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Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Welcome to Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast! Are you a World Language teacher who is looking for ideas, strategies, activities, and inspiration to create a World Language class where you and your students enjoy using the language to learn about the world and each other? Do you want to transform your class into an acquisition-driven instruction space where you intentionally provide a ton of comprehensible input?
If you are, you're in the right place.
Let's start this journey together. Head over to IG, and send me a DM @claudiamelliott to let me know what topics you would like me to cover in an upcoming episode.Join my free Facebook community, Growing With C. Also, check out my blog to start discovering some of these ideas and strategies at growingwithproficiency.com
Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Re-released Episode 22: Making Interpersonal Communication Work: 5 Repeatable Activities That Build Real Conversation with Bethanie Drew
Interpersonal communication is what our students want most… and what many of us struggle to make happen without it turning into their common language in 10 seconds 😅
In this re-released episode, I’m joined by a friend and outstanding educator and curriculum designer Bethanie Drew to break down five repeatable, low-prep interpersonal activities that build community and keep students supported enough to stay in the target language.
We talk about:
- Fast Five interviews (quick, structured, high-yield)
- Roster interviews that push students beyond their usual partners
- A small-group discussion format that actually works—even in big classes
- A write-first → speak-later scaffold (especially powerful for AP/IB tasks)
- 20-/45-second talk cards to build confidence and fluency over time
This conversation is all about finding the balance between structure and spontaneity, so students can connect, communicate, and grow—sin estrés.
If you want conversations that feel more real, more doable, and more sustainable… hit play 🎧
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Bethanie Drew’s blog – Aventuras Nuevas
Ideas, lesson reflections, and interpersonal strategies for world language teachers
👉 https://aventurasnuevas.wordpress.com/
Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy
Ongoing support, units, training, and planning for acquisition-driven instruction
👉 https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy
