"I just wanted to say thank you for being such a good teacher. You have such an engaging style and bright cadence that is making me more and more confident in my speaking and writing abilities en español. "
You inspire me to be a better person, student, and Spanish speaker.
Even though our Spanish class was so big, we had such a great time reading and speaking in Spanish. I love how we always celebrate our responses even if they were a few words.
I loved to do Socratic seminars. They put my speaking skills to the test and helped my confidence a little because they forced me to speak in a positive way.
So how can you get your students to react like this?
1-Developing clear expectations for your classes and your students.
Many of our upper-level programs place demanding curriculums and exams on students. We feel pressure to cover it all and do it WELL. This can often feel like an impossible task and can leave you feeling frustrated and questioning yourself as a teacher.
Overcoming the Overwhelm will help you
- set clear expectations for your students,
- will allow you to provide them with plenty of level appropriate input, while also
- challenge students to produce more language.
- Identify exactly how to support them with upper level appropriate strategies so that they will understand more because the input you are giving will be comprehensible and engaging.
2-Designing a practical scope and sequence filled with engaging lessons
Have you ever looked at the LONG list of themes and thought “How in the world am I going to teach ALL of this?” Yes, we have had the same exact thoughts!
It doesn’t have to feel this way. The top word that upper-level language teachers use to describe their jam-packed curriculum is “overwhelming”. There are so many great topics to cover but just not enough time. You always feel like you are scrambling to cram in every theme you can.
Overcoming the Overwhelm will help you
- develop a game plan to move forward
- design a compelling and interesting curriculum that works for both you and your students.
- develop core activities that you and your students will love using within each unit. You will start to enjoy lesson planning and bring the excitement back to teaching upper levels.
3-Modeling production skills with comprehensible input
We know what you’re thinking...comprehensible input is only for lower levels.
But the reality is...the success of the production of the language heavily depends on the amount of language that students have acquired.
Yes, we absolutely want our students to continue to advance their language skills but we can’t overwhelm them with input that is beyond their comprehension. Comprehensible input is KEY to continuing to grow your students’ confidence while also continuing to expose them to new structures and vocabulary.
Overcoming the Overwhelm will help you
- understand the essential role of input in the production of language
- find the tools you need to stay comprehensible
- identify strategies to make authentic resources comprehensible
- challenge your upper level students to scale their proficiency
- learn activities that will prepare your students for success on the IB exam
4- Supporting language output in various ways
Upper-level students are advanced so they don’t need as much support as novice students, right?!
Wrong…
Upper-level students are more advanced in the TASKS they are doing. They still need support in order to produce written or spoken output. Your upper-level students have a great base from their previous experiences but in order to continue advancing their proficiency, they need appropriate resources to support them while they complete challenging tasks.
Overcoming the Overwhelm will help you
- learn actionable strategies that you can use in your classroom to support your students’ language production
- Identify low stakes activities that will reduce your prep time while empowering your students to use the language spontaneously in class
- Understand what the Internal Assessment is and how you can prepare your students for success on the Individual Oral without feeling overwhelmed
Is that all?
Of course not!
Additionally, we have a Resource Library with ready-to-use resources that we use successfully in our classes. You can just print them out and make copies OR they can serve as a source of inspiration in your classes.
