Coviello Blog 15

As I was saying in my last blog, I did some fun activities for my three classes.  For my junior class, Senora Magana showed me an online program called puzzlemaker.com that allows someone to go on and create word puzzles with very little work.  I took the vocab the class learned for the story they are reading and created definitions in Spanish to use as clues.  Then, I followed the instructions of the site, typing in the words and clues, and finally created a crossword puzzle.  I was at an AP exam when the class did it, but I hope it was a good review for them and was more fun than simply going over the words.  Anyway, I am pretty sad that it is my last day of SCORE.  I have had an awesome year TAing with Senora Magana for one freshman class, and even more fun with the three classes I took on in the past six weeks for SCORE.  I got to know a lot of the kids really well, and I will definitely miss them.  I will also miss Senora Magana, and I can’t thank her enough for all she did for me this year.  Being able to have such an active role in all three classes was so lucky for me and beyond anything I had expected.  It was a really good experience, especially considering I want to study Spanish education at NYU next year.  My experiences this year have helped me secure that idea, and I hope that I enjoy it as much as I have this year in the future.

Coviello Blog 14

So, last week and this week Senora Magana gave me some good projects to do for all three of my classes: my two freshman classes and my junior class.  For the freshman classes, I created two PowerPoints with sentences and pictures that would be done in class.  One was to cover the grammar concept of superlative sentences (Crocodiles are the most dangerous animals in the river, parrots are the smartest animals in the jungle, etc.).  In these slides, I put three elements of a superlative sentence: the subject, the noun, and the group the subject is being compared to, as well as a photo that pertained to the sentence’s subject matter.  Then, the students had to look at the parts of the sentence I gave them and formulate sentences using what they already had.  The main challenge was to put together the sentence in the correct order, but a smaller detail that turned out to give some kids trouble was agreement between the noun and the adjective.  Almost every sentence included a vocab word from the section of the chapter we were learning.  I was able to give this activity to the class in my last week of SCORE.  I also made a similar type of PowerPoint in which I used the vocabulary and the subjunctive tense to create sentences in English that the students will have to translate into Spanish correctly using the subjunctive, a tense that they have learned but has given them trouble.  Unfortunately, they aren’t there yet, so Senora Magana will be giving that to them next week.

Coviello Blog 13

So, in the junior class we have continued reading the story, “La Clave Literaria.”  Senora Magana told me she chose it because it is a murder mystery, and she hoped it would be more interesting for the students that may not be too apt to be intrigued by a story they are required to read for Spanish class.  It is slightly longer than a lot of stories they are used to reading, but having an interesting story line definitely helps ease the difficulty or dread of reading something in school.  I can relate to that, that’s for sure.  Anyway, the way we have been getting through it is really good.  Instead of having the students read sections of the story at home to discuss it in class, we read the story all together and answer discussion questions for homework.  I like this method because reading in a different language can definitely be complicated and it is not uncommon for students to encounter difficulties and hard parts while reading.  By doing it in class, Senora Magana can pause after certain sections and explain or ask questions about what has just happened.  This forces the students to pay attention to the story and stay involved in the class, even while they are not the ones reading aloud.  Also, a good component of this method is the actual reading of the story.  The students take turns reading the narration or take on the roles of the different characters within the story.  This helps the students work on pronunciation of the words they are reading as well as pay attention to what they are reading.

Coviello Blog 12

Last week, the junior Spanish IV class I TA for began reading their first short story since I started SCORE.  It is called “La Clave Literaria,” “The Literary Clue,” and is a murder mystery.  We started the story by learning the various important vocab words scattered throughout the story that Senora Magana picked out.  She created a list of about 50 to 60 different words, and the list was made up of nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  The vocabulary list was full of words that the students might not necessarily learn in a normal vocabulary list in a book or regular lesson, so it was good to have them learn new words that will give them a more in-depth knowledge of the language and make them even more well-rounded.  Also, having all the words that would be unfamiliar to them as they read the story written out and translated on one piece of paper is very helpful for their understanding of the story.  Before beginning reading the story, Senora Magana had them create their own sentences for each word, as she typically does for vocabulary lessons, so they can formulate their own meanings for the new words.  By being creative and original, the students will be able to better remember the meanings of the words through their own thoughts and ideas.  After learning the vocabulary prior to reading, the actual process of reading and comprehending the story becomes easier because they don’t have to stop and look up the definitions or translations of unfamiliar words.

