Teaching Language With the Simple Novel “Soy Carlos”

“Soy Carlos” is available on Amazon and also through Bryce Hedstrom. You can get a digital classroom subscription through My Generation of Polyglots.

I first had the idea for a simple graphic novel while drawing out a story in class. I had a story template and drew a picture in each block with a caption underneath. I keep my drawings very simple because, well, that is about all the drawing I can do! But, my students had a great reaction to my simple drawings, which made me think there might be something special there.

Shortly later, my sister informed me that her husband was trying to learn Spanish. Language teachers know that language is best acquired through reading, so I began to think about how I could make the language as accessible as possible. These two instances led to the birth of “Soy Carlos”.

I had the remarkable opportunity to hold a virtual conference, hosted by the one and only Mike Peto, to share how I teach using “Soy Carlos”. You can watch a recording of that conference here!

So, here is a breakdown of how I teach: Class begins by making predictions about Carlos. I let them share ideas in English, but I also guide them in Spanish with multiple gestures towards descriptions they will see later in the book. (alto/bajo, gordo/flaco).

I go through each page line by line:

I start by saying “Carlos dice: ” and then I read the line.
I then compare myself with Carlos, followed by re-reading the line to describe myself, instead of him.
I continue by comparing the line about Carlos to students.
I then re-read the line and as students to respond to the line with “Soy similar” or “Soy diferente”.
I move on to the next line.

When I finish the page, I read the entire page again as written, and repeat it, personalizing the page to describe myself.

Here is a short clip of me teaching “Soy Carlos” from one of my classes.

Moving along this way, it can take up to 30 minutes just to get through one page, but this slow pace is important as it provides multiple repetitions, which are so essential to language acquisition.

To break things up, so the process doesn’t become too repetitive, I may sometimes change things up by having students read the entire page silently first or afterwards, the students may read individual lines out loud, we may all read together or we may “ping-pong” read (read the line in Spanish, and then repeat it in English).

I have also chunked the book into sections:

Pages 1-5 (physical description and personality traits)
Pages 6-8 (personal information)
Page 9 (favorite color)
Pages 10-17 (likes and dislikes)
Pages 18-20 (activities and more information)
Pages 21-23 (family roles)
Pages 24-27 (mom)
Pages 28-31 (dad)
Pages 32-35 (sister and pets)
Pages 36-41 (brother)
Page 42 (family review)
Pages 43-45 (friends preview and predictions)
Pages 46-47 (Marco)
Pages 48-49 (Leanna)
Pages 50-51 (Nalini and Chris)
Pages 52-53 (Friends and instruments)
Pages 54-60 (Group activities)
Pages 61-62 (Review)

After each section, students re-read the section silently and then we review it. One way we review it is by writing about Carlos in paragraph form. Another way re review it is by personalizing it. To this end, I created a document for students to make their own drawings. Feel free to download the document and use it in class! You will notice that every other page is upside down and the page numbers are not in order. However, when you print it, all you have to do is fold it in half and everything lines up!

Jake-student-template Download

Soy-Carlos-student-template Download

Je-suis-Pierre-student-template Download

For those of you teaching virtually, I have a Google Slides document (Soy Carlos student activity book) (Je suis Pierre student activity book) that provides students a digital way of creating their book. I still make my students draw, they just have to take pictures of their work and upload it into the document. In the “Speaker’s Notes” there are directions for each page and examples from the book. Feel free to make your own copy and personalize the activity for your own students!

One fun thing I do with the student template is give a little lesson (all in Spanish) about how to draw dynamic stick figures. I make it really simple and move step-by-step (This is how I draw a head; these are the body types I use; let’s talk about hair options!; eyes, nose and mouth; etc). The simple drawings lower the stress on students to be perfectionist or “good” artists.

Here is a clip of how I taught my students to create their cover picture for their own book:

I would love to hear from you! Are you teaching with “Soy Carlos”? How can I support you? What ideas do you have for teaching?

Story Roulette

Storytelling is something that I do quite often. I love telling stories. But, frankly, my kids get bored after the same storytelling style time and again. So, I decided to change it up.

For Story Roulette, you will need large paper and markers. I have a deskless classroom so I get the big butcher paper from the office and make my kids sit on the floor. Because they are on the floor, markers work much better than colored pencils (which just rip through the paper). However, you could also do this with a sheet of white paper and two partners at a desk.

You will also, obviously, need a story. This works best with stories that can be told in small chunks. You don’t want to be saying more than a sentence or two at a time. That being said, I have used Story Roulette to read a chapter from a book and to tell the legend of El Silbón.

In Story Roulette, students need to be in groups. You can determine the size of the groups. I never like to have more than 4 as the bigger the group, the less each person in it seems to participate. I have done this as well with just partners, but I find that 3 seems to be the magic number.

So, this is how Story Roulette works:

Students (or teacher) form their groups, get their materials, and number off. Teach assigns each group a letter
Teacher says a sentence of the story, repeating it multiple times (I like to walk around the room as I do this)
Students draw what is happening in the sentence (Depending on the participation of the class, I sometimes make each student have a different color so I can see that they are all participating). Teacher continues to repeat the sentence as students draw.
Teacher says a number. The person with that number in the group now has to say the sentence the teacher has been continuously repeating to their group.
Teacher now says a letter. The group with that letter repeats the sentence as a group to the rest of the class.
Repeat until the story is over.

