Gimkit – activity
A newer favorite technology-based game is Gimkit. Basically, students answer multiple-choice questions either alone or in random teams. What makes it more fun is they can spend the “money” they earn on ways to earn more points or fun gimmicks. It works well for vocabulary introduction or review. To provide more context for input, you can have sentences with a missing word, questions, and answers, or the beginning and end of sentences. It is a fun Friday reward to play for about 15-20 minutes.
Check out this blog post about GimKit for a lot more information on the game.
Distance learning update – You can also play this game using distance learning. See this post to see how to play virtual games in class.
Garbanzo – curriculum supplement
My newest addition to my tech tools is Garbanzo. It was created by Martina Bex and pairs wonderfully with any of her created resources or Somos curriculum. Even if you do not use any of her resources you can search by country, AP theme, grammar point, holiday, or topics to find comprehensible reading activities and assign them to classes or individual students. Once again, while my projector was out of commission, I just searched Somos 1 unit 7 to find perfect alternate activities for students to complete. It took me the Beta trial, as well as another free trial to convince me that I needed this time and sanity saver. It is a great sub plan and no copies are needed!
Distance learning update – Garbanzo readings will be the perfect, no prep, supplement for my students to complete on their online learning days. I know they are working to add audio in the future as well.
Sr. Wooly – part of a curriculum
This is my 5th year with a Sr. Wooly subscription and I love it. Not only do you get access to the full library of songs and supplementary resources, but students each get their own account where they can complete differentiated “nuggets.” Typically we do week-long mini-units on a specific song between story or novel units to break things up. Depending on the day, we usually do some group or individual activities and then use the last 15-20 minutes to work on nuggets. This gives me a chance to rest my voice, help individual students, and get ready for the next class. I have left a full day of nuggets as a sub plan, or for students to complete while at my desk I meet individually for mini-conference or in-class speaking assessments. Read this blog post to how I use Sr. Wooly in Spanish class.
Distance learning update – I plan to mix in Sr. Wooly this year, especially for students to do the nuggets on days at home. In class, we can do more of the fun input activities, such as many that were introduced during Wooly Week. (See the site for more info on that).
Fluency Matters Ecourse – part of a curriculum
Over the past three school years, I have tried out a few Fluency Matters E-courses with a variety of novels and levels of students. Basically, you can get pretty much any comprehension-based reader published by Fluency matters as an electronic ebook. It also includes audio, as well as activities. Now you can also just purchase the online activities for a lower price if you already have the physical books. A couple of years ago I did this post on CiPeek how I used a Fluency Matters e-course.
These worked very well with a hybrid group of upper-level students doing the semi-independent study. It allowed them to check for comprehension, as well as let me know their progress. I also think this would be excellent to leave for maternity leave. I have had minimal success using these with novice students, as they really need more support, such as me reading to them and doing collaborative activities. It worked better in a reading club setting , with a group of students who were still read by me and needed more support, and those who were independent could read and complete the online activities on their own.
Distance learning update – If you are expected to be fully online, these E-courses are one of the best options out there for full, ready-to-go units.
As an additional note, I use and LOVE Google Classroom to share links for all of these resources with students, as well as collect Google drive assignments. (I was forced to use Schoology for a year and it has nothing on Classroom, especially since we are a Google School with Chromebooks).
What did I miss? What would you add to the Best Websites for Spanish Teachers?
originally published 1.13.20 – updated 8.17.20
Hi,
Can you tell me how you use Google drive for assignments? I am also at a Google school. Do you have an example? Thank you.
Search "google classroom" and get that! You create classes and students log in with their emails. Then you can send announcements to each class with instructions, links, etc. You can also attach a Google doc assignment & click "make a copy for each student." Then students work and you can see each progress and they turn in right there in classroom. It is very slick!
I just searched MisClasesLocas on Edpuzzle content and can't find any of your videos. Are any of your movie talks public?
I have not personally created any! I have just made copies of other peoples. My name on there is Allison Wienhold
I can't find any of yours if I search your name. Do you have a title of a movie talk you've done?
I mean the title of a movie talk you've copied?
I'm having a hard time with spanish right now, so this is super helpful.
My kids love Gimkit. They were all about the Humans vs Zombies challenge in October.