MAT674 Introduction- Differentiation

My name is Anna Drakulich, and I teach Spanish. I'm originally from Massachusetts, but have been in California for a little over ten years. The area I grew up in is pretty culturally- and linguistically- homogeneous , so I have really been enjoying the diversity Southern California has to offer. My Bachelor's Degree is in Second Language Acquisition, a major I created so I could trick my school into letting me spend my time doing exactly what I wanted, haha.  I speak Spanish and German, and love travel and learning about other cultures. I participated in several study abroad programs in high school and college and my love of languages and culture grew, but it wasn't until I taught English as a Second Language in Costa Rica that I realized I should put it all together and become a teacher. I taught Spanish for three years at a private elementary/middle school here in California, spent last spring subbing in various districts, and will be spending December through June doing two back-to-back, long-term Spanish subbing positions at a public high school in Huntington Beach.

I love teaching, adore my students, and really enjoy creating fun and interesting lessons. I learned a lot from teaching elementary and middle school, specifically the value of keeping my lessons varied and engaging. Where I currently teach, classes are 1 hour and 40 minutes long, so providing interesting, differentiated lessons is extremely important, so that my students don't become bored or antsy.
A typical day in my Spanish classroom involves a variety of activities that cater to a wide range of learner styles and abilities.
We do:

 Project-based learning: For every unit, I do a project so that students can relate the material to their own lives and the real world. For example, when my students were learning about travel vocabulary and terms, I had them make a "suitcase" and fill it with clothes and items they would need for a trip, and then produce a written piece describing where they would go, what they would bring, and what they would do on their trip.


Pair and group work: We spend a lot of time working in pairs or small groups. Sometimes, I let the students choose their groups, and at other times, I choose.

Use Mini White Boards for pictionary, vocab and grammar practice, hangman, quizzing partners...

Integrate art and music: For Spanish words and concepts that are hard to remember (such as verb conjugations), we watch YouTube videos and listen to songs. I recently ran into a student from my first year teaching, and she was still able to sing the song we learned about conjugating verbs!

Play games

Use multimedia and technology

Use graphic organizers to provide structure and help us organize our thoughts

Have a say in how we want to demonstrate our knowledge

Do activities that allow us to get up and move 

Make videos, audio recordings, and act out our own scripts

Talk, write, listen, draw, sing, play.