Purposeful Planning for Language Success ｜ Calico Spanish Teacher Tips

So the goal of this video is to empower you, the teacher, to adopt and build lesson plans using our curriculum that works best for your classroom timeframe and needs. So in this video, we will briefly review the core activities in the program, establish the goal of your program, and how to best select the activities in each lesson plan to achieve those goals. So the Calico Spanish Curriculum consists of several core activities that you can expect to see in every unit across all four levels of our program. From video stories and comic books to music videos and interactive games, our curriculum is packed with engaging materials that learners love. So now let's get started with preparing to teach a Calico Spanish lesson. A common question that we are asked all the time is, how long does each lesson take? Well, that answer is actually slightly complicated because we know that our program is used across many different grade levels and ages. We also know that a classroom of 15 students can operate a lot differently than a classroom of 28 students. So what might take one teacher 5 minutes may take someone else 10. So keep in mind that the goal of this video is to help you plan for your classroom. It is perfectly okay to adapt and adjust the timeframes to fit the needs of your learners. So here we have put together a table of our core lesson components and estimated time frame of how long those activities can take you. Remember, we can't anticipate when learners are going to raise their hand and ask a question, when someone really needs you to tell a story about their weekend, when they need help with an activity sheet, or how long it might take you to explain and model instructions. So Calico Spanish curriculum can be used in any level of elementary Spanish. So learners who are in pre-K to first grade might require more time than a third and fourth grader completing that same activity. So let's take a look at the lesson plan together. This lesson plan is from Level A, Unit 1, Day 4. So when we're looking at the lesson plan, you will notice the can-do statement. I can describe something as blue. We want to make sure that what we do in class is helping learners make progress. And we want them to make progress towards achieving the goal of that can-do statement. So the first thing that we have is a community builder. And a community builder is a great way to introduce and hook learners into a lesson. And by telling learners what the goal is each day, you are helping them focus their attention to achieve that goal. The next activity is to sing a song. Learners are going to be working towards singing the song Hola a Todos in Level A, which helps them to achieve their other goals outlined for this unit. And our songs typically take less than five minutes of class time. Moving into the next portion of the lesson, learners will play an interactive review game to practice an introductory conversation. It's important to keep in mind that dedicating time to review and use spaced memory retrieval is very beneficial to helping learners grow as Spanish speakers. It also helps you as the teacher decide if you need to go back and work on mastering the can-do statement from the previous days. The rest of this lesson will now focus on helping learners identify colors in Spanish and work towards being able to identify something as blue in Spanish. The Google Slides activity will help learners identify their favorite colors in Spanish. And a tip here is to make sure that you are actually saying the colors in Spanish to learners. This is a super quick activity that shouldn't take more than five minutes. Looking at the current time spent, currently about 15 minutes of class time has been used for the first half of the lesson. The second half involves stations that help our learners identify things that are blue. Our recommendation is that you carefully consider the types of learners that are in your classroom and select the activities that will work best for them. If you cannot run stations in your environment, that is okay. You can simply eliminate something. You can choose to do these activities one by one in order. It's really up to you. So the stations here include sorting objects by color, playing an interactive game, and completing an activity sheet. The goal is to choose and complete the stations that will best help your learners achieve and identify and describe something as blue that's age-appropriate and it fits into your time frame. So the total time needed to complete this lesson plan as written is about 30 to 35 minutes. But you might be saying to yourself, well, Haley, I only see my students 25 minutes a week. What do I do? Please know that this is a very frequent situation and time frame that we see across the United States with all of our Calico Spanish schools. Everyone is going to have a different time frame dedicated to Spanish class each week. We also have schools where their regular classroom teachers are actually using Calico maybe 25 to 30 minutes a week. And their whole goal is to just expose learners to the language and get that exposure. So while we wish that teachers had more time and that, you know, we want you to be able to achieve all of the goals and do all of the things that are in our lesson plans, we understand that that's just probably not reality. So the question is, what do you do with these pre-made lesson plans? How do you fit them in your schedule? Can you still use them? And the answer is absolutely. You just need to adjust and adapt to your schedule and take the learning goals that are best suited for your learners and the goals of your program. So we're going to break this process down into a few steps. So this is where we really get into that purposeful planning with our lesson plans. So the first step is to consider how many activities will fill your time. We don't expect that you will spend 10 weeks working on one unit because every unit includes about 10 to 12 days of learning. We don't find that reasonable and we also don't know that it will be engaging for your learners. If it is, by all means, spend 10 weeks on one unit. But we do encourage you and empower you to condense that content down to, again, best meet