After every 6 sentences or so I like to pause and have students retell the entire story in their group.

This activity often takes two days and can seem to move slowly, but the students are getting so many repetitions. They are hearing the words and phrases, and using them as well, multiple times in the course of one class.

When the story is over, I take pictures of their work. Then I can pull it up later to review the story or to do other activities with it. They are often proud of their picture (even, or maybe especially, when they are bad). Most importantly, this activity is FUN. They are working together, drawing, on the floor, and learning without really thinking about it.

I am sure that there are many ways to modify this activity, so if you have any ideas, comment below. Let’s collaborate!

Comparing the present and the past

Most language teachers at some point need to delve into the past tense. While this 3-day lesson is not the first exposure my students get with the past, it is the first time I clearly outline the imperfect past tense.

DAY 1: We start the day with a partner chat in English about what activities students did as children. It is okay if they also do the activity now. Then I randomly call on students to share with the class. I ask students to 1) repeat the action/verb the student said in English 2) tell me what that verb is in Spanish. I then wrote it on the board in black. We repeat it and talk about how it is what a person does now in the present. Then I write the past tense underneath it. We all repeat the word various times, then I repeat the student’s original childhood activity in Spanish.

This is the time for circling with questions. Ask “Who else did this action?”, “Did you do this action?” “Class, did Sue do this action?”, “I did this action, too!”

We work on this for 30-40 minutes. I have students pause and talk to each other about what they do in Spanish and we do a lot of questioning and circling. For the last 10 minutes of class, we do an inside-outside circle of students sharing what they used to do as a child.

DAY 2: Now that I have explicitly shown the difference between the present and the general past, I tell the students a story of sorts. I draw a line across the middle of the board and write “Ahora” (now) above the line and “De niñ@” (As a child) under it. We start by creating a character and describing him/her. Then we describe what s/he does on a typical day. My first class made her a boring person with boring activities. My second class made her much more interesting.

Make a line down the center of the board to divide the past and the present.

Once the present activities are decided, I have students switch seats and tell their new partner about our person’s present day.

Now it is time to switch it up. We go through the same verbs, but now change them to the past. Our boring person, it turns out, was an interesting child. Our interesting person was a boring child. We have a lot of fun with it!

Debrah es baja y gordita. Ella es feliz y activa. Ella va al parque. En el parque camina los gatos. De niña, Debrah era baja y flaca. Ella era antipática y enojada. Debrah iba a la escuela. En la escuela ella escribía mucho.

Ahora Debrah come huevos y atún para el lonche. De niña ella comía un sándwich de jamón y queso. Ahora ella lee el diccionario de “Twilight”. De niña ella leía “Huevos verdes con jamón”. Ahora se ducha en la noche. De niña se bañaba en la mañana.

Once we have determined the childhood of our character, students once again change seats and tell their new partner what our character used to do in the past. Once conversation dies down, I throw a ball or stuffed animal to one student who starts the retell of the story. I help by pointing at the verb and giving prompting when needed.

Now students move one last time. After the last move, they compare our character’s present and past. The sentence stem is already on the board to help them along. “Now Debrah is…, but as a child Debrah was…”. I walk around and make sure students understand and are getting it. If time allows, we go over it again as a class.

DAY 3: Today is a writing day. I have the students make a line from tallest to shortest and then I fold the line to pair them up. Each group gets a paper and writing utensil and then sits on the floor (I am *mostly deskless). I show the students how to fold their paper, one step at a time. The goal is to have 2 columns with 8 sections. (Fold long way once, then fold in half 3 times). The first column is labeled “Ahora” (now) and the second is labeled “De niñ@” (as a child).

As I demonstrate what I want the students to do, I re-emphasize how to know if a verb is in the present or the past.

I make an example of what I want with my students. The goal is for them to make a story like the one we told yesterday.

After writing a few lines to get the students started, I have them continue in their pairs. I have verbs on the wall to help them out as well.

Verb walls are a great thing! I remind students that for this activity we are working with the “general past”

Once most groups are done, it is time to move on. I combine the pairs and have them read their story to the other group. Once that is done, I switch up the pairs again. This time, they take turns reading one of their sentences (without the “ahora” or “de niñ@”) and the other group needs to determine if the sentence is in the present or the past.

During the last 10 minutes of class, I give an assessment. I am required to enter 1 data-based (non-participation) grade per week. This listening quiz should be rather simple for them with our practice. For the quiz, I chose sentences from the stories my students wrote. I read a sentence and the students need to indicate on their quiz sheet if it is in the present or the past. Then they need to draw a small picture of what the sentence represents. I am sure to choose sentences with verbs we have practiced extensively in class.

QUIZ listening past tenses Download

This was a fun, interactive 3-day lesson with my students. During this week, I also had them email me a childhood picture. Come back next week to see what I did with them!

Tag: World Language instruction