Improving Students' Listening Skills

A major challenge I have encountered during this crazy COVID year is a decrease in the amount of Spanish my students are hearing, causing a definite decrease in their listening skills. I have spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the causes, and have come to realize a few things: 

1. Students in Spanish 2+ spent most of last spring during the COVID lockdown! This probably resulted in 30-40 hours less of listening in Spanish, due to classes being online and a reduced number of contact hours with the teacher. 

2. At my school, students do NOT attend class on Fridays this year because of our scheduled student support days. This day has been a game changer for all this year - it gave students time to work with teachers one-on-one AND it gave teachers time to collaborate and plan. However, it caused us to lose 25% of the contact time with students (1 out of 5 days each week!) I estimate this is about 35 hours of Spanish loss. 

3. On top of the student support days at my school, we decided to move to a block schedule this year to reduce student contact in classes and in the hallways. We have a 105 minute block with each class two times a week! Although this is only 10 minutes less each week of class, we also take a mask break each class period (5-10 minutes per period). Estimated time loss this year due to block schedule and mask breaks: 18 hours.

4. For many reasons, including but not limited to #1-3 from above, I have spoken less Spanish this year in my classes than I ever have before. In a typical year, I aim for 75-80% Spanish on day 1 in Spanish 2 to set up expectations and norms. By the end of the first couple weeks, I increase my Spanish speaking to 90-95%. This year, I know I didn't make that. It has been a challenge to say the least. I am disappointed in my dedication to this goal, but I am also working to give myself GRACE in knowing that we are in a global pandemic and there are so many factors that led to this. I hope to get back to the ACTFL recommended 90% or higher next year. While I cannot even begin to put a number to the number of hours of listening lost to my reduced Spanish use in class, I have definitely noticed an impact in my students.

I am seeing this impact my Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 students. Listening assessment scores are down across the board! Due to this, I have really focused on improving students' listening skills at the end of this school year. Here are some activities I have used and/or developed to emphasize listening. I hope they are useful for others!

• Garbanzo! Really, anything that Martina Bex and her Comprehensible Classroom create is excellent. I love using Garbanzo for student reading comprehension and that the stories are aligned with the SOMOS curriculum. The audio feature has been a HUGE help for me this spring! I have used it for assessments, as well as for activities. I can create a quick comprehension activity, a la AnneMarie Chase's Interpretive Quick Quiz (read about this here!). Then I will play the WHOLE audio for the class. I LOVE that the audio is supported by the transcript (that I may project AFTER listening two or three times) AND that it is a native speaker voice. We can go over the story, and then listen AGAIN! I always tell my students that the JUICIEST part is when you get to listen that last time. What did you catch that last time that you didn't hear the first, second or third time?

• YouTube - Where would I be without Pablo's Dreaming Spanish channel? I love using his stories for cultural topics AND for additional listening exposure for students that may be struggling. His superbeginner and beginner series are great for my Spanish 2 kiddos, depending on where we are in the year. I like that I can slow it down (or speed it up!) and add captions. CAUTION - the captions aren't always perfect.

Lots of Spanish teachers use Pablo's videos, so often I can find already made Edpuzzle videos and edit what I need to fit my student's needs. Everyone wins!
I also have been finding other YouTube channels that are GREAT for beginning Spanish learners. For example, CSCTFL 2021 Teacher of the Year, Theresa Jensen has a fantanstic channel that has lots of short stories that are super comprehensible for novice learners. Check it out here!

•  Podcasts! I have been on the Podcast train for several years now - shout out to Notes in Spanish for helping me with my proficiency many years ago! However, I am super impressed by all the Podcasts that are now available for novice and intermediate Spanish learners.
  For my beginners, ¡Cuéntame! by Marta Ruiz Yedinak is a perfect length AND has transcripts available! I am excited to see topics that Marta covers in future episodes. Her pacing and focus on comprehensible language is fantastic! 

Duolingo podcasts are awesome. They are better fit for intermediate low+ learners, but I have found them very good for my Spanish 3 students. I like that they have check-ins in English throughout, and transcripts are available online. Kara Jacobs has a great listening guide (found here!) that I have modified for my students, and I have also used these on choice boards for students to select ways for them to improve their listening!
There are a lot MORE - like Coffee Break Spanish, News in Slow Spanish, and Radio Ambulante. For many of these, you can pay for access to transcripts and additional activities. 

• One of my favorites is MUSIC. Students LOVE to listen to music, and I build on that natural interest by adding in listening comprehension. I love to use música miércoles, a la Allison Wienhold with Mis Clases Locas. Some weeks I will use a basic cloze activity. Other weeks students will do other activities like an emoji story, ordering the lyrics, translation activities or counting the number of times we hear a word (try it for Soy yo - Bomba Estereo or Ella - Álvaro Soler! thanks Ashley at Srta. Spanish for this idea). I also like to teach actions for a chorus and then have students demonstrate their comprehension by signing the chorus. I would love for them to sing, but I haven't had any classes comfortable with singing yet. Sigh.
  I see my highest engagement of the year with Locura de marzo. If you haven't participated in Señor Ashby's brilliant world-wide music competition in March, I highly recommend trying it out. When Agua lost this year, I thought I was going to have a whole-class revolt. Talk about engagement and excitement! Plus, the collaboration with other teachers in creating materials is awesome - have you seen the collaboration drive? 
  When I am absent, providing a song on Lyrics Training or TeachVid to practice lyrics is GREAT. I typically tell my students they can redo the activity as many times as they'd like, but they must score above a certain percent or points for full credit. Unfortunately, my students' Chromebooks no longer work with Lyrics Training, but perhaps your students use different technology. 

• Conjuguemos Listening Activities are awesome for basic topics and native speaker audios. I like that my students can do a cloze of the audio and then try a comprehension assessment of the same audio. I do these with the whole class AND assign them individually, also!

How about you? Do you use other resources that I need to try out? Let me know in the comments!