplined Dynamic Easygoing Effective Efficient Empathetic Empowers Energetic Enthusiastic Ethical Excited Expressive Facilitator Fair Faithful Fearless Flexible Friendly Genuine Generosity Gratitude Happy Hardworking Honest Honorable Humorous Imaginative Immaculate Independent Inventive Innovative Inquiring Inspired Integrity Intelligent Intentional Interested Intimate Joyful Knowledgeable Leader Listener Lively Logical Loving Loyal Manages Time Well Networker Nurturing Open-minded Optimistic Organized Patient Peaceful Planner Playful Poised Polite Powerful Practical Perseverance Proactive Problem-Solver Productive Punctual Reliable Resourceful Responsible Self confident Self reliant Sense of Humor Sensational Serves Others Sincere Skillful Spiritual Spontaneous Stable Strong Successful Supportive Tactful Trusting Trustworthy Truthful Versatile Vibrant Warm Willing Wise Zealous Lesson Plan / TimingFinally, here is the full lesson plan that I shared with my co-teacher: TUES & THURS ADJUSTED SCHEDULE Late start 8:00 - 9:00 C 9:00 - 10:00 WORKSHOP 10:00 - 10:50 F 10:55 - 11:50 B 11:55 - 12:20 / 12:25 - 12:50 / 12:55 - 1:20 H 1:25 - 2:20 G 2:25 - 3:20 First 5 min. - Hand out sheets as they come in + take attendance; talk about identity and art. Next 5 min - Give out watercolor paper and Sharpies; make 8-10 curved wavy lines (following samples). Tell students to fill in with paint - can approach this according to their personality; some might go fast and finish; others might only complete only the painting part. 35 min - Choose words / write words. Begin with “I AM (NAME).” Have tops of letters touch the wavy lines for interesting effect. Play with different fonts. Last 5 min - Clean up Final ThoughtsThe individuality of each student comes forth loud and clear with this quick project. You'll see differences in line shapes, color choice, paint application, handwriting, and of course, word choice. You'll find out (and students will find out about one another) things they might not otherwise have known! This activity is really the perfect hands-on, arts-infused exercise to add oomph to your world language classroom whenever you need it. If you're doing anything related to the verb "to be," adjectives, or identity work, give it a try and let me know what you think.
The Guernica unit has finally wrapped! We actually finished right in time for winter break. The final assessment was an oral presentation / cultural comparison. The instructions that I gave my students are shared below along with a recap of what worked and what didn't. But first, here's their amazing artwork. In total, there were 27 beautiful pieces of art on a variety of themes, but in the image below, represented are: Top left to right: Health Care Access, Global Warming, Plastic Bottle Overuse Middle left to right: Homelessness, War, Genetically Modified Foods Bottom left to right: Abortion Access, Religious Freedom, Ocean Pollution.  As students were finalizing their projects, I gave them the handout below concerning the final assessment for the unit. All the summative assessments in our class mimic or are strongly tied to the free response tasks of the AP test. Guernica Unit Assessment PROMPT: Compare and contrast your work of art to Picasso’s Guernica. Speak for 2-3 minutes. This task is similar to what you’ll see on the AP test, but also different in that the prompt is highly specific; you have much more time to prepare; and you’ll be speaking in front of an audience. You should:
EVALUATION CRITERIA = organization of ideas, substance of ideas, control of language, appropriate vocab use, fluency, pronunciation, eye contact, etc. Here are key resources we’ve used during this unit (Then I linked everything that I wrote about in My Guernica Unit Lesson Plan: Part 1 blog post, plus the links below): Cómo hacer la comparación cultural:
Sample student cultural comparison transcripts on past AP tests
What worked1. The art came out really cool. The gallery director at my school is helping me frame and hang their work in the lobby of our performing arts center for all to see —students having a larger audience has become increasingly important to me. I think intrinsic motivation increases when students know that their work will be viewed by more than just me and their classmates. 2. To that end, I also invited some teachers (anybody that I knew who spoke Spanish on our faculty + anyone I had asked for advice in some way about the project) to watch the presentations. In the end, both librarians came as well as our Dean of Faculty! 3. A lot of students stepped up to the plate and wowed me with their presentations. I mean really wowed me! They basically delivered TED talks in Spanish. I really wish I had filmed them -- I meant to and forgot. 4. The content was interesting. Not only did I enjoy learning facts about students' chosen topics, but I also appreciated hearing how they related their ideas to what was happening in Guernica. The way they thought about the symbolism of their issues and connected their images to what was happening in Guernica was clever and sometimes moving to hear. I've shared a sample student "Artist Statement" at the end of this post. 5. Students described the experience as: immersive, challenging, fun, creative, free, enriching These were the reflection questions I had them fill out on the last day before break:
What didn't exactly work1. The art-making took too long. I need to condense the time frame and set a hard deadline for next year. I think it will help them pick up the pace and stay focused. Once I gave them a concrete deadline, I saw things speed up...but I just didn't have a sense of how long everything would take the first time around. In total, I think the slowest ones spent six or seven classes making art, which is way too long! Yikes! 2. Kids suggested being given the presentation guidelines earlier -- I agree. 3. I started off saying they could have a notecard, then changed that idea once they began working on their presentations in class. It became clear that a slide show would work best for students as both a visual aid and as a reminder of what to say — but the fact that I had ever uttered the word "notecard" caused problems. Despite reminding them many times that they couldn't have a notecard, some said they didn't realize the rules had changed. That definitely caused a headache! Likewise, I ran into a few compliance issues that made grading complicated for me:
