10-Minute Spanish for K-8
This is a NONTRADITIONAL PK-8 enrichment program that keeps growing and improving. It's made to fit tight schedules. If you love the DOE's way of doing things by conquering our schools' problems with standards and assessments, you should not use this program. If you think getting a college major or minor in language is the same thing as being bilingual, you should not use this program. We do real language and real culture, and we mainly do this in the context of everyday life, a little at a time. If you have a supertight schedule and very little room for language learning, and have not fallen for the myth that language progress must be measured with a bunch of written work, we probably have you in mind when we make our instruction.
At this time, we only want to deal with schools who are interested in letting us provide--through them and to their credit--some free instruction to their homes, in addition to what the school is providing. By putting the language and culture experience in the home, you make sure, and we make sure, that the instruction is benefitting families at least a little bit more than what the school schedule allows. Most families depend on the school to do it all, but they will make a little room for the instruction in the home if the school recommends it to them.
Although busy adults want everything automated for a hands-free language program, there's no getting around the important role of the supervising adult. Kids are energized and focused by (1) the supervising adult's opinion about the instruction and (2) the adult's attention to at least some of the lessons. The supervising adult is very influential.
Our 10-minute videos and our Fluency Builder software enrich the PK-8 years with abundant exposure to language and culture, incorporating themes such as kindness and aggression; musical instruments; food and cooking; career and pasttime exploration; animal care; weather; wildlife; and much more. We pour the field trips on thick. We cultivate love for languages and an eagerness for smart friendships and adventures around the world. In the end, our enrichment program goes farther than others in the technical aspects of language. Plus, our cultural lessons FAR EXCEED what is usually taught in school.
Our fourth batch of videos has preschool-grade 1 Bilingual Story Time at one end of the spectrum, and, on the other end, more lessons for testing out of some secondary-level Spanish or preparing to begin another language. Lessons in between will be strengthened, and many new lessons will be added. New content will include topics such as LEGO builders, gourd artists, the monarchs of California, Alcatraz, covered bridges, a curious woodpecker, an auto hill climb, radio-controlled planes, mushroom hunting, and plenty more--including your requests. The very special guest appearances in our career-related lessons are alone worth more than what you will pay to subscribe. Kids who get that kind of early exposure spend less time spinning their wheels later when considering professions and serious hobbies, and they are motivated to prepare for the future.
Money-Back Guarantee: We'll give you all your money back during the first 60 days of your subscription if you are not satisfied with our instruction.
Q: How does this program work?
A: Make sure your computers are set up for viewing .wmv and .mp4 files. Windows computers run this file type. Macs run it with the free Flip4Mac plugin. Arrange to download the videos and handouts en masse to your school server. This is a continuum of hundreds of lessons. Not all our projects are public. WE UPDATE MANY LESSONS EACH YEAR. THIS IS THE MAIN REASON WE DELIVER OUR INSTRUCTION VIA DOWNLOADS.
We add 100+ ten-minute video lessons to each of the first three video batches. Text-based activities increase along the way, though we favor nonwritten performance. Most schools have no time to grade more paperwork. Our students are known for using the language more than traditional students do. The lessons can be viewed by groups or individuals. Start any month you please. No bilingual or extra personnel are required. Just do what your schedule allows, and keep the language exposure going. We are well into the fourth batch of videos, which will put us at well over 400.
Half our videos should be repeated at least once. View one or more in a block of time.
Q: What about Scope and Sequence and Philosophy?
A: We cover typical content and more in a time frame that varies with each school and district. In areas of communication, grammar and culture, this enrichment allows students to surpass others who spend comparable time in traditional coursework.
The language videos have been building from lower elementary up while offering a lot to older students. But, because we made more lessons than early grades use in a year, by request we started making some language lessons in Batch 2 specifically for grades 4 to 8. These lessons treat standards more extensively. Many lower-elementary lessons are designed so that older students can get more out of them than the younger kids do. It's best to start upper elementary with the first two batches, even though you might not finish both batches in one year. Some of our students will be testing into second-year high school Spanish already.
Q: Do you use any kind of assessment?
