Making Language Comprehensible, Contextualized, and Compelling in the First Year of Spanish

This is a Spanish 1A 7th grade class. This lesson is videotaped in April, after students have had 8 months of Comprehensible Input of Spanish. I'm using a strategy called PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers). However, this is more of what authentic conversations should look like when we talk and engage our students in meaningful. Throughout the lesson you may observe lots of movement and built in brain breaks, ways of how I make language comprehensible (I point to existing language on the board and posters, I write on the board in Spanish along w/ translations, I switched to English to do comprehension checks...only 3 times during the lesson for a few seconds at a time), use of call and response (1, 2, 3 -- no ingles, hola, hola -- coca cola, ...a, e, i, o u, el burro sabe mas que tu...) use of compelling topics (teachers observing in the back, candy from different countries, ....)

[@davidcoria9264]

Hola de David. Soy sordo y uso lenguaje de señas americano. Soy de América, pero soy mexicano. Aprendí español en la universidad. Creo que el español es un idioma hermoso.

[@simonivanovortizdiaz3944]

hola bro :D

[@diegoballesterosbey4623]

La profesora tiene un carisma genial es Muy sociable

[@diegoballesterosbey4623]

@Isaac Amos Good afternoon, excuse me ☺️☺️ I can ask you a favor, to see if you can write in Spanish is ☺️ how I hardly understand the English language, it makes me complicated..🤝☺️☺️☺️

[@comprehensibleclassroom]

I love watching you teach

[@robinmiguel2818]

Asombrosa manera de enseñar español. Con usted, sí es genial aprender. Felicidades!! Saludos desde Perú.

[@Juliodax]

Excellent professor!! Enseña muy bien Ud. Profesora!!. Saludos desde Argentina

[@jannaswigart4926]

Maestra, es mi primer año de enseñar español…. Qué ejemplo eres para mí! Me encanta tu método … es obvio que tienes un control bueno en tu clase y que los estudiantes lo pasan genial contigo. Qué crack eres!

[@ingridhubikfreire5280]

Fantastico! So much I can glean from this.

[@jadermunoznarvaez.4383]

Excelente y entretenida clase de español. Felicitaciones! Un abrazo fuerte desde Popayán, Colombia!🙏😇

[@frandelvega473]

Me gustaria tener una profesora como ella en Ingles!

[@gendersoncaro7664]

que chevere, felicidades maestra por su gran trabajo con los niños. saludos de Tarapoto - Perú

[@adriancroft28]

Muchas felicidades por su trabajo, se nota que es una maestra muy preparada y con muchas habilidades. Me parece perfecto que de este ejemplo tan bueno de cómo enseñar. ¡Me gustaría tenerla de maestra! But as an English teacher. Ps. I love your fashion sense. ✌🏻

[@alinafilipescu4458]

What a kind comment! Mil gracias por dejar un comentario tan amable.

[@user-uw1te9fn7h]

Hello, how are you, teacher? I want to learn American English from you@@alinafilipescu4458

[@battleofalgiers]

Excelente. Qué gran idea usar CI para dar "fue" ya en Spanish 1. No se me había ocurrido nunca. Felicidades por esta clase tan estupenda y dinámica.

[@yolandaalvarez8106]

Me encanta!

[@the_edmond_dantes]

Volvería a aprender español desde el principio, sólo por ud profe...XD.

[@eldipinninho]

MUY GUAPA LA PROFESORA Y TRASMITE MUCHA ENERGÍA DE DONDE SERÁ???🤔

[@alinafilipescu4458]

Rumania... ¡Gracias por un comentario tan amable!!

[@mshe3937]

Maestra! I love the constant positive energy in your class, I know that has to be a long time in the making and a process with lots of discipline and training involved. One of the biggest questions I have about TPRS/CI classes is how students are assessed on an individual basis. I know what some others do, but I'm very curious to know what you do to assess and track student growth.... and of course check off that mark we have to as teachers by getting grades into the gradebook. Thank you for sharing your videos. It's inspiring to know what is possible to achieve in a language classroom.

[@AyanAcademy]

Nice work!

[@marcelo67607]

SALUDOS DESDE CORDOBA ARGENTINA,BUENA CLASE MUY DIVERTIDA !!!

[@justoverlord8016]

me encanta miestra. Yo soy in la trecera hora

[@alinafilipescu4458]

Awwwwww! Mil gracias por tu comentario. Estoy muy contenta porque tú estás mirando el video y estás escuchando más español. Así, vas a aprender más. Cuídate!!

[@justoverlord8016]

@@alinafilipescu4458 gracias

[@knobbelboy0]

@@alinafilipescu4458 gracias por enseñar el Español

[@ioneferreirogarcia3667]

Le dice tienes un cumplido para mi? Y el otro no es justo ajajajajajajjajajaajjajajajajajaja

[@isabellawulff8058]

Me encanta tu método. Sigues algún currículum? Yo enseño con mucha gramática pero me gustaría cambiar el “approach”

[@kathykovach9937]

What I want my class to be...

[@mercesletifer5059]

Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal,en un trigal tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo.

[@lauraprater5093]

This will be my first time to teach Spanish. I am so impressed with how well your students are able to speak and express themselves in Spanish! How were you able to do this?

[@alinafilipescu4458]

Thank you so much! My focus is to provide students with comprehensible and compelling input in Spanish. I talk to them in Spanish everyday just like in this lesson. They also read a lot, especially starting in 8th grade when I implement a reading program. Here is post I wrote about my approach. tprsforchinese.blogspot.com/2018/03/for-teachers-new-to-ci-methods.html

[@michelewhaleyAK59]

I love this! What is the song that you all sang for turn-taking?

[@alinafilipescu4458]

It's a song from a game I used to play when I lived in Romania. Here it is, "Oooo poni poni poni, macaroni roni roni roni, mustafa fa fa fa, come ga ga ga, uchiepe epe epe, come stepe stepe stepe, uchi o o o, come go go go." :)

[@berrnadetterodriguez5340]

I enjoyed this video - what where the phrases the students had written on their signs? Do you switch out the phrases with each PQA or story or are they always the same?

[@alinafilipescu4458]

Some of those phrases are: QUE PADRE, NO ES JUSTO, NO ME DIGAS, NO LO PUEDO CREER, POBRE...., CLARO QUE SI/NO, SE AMABLE....I do not switch out the phrases with each PQA. Over time, I give students more of these rejoinders. Also, I don't pass them all out at the same time. I might introduce a couple one week, then wait a couple more weeks before I introduce more. Also, I give them out to students who want them and/or don't have any. At some point I ask students to switch cards with other students if they are willing to do so, just so that they don't get bored having the same expression for months.

[@kimfaithchurch]

The kiddos have many cues and some unspoken cues to all join in together to react to things. Is there a blog post on this? Thanks in advance!

[@sofialopes4811]

Really interesting lesson to see as a languages teacher ! I am curious as to how many students there are in the class and how often they have Spanish class ? Thank you for sharing !

[@alinafilipescu4458]

I have 38 students per class and I see them every day, for 43 minutes each time. Here is a blog post I wrote about the CI Teaching that takes place in my class. I hope it's helpful. Thank you for your comment!

[@senorapennefather3053]

Fantastic methods. I teach Spanish 1 to freshman in highschool and they are so reluctant to speak back to me. Would love to find the link for your blog?

[@alinafilipescu4458]

@@senorapennefather3053 The blog is "Ignite Language," however, there are a few other authors publishing on the same page, mainly Diane Neubauer. She is a Chinese teacher. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to publish in a long time, but the main post that I have written (super helpful to teachers) and to which I still add from time to time is, tprsforchinese.blogspot.com/2018/03/for-teachers-new-to-ci-methods.html. It showcases everything that I do in my class with more links, videos, students' work, etc. I hope it's helpful.

[@carolnasahin9156]

Me encanta la profesora. Una pregunta. Cuántas horas a la semana tiene con esa clase. Para lograr estos resultados.

[@alinafilipescu4458]

43 minutos cada día, de lunes a viernes. ¡Mil gracias!

[@nethardel4377]

@@alinafilipescu4458 ¿Y cuánto tiempo aproximadamente se necesita para que logren ese nivel? Es decir, 43 minutos diarios pero durante ¿1 año? ¿6 meses? ¿o cuánto?

[@alinafilipescu4458]

@@nethardel4377 8 meses...es cuando grabé este video. Pero, los estudiantes se quedan conmigo por 2 años.

[@carlosparra5595]

Ustedes van a sentir El poder de las almas del Mundo real tú tiene la enerjía.!.

[@keilamedinamiller9728]

No problem intiendo el cancion que cantaron con “uchi”?

[@kimfaithchurch]

Can I ask what your first couple weeks of Spanish 1 look like?

[@jodibarrick5788]

Yes, I want to know that too. It seems like all of these videos show what the students do later in the year. But what about the first few weeks. What do the teachers do to teach them to get to this point?

[@keilamedinamiller9728]

What does the clapping indicate??

[@carlosparra5595]

Los Estudiantes de Los estados unidos de América se interezán por aprender español en sus vidas.

[@dilsaurriola780]

Me encanta!