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A New Spanish Teaching Strategy

I learned a lot my first year teaching Spanish.  The kids would often ask me what words meant that I didn’t know.  They would act offended every time I told them that I didn’t know the meaning of a word and to look it up in their Spanish/English dictionary.  “But you’re the Spaaaaaaanish teacher,” they would whine.  “This is a Spaaaaaanish word.  Don’t you speak Spaaaaaanish?” they would challenge me.  I got really tired of defending myself.

So the first day of my second year teaching, (after the method from the year before flopped) I came up with a new strategy.  I would wait until the class was silent and all eyes were on me and then I would say, “Frangipani.  Someone please tell me what frangipani means.”

Silence.

“Whaaaaat?  Can’t any of you tell me what frangipani means?”

Silence.

“Don’t you kids speak Eeeeeenglish?” I would drawl.  “Frangipani is in the Eeeenglish dictionary!”  After I had gone on in this manner for a little while, I would explain that just like they do not know every word in the English language, I do not know every word in the Spanish language.

So whenever a student would ask me for the meaning of a word that I didn’t know and begin their incredulous accusations, I would just cock my head, point my finger at them and say, “Frangipani!”

Esther

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5 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: spanish, teaching

Comments

  1. Elizabeth Grimes says

    November 1, 2010 at 8:38 am

    Funny! Good idea. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Sophia says

    November 1, 2010 at 9:15 am

    Haha…that was too smart!

    Reply
  3. J-Dub says

    November 1, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    Brilliant! That smells like a good idea to me! 😉
    -J-Dub

    Reply
  4. Lynn says

    November 1, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    Smart. I had to look it up. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Unplanned Cooking says

    November 1, 2010 at 9:05 pm

    Smart answer – and thinking back to how my mom used to tell me to use a dictionary too. I don’t know why I felt it was soooo hard to flip open the book :).

    Reply

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Hi! We believe laughter is the best medicine. Join in with us as we share our family laughs, fun with food, and love of travel. Great to meet you! Esther Irish




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