Growing With Proficiency The Podcast

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Do the same three students answer every PQA question while the rest of the class stares at the clock? You’re not alone, and it doesn’t mean your students don’t care.

In this episode, I share the shift that changed my PQAs (personalized questions and answers): task, don’t ask. I learned this idea from Sally Barnes, and it’s all about total participation. When we only ask, we hear from the students who are ready. When we give everyone a task, every student has a way into the conversation.

You’ll learn five low-prep strategies you can use tomorrow, in any world language and at any level:

• Write, Walk & Respond
• Draw, Dictate & Predict
• Write, Swap & Discover
• Find Your Match
• Predict, Ask & Verify

I also share real examples from my Spanish 1 and Spanish 3 classes, how I scaffold answers so every student can participate, and why the real goal is for students to listen to each other.

🎁 Free question-of-the-day guide and template: growingwithproficiency.com/rutina

📖 Read the blog post with all five strategies

🎧 Mentioned in this episode:

• 7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom with Sally Barnes: https://growingwithproficiency.com/7-steps-to-a-language-rich-interactive-world-language-classroom-with-sally-barnes/
• Promoting Participation with Justin Slocum Bailey: https://growingwithproficiency.com/getting-the-stakes-right-student-participation/

If this episode helps you, please subscribe, leave a rating, and share it with a teacher friend.

Ciao, ciao. ¡Nos vemos!

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

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You know one of my obsessions is reading. But how do you get students reading when they barely have any language yet? And what if you don’t have the books, the time, or the budget?

In this episode, Adam Giedd joins me to share how he got novice learners reading. Adam is a former Spanish teacher who now writes short readers for novice learners. He once taught 920 students in five schools, 30 minutes a week, with nothing on the walls, and he still got them reading. He came to the Spanish Teacher Academy to share these ideas, and the session was so good we had to bring it to the podcast.

In this episode:

• Why we need to write for our struggling readers, not our strongest ones 
• Why Adam focuses only on verbs when he co-creates a text with his class
• Adam’s shortcut for teachers who don’t have time to learn Write and Discuss: backward plan from a short book
• How to start silent sustained reading tomorrow with $0
• Why short, easy books help students trust you as a reader
• Book Bingo: Adam’s simple way to get students reading the same book five times

Pick one idea, try it this week, and tell me how it goes.

Links:

Confident Pigeon (Adam’s reading platform): https://www.confidentpigeon.com/

Read the blog post

Connect with Adam

Episode 84, The Power of Reading with Dr. Stephen Krashen

Join the Spanish Teacher Academy: https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

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I LOVE games. But if I'm going to give 15 or 20 precious minutes of class time to a game, I want language happening. A lot of it.

In this episode, AnneMarie Chase and Andrea Caulfield, authors of Proficiency Through Play, join me to talk about how we can play AND keep supporting language acquisition. Because fun and rigor are not opposites. And they didn't introduce themselves. They made me play a game instead! 😂

In this episode:

• This, That, Both, or Neither, the guessing game AnneMarie used to introduce herself and Andrea
• Google Detective (5 minutes), shared by Andrea
• Art Memory (15–20 minutes), shared by AnneMarie
• Sentence Stealer Rock Paper Scissors (15–20 minutes), shared by Andrea
• Details, Details, Details (30–35 minutes), shared by AnneMarie
• Why we should never let students know who is winning too early
• How to narrate the game itself so students get even more input
• What to do when a game goes off the rails (because it will!)

Pick one game, try it this week, and tell me which one your students loved.

🎲 Get Proficiency Through Play: https://teachersdiscovery.com/products/proficiency-through-play
📖 Read the blog post
📱 Connect with AnneMarie: https://senorachase.com/

📱 Connect with Andrea: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-caulfield-577196b3/?isSelfProfile=false 

🎧 More low-prep games: https://growingwithproficiency.com/4-easy-end-of-year-games-to-boost-joy-and-comprehension/
🏫 Join the Spanish Teacher Academy: https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

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¿Tienes estudiantes de herencia en tu clase y sientes que necesitas algo diferente, pero no sabes exactamente qué?

