Free thematic units in Spanish and other languages

I was just reading through my CASLS newsletter that I receive once a week via email, when my mouse stopped in its tracks. Here is the article in its entirety:

K-12 Thematic Units Available for Download

The National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center is pleased to announce that they have now made available on their website as free Adobe PDF downloads all of their K-12 standards-based thematic units: six in Spanish and three in French, as well as their teacher’s guide to the national Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. Each may still be purchased at cost in paper format.

Additionally, a new publication, A Thematic Unit: Let’s Go to School in Japan! (Jessica Haxhi, Author), is now available for downloading. DVDs of the accompanying five, one-hour Japanese demonstration classes for fifth and sixth grade students also can be purchased.

Access all of these resources at http://wayback.archive-it.org/855/20101103145624/http://nflrc.iastate.edu/pubs/units/unitsList.html 

WOW! As soon as I saw this, I had to share. Enjoy!

(Edited 3/6/2011 - updated link)

Catalog of Spanish Voices

First, let me say again, that I love Twitter. Why? Because that’s how I ran across this site Catálogo de voces hispánicas from the Centro Virtual Cervantes. Thanks to Deborah from @bilingualparent for tweeting it!

You’ll find a list of countries with links to various cities within each country. Once you make a selection, then you’re taken to a page with a video of a person from that area speaking. You’ll also find the linguistic characteristics, a transcription of the video and more information about the location including a map.

I can’t wait to explore this site!

Where to go:
Catálogo de voces hispánicas from the Centro Virtual Cervantes
____________________________________

Subscribe to my tweets

If you would like to learn about useful Spanish language resources, but don’t really want to join Twitter, you can subscribe to my tweets via RSS.
________________________________________________

Over at the Foreign Language Fun Blog…

This evening I was reading through my blog list when this review at the Foreign Language Fun blog caught my attention. Diane, a French teacher, who is encouraging her sons to learn Spanish as well, wrote a post about Sing-a-Lingo. To me her review has clout because of her background in education and foreign languages.  So, I decided to click on the video:

And I have to admit, I was hooked as well. This music is fun and I could definitely see young children learning Spanish by listening to it.

Where to go:
Foreign Language Fun Blog
Sing-a-Lingo
____________________________________________

Authentic material on Facebook

Become a fan! Recently I’ve become a fan of several Spanish organizations on Facebook. I’ve discovered that this is probably one of the easiest ways to access authentic Spanish-language material online.

Here are some of my favorites:

RTVE - http://www.facebook.com/rtve
Muy Interesante - http://www.facebook.com/pages/MUY-Interesante-GJ/50689135867
BBC Mundo - http://www.facebook.com/pages/BBC-Mundo/81395234664?ref=mf

What I have found interesting and sometimes even entertaining are the comments left by the fans – especially on the RTVE page.

If you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments.

Oh, one more thing. I have to give a big shout-out to the Mis Cositas Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/MisCositascom/190662591830

Become a fan! She’s always posting resources, helpful links and much more.
________________________________