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Exciting news! My new Level 1 / A1 reader is now available at Voces Digital – both in Spanish and German! Check it out here: “El documento” / “Das Dokument” About The Document:Enrique’s encounter with his cousin Karla at a café takes…
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I recently had the honor of reviewing Lynne Breen’s latest book – Freedom at Niagara – before it was published. It is truly a fascinating book and you’ll undoubtedly walk away from this book having learned something new. Here is…
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The following post is courtesy of Keith Toda. He teaches Latin at Parkview High School, a public school in Lilburn, GA. He teaches with four other Latin teachers in one of the largest Latin programs in the nation (USA). I…
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Pat Brown and I recently had our article “Exploring Before Explaining in World Languages” published in Edutopia – George Lucas Educational Foundation. https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-patterns-teach-world-languages Our article introduces the concept of “explore-before-explain” teaching in world language classrooms, aiming to redefine the roles…
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We will wrap up our series on “SLA-Speak” by looking at “Comprehensible Input”. Note: This is the fifth and (possibly) final post in the series. What is “Comprehensible Input”? Comprehensible Input (CI) is a concept in language learning that refers…
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Continuing our series on “SLA-Speak”, we’ll now look at the “Affective Filter”. Note: This is the fourth post in the series. What is the “Affective filter”? The Affective Filter is a concept in language learning. It is like a mental…
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Continuing our series on “SLA-Speak”, we’ll now look at “Fluency” vs. “Accuracy”. Note: This is the third post in the series. Fluency and accuracy are two important aspects of language proficiency. Let’s take a look at the difference between them:…
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Continuing our series on “SLA-Speak”, we’ll now look at “Acquisition vs. Learning”. Note: This is the second post in the series. Acquisition and Learning are two distinct processes involved in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), as proposed by linguist Stephen Krashen.…
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As a language educator, I find myself talking to others about SLA (Second Language Acquisition). I also find that I use terms, definitions, and acronyms that are unfamiliar to the other person, or perhaps the other person has a different…
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Here is the link to my presentation: CI Summit: Writing Strategies for the ADI Classroom. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 I hope it fills a need and you find it helpful! If you have any questions, please contact me…
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Here is the link to my presentation: VOCES: Focusing on Short Stories in Our Story Part 1 Part 2 I hope it fills a need and you find it helpful! If you have any questions, please contact me directly at:…
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Dr. Pat Brown and I continue to collaborate on ideas to how to improve education and student learning. I always enjoy working with Pat, because we bring together overlaps from the science and world language classrooms. We always look at…
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What is Texas German? Any guesses? Is it simply Germans, who live in Texas? Or is people who speak German with a bit of a Texas accent? No! There is more to it than that. Texas German is more than…
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Here is the link to my presentation: Entry Points into Culture I hope it fills a need and you find it helpful! If you have any questions, please contact me directly at: [email protected] Thank you! Mach’s gut!
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Since I was young, I was always fascinated by people that could fluently speak multiple languages. I constantly asked myself, “How can they do that?” Then I thought, “That person must be super smart! I wish I were that smart.”…
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I am excited to share that my latest reader is now out in Spanish! (Note: There are excerpts from the Spanish version of book at the end of the post.) I previously published a German reader, entitled “Das Dokument”, and…
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I recently came across a couple of articles that deal with language and the brain. I found them quite interesting and thought I would share. They deal with how our L1 (first language / mother tongue) influences our brain, its…
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I wanted to share the news. My latest reader Das Dokument has been published! (Note: There are excerpts from the book at the end of the post.) I’m excited to get this in the hands of German language learners. It…
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I wanted to let you know that Comprehensible Iowa #CIIA23 is fast approaching. It is Friday, June 9th – Saturday, June10th in Gilbert, IA. (Just north of Ames, IA) This conference is excellent opportunity for world language educators. The presenters,…
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Note: There is a link to resources below. If there were only one thing that we could do with our students in the classroom, what should it be? Reading. Reading is unquestionably one of the most important things – if…
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Note: There are links to resources below. As world language educators, we are tasked with not only making the target language accessible and comprehensible to our students, but also getting our students to engage in presentational, interpretive, and interpersonal modes…
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Created in 1832 by 16-year-old apprentice chef Franz Sacher at the court of Prince Metternich, Sachertorte is considered by many to be the reigning king of Austrian desserts. However, many believe this king should be usurped by the noble Apfelstrudel. You…
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Sometimes you come across an activity that you just have to share; it is too good not to! And Game of Quotes: A Free-Reading Game is one such activity. This activity was shared with me by my colleague, Cathleen Weigelt-Ferguson.…
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The 2022 FLAM (Foreign Language Association of Missouri) Conference recently ended. After a bit of time to reflect on the conference, I wanted to share some thoughts and resources. First, it was a fantastic conference. From the presenters, keynote speaker,…
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We are week away from the 2022 FLAM (Foreign Language Association of Missouri) Conference at Washington University in St. Louis. Here is the link to register and check out the conference program: https://www.flamnet.org/general-3 It will be a great opportunity for…
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I know that we hit the ground running on day one of the school and it doesn’t seem to let up until the following summer. I also know that it can be difficult to design and implement new activities and…
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As, I have written before, one of the aspects of education that I truly enjoy is collaboration. I enjoy meaningful and effective collaboration, because we deepen our knowledge and understanding of our field, and we also bring new ideas to…
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I really enjoyed being a guest on the Mango Languages podcast “Teaching Languages Today“. Emily Rae Sabo, PhD is fantastic and we had a great conversation. We addressed things like, how do your connections with students evolve across your career?…
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I teamed up with Bryce Hedstrom (brycehedstrom.com) at the Voces Digital “Weekly Wednesday Webinar” to give a presentation entitled: Fostering Classroom Community and Understanding via ‘The Special Person’ Interview. Link to the video recording: here Link to my presentation: here…
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I was doing research for something I was working on when I came across some intriguing articles about how Dresden, Germany was, at one time, both a home to a sizable American expat community and a European destination for American…
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