I'm a sucker for a great story, especially when animals are involved. For the past few years, I've used the movie short The Present in my Spanish 2 classes. The themes are perfect for any time of year, but I really love how well they fit in during the holiday season. What a natural way to get MANY repetitions of gave, received, had, and traded! This year just before Thanksgiving break, I gave every student a "Guatemalan" friendship bracelet. We played the Trading Up game which I first learned from Martina Bex. |
After Thanksgiving, I interviewed EVERY student in Spanish 2 (3 classes of 30 8th graders - at the end of the day). This year, I decided to gave the target vocabulary on the board during the interviews. To ease the interviewees' stress, I provided a graphic organizer to map out their trades, not to be a script per se. During the actual interviews, the observing students could hear and see the target structures CONSTANTLY. One thing that has always bothered me about student interviews is the accountability of the other students. They tend to zone out or misbehave when it's not their turn (Shocking, I know)! This time, I decided to make an alphabet sheet so they could keep track of their classmates' final objects. After all students were interviewed, I reviewed the alphabet sheet - AND could slyly sneak in many repetitions of "brought". Genius move! The next day, I reviewed by using a Tic-Tac-Toe board with questions about the interviews. Originally I was thinking that we'd play it as a game, but instead I decided to do it as a whole-class oral activity. | |
| Before I could actually start the Movie Talk, I had to miss school for appointments. I used a Mad Libs activity to give even MORE input on my target structures. After they filled in their stories, students projected onto the whiteboard by connecting their iPads to the AppleTV. With all of that pre-loading of structures, the Movie Talk itself went extremely fast. In addition, I created a Quip-Lash game as well as Caption This! These were two ideas I got from talented teachers during Wooly Week. |