Coviello Blog 11

This week, Senora Magana was doing an in-depth review lesson of the preterit and imperfect tenses.  We started by going over how to conjugate both tenses.  We reviewed all the irregular verbs and their conjugations with the class.  This part was fairly easy because they have already learned these things and (hopefully) have been using them correctly all year.  The harder part turned out to be reviewing the differences between the preterit tense and the imperfect tense.  It is a fairly difficult concept to grasp, considering they first learned the preterit and got used to using only that tense.  However, using the words SCAP (Single Completed Action in the Past) for the preterit tense and TARDE (Time, age, date, Action in progress, Repeated, Description, Emotion) for the imperfect tense seem to help the students remember the variety of uses for each tense.  We did a huge amount of practices with choosing between preterit and imperfect, most of which were computer activities.  Senora Magana has two really useful websites that include a variety of grammar concepts and interesting vocabulary.  We used these in class and for some homework assignments throughout the week to keep the students practicing more and more.  We also used the PowerPoint activity that I put together that included sentences and pictures, and the students had to take the given verbs and figure out whether or not they should be preterit or imperfect and then conjugate them correctly.  It was a lot of work to spend on one concept, but it is vital to use correct past-tense grammar in order to be more fluent in Spanish.

Coviello Blog 10

For this week’s grammar concept that the two freshman classes will be working on, I made another PowerPoint with words and pictures as a reviewing activity to do with the kids.  We are going to be studying superlative sentences (i.e. Taylor Swift is the best singer in the world, monkeys are the fastest animals in the zoo, etc.) which are fairly easy to comprehend because they are so similar to the English.  I was able to utilize the vocab as well as the grammar in creating the activity.  The vocab we will be working on this week is slightly random, including mostly names of animals.  However, there are additional random words like rides in an amusement park and “movie star.”  Sometimes I don’t really understand the methods the book uses to group their vocab words in each section of each chapter.  Anyway, the animal vocab was perfect to incorporate in my activity that focused on the grammar of putting together superlative sentences.  By using both the new vocab and the new grammar concept, it will be a good review for two different things at one time.  Also, the photos that are on each slide will give the students a visual to use when figuring out how to put together each of +the sentences.  Even though they have little to do with the actual grammar concept itself, having an image to connect with each different sentence is helpful in remembering exactly what was done during review when they are being assessed.

Coviello Blog 9

This teacher’s assistant project has shown me some of the difficulties of being a teacher. One issue I have confronted is the struggle to get every student to participate.  In all three classes for which I am a teacher’s assistant with Senora Magana, it seems as though the same handful of students is always raising their hands and answering or asking questions.  In a foreign language class especially, participation is key to the whole learning experience.  Participation even takes up a very large portion of each student’s overall grade for each quarter, having the same weight as a test.  In the two freshman classes that I am working with, the best Spanish students seem to be the ones that always want to answer the questions because they are possibly more sure of their answers than others.  I get the feeling that the other students are too afraid to be wrong, so they prefer not to raise their hands and participate.  However, some students that do really well on assessments don’t like to participate that much in class.  Again, this could be due to fear of putting themselves out there and end up being wrong.  In the junior class, the fear of being wrong could be a reason, but I also think that it might be laziness as well.  Students may prefer to sit back and allow others to participate while they simply listen and check their work.  It is really important for them to realize how vital participating is not only to their grade, but to their overall experience learning a foreign language.