En este episodio en español converso con la Dra. Nancy Domínguez-Fret, hija de inmigrantes mexicanos, hablante de herencia, exmaestra de high school y directora del programa de formación docente en Northern Illinois University. Nancy nos cuenta cómo nació Voces que cruzan fronteras: nuestra comunidad y la identidad multilingüe, un libro de texto completamente gratis que creó con la Dra. Megan Marshall para clases de español para hablantes de herencia.

En este episodio hablamos de:

• Qué hace diferente una clase de herencia: por qué se parece más a una clase de Spanish Language Arts que a una clase de español como segunda lengua.
• Cómo dejar atrás la perspectiva de déficit: empezar por lo que nuestros estudiantes ya traen al salón.
• Diseño inverso en cada unidad: preguntas esenciales, proyecto final desde el principio e input que sirve de modelo.
• La gramática al final, y a propósito: cómo descubrir si tus estudiantes realmente necesitan una estructura antes de enseñarla.
• Cómo llevar el español fuera del salón: entrevistas a la familia, debates sobre el Spanglish y conexiones con la comunidad.
• Ideas para Español 1, 2 y 3: cómo usar este recurso cuando no tienes una clase de herencia, pero sí estudiantes de herencia.

Y lo más importante: cómo ayudar a nuestros estudiantes a sentir orgullo por su lengua, sus raíces y su comunidad.

Recursos mencionados:

• Voces que cruzan fronteras, Volumen I y II: https://spanishdeherencia.com/
• Blog del episodio

Episodios relacionados:

• Episodio 206: Lo que las familias nos enseñan sobre cómo apoyar a estudiantes de herencia, con la Dra. Bertha Delgadillo
• Episodios 79 y 81: Cómo apoyar la competencia escrita de los estudiantes de herencia, con la Dra. Alberta Gatti

Más enlaces:

• Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy: http://growingwithproficiency.com/academy
• Museo de la Herencia Hispana
• Comunidad gratis en Facebook, Growing With CI: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growingwithci
• Claudia en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claudiamelliott/

Profe de español, descarga gratis 5 leyendas latinoamericanas fascinantes y comprensibles para tu clase: https://growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

Send us Fan Mail

We all want our students to acquire the language. We also want them to read it and, eventually, write it. But are we teaching them how to become readers and writers in the target language?

That’s what I discuss with Dr. Lara Bryfonski in this episode. Lara is a professor at Georgetown University and coauthor of The Art and Science of Language Teaching. Together, we explore why developing literacy and acquiring a language are different processes—and how we can support both in our classrooms.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why we cannot always assume that students’ reading and writing skills in their first language will transfer automatically to the language we teach.
• How to find out what support students need when they read.
• What to do before, during, and after reading to help students make sense of a text.
• How to show students what they can do when they reach a word or paragraph they don’t understand.
• Why writing needs time for brainstorming, drafting, feedback, and revision.
• How to teach useful peer feedback, even when you have a large class.

One thing surprised me during our conversation: I was already using some of these strategies. Understanding how they help students develop literacy skills made me want to name and model them more intentionally.

If you’ve ever finished reading with your class, looked at the comprehension questions, and wondered, How do I actually help my students become better readers?—grab your cafecito ☕️ and join us. This conversation gave me tools I can use in my next lesson.

MORE FROM GROWING WITH PROFICIENCY

• Follow me on Instagram: @claudiamelliott
• Read the Blog
• Growing With Proficiency on Teachers Pay Teachers
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

Subscribe to Growing With Proficiency — The Podcast so you don’t miss our next conversation. If this episode helps you, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more world language teachers find the show. 🎙️

Gracias for listening. ❤️

Profe de español,

Bring five fascinating, comprehensible Latin American legends into your classroom for free. Grab your copy at growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas.

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

Send us Fan Mail

A student threw her backpack on the floor and said loudly, “I hate this class. I hate everything about this class.” More than once.

Everything inside of me wanted to react. I wanted to defend myself, my class, and all the work I put into creating a space where students feel successful.

But I didn’t.

In this episode, I’m taking you inside what happened next, the framework that helped me respond without escalating the situation, and the private conversation that followed. We’ll talk about what we can do when a student’s frustration becomes disruptive: regulate ourselves first, have the conversation privately, set the boundary, give students better options for communicating what they feel, and then release.

But this experience also revealed a blind spot I didn’t expect.