A: Our assessment tool motivates students toward a climate of using the language together. For grades 4-8, most schools find more paper-based responses than they have time for in the Cultural Insights of Batches 1, 2, and 3, and the language lessons of Batches 2 and 3.
Our subscribers do not tend to see language primarily as an academic area. Language learning requires lots of space for ungraded exposure. Almost no school has time for following K-8 language standards. Standards and content should be adjusted to the school schedule, not just crammed in. Otherwise, mastery is imaginary. Grading can be based on participation during early and intermediate stages. Text-based skills are acquired in the process. We include many linguistic and cultural aspects, including word origins, multi-part interviews with people who open the world to the students, and captivating contexts to teach language. Our lessons do not protect children from language elements that are traditionally considered beyond them. When adults don't overprotect, kids step up to the plate and do fine, absorbing language in some normal measure.
Q: Do you do anything with other languages or cultures?
A: Our videos add strong international flavor to your curriculum because, while the main focus is on Spanish and the cultures in which Spanish is spoken, many lessons encourage the study of other languages and places. The cultural content is new to most adults and easily exceeds what is usually taught in K-12 schools.
Over time, the lessons encourage learning multiple languages by including interviews and snippets related to French, Japanese, Hindi, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Greek, signing, Latin and other languages. Cultural content is provided for every grade, and much of it relates to being world-smart in general.
Q: Does this work on Apple computers?
A: Most of the video samples on our website are done in YouTube. Our online subscription videos are actually .wmv and .mp4 files, which is a common file type for Windows. Apple users play these videos in Quicktime with the free Flip4Mac plug-in.
Our Fluency Builder software runs in Windows on 32-bit computers.
Q: What is the cost?
A: Contact us for prices. We charge per year per building, not per capita. Our subscribed schools have between 15 and 1100 students.
Q: Do your lessons teach culture?
A: The lower elementary lessons contain lots of cultural segments. In addition, each batch has 30 Cultural Insights for upper elementary, and we consider them as important as language lessons. Some cultural videos for upper elementary provide information for kids to evaluate with parents and staff. These lessons give straightforward perspectives from a variety of people. Accompanying handouts help students think about the people and ideas that make up this country and the world, without necessarily agreeing with them.
People who appear in the lessons are interviewed in such a way as to bring out their true thoughts and feelings, not to cause controversy or drama.
Q: Is this a stand-alone program?
A: Many schools do use it alone, and half of our subscribers add it to a program they're already using.
The constant claim is that language study strengthens other performance areas.
Q: What is your Fluency Builder software?
A: It’s an unusual software that runs in WINDOWS computers (updated version will run on 32- and 64-bit). It provides a variety of interaction for mastering a manageable vocabulary for people to use together. This software is a dynamic set of tasks in which students make associations, choices and responses at a supervised pace that cannot be maintained when written answers are required. Schools install it on individual computers or on their network. We are working on our third Fluency Builder for Windows, adding a lot to the second one, and improving the first one. We are also adding helpful short videos to this software. WE'RE MAKING IMPROVEMENTS THAT WILL ALLOW YOUNGER STUDENTS TO RUN THE SOFTWARE MORE INDEPENDENTLY.
Most American adults who set out to learn a language think that they need a program with a huge amount of vocabulary. In fact, hardly any Americans learn another language, and one big reason is that they do not hold still and master a small amount at a time. Our Fluency Builders focus on manageable amounts, and those amounts are far more than most American adults actually do master.
Q: What are the video lessons about?
A: The 80 to 90 annual language videos include cultural segments, handouts, frequent performance activities, and periodic paper-and-pencil tasks or quizzes. The 30 annual Cultural Insights for the older students have handouts to use as quizzes, guides or springboards. Our lessons contain a wide range of interesting people and events that make the students’ world bigger and more exciting. Our videos present real-world instruction to become smart world citizens, earthlings, or whatever term you are comfortable with.
Q: Is this instruction based on real experience with kids?
A: Our instruction is based on M T Russell's experience at all levels and on 1500 K-6 live distance-learning sessions he conducted, always with one foot in the Spanish-speaking world, which his family is part of.
View or download the documents below by clicking on the links.