But overall, these issues accounted for about five students; the other 20+ presentations definitely hit the mark. RubricWhen it came time to grade, I scrawled notes on a piece of paper as each student spoke. I wrote lots of observations -- things I liked, grammar notes, etc. and gave a ballpark estimate of what I thought the grade would be. I also had students fill out little feedback slips after each student's presentation -- this gave me time to record my thoughts too and not feel rushed. Then during my planning period, I transferred my notes to the AP cultural comparison rubric that I had adapted. Here's the actual AP rubric and then my project-specific adjustments are below:  I wanted to work off the actual AP rubric for the cultural comparison in order to stay consistent with how I've assessed my Spanish IV Honors students in the past. For the first criterion, I defined "task" as "Speaking for 2-3 minutes and creating a visual compare-and contrast slideshow with minimal text." For the second criterion, I defined "target culture" as "the history of Spain's Guernica" and scratched out "student's own community" and changed it to "student's own art." All the other criteria worked, except I replaced the row about "register" with how well the student delivered the presentation to the audience. Grades ranged from C+ to A+ on the presentations. For the art, I gave all A's -- they completed it in class with me and everyone put forth good effort to great results. I made the art worth 25 points and the presentation worth 75 for a total grade of 100. I grade using total points so it wasn't a total necessity to make it out of 100, but I think it worked out nicely that way. Artist StatementsThe only homework I gave during presentation week was to prepare for the upcoming show of our work in the CFA (Center for Fine Arts). I had students write an artist statement in Spanish and give me an explanation of the show in English. Here's what I posted on their homework calendar: (1) Escribir una declaración de artista. Es una descripción que acompañará tu arte en el CFA -- This document is editable, so everyone should add their info onto this same doc under my example. Complete by this Friday. (2) Write an explanation in English (approx. 250 words) for someone who is viewing our work for the first time in the CFA and doesn't know what Guernica is. Explain what we did in class for this unit. I’ll pick the clearest explanation(s) and use it for the show description in the CFA. Upload your doc to myschoolapp for this Thursday. Sample Artist Statement: Alyssa, Access to Health Care¡Hola! Me llamo Alyssa. Me gusta tocar y escuchar música, leer, y construir Legos. Tengo 16 años y soy una estudiante de tercer año en Thayer Academy. Para un proyecto de arte en mi clase de español, pinté mi propia versión de Guernica por Pablo Picasso. Para mi asunto, escogí el acceso igual a la atención médica. Este asunto es importante para mi porque mi mamá es doctora y me dice mucho sobre el sistema de salud. Creo que el acceso a la medicina es un derecho humano básico y en este momento no se considera uno. En mi obra de arte incluí la bombilla en la cima de la pintura como Guernica. También imité la espada rota en el suelo pero con el caduceo. El caduceo es el símbolo oficial de muchos grupos de médico. Estas son algunas similaridades, pero también hay diferencias. Guernica tiene un caballo para el foco central. En mi obra de arte no tengo un foco central. Tengo una escala en el centro, pero no es el foco central. Además, Guernica tiene tres partes o paneles. Este estilo de pintura se llama tríptico. Mi pintura no tiene tres paneles, solo tiene un panel, por lo tanto, no es una pintura tríptica. ¡Espero que te haya gustado mi arte! ¡Gracias! Hello! My name is Alyssa. I like to play and listen to music, read, and build Legos. I am 16 years old and am a junior at Thayer Academy. For an art project in my Spanish class, I painted my own version of Guernica by Pablo Picasso. For my issue, I chose equal access to medical care. This issue is important to me because my Mom is a doctor and she tells me a lot about the healthcare system. I believe that access to medical care is a human right and at the moment it is not considered one. In my work of art I included the lightbulb on the top of the painting like Guernica. I also imitated the broken sword on the ground but with the caduceus. The caduceus is the official symbol of many medical groups. These are some similarities, but there are also differences. Guernica has a horse as the central focus. In my work of art I don’t have a central focus, I have a scale in the center, but it is not the central focus. In addition, Guernica has three parts or panels. This style of painting is called tryptic. My painting does not have three panels, it only has one, therefore, it is not a tryptic painting. I hope you liked my art! Thank you!  This is a slide from Alyssa's oral presentation on health care access in which she compared and contrasted symbols from her artwork to symbols in Picasso's Guernica. Sample Project Explanation (to hang at the art show)A little over a month ago, the Spanish IV Honors classes began learning about Guernica, a mural-sized painting made by Pablo Picasso in 1937. It is a powerful anti-war painting in response to the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica by Nazi German and Italian fascist air forces during the Spanish Civil War. The artwork depicts the chaos and suffering caused by the attack, featuring distorted, anguished figures, including a mother holding her dead child, a wounded horse, and a screaming figure. The painting is a symbol of the horrors of war, representing not just the tragedy of Guernica, but also the broader human cost of violence and destruction. In order to demonstrate our understanding of the painting, as well as the bombing of Guernica, we were tasked to create our own Guernica-style watercolor painting that illustrated a topic we felt strongly about. We started by picking our topic and then researching it, finding the objects and figures we could later apply to our art. We then went on to sketching, fragmenting (drawing lines in all directions across our sketch), and finally, watercoloring. We spent a couple weeks on our artwork and then another several days creating a slideshow that would showcase our art as well as the data behind it and our message. We presented this in front of our class as our unit-ending assessment, of course speaking in Spanish only. Thank you for viewing our work and please enjoy our art! Thanks to Claire for this great summary! Final TakeawaysGuernica is such a powerful piece of art. Almost 90 years later, this painting is still relevant and inspiring. Also it's wonderful when students can bring their creative talents -- or "lack of talent" as some of them would argue to me -- into the academic classroom. I am a huge advocate for arts integration wherever possible. For some students, making art was defintiely frustrating, but I kept reinforcing to them, "There is no way to mess up this particular assignment!" Students learned that cubist art is about simple lines and distorted perspective, so it's not supposed to look pretty or realistic. Even the "non-artists" therefore succeeded. I enjoyed pumping these doubtful students up and helping them see themselves as individuals with a unique creative stance. Come to think of it, there is a quote that is attributed to Pablo Picasso that has always inspired me and certainly applies here. I'll have to share it with my students next year: 
A Little Background First
I’m teaching Spanish IV Honors (our pre-AP class) for the first time and had to pick a book. It’s a pre-AP class, made up of mostly juniors. I selected Vista’s Perspectivas, even though I'm using it sparingly. (There are too many other resources and routines I want to use for me to teach exclusively from a book). I picked Perspectivas because of the authentic materials included -- they’re good! Lesson 7 on Visual Art had an article about Picasso's "Guernica," one of my favorite paintings of all time. I saw it and instantly knew I wanted to create a unit that revolved around this iconic work of art. I’m halfway through my Guernica unit now and am excited about how it's going!
For the final assessment, my students are picking a societal issue that is of personal importance to them and creating a cubist watercolor painting about it. Then, since this is Spanish class and not an Art class, they’re going to write an artist statement in Spanish to accompany it. They’ll know in advance that they have to:
My Guernica Lesson Plan So Far
(1) Presentation of some* unit vocab: Did "Creative communication" exercise where they got a list of art terms (watercolor, brush, canvas, etc.) and Guernica-specific terms (bombing, soldier, border, etc.) in English. They had to make their partners guess the terms with descriptions in Spanish ("Es algo que un pintor usa" could work for "canvas"). 3 minute timer. Kids alternate. Change partners 3 X. Kids are used to this activity. Gave Spanish equivalent of words in a Quizlet set. Vocab practice has continued throughout the unit.*
*Am realizing now halfway through that there's more vocab that needs to be taught before they get to assessment day! (2) Memorization drawing: Projected hi res image of Guernica on board and said we were going to admire "Guernica" in silence for 5 minutes. Told them to memorize as much of the painting as they could because they needed to try to recreate it from memory afterwards. Handed out blank paper and they drew what they remembered! Wow! Seeing what (and how much!) kids noticed and remembered was fascinating. They told me what to draw on the board (I allowed for "Spanglish" here). A few came up to the board to draw what they remembered themselves. Finally, I turned on the projector again and projected the real "Guernica." We saw how our memorization drawing compared to the real thing (with our drawing resting on top of the real "Guernica.") (3) Kristy Placido’s Guernica packet: I bought Kristy’s amazing Guernica packet on Teachers Pay Teachers ($8.00). Had students read the beginning pages about the history of Guernica. Next day they read the same pages again aloud in pairs, giving them a second read-through as well as pronunciation practice. Asked comprehension questions so everyone understood the history. (4) Guernica 3D: Watched Guernica en 3D thanks to Kristy’s packet. Ended up assigning this vid for homework, but I wish I had done it in class because it’s so moving. (5) Cubism video: Showed them El cubismo en tres simples pasos vid and did it as a cloze activity -- I made up a transcript to go along with the vid. Not sure if this was the right place for the video in terms of the overall lesson arc, but the kids liked the information and activity. (6) Bosquejos: Had students practice replicating Picasso's studies of Guernica as a brain break in the middle of class. Gave them 15 minutes to copy a few “bosquejos” I had printed out -- images below. (7) Playlist de Picasso: Found this article called "Picasso's playlist" and made a Spotify list so students could listen to the music that Picasso himself listened to while they worked. (8) More Kristy Placido packet and vocab practice. Gave a quiz on the vocab and the content they had read and watched so far. (9) VHL Perspectivas: Read “¿Por qué nos fascina Guernica?” in our textbook and had them do did Activity 1 (comprehension questions). Was nervous it would be too hard, but thanks to everything we had already done on "Guernica," they said the reading went okay. When we went over Activity 1 in class, it was clear they had understood! Yay! Assigned Activity 3 the following night as part of HW.