I care deeply about my students feeling connected, confident, and successful in my classroom. But somewhere along the way, I had started watching this student a little too closely—hoping she would smile, laugh, participate differently, and eventually love the class.

And that made me ask myself a much harder question:

Do our students need to enjoy our class in order to belong in it?

This episode is about classroom management, yes. But it’s also about us—our triggers, our expectations, and what difficult moments with students can teach us about ourselves when we’re willing to look.

Grab your cafecito ☕️, your mate, or just take me with you on your drive to school. This is a conversation I think we need to have.

MORE FROM GROWING WITH PROFICIENCY

• Follow me on Instagram: @claudiamelliott
• Blog
• Growing With Proficiency on Teachers Pay Teachers
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe to Growing With Proficiency — The Podcast and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your support helps more world language teachers find the podcast and join these conversations. 🎙️

Gracias for listening. ❤️

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

Send us Fan Mail

What if one strategy could give your students more comprehensible input, more repetition, more writing, AND more opportunities to think and contribute?

In this episode, we're talking about teacher-led collaborative writing, also known as Write & Discuss, shared writing, or joint construction. It's one of those strategies that can do a LOT without requiring a lot of prep.

I break down how I use it before, during, and after writing—and some small changes I'm making this year that are making it even more effective.

A few takeaways:

• Why Write & Discuss is especially powerful with large and mixed-level classes
• How a quick brain dump or retrieval activity BEFORE writing can prepare students to contribute
• When to co-create freely and when to choose one intentional language move
• How to use proficiency targets to decide what to model
• How tasking instead of asking can keep more students actively involved
• What to do AFTER you create the text, including choral reading, comprehension activities, and retrieval writing
• How to use a disappearing text variation with less experienced learners

You don't need to do all of these things every time. Choose what your students need, make the strategy work for your classroom, and keep coming back to the language.

Resources & Episodes Mentioned:

• Episode 204 with Ben Fisher-Rodriguez — We talk about Write & Discuss with a specific focus on using pop-up grammar during the process.
• Mike Peto — The educator I originally learned Write & Discuss from.
• Blog
• Growing With Proficiency on Teachers Pay Teachers
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

Send us Fan Mail

Una conversación con la Dra. Bertha Delgadillo

En este episodio en español, converso con mi amiga, la Dra. Bertha Delgadillo, sobre su investigación doctoral, en la que entrevistó a familias de estudiantes hisanohablantes para conocer sus experiencias, expectativas y relación con la escuela y la clase de español.

Sus respuestas revelan oportunidades importantes para nosotros como profes: conocer mejor la experiencia lingüística de cada estudiante, escuchar lo que quiere lograr con su español, reconocer el trabajo que las familias ya hacen para preservar el idioma y la cultura, e invitarlas a participar activamente en nuestras clases.

También hablamos sobre la vergüenza que algunos jóvenes sienten alrededor de su español, el peligro de asumir su nivel por su apellido o por lo que hablan en casa y la importancia de crear espacios donde puedan sentirse orgullosos de ser de aquí y de allá.

Principales aprendizajes de este episodio

• Por qué no todos los estudiantes de herencia tienen las mismas experiencias, necesidades ni metas.
• Qué preguntas podemos hacer para conocer su verdadera relación con el español.
• Cómo ofrecerles oportunidades de crecimiento sin darles simplemente más trabajo.
• Lo que las familias pueden enseñarnos sobre el idioma, la cultura y la identidad de sus hijos.
• Cómo invitar a las familias a compartir sus historias, tradiciones y conocimientos en nuestras clases.
• Por qué un estudiante no necesita demostrar un nivel específico de español para que su identidad sea reconocida y valorada.
• Cómo conectar el idioma con el servicio comunitario para que los estudiantes puedan participar, contribuir y experimentar un verdadero sentido de pertenencia.

Esta conversación lleva la investigación de Bertha directamente al aula y nos ofrece acciones posibles, incluso cuando enseñamos clases grandes y con diferentes niveles.

No necesitas tener todas las respuestas ni crear un programa completamente nuevo. A veces, el primer paso es simplemente hacer mejores preguntas, escuchar con intención y abrir una puerta que antes no habíamos considerado.

Recursos:

Profesora Delgadillo IG

Blog

Growing With Proficiency on Teachers Pay Teachers

Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

Send us Fan Mail

The AP Spanish Language and Culture exam is changing—and if you teach AP, you may feel like you need to change everything in your course too.

