Reading non-fiction text in Spanish 4

I have been really looking for ways to increase my Spanish 4 students’ ability to comprehend more types of text and gradually up their “authenticity levels” in their reading. They are awesome kids to work with, and I am looking at most likely having a Spanish 5 class next year for the first time! I have a blend of extremely proficient kids (advanced in both listening and reading on the AAPPL exam) all the way down to those who are still scoring in the novice high range on the AAPPL. Some kids just LIKE learning Spanish and stick with it even though their proficiency isn’t increasing as rapidly as some of their peers. And I am totally ok with that! I’d rather have them stay with me and make slow gains than quit and gain nothing. (On a related note, check out #nationofadvocates on Twitter!)

One of the things I have been working with in Spanish 4 is reading news articles. I often will take an article, simplify it, and make an activity with it. (By the way…if you teach Spanish 1 or 2 and want an AMAZING wealth of non-fiction CI amazingness, I highly recommend you check out Martina Bex’ El mundo en tus manos Spanish news stories for novice learners!) I really wanted to come up with an activity that students could use to process ANY non-fiction text. Plus, since I am left with only half my students in my Spanish 4 classes (our seniors finish 2 weeks early) I wanted to come up with some activities that felt like valuable work yet not a punishment. In many of their other junior/senior combined classes they are simply “done” for the year. They admitted to me that they are bored with so much free time and are tired of watching movies all day.

I’ve really been liking the content at NewsELA.com, and they have a ton of Spanish articles. Students can select the lexile level they’d like to read, and I encourage them to select what feels comfortable to them. I told the students to get into groups of 3-4 with their chromebooks and choose an article that they ALL wanted to read. I allowed them to read silently or aloud, together or individually, and they could have WordReference.com open if they wanted. Their task was to make sure everyone in the group was able to understand the article.

I had made up a set of generic task cards with questions that could potentially apply to ANY non-fiction news story (I sell my printable task cards in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.). Each group was given the instructions AFTER they finished reading.

They were to use the Kagan structure “Fan-N-Pick.” Our school is a Reading Apprenticeship school and we have been using Kagan structures for many years. I highly recommend them!

The basic gist is this:

• Students sit in a circle.
• One student fans the cards out (like they are going to do a card trick “pick a card, any card!”)
•  The student to the left of the fan selects a card and reads the question to the student on THEIR left.
• That student answers the question.
• If there is a 4th student in the circle, that student either adds to the answer or restates the answer.
• Pass the fan of cards to the left and repeat.
• I allowed my students to reference their article DURING the Fan-N-Pick activity if they needed to.

Assessment:

I had my students put away their articles and task cards. Their task was to video record themselves having an informal “book club style” discussion about their article. They were well-prepared, knowledgeable, and I daresay they even had fun doing this!