From a decade+ World Language Educator comes the Quijote y Yo Series...but why?
DISAPPOINTMENT.
EMBARRASSMENT.
LOVE.
“We've tried everything and noticed this summer she really enjoyed and learned so much more reading books. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of books that help teach! And yours are the only ones with guides to help even more!!!”
It took me a while to accept my fate. Then, I spent years in a panic attack because of well-founded impostor's syndrome, and an intuitive knowledge that I had no idea what I was doing.
CONSTANZA ONTANEDA
The
Quijote y Yo
Series
And this is where the love comes in. I did everything I could to become the best language facilitator I could be, and spent years and every cent of my teacher's salary creating materials for my students. I must have done a good job, because I was hired to chair the World Language Department at a middle school in Times Square.
He said that because he saw firsthand how over the course of four years I turned what had been 30 years of grammar drills, ETC, into a 100% research-based program at both the acquisition and social emotional level, with Quijote y Yo.
He's an alumn of the school, so he should know. 😉
That is, these stories won't just give your brain 100% of the DATA it needs to build a complex mental representation of the language, they will also— like all stories worth their salt—transform you.
SIGN UP HERE
to GET Ebook 1 in Spanish and French!
I never meant to be a World Language Educator. I started teaching languages to adults to survive a rough patch in my life. To be honest, I didn't WANT to be a WL teacher. I had studied fashion design at an Ivy League University, for goodness' sake. 😂
Once I encountered the research—Stephen Krashen's Theory of Comprehensible Input—AND acquisition-driven methodologies, I was in heaven. Except for the materials. I was continuously disappointed in them due to: poor illustrations, terrible covers, bad stories, no chapter length consistency, non-native-like sentences, rare words, high unique word count and low total word count, input too complex, incomplete or nonexistent glossaries...😲
In short...I was embarrassed. I wanted to be able to give my students materials they could be proud of...like the books they received in their English Language Arts classroom 🤣.
That's James up there with his parents.
He entered my Spanish 1 class with the three words everyone knows—taco, tortilla and guacamole—DESPITE his mom being Dominican.
After Quijote y Yo, HE CAN NOW SPEAK TO HIS MOM AND GRANDMOTHER—FLUENTLY.
Don't believe me? Check out the video below. At the end of his Spanish 1 year, I asked James if he'd come to the cafeteria and chat about the Novice Mid Trilogy so far.
It was unscheduled, unscripted and spontaneous—showing the signs of TRUE language acquisition.
His class finished the Novice Low "Aventuras" Septology and ended their Spanish 1 year on Chapter 8 of Book 2 of the Novice Mid "Brujas" Trilogy.
These were the results:
When I quit in January of 2023 to dedicate myself to Input Wand full time and offer the materials to the wider world, the head of school accepted my resignation, waited two weeks, then asked me to stay one more year. It took me one week of soul-searching to quit all over again. I loved and love my students, my job, my colleagues. After the second time I quit, the head of school gave me this testimonial:
“I really do believe that the publishing works that Constanza has created will allow for the transformative—the healing power of education to be unlocked, especially in World Language classrooms.”
"Before Quijote y Yo I tried many other things to learn Spanish, and NOTHING worked, but with Quijote y Yo it was different, because I could learn AND have fun too.
What people are saying:
"I knew it would be tough for me to start from scratch as an adult. This Septology has been so joyful to read and introduced me to such a lovely way to learn a new language!"
"An AMAZING Resource!!! My daughter has taken Spanish in school for 2 years and was still struggling with the basics. Now that she is working from these books she is making steady and impressive progress!"
"My daughter is finally learning! She said she’s learned more in a few weeks with these books than she did in the entire first semester of the school year. "
When you sign up below you will receive the first ebook in the bridge, in both Spanish and French (because I'm cool like that). Then, you will unlock some bonkers deals where you will get access to 14 more free products for the Spanish bridge.😱
“I am so glad I found Quijote y yo books for my children. It has made reading more fun.”
“Thank you for making such a useful product! Our children love the Quijote y Yo Series!”
It's also so entertaining and historically well researched that not only middle and high schoolers enjoy it, but adults too, even ones like
DUNE-writer Kevin J. Anderson
and, if anyone knows a good story, it's him.
They're also PROFESSIONALLY ILLUSTRATED:
Impressive...but...how will they learn the pronunciation?
All the packages—Ebooks or Paperbacks— come with AUDIOBOOKS narrated by a native speaker.
That's easy then—all I need to do is read books in the target language! 😁
Right you are! Then why aren't you doing so? You can't start at Allende, folks—if you could, you'd already be doing it.
WHAT YOU NEED IS A GRADED BRIDGE.
You see, the DATA can't just be comprehensible—it has to be complex—embedded in a web of meaning that has a chance of being memorable.
NOTHING CAN DO THIS LIKE STORIES.
Pretty cool...but...how is it research-based?
It just so happens that linguist Stephen Krashen's Theory is true—Comprehensible Linguistic Input, both oral and written, is the only DATA the brain can turn into a complex mental representation of the language that a human being can then naturally retrieve from in order to communicate.
“I love these books for my kids! I got the first batch of Spanish and French ebooks a few months ago. I’m excited to see my children progress.They’re learning MUCH FASTER than I did using traditional classroom methods!”
Can you imagine your child ACTUALLY learning Spanish?
(because, let's face it—they've tried a million things, right?)
“An AMAZING resource!!! My daughter is getting tutored with these materials and we have been so happy with the results! She has taken Spanish in high school for 2 years and was still struggling with the basics, now that she is working from the Quijote y Yo series she is making steady and impressive progress!”
Can you imagine them doing so by READING BOOKS while HAVING FUN while UNDERSTANDING EVERYTHING?
“I HIGHLY recommend this book series for learning Spanish. My kids, aged 8 and 11, were initially reluctant to practice the language, but they ended up loving these books! I'm eagerly awaiting more from this series—it's truly a great resource for making Spanish learning fun and engaging for children.”
Can you imagine them growing in linguistic ability as they grow in age WITH the characters while reading a series that gets progressively more complex?
Great news:
Quijote y Yo IS THE ONLY RESEARCH-BASED AND STORY-BASED BRIDGE TO SPANISH PROFICIENCY ON THE MARKET.
Wow. Ok. But how will my child understand everything?
You ask.
There are COMPREHENSIVE GLOSSARIES in all the books.