But take a breath. You do not have to start from zero.

In this episode, I’m joined by my friend and incredible educator Bethanie Carlson Drew, who is beginning her 33rd year in the classroom. Bethanie helps us look at the new AP Spanish Language exam format with clarity and intention.

As Bethanie reminds us, approximately 80% of what we already do in a strong AP language class has not changed. Students still need to develop language proficiency, cultural competence, and the confidence to communicate.

Instead of rebuilding her entire course, Bethanie is asking three questions:

What should I keep? What should I increase? And what can I finally drop?

✨ In this episode, we discuss:

• How Bethanie uses 60–90-second mini-presentations to gradually prepare students for the new three-minute Project Presentation
• Why students need explicit support to ask follow-up questions—not only answer them
• How one image and only three words on a slide help students develop real presentational skills
• Why Bethanie is keeping reading, music, and culturally rich input at the center of her course
• Simple ways to increase oral sharing without adding more long, formal presentations
• How to explore products, practices, and perspectives throughout the year by asking, “Why is this important?”
• Why culture cannot be reduced to one isolated unit
• How Bethanie is simplifying the AP project materials into a manageable student notebook
• What she is dropping now that the simulated conversation and stand-alone cultural comparison are no longer part of the exam
• Why the beginning of the year should focus on classroom culture, confidence, and connection—not panic

Even if you do not teach AP Spanish, this conversation is full of practical ideas for any language classroom. It is a powerful reminder that the activity is not the purpose—the activity serves the purpose.

📚 Resources Mentioned

👉 Read the complete blog post and show notes here.

👉 Explore Bethanie’s blog, Aventuras Nuevas.

👉 Review the AP Spanish Language and Culture Course and Exam Description.

📲 Connect with Claudia

Follow me on Instagram: @claudiamelliott

Learn more about Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy: growingwithproficiency.com/academy

Listen, take a breath, and remember: you do not need to throw away everything that already works.

Keep what supports acquisition. Increase meaningful communication. Drop what no longer serves your students.

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

Send us Fan Mail

What if one simple routine could help students see, understand, and feel more confident with the language they have already experienced?

In this episode, I sit down with Ben Fisher-Rodriguez to explore how Write and Discuss, choral translation, and pop-up grammar can help students make sense of the language they are hearing and reading while keeping meaningful communication at the center.

Ben walks us through the process step by step: beginning with a highly comprehensible or co-created text, translating it together as a class, briefly highlighting one grammatical feature, and then returning to meaningful communication.

We also discuss how choral translation can serve as a quick formative assessment, how to plan pop-up grammar when you have a grammar-heavy curriculum, and why noticing a structure does not guarantee immediate language acquisition.

This episode offers practical classroom strategies for world language teachers who want to address grammar while keeping communication, comprehension, and proficiency at the center.

✨ Takeaways

• Why students need to understand the meaning of a text before focusing on grammatical form
• How to create a highly comprehensible, personalized text through Write and Discuss
• A step-by-step process for introducing choral translation
• How choral translation can reveal gaps in comprehension and serve as a formative assessment
• How to plan brief, student-friendly pop-up grammar without turning it into a full grammar lesson
• Why noticing grammar may support students, but does not guarantee immediate acquisition or accurate production
• Ideas for returning to meaningful target-language communication after the grammar “pop”

📚 Resources Mentioned

• Choral Translation and Pop-Up Grammar: Discovering How Form Contributes to Meaning by Ben Fisher-Rodriguez
  Read Ben’s original article
• Mr. Fisher Says
  Explore Ben’s website
• SLAyyy: Second Language Acquisition for Everyone with Ben Fisher-Rodriguez and Bill Langley-Bostick
  Listen on Apple Podcasts
• The Perfect Low-Prep Activity for Any Day in Our World Language Classes with Ben Fisher-Rodriguez
  Listen and read more
• How to Build a Sustainable Language Class with Routines
  Read the related blog post

Listen to the full episode and share it with a world language teacher who is trying to balance a grammar-focused curriculum with a more communicative, proficiency-driven classroom.

And if you need more support, check this out:

• Blog
• Growing With Proficiency on Teachers Pay Teachers
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.