First 2 Weeks of Spanish 1 Using Comprehensible Input
This has been my routine for the past few years and with the exception of adding more activities and shifting them around a bit. These activities have been great additions to my units for comprehensible input teaching. Here is an account of the my first two weeks (14 days) with my Spanish 1 students and how I introduce cognates and the Super 7 high frequency verbs in Spanish.
Greeting
As students enter, I greet them using Hola, Buenos días., or Buenas tardes/noches. Once students are seat and class has started, I introduce myself in Spanish and model with “Me llamo Profe Collins. ¿Cómo te llamas?”
The very first activity is The Name Game! I’ve done it every year since my first year of teaching. It helps me to remember student names better and students to get to know some kids they may have never interacted with before at school.
Cognates Unit
Using Cognates with my students is always important for my first few days of Spanish 1! Teaching students to recognize cognates in extremely important for teachers that are using comprehensible input. It is such a valuable skill. For that reason, I decided to create and add a Spanish cognates unit as the first unit in my curriculum. I’ve been slowly building resources for the cognates unit. You can never have too many, right?
The first 5 days are reserved for activities that show students how much they know in Spanish. These activities are designed to build confidence in students that may have not ever exposed to Spanish.
With the cognates unit, the verbs used are es and verbs that can be guessed with context when reading. It makes them feel more confident and prepared before diving into those high frequency verbs that don’t look much like words in English.
Day 1
First, take the time to explain what cognates are and why they are important while learning Spanish. I use this day for that introduction and to dive into some practice. Students practice identification and recognition of Spanish cognates.
Activities include written practice activities and Spanish Cognates Puzzles.
Day 2
I Have Who Has – Spanish Cognates
Spanish Cognates Color By Number Activity
Day 3
Spanish Cognates Sort Activity
Spanish Cognates Reading Task Cards
Day 4
Spanish Cognates Practice Activities
Day 5
Spanish Cognates Digital Learning Stations
Each activity gradually increases in difficulty. For example, students start with identification of single words for Spanish cognates. Then, students begin to read single sentences. Eventually, students are reading multiple students in short passages that are loaded with Spanish cognates.
Super 7 Unit
I start the Super 7 introduction, Spanish high frequency verbs, after my Cognates Unit. I use Super 7 presentations to introduce to my Spanish 1 students. Then, students use the practice activities for reading and writing. I introduce one verb a day to give students more contact the all forms of that verb introduced.
Each presentation give me the opportunity to circle. Circling give me the chance to provide tons of input and comprehension opportunities through repetition. The visuals used in the presentation also help to provide more comprehensible input to students. I’ve seen students feel more confident and even try to answer in short sentences. After the presentations, they usually do writing practice. I just updated the practice activities in to Google Slides formats. The presentation is also on Google Slides.
Each day, as students add a new verb in the Super 7 to there vocabulary, we create a story together. This story building time give students a chance to see all the verbs working together piece by piece. It also provides more time to circle, giving them the input and repetition needed to acquire and understand what they are hearing.
Day 6
Introduce ES using ES Presentation and ES practice activities. At the end of the presentation there is a pregunta personal to get students talking about themselves in target language. For example, ¿De dónde eres? is one of the questions in this presentation.
Use ES Boom Cards.
Next, establish a character for a storyline that you will create throughout the introduction of the Super 7 high frequency verbs with students.
Day 7
Introduce TIENE using TIENE Presentation and TIENE practice activities.
Pregunta Personal – ¿Cuántos años tienes?
Use TIENE Boom Cards.
Storybuild with ES & TIENE.
Day 8
Introduce LE GUSTA using LE GUSTA Presentation and LE GUSTA practice activities.
Pregunta Personal – ¿Qué te gusta hacer?
Use LE GUSTA Boom Cards.
Storybuild with ES, TIENE & LE GUSTA.
Day 9
Introduce HAY using HAY Presentation and HAY practice activities.
Pregunta Personal – ¿Hay muchas personas en tu familia? ¿Cuántas personas hay en tu familia?
Use HAY Boom Cards.
Storybuild with ES, TIENE, LE GUSTA & HAY.
Day 10
Introduce ESTÁ using ESTÁ Presentation and ESTÁ practice activities.
Pregunta Personal – ¿Cómo estás?
Use ESTÁ Boom Cards.
Storybuild with ES, TIENE, LE GUSTA, HAY, & ESTÁ.
Day 11
Introduce VA using VA Presentation and VA practice activities.
Pregunta Personal – ¿Adónde vas con tu familia? ¿Vas al gimnasio/al cine/al supermercado/etc.?
Use VA Boom Cards.
Storybuild with ES, TIENE, LE GUSTA, HAY, ESTÁ, & VA.
Day 12
Introduce QUIERE using QUIERE Presentation and QUIERE practice activities.
Pregunta Personal – ¿Qué quieres ser?
Use QUIERE Boom Cards.
Storybuild with ES, TIENE, LE GUSTA, HAY, ESTÁ, VA, & QUIERE.
Each day that you story build, you can use the same character from the previous days to review with students or try new vocabulary and characters. Personally, I enjoy building on to the same story so at the end students know exactly what I’m asking about during activities or assessment.
Click here for the Super 7 Boom Card Task Card Bundle.
Day 13
This day is use to review all Super 7 high frequency verbs vocabulary in Spanish. There is some reading, listening, and writing in the form of story-building and free writes or timed write. Also, there is speaking practice with Special Person interviews for Personal Information.
Day 14
Assessment day! – To rap up the Super 7 introduction, you can use to story that you’ve been building with students to assess comprehension. Check out some of the options for assessments.
- CIERTO/FALSO listening questions
- Rewrite and correct the underlined portion of the sentence
- Padlet – Have students answer comprehension questions that relate to the story.
- Timed Write – Have students write on their own and see what they can come up with. You could even do a practice run to give students an advantage and to better understand what is expected of them.
This outline for plans has worked well for my classes. Though, I highly recommend this order of introduction it is important to remember that you know your students best. Make the necessary changes to best meet the needs of your students while using comprehensible input strategies.
I hope you have an amazing first week and school year with your students.
If you’re new to using CI, check out this blog post about Growth Mindset Tips for CI Teachers or my Reflections for CI Midwest blog post for more ideas.
Jade 🙂