(10) Ron English: Introduced them to the Guernica-inspired art of Ron English, again based on Kristy Placido’s recommendation in her wonderful packet. Had them watch (beginning around minute 8:45) 3 minutes of the English-language video that's on his gallery's website. Here he talks about why "Guernica" is his muse.
(11) Library Trip: Took kids to the library for 30 minutes. I decided I wanted students to pick a global issue that matters to them, to make some art about it, and to root it in actual journalism. Picasso was inspired to paint "Guernica" based on an article in L'Humanité. My school's librarians were incredible and made me a web page with research links to several databases, including "Gale in Context." That particular database is easy to navigate, informative and comprehensive. The library trip was a reminder to me that not all research needs to (or should) happen on Google. (12) Make Art -- We’re just getting to this part! Kids brought in their sketches on Friday (and wrote a little paragraph about the issue they wanted to "concienciar.") So far there are going to be projects on animal testing, fast fashion, war in Ukraine, climate change, gun violence in schools, over-tourism, and so many important issues. I love the diversity of topics they have chosen. Art Making Instructions So Far
(1) Pick a global issue that breaks your heart. Search out information about it using our research databases.
(2) Based on your research, determine approximately 5 symbols that can represent this issue visually. (3) Come in with a sketch (or sketches) that will be the rough draft for the cubist drawing/painting you will complete as part of this unit. You can approach the overall design in two ways:
(4) Next, draw about 10-15 criss-crossing lines w/ a ruler across your picture, giving it a broken glass effect. (5) Experiment with rotating or changing the vantage point of several symbols each time you come across a new “broken” fragment. (The first two green and red paintings in these sample student works* do this well -- they don’t just draw certain symbols, they adjust the perspective from fragment to fragment. Play around with this a bit -- it takes time to get used to. Spend 30 minutes (or more) bosquejando. *I got my inspiration from Steve Hamann's 2016 blog post (you can see his student's awesome artwork there), but there's one important caveat: the website he directed his students to in order to do research has horrifyingly graphic pictures related to war (and other global crises). Yes, it's reality and students should understand the realities of our world, but the images were too upsetting and graphic for me to direct them to this site as it is today. Tidbits during art-making: Talked (and showed a video clip) about the Guernica tapestry at the UN getting covered up by a blue curtain during Colin Powell's announcement of the Iraq war. Shared a video from the Prado's website about Francisco de Goya's "El 3 de Mayo," which was an inspiration for Guernica. Supply List (So Far)
After talking with some artist friends, I think I still need:
What's coming next?
