Hope to see my friends from Virginia foreign language classrooms at FLAVA this week. For those who want full versions of the stories I’m discussing Saturday, here are a few. I’ll try to add to these throughout the year. Some stories include ancillary activities (Estela y su novio): Juan Bobo se despierta tarde los lunes (nivel 2, temas: las rutinas diarias, verbos reflexivos); Sofía y Alejandro (nivel 2+, temas: el amor, relaciones personales, pretérito versus imperfecto); La serpiente (nivel 1-2: location phrases + estar); El ladrón (nivel 3+, temas: el crimen, darse cuenta, volver a); Estela y su novio (3+, temas: amistades y amor, habia); Alvonzo veía mucha televisión (nivel 3 – imperfective, televisión).
Google Voice – get them talking…and writing
Many of us have discovered Google Voice for homework (thanks, Cathy Wiley!). Now I’m finding that this free online phone number can be used for almost everything communicative. It’s basically a tape recorder and, I’m starting to see, a great tool for texting. Students love taking their phones out (I’m very strict about having them put the phones away immediately after), and they take these tangible examples of communication more seriously than book exercises or writing drills. There must be a million ways to use this kind of service. Here are a few, with special thanks to Profesor Thomas Soth and his ideas in AP training:
Homework, spoken -Students call in the work normally done in writing. (Most of them are still writing it, then reading it aloud. Double whammy!) Sample assignments: Tell me three things you did today; be careful to use the preterit tense. Tell me what you ate for dinner.; name at least five items. Call with an excuse for missing the football game; use the phrase, “I couldn’t come because…” Call and tell me a story about an injury. Describe the clothes you are wearing to school tomorrow. Tell what everyone in your house is doing right now. Etc.
Homework, written: Text the teacher. This can be anything — up to 144 characters, of course. I started this year by asking my 2s to to text me their names and one thing they do. “Me llamo Suzy. Toco el piano.” My 4s had to tell me three things they STOPPED doing once school bean. “Dejé de acostarme tarde.”
Conversations in class: Students pass the phone back and forth, recording the conversations you’ve assigned. Play a few for the class, especially the ones you think will be creative or funny. Profesor Soth combined this nicely with a Power Point of conversation-inspiring pictures or video clips. Ask students to talk like the characters they see on the screen. Click for the next slide, and start have them start a new one.
Tip: start this in the classroom, if possible. It helps lower any anxiety about using the service; it’s surprising, but some students are scared to leave a message. Immediately replace the phone numbers that pop up on the transcripts with the students’ names. That will save you grading time in the future, and helps immensely with the kids who later forget to tell you their names as part of the assignment.
Childhood games that really teach Foreign Language
Old games can make help with those tremendous keys to learning: input and review. Remember that students have to hear it or read it to learn it, and they need to understand it to truly hear it (“comprehensible input”). Here are a couple that have worked well with my middle- and high-school classes at all levels:
Accordion story – Students write a line of the story, fold the paper over accordion style, swap, write the next line. Repeat until the page is full. Rules: no English, and no swapping with the same person twice. While things can get pretty wild during this game, with students flying around the room to swap papers, I like to keep the writing very structured by posting the sentence stems on the board for each line – one at a time. A Power Point does nicely for this, but typing it on the spot works, too. For example:
- My name is ____. (Encourage some silliness here by supplying examples like Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Big Bird)
- I am from ____.
- I am ___ years old.
- My favorite food is ___.
- I like to ___ on the weekends.
- I have _____ siblings and ___ children.
- I am married to ____.
- Last week I was in the news for Tweeting a picture of ___.
- etc.
Mad-lib style story – Write a story full of numbered blanks that allows you to meet whatever teaching goals you have at the moment, remembering to review previous units. It doesn’t hurt if the story is tied to some recent event (Grammy’s, Super Bowl, election). Don’t worry about whether the story is creative or funny enough. The students’ words will supply that element. Give students the list of vocabulary to fill in, but don’t let them see the story yet. It’s best to work in pairs so they can tap one another’s memories for forgotten vocabulary. As they finish ,allow them to see the fill-in-the-blank version — you can print out some copies to put in plastic sheeting, so they are reused from class to class. Students read the story aloud filling in the blanks with their list of words. Tell them to swap stories with another pair of students and reread it. Ask for the silliest submissions to be read to the whole class.
