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About Me

Welcome to my blog, Christa's Cuentos! I teach beginning and intermediate Spanish to undergraduate students in Massachusetts, and I have about 10 years of experience. Learning from other teachers who generously share their ideas and experiences on their blogs has had a huge impact on my teaching practices, so I am excited to use this blog to reflect on my teaching and contribute to the conversation!


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Novice-level dictogloss activity with art by Carmen Lomas Garza

Hi, there! I haven't used this blog in quite some time, but I wanted to share this lesson that I used with novice-level Spanish students in my first-semester class this semester in our unit on family and friends.  I was really happy with how this lesson came together! Students were able to process language while learning about Carmen Lomas Garza, a well known artist who creates art that challenges negative stereotypes about Hispanic communities in the U.S.  Check out Carmen Lomas Garza's paintings here on her website  and in her books Family Pictures / Cuadros de familia and In My Family / En mi familia . As you might notice, her artwork is perfect for discussing topics that we often cover in novice-level Spanish, such as family, hobbies, places, food, and celebrations. I knew I wanted to incorporate her work in my class this semester, and then this video from Florencia Henshaw's YouTube channel Unpacking Language Pedagogy gave me the idea to do a dictogloss activity! ...
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Flipgrid for inclusive instruction in the language classroom

As I prepare for fall semester, I know that a significant part of my beginning and intermediate Spanish courses will take place online. One of my top priorities is to choose web applications that foster communication in the target language (TL) and are accessible to the diverse range of learners in my classes. After recently reading Disability and World Language Learning: Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners (2019) by Sally Scott and Wade Edwards, I have been reflecting on the instructional choices I make to best meet the needs of all my students.  One step I am taking this summer is to evaluate some of the web applications I use in terms of their capacity to help create an inclusive learning environment. The principles of Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) provide a helpful framework for such a task. The nine principles include: equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, size and space fo...
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Plans for Remote Learning: El chile en nogada

Lesson ideas for El chile en nogada The food unit is part of our second-semester Spanish course, and I use the Essential Question "How  does food bring us together?" to guide the unit. (I believe this idea came from my Twitter friend, Michelle Walpole .) El chile en nogada provides an example of the foods that unite us around our cultural or national heritage. This is especially evident in the colors of el chile en nogada, which are the same as those of the Mexican flag. Also, Mexican cuisine has been recognized by UNESCO on their list of Intangible Cultural Heritage , and el chile en nogada is a great example of the richness of Mexican gastronomy. While I have taught this unit before, this lesson on el chile en nogada is new and mostly inspired by a few authentic resources I found, including an article and a TikTok video (see resources and activities below). Additionally, I am thinking through the steps of this lesson using the IMAGE model , which provides a systematic way t...
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