Meet Ashley
Ashley Mikkelsen is a Spanish teacher and the creator of Srta Spanish. She started
learning Spanish in 8th grade, studied Spanish and Education in college, then lived in
Segovia, Spain during school. She started her career teaching Spanish, Latin, French,
and German to middle school students in a course that she still fondly refers to as the
“sample platter of languages".
Ashley Mikkelsen’s Sessions at the World Language Teacher Summit
Using CI Strategies When Tied to a Textbook
2024 Back-To-School World Language Teacher Summit
In this presentation, Ashley Mikkelsen discusses strategies for integrating comprehensible input (CI) into lessons when constrained by a textbook or district assessments. She outlines her methodology to align lesson planning with district requirements by understanding assessment structures and specific learning targets. Mikkelsen shares strategies like writing custom short stories, using consistent routines such as "Persona Especial" and "Música Miércoles," and engaging students with gallery walks. She emphasizes focusing on the end goal to ensure student success.
First Day Of Experiences
2023 Back-To-School & New Teacher World Language Teacher Summit
In this conversation, Ashley will share her experience as both a Spanish learner and a Spanish teacher, with Spanish being her second language. She will explain how she engages students at novice levels to facilitate their learning of a new language, as well as how to establish effective communication with parents to achieve significant progress.
10 Activities You Can Do with ANY Reading
2022 World Language Teacher Summit
As the title suggests, Ashley shares 10 activities that can be used with any text. The majority of these activities require little to no preparation by the teacher and can be used even with Novice students.
Teaching CI With a Textbook
2021 World Language Teacher Summit
Ashley shares her first-hand experience of planning CI lessons and incorporating CI strategies while following a textbook and preparing students for assessments. As Ashley points out, ‘It doesn’t have to be all or nothing,’ and she talks about how to blend different approaches together to achieve the best possible balance for your students. She also suggests a variety of activities that can be used to provide students with comprehensible input.
Routines for The World Language Classroom
2019 World Language Teacher Summit
Ashley describes routine activities she uses in her classroom to engage students in her themes. Some tasks repeat daily and others throughout the week or unit. Learn about how she structures these activities to see what may work for you.
Transitioning to Comprehensible Input
Spanish Teachers Success Academy
Ashley Mikkelsen invites teachers to incorporate more Comprehensible Input (CI) into their lesson plans with her dynamic presentation. She specifies that CI is not a method in and of itself; rather, it is a ‘thing’ that can be delivered to students to encourage and foster listening and reading comprehension. Ms. Mikkelsen offers teachers her own methods of implementing CI so that teachers can see for themselves how straightforward and easy it can be. Suggested resources, clearly-described activities and ideas for assessment will enable teachers to use CI in their Spanish classrooms quickly and easily.
Summit Trajectory
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