My students are going to begin drawing on water color paper tomorrow! Ahhh! I think I'm going to start off class (after our usual opening routine) with this acuarelas tutorial and then give them some scraps of paper and supplies so they can play around with the medium. Once they're relatively comfortable, they'll draw their final draft in pencil, then they'll add gray scale paint, then a pop of color, and lastly Sharpie. Questions to be answered:
Art-making update
The water color practice day went okay. Most students sat on the floor. I didn't do the best job of explaining how to mix watercolor or do a gray scale, but I don't think that mattered that much -- this is a pretty basic painting project and I think it was fun for them to play around and relax. The next day I gave them their 11 X 15 official watercolor paper and they did their sketches (looking off their "bosquejos") with pencil for most of the class. Most are going to need another class period, but two will be ready to go tomorrow and will paint -- we'll see how that goes. I put on the "Playlist de Picasso" I made earlier (linked above). It was a beautiful moment for me to see my students engaged in art-making while the sounds of music that Picasso once listened to filled the room. Quick video below:
One of the things I've really been missing during this year away from the classroom is getting to know my students...like really getting to know them. Prior to making student interviews a central part of my teaching, I would say I only sort of knew them. It wasn't until I started interviewing my students that I began consistently finding out about what mattered to them. Every day I learned about students' meaningful relationships, cute pets, childhood stories, pet peeves, and so on. These personalized details made learning vocab words and certain phrases highly memorable, but more importantly, this type of sharing allowed natural, genuine connections to be formed -- between me and the students, and between the students and one another. I'd come into class and hear students ask each other questions like:
Before doing these interviews, I would say my classroom was welcoming, but not in the same way that it is now. Before, I'm not sure all students really felt known by me or by one another. There would sometimes be a class (or two) where something was off. Despite how hard I worked at lesson planning and how determined I was to bring my A-game, a few students weren't "bought in" and I'd feel nervous that my lessons could be derailed by sarcastic comments or lackluster effort. But I can honestly say that these interviews, and the warm environment of belonging they've helped create, have made that nagging fear vanish. Walking into class and connecting with my students feels joyful. I was first introduced to the concept of interviewing students by my colleague Darah Harper, who attended a session on it at NTPRS in Chicago in 2019 (a conference that's since stopped running I believe). She raved about it and insisted we try doing interviews. I felt unsure: what if students didn't want to talk about their lives? What if the conversations got awkward and didn't go anywhere? What if? What if? What if? But we went for it and WOW -- game changer. I write in detail about my approach to these interviews, which I call "Star of the Day," in my book. There are as many ways to interview students and do follow-up activities as there are teachers, but I made a change last year that I think is worth blogging about here. I streamlined my process into something short and sweet that can work for all types of teachers and classes: middle school or college level, big class sizes or small ones, standard-level or advanced...this approach can work. My new take on interviews came about after I returned from maternity leave. Since I was coming back late in the school year, it was decided that I wouldn't get my old classes back. Instead, I would cover for a colleague who was coincidentally going out on leave just as I was coming back. I got 60 new students with six weeks left of school. In order to build rapport, I did one short interview a day to start every class. Each interview covered the following questions, pretty much in this order:
I also had:
 In terms of the interview process, I asked all the questions at first, then as kids grew used to the routine (after about a week, really!), I involved them. "What more information do we need?" "What else do we need to know?" and kids would say things like, "When is your birthday?" "What do you like to do?," etc. I think the best part of these mini interviews came at the end when we looked at the student photo submission. To ensure students remembered to send me a pic, I emailed them the day before their interview (a complete schedule of who was going when had already been established with them) and said: ¡Hola! Just a reminder that you're tomorrow's star! We'll start class with your interview. I'll ask your name, birthday, likes and dislikes and then we'll look at a pic from your life and I'll get some participation from the class on what they see. You don't need to do anything besides send me two pics via email -- I'll just pick one photo, but I like to have two options. I'm looking for real pics from your life that are interesting / meaningful to you in some way / will produce some good discussion. I look forward to receiving your two pics and learning more about you. Hasta mañana, Ms Lodge These interviews gave me a way to connect with students of all kinds, especially the reserved ones. In the clip below, I'm interviewing a student who transferred to our high school from a new school and was very reserved in class. After this interview, there was so much for all of us to say and laugh about with him. He doesn't like his middle name and didn't share it. He loves food, except kale. It annoys him that teachers are always taking kids' phones in the cafeteria. In the interview, he talks in very simple Spanish and gives most of his responses in English -- I was fine with that even though he's in a Level III class. What mattered to me was for all of us to get to know him. In this last part of the interview, he admits to having some pets and something funny came up that ended up being an ongoing joke in our class. If you're on the fence about doing interviews, try it! Start small, and maybe stick small! You could try this same approach -- 5 questions and a picture! I promise it leads to awesome results.
Although drawing and doodling are often associated with elementary education, these techniques shouldn't be dismissed as mere child's play. Rather, drawing and doodling are powerful tools for facilitating learning and building connection between students in the world language classroom. Students of all kinds -- from five-year olds to 50-year olds -- have something to gain by rendering drawings with pencil and paper as they take on learning a new language. The act of drawing can help students build memorable and personal connections to language. What's more, playful drawing exercises give students a way to share something of themselves. Similar to handwriting, doodles have a distinctively personal stamp. The way students represent figures, cars, or animals is unique to them. Through art making and sharing, students are able to recognize and enjoy each other's artistic quirks, while also developing a strong visual understanding of new words.   One of my favorite drawing activities to use in the world language classroom is called Visual Notetaking. Visual Notetaking is something that can be done while listening to a story, a student interview or really any kind of auditory input. Visual Notetaking focuses on doodles, symbols, arrows, X’s, emojis, stick figures -- anything that provides a visual representation of what a student is understanding. ➡️ 🚳 ☔ 🏖️😀 🐷 🦋 🍓 🍔 ⚽️ 🎮 🚘 ✈️ ⏰ 💜 🚫 Students can include some keywords during Visual Notetaking -- writing isn't forbidden -- but primarily their page should be filled with doodles. This little exercise is really my nod to the kid who loves to doodle in their notebook during class, the kid who needs to keep their hand busy in order to concentrate -- I was that kid!
