Ms. Rueda's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 2

• Fun to Read a Book Together as a Class

  Funded Aug 25, 2024

  Reading is a difficult skill to acquire in a second language classroom unless the teacher makes it comprehensible. What that means is I must make sure that my students understand what they are reading. That is why reading by themselves is sometimes very boring for them, because they do not know the meaning of many of the words and they get frustrated.

  My students have "free reading" sessions in my class, but I wanted to read a book with the whole class, therefore I needed a set of 30 books, one for each of my students. Thanks to Donors Choose and the Education Foundation I got the books I needed for my project: "Fun to Read a Book Together as a Class".

  It has been proven that reading in a second language classroom helps improve your vocabulary, grammar, fluency and it allows the students to explore topics they are interested in.

  Reading together has allowed me to answer questions they have, ask comprehension questions and personalize questions to connect with them. It also lets me go over key grammar points found in the reading.

  When we finish the book, students must show me what they learned with different activities. For this book "Feliz Cumpleaños", my students completed a different activity for each chapter. Below I include some of those activities created by some of my favorite Spanish teachers.

  Smash Doodle: it's about illustrations with written parts about the complete story or chapter.

  Draw 1 - 2 -3: students read the chapter, draw a picture of their favorite scene, include 2 speech bubbles, and finally they write a summary of the scene in Spanish.

  Pencil grab: they work with their shoulder partner. The teacher says a statement about the story. If the statement is true, the person that grabs the pencil first wins. This activity is great to improve their listening skills.

  Thanks to your donations my students have improved their vocabulary, fluency, grammar and their knowledge of the Hispanic culture.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Rueda

  This classroom project was brought to life by * Education Foundation of Sarasota County and 9 other donors.

• Hand-On Activities Are Wonderful Because They Are Engaging and Fun.

  Funded Aug 30, 2023

  Thanks to the purchase of the materials by Donors Choose, my students have been able to show what they learned by being creative either after free reading, reading a book or article as a class, or after watching a video.

  There are many options for them to show me what they understood after reading, but the following are some of the ones they like the most. I have them create a poster with a summary of an alternative twist to the story, including illustrations, a comic strip with speech bubbles and captions. Another activity is to choose one scene from the story, draw a picture, add 2 speech bubbles, and write a description of the scene in 5 sentences. Another one that I have them do is to create a comic strip (4 or more panels), include speech bubbles and captions describing each scene.

  This quarter we read a short story called "La criatura" the creature. This reading was very interesting, and my students had very different ideas to show me how they felt about it. A lot of my students chose the alternative twist, and it was fascinating to read their own ending to the story in Spanish and to see their illustrations.

  I think the use of posters not only helps them grow as students, but also encourages collaboration, many times they work in small groups to create the posters. Making posters is a wonderful tool in the classroom because it motivates the students to learn a specific topic and helps them assimilate the material at a more rapid pace.

  My students and I appreciate your help getting these materials that have helped us to enhanced our classroom.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Rueda

  This classroom project was brought to life by Education Foundation of Sarasota County and 3 other donors.