noviembre 2015 Luna profe

Tagged under: expresion escrita, how to write a report in spanish, spanish ab initio, Spanish ab initio paper 2, Spanish B, Spanish B paper 2, Spanish B written assignment, text types for IB Spanish

IB Spanish text types: el informe

This type of text has to be concise, accurate, refer to exact information, rigorous, data driven, impersonal and objective, although sometimes you can find some persuasive elements.

How do I write in a impersonal way? For this purpose we can use passive voice, using verbs as nouns, describe the situation in a general way never referring specifically to a person.

Sometimes you can find a personal opinion in some reports, usually an expert expressing his professional opinion.

Essentially reports are not meant to be expressive, so everything superfluous is banned. These texts are functional and have to follow very clear goals. Some well-known examples are PISA reports on education.

A typical structure for reports is:

Summary
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Appendix

Expand your boundaries:

El informe [website]
Características del informe [pdf]
Informe del español en el mundo (2015) [pdf]
Summary of a report on "Spanish in the world" (2013) [website]

Lunaprofe 11/28/2015 4 comments

Tagged under: blog, how to write a post, IB Spanish, spanish ab initio, Spanish ab initio paper 2, Spanish B, Spanish B paper 2, text types for IB Spanish, types of texts

IB Spanish text types: Blog

Changing our perspective on what we have known is essential to approach this type of text: the blog. What is it? It can be said it is a digital text. What again, what "digital text" really means?
It means that the format is digital, is telling us where can we find these texts. The digital world is too new for us yet, and this is what is giving us trouble categorizing a blog. Let's step into a quick activity to find out what a blog really is.

Instructions: Base your answer on the table above. What type of text would you say a blog is?
Use the table above to answer this question. Provide at least two evidences to support your answer.

What type of text is a blog?
	Sí	No	Porqué
Narrativo
Descriptivo
Dialogado
Expositivo
Argumentativo

After completing this activity you should have realized that blogs step in some different types of texts. So, what's the next question?

What makes a text a blog?

Answer:

In a telegraphic way, if you are writing a blog, don't forget to include:
• Date, time and username
• Title
• Use the first person when writing (yo)
• Awareness of your audience (make it easy, make it direct, start with a paragraph mentioning your audience)

• Register (usually informal, but pay attention to the specific instructions of the task)

As you probably have noticed we are modeling in this post how to guide our students through this tough concept to gain this knowledge by themselves.

At this point, if you want to share the main characteristics or some interesting thoughts on blogs you can use this summary.

Don't forget to link this knowledge with their writing paper and the rubrics they have to use. To make sure you don't miss anything, check out the related posts underneath.

Related posts:
- Spanish B Rubrics & more
- Spanish ab Initio Rubrics & more

Expand your boundaries:

Text types [Wikipedia]
Connectors [online activities] [list with clarifications]
Texts bank [Site]
Examples with key [site]
Blog features [pdf]
Image source: Cosquillitas en la panza [site]

Develop a passion for learning.

If you do, you will never cease to grow.

Anthony J. D'Angelo

Lunaprofe 11/19/2015 7 comments

Tagged under: B1, B2, IB Spanish, ib spanish practice exams, incorporte technology in your class, spanish online activities, tech, using edpuzzle in a language class, using technologies in a foreign language class

Using technologies to enhance interactive learning: Edpuzzle

This is a Spanish interactive visual activity I've created for an IB unit. I found out about Edpuzzle last year, since then, I have been using it with amazing results in my class. You can just copy and paste and URL from a YouTube video and make it interactive for your language class.
You can make multiple-choice questions, open-ended, comments and also record your own voice making a question/explanation on a particular action on the video or just clarifying something that was on the video.
Believe me, it is real simple to use, if I can use it everyone can.
This activity has been designed to introduce the concept of old technologies and get perspective on how unknown are for new generations.
At the same time the students will work through different structures and skills like comparing, justifying their opinions or using patterns to learn or practice subjunctive along with conditional.
I like to start units making predictions, and for that, we use the image on this post comparing a type writer and a laptop to make students wander about the theme of the unit. They make predictions on how the unit is going to look like, what the topic is going to be, what grammar topics are going to be covered, which verb tenses are going to be used...
Before watching the video we do this activity to activate prior knowledge introducing the unit along with essential questions to inspire, motivate and make them start thinking about the unit.

Find below some activities to use along with this video:
- Pre-activity for the video [pdf]
- Writing skills [pdf]

Some skills that can be develop with this activity are:

Skills: