Language Acquisition

How do children acquire language?  Lots of language, written language, spoken language?

Dr. Kate Kinsella gave an interesting talk last year at the Minnesota ESL, Bilingual and Migrant Education Conference.  Here is the link to her page from the conference.  Check out the handouts for some amazing ideas for language acquisition:  http://www.mnellconference.org/?page_id=9

On banned books

Thrilled was I to read in the Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) about the failed effort to ban a book, Eleanor and Park.  Books should not be banned.  Period.

Yes, there are difficult themes in books.  But there are difficult themes in life.  Yes, there are offensive themes in books.  But there are offensive themes in life.  In the hands of a skilled educator, a reflective parent, any book can be a source of learning; it can lead to discussion and consideration of life and what kind of world we want to live in and create, just by our living.

Read.  And read lots!

Transition Words in Spanish

When writing realistic fiction (I teaching in 4th grade) there are ways to make your paragraphs flow more smoothly from one to the next.  One way is to use transition words.  I found and added to a list of transition words (palabras de transición).

Try them out in your Spanish writing and see how your paragraphs flow

Here they are:

Para demostrar secuencia

al principio                   luego                        antes       después                         en seguida

Para demostrar contraste o cambio de idea:

por el contrario            sin embargo            al mismo tiempo         en contraste              por otro lado de otro modo                   a pesar de (que)            al contrario        de otra manera                aunque 

 Para demostrar adición o complemento de una idea:

también                          lo siguiente                  seguidamente
de igual importancia           de la misma manera          igualmente
además / por otra par   del mismo modo

 Para demostrar resultado:

en consecuencia           obviamente

de tal manera que             en cualquier caso
por esta razón                 evidentemente
por consiguiente           además
como resultado de         de hecho

Para evidenciar tiempo:

inmediatamente            después
tan pronto como           a más tardar
posteriormente             antes de
previamente

Time Spent Reading

From http://www.devstu.org/research-individualized-daily-reading

Have you seen this?  Amazing!  Let’s read more!

“Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988) led one of the most extensive studies of independent reading in which they investigated the relationship of reading time to reading achievement. The study found that the amount of time students spent reading independently was the best predictor of vocabulary development and reading achievement gains.

“The research indicates that independent reading is probably the major source of vocabulary acquisition beyond the beginning stages of learning to read. Students who read more can learn the meanings of thousands of new words each year.

“The chart below shows the high impact of independent reading time to word exposure and the percentile of reading achievement.”

Percentile Independent Reading
Minutes per Day
Words Read
per Year
98 65 4,358,000
90 21.1 1,823,000
80 14.2 1,146,000
70 9.6 622,000
60 6.5 423,000
50 4.6 282,000
40 3.2 200,000
30 1.3 106,000
20 0.7 21,000
10 0.1 8,000
2 0 0

Amazing!

Trust your Heart/ Confía en tu corazón

Confía en tu corazón.  Algunas personas y ciertas cosas son importante para ti por una razón.  Escucha tu corazón y sigue tus sueños. 

Trust your heart. Some people and certain things are important to you for a reason.  Listen to what your heart is telling you and follow your dreams!

Make 2013 a year of positive risk-taking!

Arriésgate en 2013 con posibilidades positivas.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

23        Screen shot 2012-12-19 at 9.53.42 PMStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever!

22  Best Christmas Pageant Ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=d4KSXrz28uE

The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant.

None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale — the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating — has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year’s pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.