To administer this activity, hand out blank paper and pencils, then cue up some audio. I recommend letting students listen to several lines of audio, then stopping the recording so they can draw freely. Hit play again and maybe even repeat a portion of the audio they just heard. You could choose to only do one two-minute excerpt or you could choose to do several excerpts. One caveat for Visual Notetaking is to pick a passage that has things that can be represented easily in a visual format, e.g., concrete vocab words or specific events. If people or characters are talking about their opinions or abstract concepts, it will be harder to do this exercise. I learned this truth the hard way by trying to do it with a recording of “Una experiencia inolvidable," a story in the Nuestra historia III curriculum by Voces Digital. In that story, the characters are talking about their opinions on art, and it didn’t translate well into doodling. So be mindful of what story you pick and even try it yourself first before leading the activity in class. In general, giving students a chance to draw their understanding of what they hear is a great way to focus their attention rather than having them feel intimidated by the sounds of another language and ultimately spacing out. Drawing is a great anchor in that way. Visual Notetaking can be used to get a sense of where students are before, during, or after engaging with content. After doing the exercise, one form of follow up is to put students in small groups to compare their doodles and share information back to the group. What images did they have in common? What was different? Another idea is to collect student work and say in the target language, “Hey! I noticed a lot of people picked up on the word _____” and show examples of what students drew on the document camera. Dogs tend to come up a lot in my Spanish class, and students very much enjoy viewing each others' renderings of dogs, especially ones that look like primitive stick figures! Some teachers have asked me whether this kind of sharing can be problematic -- do the students who lack so-called artistic talent get teased? Do people make fun of their contributions? The answer comes down to classroom culture. In all the ways you've been encouraging students to be supportive, openminded, and connected during other activities, the same goes here. I find that the naturally gifted students receive a lot of praise, but there is also real appreciation for the cleverness and originality of unrefined work because it manages to get the point across -- and sometimes even better than the aesthetically pleasing drawings! Student art can bring real joy, laughter, and fun into the classroom. I'm hopeful to present more on the topic of Drawing and Doodling -- perhaps at #NECTFL2024! I'm on the waitlist for now. If I present, I'll demo this activity as I did at #RIFLA in October. (Update! My RIFLA session was "Best of Rhode Island" this year, so I will be presenting at NECTFL afterall!) An hour session goes by fast, but there are many more drawing activities that I have up my sleeve that I want to demo with teachers. I'm thinking Crazy Sentences, Pictionary Mania, and 9 Panel Comic. I'm also contemplating adding more of these types of activities to a new chapter in the next edition of A Teacher's Guide to Our Story. Art is a powerful tool in the classroom and there is so much to say.
What does it take to heal? What does it take to forgive? What does it take to heal and forgive in the face of horror and evil? I'm thinking of the physical and psychological torture inflicted by Hamas against Israeli citizens earlier this month and of the ongoing loss of innocent life in Gaza. I see images of lifeless children and anguished parents and think: what if this were me and my family? My heart is pierced and I feel enveloped by fear. Peace, peace, peace, I pray. But how? Then a thought: Colombia. I've taught my students about Colombia's peace building efforts for the last several years, but the information takes on a new relevance and urgency in light of what is happening in Israel and Palestine and how this war has the potential to draw many nations (including our own) directly into global conflict.
Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia's former president, was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2016 for his efforts in brokering a peace deal between his government and the FARC, the country's most violent rebel group. At the time, I read that Santos hoped Colombia would serve as an example to other regions affected by war. Today, 7 years after the deal was signed, the terms have not reached their full potential, hindered by both a lack of political will on the part of Santos' successors, and by a lack of economic opportunity for those still caught up in the FARC's grasp. Yet Santos' vision for peace and his ethical leadership style provide hope (in my mind) and a potential template for other leaders to follow. I first learned about Colombia's path toward peace while attending a fundraising event for NEACOL (New England Association for Colombian Children). There, I was introduced to an organization called Respira en Colombia, which promotes peace by teaching la atención plena (mindfulness) and breathing exercises to citizens throughout the country. Respira makes a pointed effort to train schoolteachers in rural zones most affected by the armed conflict. See video below:
This organization is but a small cog in a larger wheel churning Colombia toward peace. As Santos was drawing together the peace accords, he understood that peace building necessitated a multifaceted approach. Therefore all sectors of Colombian society -- arts, business, education, pop culture, etc. -- were involved in promoting peace under his leadership. For instance, there was an ad campaign called "Respira Paz," co-sponsored by the United Nations, which included TV commercials where celebrities adorned with blue nasal stripped that said "Respira" (Breathe) encouraged people to breathe deeply before reacting. Along with these adverts, there were billboards and print ads featuring the split faces of disparate individuals connected via blue strips. See print ad from Behance.net below:
The hugely popular musical group Bomba Estéreo, known for hits like "Soy Yo," released a single called "Respira Paz" (Breathe Peace), which includes the lyric, "We are all capable of changing the way we do things by breathing." Full lyrics and Youtube video below:
I asked my students what they thought. Could a mindfulness campaign play a pivotal role in ending war? Could something as simple as pausing and breathing deeply give people the fortitude to not seek revenge? Of course, first I needed to give my students background on the armed conflict. I gave them these questions and sent them off to Google:
The next question -- what role does the FARC play in Colombia now? -- is complicated. Peace building is imperfect and messy. Santos is a realist about that. I had my students watch this hard hitting interview between Santos and a journalist from Al Jazeera who challenged him on whether his peace deal had actually been a failure. Specifically we watched minutes 2:55 to 9:40 of the clip below:
My students were impressed by (1) Santos' impeccable English and (2) his unflappable demeanor, which brought us back to the idea of developing personal calm.
A couple of years ago, a student asked if we could integrate mindfulness exercises (of the type Respira was teaching to Colombian schoolchildren) into our class. Yes, I said. We experimented with several things, but eventually settled on sitting in the dark in silence for the first three minutes of class. Given how much of a trendy buzzword "mindfulness" is these days, it wouldn't have surprised me if the majority of students had rolled their eyes at this request. But they were connected to what they were learning and didn't see sitting in stillness as a hokey gimmick, but rather as something worth experiencing (at least based on their end of year evaluations). Stillness and non action build restraint. From restraint comes better action. So I ask: Can Juan Manuel Santos' playbook for peace offer lessons for world leaders now? In this quick three minute clip, I am struck by his compassionate reimagining of what a "body count" in war can be, his idea of a "humanized" war:
I'll end with this quote from an interview Santos did with Globovisión after his two-term presidency ended. Screenshot below, followed by my translation in English.
Do you believe that the peace process can teach something to the international community?
"...That there is no conflict that can't be resolved, as difficult as it may be. No one in Colombia thought that what we did could be possible. But we did it. With difficulties, but we achieved it. And if we can in Colombia create the necessary conditions and maintain political will for resolving conflicts, I know that it's possible to resolve any kind of conflict. " - Juan Manuel Santos
I pray his words ring true in Israel and Palestine and elsewhere in the world. I ask world leaders to look to Santos' example.
While I'm just getting this blog up and running after eight years away, I did write a guest post last year on Voces Digital's blog. I wrote it nearly a year ago exactly: that time of year when teachers are in the THICK of it. If you find yourself drowning in grading, this one is for you!  Help! I'm Drowning in Grading Already
(First published September 29, 2022 on www.vocesdigital.com/blog.php) At this point, we’ve survived the back-to-school whirlwind. We’ve got a few lessons under our belts and have learned our students’ names. But a harsh new reality is setting in: we have papers to grade. Ungraded work is a common source of stress for most teachers. We know feedback is necessary. Students need it in order to improve their skills, but they can only benefit from it if it's given within a reasonable timeframe and presented in a thoughtful manner. If we’re lucky, we might have a few automated tools up our sleeves that can save us time, but many assignments require our real, live, human insight—and that takes effort. So how can we avoid sacrificing our precious personal time in order to meet the demands of our jobs? After all, we’re only a month or two into school and still have many more months to go before the blissful freedom of summer hits. While there’s no magic pill for burnout, there are some practices that can help make grading papers a more manageable task. Let's examine a few. Pairwork - Turn 30 projects into 10 or 15 by putting your students into small groups or pairs. Nothing will slash your workload faster than reducing the total number of papers you need to grade. Top Five Errors - Instead of meticulously grading every student’s assignment, scan through all of the submissions and find a few mistakes that stand out. As part of your next lesson, compliment your students on their collective work so that they know you’ve taken the time to look at it. Then point