After over a decade of being a World Language Educator of Spanish, French and English to adults, high school, middle school and elementary school students, Constanza Ontaneda is launching her first Spring Spanish Classes Series on Zoom for humans aged 18+. 

Why

Like many World Language Educators, Constanza Ontaneda spent years not knowing what she was doing in the classroom, nor why. It was a hodge-podge of whatever notions she had about what would lead to linguistic acquisition based on the classes she'd taken (even though they mostly hadn't worked), and what a textbook or the internet might say.

Once she encountered the Theory of Comprehensible Input by Stephen Krashen and various Acquisition-Driven Instruction methodologies, everything changed. And yet, the materials available were not something she felt comfortable teaching with. Stories about a straight white boy named Colin who liked dogs and wanted pizza and was angry because he could get neither were not going to fly with the New York humans she was teaching, nor with her, for that matter. 

She spent years creating custom stories and ancillary materials for her students, and honing the practice of getting the input level just right while writing compelling stories. This culminated in the Quijote y Yo Series. She tested the first two levels on her middle-schoolers and found that the results were exactly what she'd hoped for: never had her students acquired so much language while having that much fun, in such a short time. She quit full-time school teaching in order to continue launching the rest of the series. During this year she has been teaching private students (high schoolers and adults) and running the Septology through them as well. It still works! She is now ready to offer this to the wider world. 

What

 25 lessons (55 minutes each) running through the Quijote y Yo Novice Low Septology.

Each book focuses on one of seven common verbs in the target language, and is written from the point of view of seven-year-old Antonia, the niece of Don Quixote. They are simple, story-based and prime you for the subsequent trilogies at more complex linguistic levels, where you get to grow with the characters in age as you grow in linguistic ability. The stories not only get more complex, but also more thrilling as Antonia and friends are able to tackle more challenging, dangerous and fun adventures and mysteries. They are all historical fiction set in the 1590s Europe and the Americas. 

How

Each lesson will begin with a Warm Up Circle (by the end of the Training Series you will have mastered a set of songs, poems, tongue twisters, verbs and adjectives with your body and mind—get ready to move!) 

We will then move on to the Story Cycle, where we will run through a series of Comprehension-based, Communication-Enhancing and Input-Focused pre-reading, reading and post-reading tasks with the Quijote y Yo Novice Low Septology.

Where

Zoom

When

6 cohorts available, maximum 12 students per cohort

Accelerated Track: 

Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays

6pm, 7pm or 8pm cohort (Eastern Time)

Duration: March 4th—April 29th

Weekly Track: 

Thursdays

6pm, 7pm or 8pm cohort (Eastern Time)

Duration: March 7th—August 22nd

Who

Any homo sapiens aged 18+ who is a beginner and wishes to learn Spanish. This is also open to educators who wish to learn how to teach world languages to non-native speakers. 

If you are someone who wishes to learn how to teach, you will learn how to put Comprehension-based Communicative Language Teaching in Action with strong roots in TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading & Storytelling) methodology and TPR—total physical response and various other Acquisition-Driven Instruction techniques. 

How Much

$22 per lesson plus a one-time purchase of the Complete Novice Low Septology book, at either $19.99 for the Ebook or $39.99 for the Paperback. No hidden fees, no extra costs. 

The first 3 lessons are pay as you go and you can drop out after any of those three, if it is not a good fit. 

If you wish to attend the 4th lesson you are committing to the whole program and must pay the total remaining amount ($484) prior to that lesson.