Coviello Week 3 Blog 2

In Spanish IV, the junior Spanish class for which I am a teacher’s assistant for Senora Magana, is currently spending time watching Destinos episodes. This is an educational series that includes entertaining soap opera situations and dramatic stories that keep the students interested, as well as lessons in specific vocabulary, geography, and culture. Because a majority of grammar concepts are learned in Spanish II and III, the grammar learned in Spanish IV is mainly review of concepts learned in past years. Because of this, Spanish IV and Spanish V classes have empty spaces to fill up. The Destinos episode series is important for a few reasons. First and foremost, it allows the students to immerse themselves in the Spanish language itself. Hearing it spoken in conversations helps with their comprehension, and the different accents in various Spanish-speaking regions teach the students how to identify and comprehend them. Second, each episode includes vocabulary or a grammar concept that are displayed throughout the episode. Not only is the vocab included in the dialogue between characters, but it is also reviewed with the narrator of the film series. This auditory element added to the visual presentation of the movie allows the students to receive a diverse way of learning a certain thing. Finally, the narrator also reviews the culture of different places the main characters visit. The students are able to see a map of the country; also, the narrator discusses cultural aspects of the country: economic elements like staples of the industry, political elements like past and present governments, and other general cultural elements.

Coviello Week 3 Blog 1

This week in my freshman classes, Señora Magaña and I did an activity with the iPads. The purpose was to work on using preterit and imperfect tenses. The app we used is called PhotoCard, and it is a way to send postcards from device to device. The assignment was to interview a parent about what his/her childhood was like. They needed to take down specific details so they would have a sufficient amount of information to work with. Then, they created rough drafts of a letter telling the stories their parents told them. Finally, we had the iPads in class one day to create the final drafts. Unfortunately, the wireless Internet presented a huge problem. Firstly, it turned out that not all the iPads had successfully downloaded the app because of the dysfunctional wifi. Therefore, only about eight iPads had PhotoCard on it. This led to the students having to share iPads which created an issue with timing. Then, the lack of wifi did not allow students to send their post cards to Señora Magaña to be graded. This issue was not a complete surprise considering the unpredictable nature of the wireless Internet at the school; however, I was disappointed that my activity did not work out. I wanted to be able to implement technology inside the classroom so the students could have fun while working on the new concept they were learning. It is definitely important to try new things and be able to learn from my mistakes, though! 

Coviello Week 2 Blog 3

This week, I was able to begin doing the other thing I had planned for filling my extra hour or hours every day: observations of other classes.  Señora Magaña gave me the schedule of all foreign language classes in the middle school and high school for me to use when I have a free block.  My two free blocks each day are A and D blocks, but my usage of each block depends on the rotating schedule and how it falls that specific day.  This week I visited Señor Bilsbury’s junior Spanish III class twice.  I sat in the back of the room and took notes on my iPad on not what he was teaching, but how he was teaching it.  The class was reviewing subjunctive, the conjugations and usages of it, at the time.  I noted that Señor Bilsbury seemed to take a lot of time going over things so that everyone understood it before he moved on.  He would do this by asking them questions and having them ask him questions so he was sure they all knew what to do.  Also, they did a mix of some writing activities and some speaking activities, hitting two different ways of learning.  The second time I visited the class, they spent part of it watching a presentation from a group of two students.  The group presented on football (soccer) in Spanish-speaking countries.  The presentation was all in Spanish, and it was a good way to practice speaking Spanish and listening to and comprehending Spanish.  Also, it allowed them to get a deeper view into the Hispanic culture.  

Coviello Week 2 Blog 2

This week Señora Magaña also gave me a few things to do for my two freshmen classes.  In those classes we are reviewing the two past-tense forms of verbs, the preterit and the imperfect, which they learned very early on in the year.  These two grammar concepts are a staple of speaking Spanish, so it is very important to learn the conjugations as well as the rules of using them.  In this review, Señora Magaña gave them a base of the lessons, but she allowed me to do some review and make activities for them.  I reviewed her notes with the classes on the white board (which, of course, is always fun).  I try to get everyone involved as often as possible, but sometimes it is difficult because the two classes are very quiet and hesitant to participate.  This has helped me see why having a grade for participation is so important; it is a good way to get everyone to contribute.  Anyway, I also created dialogue situations including the preterit and imperfect concepts (the same way I made the junior class situations).  Also, I put together a PowerPoint of sentences with photos that corresponded with the context of the sentence.  We will go over this PowerPoint as a class and have students fill in the blanks with verbs in either the preterit or imperfect.  This will help them review conjugations as well as usage of one or the other.  This week, I am going to do an activity on the iPads that will include writing using the preterit and imperfect, but I will talk more about that after we do it.

Coviello Week 2 Blog 1

This week, I had some good jobs to do for my classes to fill up my extra hour every day. Señora Magaña allowed me to make up a variety of activities for her classes. For the freshman classes, I was able to create speaking situations for the grammar and vocabulary they learned throughout the week. This consisted of me creating a sheet of four different situations and two parts, person A and person B, for each situation. I was able to be creative with them because the grammar concept I had to include was commands, so I had a lot to work with. I made them as interesting as possible while maintaining the guidelines Señora Magaña gave me. Also, I created a scavenger hunt for this class. Señora Magaña gave me the idea for this activity. The objective is to have the students practice commands by conjugating the commands given to them in each piece of the scavenger hunt. After they correctly conjugated the verbs, they had to complete each step. I included funny things that allowed them to draw on the board, sing, go outside the classroom, and talk to other teachers and students. I think it was a good way to practice the grammar they would later be quizzed on while having fun and moving around. Everyone seemed to have fun with the activity because it was unlike typical activities and included some competition between one another as well. It’s definitely important to mix up the ways of learning specific things by throwing in some different activities.

Coviello Week 1 Blog 3

The junior class is a good and really new experience for me.  It is Spanish IV Honors.  It’s much different from the freshman classes because I’m only a year older than the kids in the class, so it is harder to have that big of an influence on them.  However, because I did Spanish Language AP and I am in Spanish Literature AP this year, I do have a little more experience so I can help them.  This week, I helped Senora Magana by reviewing the vocab with them before quizzes by verbally giving them definitions and having them tell me what word I am defining.  Also, when they write sentences using the vocab words for homework, they write them on the board to go over as a class.  I was able to go over the sentences and correct them with the class which was good.  Finally, I made my own activity for them to do.  I created two Powerpoint slides with pictures of the words.  Then, we played a game with fly swatters in which a student would say a vocab word, and the two students at the board would find the picture of the word said and try and hit it with the fly swatter.  The junior class proved to be more responsive to a game than the freshmen have been.  For some reason they don’t really take to competition as well as I would expect.  It is good to see the junior class having fun with a competitive game instead of just having them do repetitive activities that might not be that fun.

Coviello Week 1 Blog 2

I really enjoy working with my freshmen classes.  It is easy because I have a lot more experience than them, so they can actually learn something from me and see me as more of a teacher than a student.  The day that I came back after our senior meeting, they were all excited to see me because they didn’t think I would be continuing with being a teacher’s assistant throughout SCORE.  It honestly made me so happy to see that they actually like having me there.  I continued working with them the way I always have, correcting exercises they have done, reviewing grammar and vocab that they are learning, making my own activities for them to do, and helping Senora Magana with whatever she needs me to do.  I just picked up the same activities in the other freshman class, which was easy to acclimate to because I am already so used to it.  Also, because they were reviewing to take a test and then taking it, I got a chance to help one of the students one-on-one who had been absent for a while.  I brought her up to date on direct and indirect object pronouns (what we were learning at the time) which was cool because I basically was able to teach her from scratch what the class had already learned.  One issue I have with both freshman classes is participation.  They are both really quiet classes and the same kids raise their hands to answer every question every day.

Coviello Week 1 Blog 1

Since the beginning of the year, I have been a teacher’s assistant for Senora Magana in one of her freshmen Spanish II honors classes.  I really enjoyed it all year, so that’s why I decided to continue it for my SCORE internship.  I think I want to be a Spanish teacher and plan on studying foreign language education at NYU, so this is going to be a good experience for me one way or another.  I have taken on three of her classes in total: two freshmen classes and one junior class.  The two freshmen classes, one of which is the same class I have been working with all year, are the same class only in two different blocks.  This makes it easier for me because I can use the same activities for both that I make up.  I essentially should have four hours a day, five days a week to total my 20 hours per week.  This week, I used my extra hour each day to organize my classes and materials, get up to speed on what the junior class is working on, discuss the classes with Senora Magana, and work on any of the activities she gave me to create for the week.  After vacation, I will be filling some of this free time with observing other foreign language classes in the high school, middle school, and hopefully elementary school.  Also, I will be able to observe both French and Spanish, which will be a good way to broaden my horizons.

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