out the “Top Five Errors” you noticed. Students can take notes or review their own papers as you go over these highlights. Spot Check - Tell students that you are going to focus on one or two responses rather than reviewing all of their work. For instance, instead of listening to every single recording on an Interpersonal Speaking task, pick one or two audio tracks and listen to them intently. Give your students a heads-up that you’ll be approaching their work in this way. Your feedback will be focused and your time will be saved. Catch Up Day! - Give your students a chance to make progress on various personal tasks. This tip is from an article called “20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half” by Jennifer Gonzalez. Gonzalez writes: "You don’t have to take a sick day or show movies in class to get caught up. If your administration will allow it, plan a 'catch-up day' with your students. Let them know you need some down time to get caught up on grading, and have them organize their binders, sort out the files on their tablets or laptops, catch up on make-up work, do homework, or read or write silently. You can give them a participation grade if that helps keep them quiet!" While I’ve yet to try this piece of advice, I like what Gonzalez has to say here. She's centered her approach on helping everyone—students and teachers alike—maintain a healthy work-life balance. They Grade It - Involve your students in the grading process. Nothing is worse than spending time grading student work, only to watch students give it a passing glance before shoving it into their bags-or worse, into the recycling bin. Special correcting pens can make the process more fun, especially for younger students. Those are my go-to's. I have one more hack for grading in mind, but it's a bit of a pipe dream. I dream of having a personal assistant who does all my grading, plus manages my email inbox and Google Drive -- that would be amazing. I began this blog in 2015, but realized that no one was reading it so eventually quit. That could very well happen again, but here I go! It's my first time stepping out of the classroom in 17 years due to the birth of my daughter Autumn. My passion for teaching is still as strong as ever, so I've found a way to stay connected to teaching while being a stay at home mom via the conference circuit. I'll be presenting at RIFLA in Providence next weekend and will be in Chicago for ACTFL, which I'm excited about! In addition, I still contribute to Voces Digital, where I write curriculum and offer teacher trainings. Opening up this blog for the first time has caused me to reflect on changes that have happened between 2015 and 2023, both professional and personal.
One of the biggest changes in my teaching between 2015 and 2023 is the way I've found connection with my students. I started doing student interviews in 2019 and that was a real game changer in terms of classroom culture. Student interviews (inspired by Bryce Hedstrom's "Star of the Day" method) introduced more laughter, trust, connection, motivation, inside jokes, creativity, and true learning into my classroom than anything else I've ever done. It's also one of the things that motivated me to write my book, A Teacher's Guide to Our Story, and is the focus of Chapter 6.
 The oversized jersey made this team's arm illusion especially convincing. While searching the internet for some #authres, I came across the Youtube channel for "LosPolinesios," a trio of Mexican siblings that film themselves doing hilarious retos, or challenges. Mostly, they dare each other to eat outrageous food items, but they also play practical jokes on each other and make silly videos. They have a series of videos called Reto: Éstos no son mis brazos (Not My Arms Challenge), where one person talks and the other provides accompanying arm movements. Lesslie did a video, with Karen as her arms, in which she discussed her rutina diaria, which just so happens to be a unit in our 8th grade Spanish curriculum. Lesslie covered a lot of our reflexive verb vocabulary in her video: despertarse, cepillarse los dientes, maquillarse, peinarse, desayunarse. Perfect #authres! I showed the video to my students and asked if anyone was brave enough to try to make a similar video. I wasn't sure how they would respond, but before I could even get the idea out of my mouth, several of them were clamoring with excitement. Speaking in Spanish...on camera...while having someone throw a bunch of beauty products in your face takes a certain personality type. I wanted everyone to feel involved and comfortable, so I said students could pick from three main roles: the speaker, the brazos, and the helper. The helper would be entirely behind-the-scenes and would help edit the video. INTRODUCTION AND SET UP1. Showed the video to my students and gauged their interest. 2. Put 3 roles on the board: speaker, brazos, helper. 3. Asked each student his/her preference and wrote names under each category. 4. Had students mingle and create groups. They figured out their teams without any problem. Out of three sections, only 2 students needed help figuring out who to pair up with. 4. Gave basic guidelines for the project. GUIDELINES This is a screen grab from a Google Doc I shared with my students. LOGISTICSDay 1: Students were introduced to the project, formed teams, and began brainstorming. Day 2: Teams put their ideas / script into a Google Doc, shared with me, then were approved for practice. Day 3: Students practiced in class. Day 4: Filming (4 groups in 40 minutes) Day 5: Filming Supplies that came in handing on filming day:
VIDEOThis was the first video that came into me. The student editor for this video added in sound effects and played with the video speed. The only requirement I gave was providing subtitles, but she had fun playing around with iMovie. She has a few typos in the subtitles, but I love the spirit of this video! STUDENT FEEDBACK"I liked this project because we were moving around, not sitting and listening, which really doesn't work for me." "I enjoyed the laughter that came out of this. I loved seeing the other ideas that my classmates had." "I learned the words while they were put into action, which was helpful." "I liked to see people using the phrases. It helped a lot." COMPETITIONThe videos are beginning to come into me as students finish editing. Each class will vote for the best video from their section. They will choose the videos based on the quality of the Spanish and overall humor. I spoke with my principal in advance, and we decided to show the top video from each class at our morning assembly. The student body will vote on the best video and that class will win a reward. I'll post the results in my next post. To be continued...
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