Routines are a great way to start class! They help you plan and they help students know what to expect every day. You don’t have to do the exact same thing every time, but having the structure in place is fantastic! I used to do a bell-ringer every day in my classes but I’ve shifted to using a different routine for each day of the week and I love it. Here are the routines that I use in my classes!
This post is part of my HOW TO TRANSITION TO CI METHODS series. Check out the other posts here!
- What is CI & where to start?
- Classroom Routines (this post)
- Teaching CI with a textbook
- CI Activities for your Classroom
- Assessment in a CI Classroom
Watch the Video
Monday: Weekend Chat
Weekend chat is a great way to get to know your students and what they like to do! There are tons of different ways to weekend chat to change things up for your students, depending on their levels!
Tuesday: Free Voluntary Reading
Every Tuesday we spend five minutes of class reading. I find this routine really calming, and I enjoy reading along with my students!
Wednesday: Música Miércoles
I love that my students are hearing people other than me speak Spanish, and experiencing culture in a way that is accessible to them. They connect with the music and they enjoy watching the videos and talking about them afterwards! Música Miércoles is definitely one of our favorite days of the week!
Thursday: Persona Especial
We kicked this routine off with a bang by inviting in members of the administration! Students loved seeing the principal “on the spot” by helping them speak Spanish in front of the class! You can really target what you want to practice with this by changing the questions you ask, and you can certainly tailor it to your students’ interests the same way!
Friday: Movie Talk or Picture Talk
This one requires a bit more prep than the other routines, but it’s so fun! Just like with Persona Especial, you can really target structures or vocabulary that you need to by choosing different pictures or clips.
Routines I Use Every Day
In addition to these routines that vary with the day of the week, I also have a routine to begin class and a routine to end class. These make a big difference, and fit very well into our every day lessons!
Your Turn!
Those are the routines that are working in my classroom. Now it’s your turn! Drop a comment below and let me know which one you can’t wait to try, or which one you already love!
If you try out any of them, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @Srta_Spanish – I really enjoy seeing what you guys are doing in your classes!
This sounds great. I do weekend chat every Monday with my 7th and 8th graders as well. With my 8th graders, it can last up to 15 mins if I share mine first, have them write about theirs for a few minutes, and then call on volunteers to share out while the class artist illustrates on the board.
With 8th grade, we do 5 minutes of Free Choice Reading at the beginning of class on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. A lot of students complain about it. It’s my first year doing it…
I have a few questions:
1) For Música Miércoles, how much time do you spend on the music? Like do you just intro it and then play the music video and then work with it a little each day on subsequent days until you introduce the next new song on the next Wednesday? Do you use your own songs and activities or do you get them from other sources, like Martina Bex and Mis Clases Locas? Or do you just intro the song and play the video and do no other activities?
2) For Friday MovieTalks, do you typically devote the whole class to MovieTalk and then follow-up activities? And does the MovieTalk relate to the thematic unit you are covering in class?
I guess I’m just curious how Música Miércoles and MovieTalk complement your main curriculum or if they are extras to supplement it.
1) It depends a little bit on the song, but usually between 10-15 min. of class time. Basically, I intro the artists and where they’re from, we watch the video, then we do 2 quick questions about their opinion of the song and one other question related to the song or video. This post details more about how I use it! https://srtaspanish.com/2018/10/24/musica-miercoles/
2) Usually it just a 10-15 minute activity. It almost always relates to either the theme or the structures I’m working on with my students! There’s an example or two in this post here! https://srtaspanish.com/2018/10/14/picture-talk-101/
In general, I use these routines to supplement my curriculum. My district follows a text book and so I use these routines to supplement my approach to the text. I hope that helps!
I have a question…is this all done in English? I have level one students who do not know any of the target language at the beginning of school…these ideas that you have listed sound great if you are teaching one of the higher level class but when you have a class that is just beginning in the TL and are beginning at Novice Low level, they do not seem feasible.
Hi! All of the things I describe are things I do and have used in Spanish 1 classes – their first introduction to the language, within the first week or two of school. I’ve actually never taught a level higher than 2! I do a LOT of scaffolding and I really trickle in the layers of language. This post goes a bit more in depth to some of those routines and shows how the language can build throughout the year!
https://srtaspanish.com/2020/12/09/encouraging-student-connections-in-a-virtual-setting/