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photos by Cindy Beams
CELEBRATING AT THE ACTFL CONFERENCE, BOSTON, MA 11/23/10
Another amazing year comes to a close!
The stockings may now be hung by the chimney with care, yet we are still thinking back with big smiles to all the wonderful memories we have from 2010. Growing numbers of schools, colleges and homeschoolers around the country and the globe have made Breaking the Barrier their textbook of choice. As the snow starts to fall here in New England, we send you our latest issue ofBreaking News, full of incredible features to help you or your students on a journey towards fluency. Here's what we have in store for you:
- A report from the ACTFL conference in Boston. It was, by far, the biggest and most successful conference in the history of our company.
- A segment of the "Ideal Lesson Plan" all about the warm-up. We provide the direct links for you to banks of hundreds of warm-up questions we've written that will make your lives much easier. Guaranteed!
- Terrific cultural articles - one in Spanish and one in French - complete with audio and comprehension questions! The Spanish article tells the story of the world's oldest restaurant, while the French article takes you on a journey to one of the most fascinating places on earth. Use these articles in class tomorrow!
- A great grammar article from Think Spanish! magazine explains all you need to know about verbs that change spelling.
- A nostalgic look back to the earliest days of Breaking the Barrier, written by co-founder Cindy Beams.
- Our updated conference schedule for 2011. Breaking the Barrier is heading many places, including to the islands of Hawaii. Come join us! Aloha.
- Barrier-Breaking announcements about some of our latest plans including e-books, hardcover editions, and news about our 2011 and 2012 editions.
With appreciation for your support of our unique approach to language learning,
John Conner & Cindy Beams
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Breaking the Barrier takes ACTFL by storm!
You had to be there to believe it!
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| John Conner at his IDEAL LESSON PLAN workshop |
Magic was in the air in Boston as John Conner offered two workshops to standing room only crowds. In fact,
Breaking the Barrier begged ACTFL organizers for a bigger space as hundreds of people were unfortunately turned away from each session. Those lucky enough to get in were treated to John's unique take on how to teach an ideal plan. With videoclips from his own students and wonderful, practical suggestions for teachers, his session was considered by many to be one of the highlights of the conference. Said one participant: "I've been going to these conferences for over 30 years. This session with John Conner, hands down, was the very best I have ever seen." Said another: "I can't wait to get back to my classroom on Monday. I have SO many new ideas."
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| Peruvian national champions dancing La Marinera |
And in a first for Breaking the Barrier, the company proudly sponsored a colorful workshop aboutLa Marinera, Peru's amazing national dance. Dancers Fanny Viacava and Manuel Ñiquen gave a riveting performance of this dance to an appreciative audience.
Fanny is no stranger to Breaking the Barrier. She is the voice of Elisa in the audio series "Las aventuras de Elisa, Rafael y El Tigre". Last fall's issue ofBreaking News contained a full article about the history of the dance as well as an audio and video accompaniment.
It was especially exciting to bring such a culturally rich performance to the halls of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Breaking the Barrier plans to repeat this session next year in Denver at ACTFL 2011. Don't miss it. It is truly breathtaking. Click on the link below to see the pair work their magic.
Fanny and Manuel dancing at ACTFL
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The Ideal Lesson Plan
The Warm-up!
 There is no better way to start a class or to practice at home than by working with a friend answering questions back and forth. When I go to conferences, I am so surprised that everyone doesn't realize that we have prepared banks of questions for every section of every book both in Spanish and French. They are on our website under "FREE STUFF...Groups of Two" These questions are arranged by grammatical topic as well, so even if you are not a Breaking the Barrieruser (how could you not be?), you will still find thousands of questions tailor-made for practice. To make it easy for you, we have provided quick links below to go to any of our six titles. You will be so excited to find these treasures. You can either run them off, or project them on a screen (be green - project!) and you have THE BEST WAY to start each and every class. As an added bonus, click the link to the full article about "The Warm Up" that you will find below.
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"El Sobrino de Botín"
A Peek Inside the Oldest Restaurant in Madrid - and the world!
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| photo by Iván Calderón |
This winter we're delving into culture with a mouthwatering article about the oldest restaurant in the world - El Sobrino de Botín - commonly called El Botín. Located near the famous Plaza Mayor in Madrid, this restaurant is one of the best this fabulous city has to offer, and this article will offer you a choice seat inside. If you are lucky enough to get there some day, the suckling pig, roasted lamb, savory chicken, fresh bread and pitchers of sangría will leave you smiling!
Click the links for the full article, comprehension questions and full audio, recorded in Spain last summer.
"Mont St. Michel"
Come along to see one of the coolest places you'll ever visit!
 Mont St. Michel is a tiny island in France on which a most amazing abbey has been built. It is a favorite of visitors to France because of its stunning beauty, amazing architecture, fascinating history, as well as for the surrounding waters that move in an out at low and high tide. The following article gives a great introduction to Mont St. Michel. The accompanying audio, beautifully recorded by native speakers, will give you a ready-made lesson plan. Enjoy!
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Spelling-Changing Verbs
A most helpful article from the archives of Think Spanish!
This month, I've chosen an article I wrote recently for Think Spanish. It covers those verbs that change spelling. The reason for the change is usually an attempt to preserve a sound that is found in the infinitive. This article will look at common verbs in the present and preterite where these changes occur. Knowing them will help you, of course, when you form the present subjunctive or imperfect subjunctive, too. Just click on the link below and you will find the article. It includes practice questions and answers at the end. Feel free to download it and use with your students in class!
Spelling-Changing Verbs
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Remembering when
A nostalgic look back at the earliest days of Breaking the Barrier, Inc.!
 Breaking the Barrier co-founders John Conner and Cindy Beams heading out to sea!
It seems like only yesterday that co-founders John Conner and Cindy Beams ran into each other one summer day in 1997 while walking around the Circle on the Groton School campus. John had been contemplating putting some ideas to paper for a possible textbook while Cindy had just begun to work for a start-up company that was looking for intriguing new waters. Well, one thing led to another, and a great partnership was born. In this special piece, Cindy Beams tells the story of the earliest days of Breaking the Barrier.
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Breaking the Barrier's Travel Plans
Come See Us Across the Country!
For those of you who were unable to visit us at the ACTFL Conference in Boston, we will be traveling to many other conferences in 2011. Click the link below to find out about our exciting plans for the New Year.
Conferences are a wonderful way to meet colleagues, to share ideas, and to hear the latest thoughts about language teaching. Be sure to come by the Breaking the Barrier booth. We always seem to have a lot going on!
2011 Conference Schedule
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Break through to fluency in the New Year!
Electronic versions and hardcover editions are now in the pipeline!
Our New Year's Resolution is to have an electronic version of all of our texts available starting next summer! Details will be forthcoming in our spring issue ofBreaking News. Last summer, we also printed hardcover editions of all of our Spanish books for a Massachusetts school district, and we'll do the same for them in French next summer. Breaking the Barrier now has the capability to take special orders for hardcover editions (allow at least four weeks ... call about pricing information).
Our new 2011 French books will be on the shelves by this coming June. 2011 editions will also be coming out this June for Spanish I and II. As we made so many changes to our Advanced Spanish Book in 2010, we have decided to wait until 2012 to update this title.
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