My Monday Routine (cancion de la semana)

I struggle with Monday routine. I have activities, and I know what I want to do, but I just can't get it in an order that makes me happy. On Monday’s I:

1. Introduce the Special Person of the Week
2. Introduce the Song of the Week
3. Have a small reading on the board as a bellringer

Most of my problems are focused on the Song of the Week. If I just played the song, the students didn’t really get into it so I made handouts with the song lyrics, a paragraph about the artist and/or song, and 5 questions. But, where to fit that in? I didn’t want to hand it out as a worksheet because I didn’t want to waste the paper or grade it. I also didn’t want to read it to the class because that’s kind of boring and a lot of my students refuse to wear their glasses and wouldn’t be able to see it on the board anyway. I realized I wasn’t making any headway and reached out to the FB group Spanish Teachers in America. That group is amazing! Thanks to them, when school starts this August, this is what I am going to try:

1. I am going to print a class set of their songs and put them in a binder. I’m not going to print back-to-back because that will let me change out songs if I retire one.
2. I will have out the Solo Cups. They are stacked in groups of 3: Green on top means the student or group is fine, Yellow means they need help but not right away, Red means they are stuck and need me pronto.
3. On Monday’s, as the students walk into class, they will pick up a binder and either work solo or in groups (not sure but I think a max of 4).
4. The first 10 minutes of class will be about the Special Person, but all students should have a binder of songs ready for the next activity.
5. The next 10 minutes of class, they will:
   1. Read the music handout with a partner or individually
   2. Translate the chorus for meaning – not literally
   3. Read the lyrics and guess at what kind of song it is
   4. Write down a max of 5 words the group didn’t understand in the collective dictionary
   5. After 10 minutes I will read the paragraph to them
   6. Be ready to answer the questions (can cold call on students or use the Numbered Heads activity. Would be fun to have Boogie Boards for this.)
6. Once all that is done, I will play the song and they can fill out the final question of “Did they like it”. They must answer I (we) liked/disliked this song because… Work together to find words they want to use and add it to their dictionary.
7. Then an additional 5 minutes to read and be prepared to ask me questions about the Leer Lunes blurb in the bellringer slide.

Alternative Activities

1. Have students come up and underline the evidence on the board to support their answer.
2. Record the informative section as a listening activity
3. Make a Wordle and use that to guess the theme of the song
4. Create a choiceboard
5. The songs are in 4 week chunks so, after 4 weeks, I could create a Twisted Jeopardy or Lucky Reading game. Or create a listening assessment.

 Questions I still have:

1. Will the students do this on a Google Doc or on paper? à I’m thinking a Google Doc that they share with me and each other.
2. How will I grade this? Every 4 weeks? Participation Points?

Want to see them?

1. Free for level 3 & 4: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Unit-0-2-Songs-of-the-Week-for-Spanish-3-and-4-start-of-school-8733161

2. Free for level 1 & 2: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Unit-0-2-Songs-of-the-Week-for-Spanish-1-and-2-8062360

3. Spanish 4: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/36-Songs-of-the-Week-for-Abierto-4-Spanish-9516419

4. Spanish 3: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/36-Songs-of-the-Week-for-Abierto-3-Spanish-9500091

5. Spanish 2: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Songs-of-the-Week-for-Abierto-2-Spanish-9708296

6. Spanish 1: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Songs-of-the-Week-for-Abierto-1-Spanish-9708840