Before we began reading, I started with some personal questions: ¿Quién tiene un perro? ¿Cómo se llama tu perro? ¿Cómo es tu perro?, which took about 15 minutes and could have gone on longer if I let it. Then I asked students (in Spanish), “So why are we talking about animals?” and told them that we would be spending the next couple of weeks reading a book and I did a big reveal. I have a class set of readers, so I assign each student a number and we keep the books in class in an old shoe sorter that I've converted into mailboxes.
I explained to them all that I know what sophisticated readers they are in their other classes, analyzing and discussing deep issues, and while this book may seem a little bit beneath their English brilliance, it would be 100% understandable to their Spanish brains. This seemed to curb some of the smart-alecky comments about the repetition, although there were still a few wise guys. =) Next I showed them where the glossary was located and how they could use that as a tool while reading. Then we began! I read out-loud, stopping along the way for simple yes-no comprehension questions. The first chapter is REALLY repetitive, and my kids made a big fuss about how easy it was. So in the first class, I passed out the comprehension questions and assigned them for homework. This was a mistake. Very few students remembered how to answer the question ¿Cómo son?, so for the next classes, I made sure to hit that hard during the pre-reading conversation, and we used class time the follow day to answer the questions.
2 Comments
Maestra
6/5/2018 05:45:24 pm
Gracias! Eso me ayudo' mucho con ideas de como puedo empezar usando este libro :)
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Profe J
1/22/2019 07:21:33 pm
¿Acaso no has compartido tu paquete de preguntas de comprensión? Este año es el primero en que usamos este libro y tenemos pocos materiales todavía.
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