Estoy muy orgullosa de mis estudiantes de español I

Today my Spanish I class was amazing! Honestly, it was an improv lesson because I really didn't like what I had originally planned but the kids just ate it up. They were thinking critically, they were using Spanish in ways that had never been officially taught, even my student who does nothing (absolutely nothing - his grade is at about a 25% in the class), was participating and ASKING QUESTIONS IN SPANISH!!!

Here is the lesson:
-As the bell was ringing I quickly wrote a very short story about my friend Sally and what she looks like. Here is the story:

"Mi amiga es Sally. Sally es muy alta y delgada. Ella tiene los ojos azules y el pelo marrón. Ella lleva unos pantalones verdes y una camiseta amarilla. También lleva zapatos negros con calcentines azules. Ella lleva una gorra blanca."

-Then as students walked in they picked up a blank sheet of paper on the front table and were instructed to get some coloring utensils from the back.
-After collecting their homework, I told them that I was going to tell them a little story about a girl named Sally and that they needed to draw what she looks like. I encouraged them just to listen the first time through. I allowed them to use notes if they wanted (since we had just learned this vocab yesterday).
-I repeated the story 3 or 4 times pausing between each time to give students time to jot things down and draw (some prefered to write notes first before drawing).
-Then I told students that I would not repeat the entire story but would be more than willing to answer any question they had as long as the question was in Spanish (and my answer of course was in Spanish).
-When most students had finished, I randomly called a student to the front of the room and asked him to tell us a little bit about Sally in Spanish.
-I then called on more students to add more
-After we had sufficiently retold the story, I asked them to write a paragraph on the same page as their drawing (or the back of the page) about Sally.

Here are some of their paragraphs exactly as they wrote them (from students of all abilities):

"Sally es muy alta. Sally lleva los pantalones verde. Ella tienes marrón pelo. Sally tienes ojo azul. Sally lleva camiseta amarillo. Sally tienes zapatos negro. Sally es una gorra blanka. Sally los calcetines blanka."

"Sally es bonita. Ella lleva una la camiseta amarilla y los pantalones verdes y los calcetines azules y los zapatos negro y la gorra blanca. Ella tiene ojos azul y pelo marrón."

"Sally es muy alta y delgada. Sally es blanca. Ella tiene los pantalones verde. Ella tiene un la camiseta amarillo. Ella tiene un los zapatos negros. Ella tiene el pelo marrón. Ella tiene los calcetines azules."

"Sally lleva la camiseta amarilla, los pantalones verdes, los calcetines azules y los zapatos nengros. Ella tienen azules ohos y marrón palo. Ella lleva la gorra blanco. Ella es delgada y alta."

"Sally es una muchacha. Ella es muy alta y delgada. Ella lleva los zapatos negros. Ella lleva los pantalones verdes. Ella lleva la camiseta amarilla. Ella son ojos azules. Ella son pelo marrón. Ella lleva los calcetines azules."

I suppose this is basically the idea of TPRS with my own little twist to it.

You will definitely see some grammar mistakes in them. But you can see they were able to communicate and retell the story. And the thought process they went through was just amazing.

One kid asked me towards the end of class, "Does marrón lose the accent when it becomes marrones?" This is something I have not specifically taught yet but was thrilled to see this student was already getting it.

Their homework tonight is to write their own little story and tomorrow they will draw pictures based on what another student wrote. I can't wait to see the stories they come up with.

This is why I became a teacher!