Growing With Proficiency The Podcast

Send us Fan Mail 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 f...

Send us Fan Mail 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 s...

Send us Fan Mail 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 them...

Send us Fan Mail ¿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 cr...

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 de...

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 help...

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 p...

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...

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 Lang...

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...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever started a story with your students and felt like everything was going beautifully until you noticed the glazed expressions, delayed responses, and side conversations beginning? It is easy to assume the story is boring or that students simply do not care. But a drop in engagement does not necessarily mean the story failed. In this episode, I sit down with world langua...

Send us Fan Mail What if challenging student behavior is not always simply a discipline problem—but sometimes a sign of overwhelm, anxiety, or disconnection? In Episode 202 of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast , I’m joined by French teacher and teacher educator Hélène Colinet to explore classroom management through the lens of nervous system regulation. This conversation is not about excusing...

Send us Fan Mail El regreso al aula viene acompañado de muchas ideas, actividades guardadas, screenshots, recursos y recomendaciones. Pero tener más actividades no siempre significa sentirnos más preparados. En este episodio de Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast en español, comparto cuatro ideas fundamentales inspiradas en las sesiones de nuestra Conferencia de Verano dentro de Growing With Pro...

Send us Fan Mail We all want students to participate. We want them to raise their hands, share their ideas, react, ask questions, and bring that energy that makes a classroom feel alive. But what happens when they don’t? It is easy to assume that the activity is not working, that students are not motivated, or even that we are doing something wrong. In this special 200th episode of Growing With Pr...

Send us Fan Mail Planning the first week of school can feel overwhelming—especially when you have a phone full of saved ideas, conference notes, activities, and resources you want to try. But a successful first week is not about doing everything. It is about choosing what will help you build the classroom you want to sustain all year. In This Episode, you will learn: Why more activities do not alw...

Send us Fan Mail What if the reason your class feels hard to sustain is not because your activities are wrong, but because they are standing alone? In this episode of Growing With Proficiency The Podcast , I’m talking about routines that support language acquisition—not classroom procedures like entering the room or turning in papers, but pedagogical routines that create the spaces our students ne...

Send us Fan Mail En este episodio en español de Growing With Proficiency, converso con tres profes de nuestra comunidad de Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy: Ángela Johnson, Mariem Silva y Audrey Ramírez. Aunque enseñan en contextos muy diferentes, las tres comparten cómo han transformado sus clases al entender mejor la adquisición de la lengua y al crear clases más comprensibl...

Send us Fan Mail What if some of the most common beliefs about language teaching are actually getting in the way of acquisition? In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency , I sit down with Dr. Bill VanPatten for a powerful conversation originally livestreamed in the IFLT Facebook group as part of CI Reboot. Dr. VanPatten helps us unpack two foundational myths about second language acquis...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever looked at your students and wondered: "Why aren't they communicating in the language?" In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency , the tables are turned as my friend and fellow educator, Bethanie Carlson Drew, steps in as host and interviews me about my journey from lawyer to language teacher, the challenges that transformed my classroom, and...

Send us Fan Mail At the end of every school year, I ask my students one question: What activity or strategy helped you grow the most in Spanish this year? This year, their answers surprised me. Some students chose Daily Personal Questions. Others selected Silent Sustained Reading. Some preferred podcasts, cultural articles, Calendar Talk, Star Student Interviews, content-based units, or creating s...

Send us Fan Mail What actually helped students learn this year? As language teachers, it's easy to spend our end-of-year reflection focused on what didn't work. In Episode 191, I shared some of the challenges I faced this year. In Episode 192, I reflected on behavior, classroom culture, relationships, expectations, and the lessons I learned from a particularly challenging freshman class....

Send us Fan Mail ¿Tus estudiantes conocen las expectativas de tu clase, pero aun así siguen apareciendo interrupciones, conversaciones paralelas o dificultades para mantener la atención? En este episodio comparto tres lecciones sobre comportamiento que aprendí este año después de reflexionar sobre mis clases, analizar las encuestas de mis estudiantes y observar los desafíos que surgieron incluso e...

Send us Fan Mail As language teachers, we love sharing strategies that work. But what about the strategies that suddenly stop working? What happens when activities that worked for years begin falling apart, student engagement drops, and classroom dynamics feel different than before? In this honest end-of-the-year reflection, I’m sharing what did NOT work in my Spanish classroom this year, and the...

Send us Fan Mail You see a 60-second classroom video on social media. Students are engaged, speaking, producing. And you go straight to: "That is not happening in my class. Something is wrong with me." But you're missing the other 44 minutes — the class size, the school, the context behind that clip. In this episode, Claudia sits down with world language teacher Dahiana Castro to ta...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever wanted your students to feel genuinely excited before reading a novel or watching a movie in class, this episode is for you. In this conversation, I sit down with Rita Barrett, an outstanding Spansih teacher, to talk about the Tea Party strategy, an engaging pre-reading activity where students become characters from the story before they even begin reading. Students...