Llego al instituto a las ocho y veinte y hablo con mis amigos Llego al instituto a las ocho y veinte y hablo con mis amigos. ¡Me gusta hablar! Las clases empiezan a las ocho y media. ¡Me encanta el español! Comment Sheet Name Words (s)he forgot. Words (s)he pronounced wrong. Did (s)he look confident? Did (s)he sound fluent? Each student needs to comment on the person presenting.

Vocabulario me ducho I have a shower y and la casa the house a las siete desayuno hermano por la mañana con mi de despues me levanto ocho salgo I have a shower and the house at 7 o’clock I eat my breakfast brother in the morning with my from after I get up 8 I leave

Learning lots of sentences for a speaking or writing test Sometimes people struggle to prepare and revise for a speaking or writing test because they don’t know how to learn lots of sentences or they don’t even try in the first place. This class is going to give you ideas for how to ace your speaking and writing tests. It is all about the preparation…….

Imagine you have been asked to put together a 30 second presentation about yourself. What would you do? First of all you would need to plan out what you wanted to say of course. You would do this by thinking about what Spanish you know already (rather than all the words you don’t know). You would use your vocabulary booklet, your exercise booklet and any other resources from your teacher. These would help you to plan what you want to say. Then you would need to start committing it to memory. To be at the stage where you can say a one minute presentation off by heart you need to put in time to learn it and this needs to be an active process. Learning doesn’t just happen like that. You are in charge on this one. You need to use the strategies that we have discussed so far. Then you need to make a cue card with notes of the what you want to say and the order you will say it in. More on this later….

Imagine this is the text you have prepared and are now at the stage of learning it, what are you going to do? Me llamo Juan y soy español. Vivo en Madrid, en España. Tengo 11 años y mi cumpleaños es el 5 de mayo. Tengo un hermano que se llama Carlos. Carlos tiene 7 años. Tengo los ojos verdes y el pelo negro. Me gusta el rugby y el baloncesto. Odio ir de compras. Es aburrido.

1. First you need to make sure you know WHAT you are learning 1. First you need to make sure you know WHAT you are learning. Write what it means in English. Try to write just below the Spanish. This is also important to do so that you can ask friends/parents to help you learn. Me llamo Juan y soy español. Vivo en Madrid, en España. Tengo 11 años y mi cumpleaños es el 5 de mayo. Tengo un hermano que se llama Carlos. Carlos tiene 7 años. Tengo los ojos verdes y el pelo negro. Me gusta el rugby y el baloncesto. Odio ir de compras. Es aburrido. Tell them that this is so that you have a neat copy that you can ask friends or your parents to test you with.

2. Now you are going to rewrite your text in Spanish but with just the first and last letter of each word. Me l---o J---n y s-y e------l. V--o en M-----d, en E-----a. T----o 11 a--s y mi c--------s es el 5 de m--o. T---o un h-----o q-e se l----a C----s. C----s t----e 7 a--s. T---o l-s o--s v----s y el p--o n---o. Me g---a el r---y y el b--------o. O--o ir de c-----s. Es a------o. They need to work on their own at first trying to remember the Spanish. We tell them there are two parts to learning an extended passage. First you have to be happy you know the Spanish and then you can think about remembering the order you want to say/write the passage in.

3. Now you could do the ‘odds and evens’ activity again. Me _____ Juan _ soy ______. Vivo ___ Madrid, ___ España. _____ 11 _____ y __ cumpleaños __ el __ de _____. Tengo __ hermano ___ se _____ Carlos. _____ tiene __ años. ______ los ___ verdes _ el ____ negro. __ gusta __ rugby _ el _________. Odio __ de _______. Es _______. Get them to also do it the other way round with the odd words missing this time.

4. Now try just having your English text in front of you to see if you can remember the Spanish. My name is Juan and I am Spanish. I live in Madrid, in Spain. I am 11 years old and my birthday is the 5th May. I have a brother who is called Carlos. Carlos is 7 years old. I have green eyes and black hair. I like rugby and basketball. I hate going shopping. It is boring Get the students to give their Spanish version to their partners. The partner needs to listen carefully to what (s)he says to tell him if (s)he has missed out any words or mis-pronounced any.

How do I know that I know it? By now you might be at the stage where you feel confident you know the Spanish. What does that mean in real terms? You should feel happy with the following : I can look at my English version of what I want to say and do not struggle to remember the Spanish. I know how to pronounce the words I know how to spell the words I know if there are any words/phrases that are slightly ‘unusual’ to me (for example: I am 11 years old is literally translated into ‘I have 11 years’ in Spanish.) If you are aware you are more likely to remember it more accurately. If you cannot confidently say that you have achieved the above you need to go back and spend some more time on the learning stages. That is not a problem and you are not stupid! We all need different lengths of time.