How teaching Spanish is like Dancing with the Stars.
I have had this theory for awhile. It helps now that there is a wildly popular TV show to help make the point. (American Idol is so yesterday’s news) Teaching Spanish for communication is my game. There are no verb charts on the wall in my room- and no one is afraid of forgetting an accent mark on my quizzes. A typical task to complete in my class is for example: I am your friend. You are having a huge party at your house this weekend. You need my help to get ready for it. Start the conversation and we will talk about the arrangements. Sound easy? Not really, but fun-certainly. Students in my school study 40 weeks of Spanish in grade 7, and then the same in grade 8. We administer the New York State Second Language Proficiency in June to earn a HS credit for scoring at least a 65. My students learn to speak the language-guided by me. Vocabulary is taught, expressions provided and then we practice until we are task performance ready. I teach them useful all purpose sentences like Can you help me? I need…..(Puedes ayudarme. Necesito….) I have told them this is like a dance, I am the trained professional here to make sure they look good. I will not let them flounder-but I will guide them through it or follow their lead if need be…… Some students are exceptional at taking the control and letting me just follow and respond. That is the coolest feeling-when they are totally functional in the language and can take the lead. Then I can sit back and smile knowing we just performed our own little verbal samba. And it was great!