Example: My name is [1] and I am from [2]. I hope you will vote for me to become President of [3]. You should vote for me because I am very [4] and [5]. …etc.. A name
- A name
- A place
- A country
- & 5. personality adjectives
The 4 X 4 Interview – structured conversation practice
A few days into a lesson, when you feel students should understand the main questions in the unit but realize they probably don’t, try this idea. It provides structured practice, so students have a high rate of success, yet gives them a chance to express their opinions. There’s plenty of social interaction and choice, and they will move around the room finding their own partners:
Choose – the five (or more) questions you’d like students to practice. Question 1 is always “What’s your name?” so you know who participated.
Post – the questions on the overhead projector.
Warm-up: Tell students to a) translate the sentences (if you’re concerned about comprehension) and b) answer them in the target language in their notebooks.
Model – fold a piece of paper into four. Write your name in the center, as if you were a student. Go to one quadrant of the paper and number it 1-5. Interview a student, writing their answers beside each number. Point out to the class that whatever the student says you are obliged to write, whether it is correct or not. You might also point out that complete sentences are required for a top grade. Students will repeat this activity four times, choosing a new partner each time. Each time, they will themselves be interviewed – a total of eight chances to practice each question.
End the activity – When you see that the steady workers have finished. Everyone else can take a slightly lower grade.
Collect and ?? – toss or grade, as you see fit. In some classes I grade these carefully, giving credit for every person interviewed and every time the student’s name shows up as the interviewee. This helps to keep the class in line, as students realize that they must complete the work to get credit. I pull out examples in need of one-on-one help for a quick review the next day. In other classes, where students are highly motivated, I may just give the batch a quick glance to look for common errors and give everyone the same grade for participation.
Quiz – As these questions are now in the students’ notebooks (along with the answers) they are fair game on the next quiz.
Example – Conversation about past-times and the verb “to like.”
- What’s your name?
- What do you like better, watching TV or going to the movies?
- Do you like to do your homework before dinner or after dinner?
- What do you like to do on vacation?
- What do you like to do on the weekends?
Tip: Notice that the questions are structured from easy to hard. The first few are simple choices, with the vocabulary included the question. The last two are more open-ended.
Pass the whiteboard
White boards – the key to just about every activity
What is it about holding a marker that makes the most tuned-out student willing to answer just about any question, even doing verb conjugations? Who knows?? But it sure works. Here’s an incredibly simply white board activity that is now one of my favorites. It is very low prep but gets everyone working. Differentiation and review is built in. Take a look and let me know if you have tried it and how it worked and any suggestions you have:
Materials – everyone gets a white board and marker. We never have enough erasers, so these are shaired in pairs.
Seating – stick with your regular classroom seating but make sure students know ahead of time that they will be passing the boards in something like a huge circle (in my room it comes out more like a blob).
Topic – any, as long as there’s some depth of vocabulary. Examples: clothing; food; what I did over winter break; an accident; Don Quixote; a movie we watched
Rules – explain these ahead of time: students may write only one word/phrase on the board at a time. They may not repeat any word that’s already on the board. They may repeat a word they wrote on another board, but no more than twice. Also they must wait to hear you say “Pass it” (in the target language).
Instructions – tell students to write a word. Count down from five, then say “Pass it.” Scan the room to make sure everyone is getting a chance to write, and delay your countdown accordingly. As the boards go around in a circle the activity gets harder, so give students a chance to write. Excuse those who are a bit lost, telling them they can “steal” a word to use on the next board.
You will see a tremendous amount of reading. Everyone is scanning the vocabulary, looking for a word they can add.
Next – you can take this in countless directions. Try:
- flip the board over and repeat as many words as you can without peeking – solo or in pairs.
- use the words on the board to tell a story aloud. Teacher sets timer for short period of time, posting the timer on the overhead (search for “stopwatch” to find one you can post on the projector). Students can work solo, taking turns, or in pairs. If work solo, use a partner to listen, count sentences, give suggestions, praise, etc.
- use the board to write a story. Same parameters as above, giving a little more time.
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