the goals of your program and what's going to be most engaging for your learners. It's also important to make sure that you have reasonable and attainable goals for your learners. Language acquisition takes time and it's okay if they don't meet every single learning target outlined in this program. You need to choose the targets that are most important to you and select the activities that will help them achieve those goals. So we've designed our lesson plans to have clear, measurable learning objectives for learners. And each day of the lesson plan has a daily can-do statement that tells you exactly what the learning goal is each day. If you're pressed for time, go ahead and consider the learning objectives that are most important. Maybe look at the ones that are repeated a few different times across the unit and start working on those. So the can-do statements that are shown here are from Level A Unit 2. You will notice that the main objectives are to use numbers 1 through 5, express how old you are, and give basic information about yourself. If you are only meeting for 25 minutes a week, your goal is to pull the best activities from the lesson plans to start working towards those goals. So now you might be wondering, okay, well, what are the best activities? What are the core activities across the lesson plans? So you can see here we've listed out songs, video story, dialogue video, activity sheet, games, and comics. So we recommend that you start each class out with a song to get learners immersed and engaged into the language. Our video stories and dialogue videos are where you're going to get stories that are taught with comprehensible input and really the core meat and bulk of our program. The activity sheets are how you will assess learners' progress towards those can-do statements, and our digital and whole class games will provide engaging review opportunities for learners and time for them to start processing that language. Finally, the Calico comics are additional stories that recycle the language from each unit that immerse learners into a Spanish-speaking country with the help of our Calico Spanish characters. So as you're planning what activities to use, you need to ask yourself some questions. First, how are you going to provide comprehensible input? That is the number one thing that you need to consider. How are they going to get input? Is it going to be through a story? Is it going to be through the dialogue videos? Are you going to sing songs? Are you, yourself, the teacher, going to provide that input? Then you need to consider what are some ways that you can get movement into your lessons. We know that those little ones have all of the wiggles, and they need to get them out. And so think about, you know, what lessons and what activities in our lesson plans will provide those opportunities, and we do our best to try to include them every single lesson. Then you need to think, okay, so how are they going to interact in the language? What can I ask them to do to show me what they know? How can we practice that dialogue? How can we practice interacting and engaging with one another in Spanish? And then, finally, you want to think about how you can sneak in spaced retrieval from previous vocabulary. Spaced retrieval opportunities are so important. We need them to activate that knowledge in their memories and in their brains. So, for example, if we're learning about numbers and they've already worked on numbers one through three, and you're starting to add in numbers four, five, and six, they still need to be able to activate and remember numbers one, two, and three. So you need to think about, okay, what activities can I do that will encourage them to practice what we've already known and then add to that knowledge with the brand new information that you're learning? So the last thing that you want to consider is when you want to assess learners and their progress. So if you only get about 25 minutes a week with your learners, this might not be on the top of your priority list. Your goal might just be to meet with them, to expose them, interact with in the language, and that might be it. But we encourage you to still use the activity sheets in any way that you can. We have PDF copies that can be printed. We also have student workbooks. These are great, especially if you want to connect with home. You want your learners to take home their workbook and, you know, work on things in their own time. And we also have digital assessments, excuse me. We have digital assessments that allow learners to interact with them on Google Slides and can be posted to Google Classroom or any other learning management system that you happen to use. So our assessments provide great opportunities for learners to show what they know, and many are also designed to provide space retrieval opportunities. Like I said, that is very important to see what learners have begun to acquire from previous lessons, even across levels. So as we wrap up, it's important to know that you are in charge of your classroom and it is your Spanish program. So we believe that a teacher who uses Calico Spanish, that you are successful when you are providing quality input with a video story, a song, or a reading, that your learners are engaged in meaningful communication in Spanish, and that they understand that learners need time to process the language before producing it spontaneously. But we also believe that a Calico Spanish teacher does what's best for the learners that are in their classroom. So if you have any further questions about how to plan with a purpose using Calico Spanish, please reach out to us at support at calicospanish.com. I get those messages and questions directly and I'm happy to assist you in whatever you need. I'm also able to provide one-on-one support if you're working on building your program, outlining your own program scope and sequence, and looking at curriculum mapping, whether you're doing vertical or horizontal alignment. Just please reach out to us. We are so happy to help and we also invite you to connect with us on social media where you will find more bite-sized professional development and an insight to some of the resources on our website. So thank you so much and I hope this video was helpful.