Running dictation
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What did I do?
January 30 - both 6th grade classes
I gave a formative assessment on the topic that I'm doing for my SLO, and I noticed that the students didn't progress as I thought they would. January 31 - 6 rojo I thought that it was important that they get more input - in speaking, listening, reading and writing. So we played Running Dictation. I created 6 sentences using different forms of LIKE and connected them to the context of the novel we're reading. Then I put the sentences around the room. In small groups, one person is the recorder, one is the helper, and one is the "runner". The runner goes to a sentence at a time, reads it, and then recites it to the group. They write it down and have to work together to see what it means. They also have to put the sentences in sequential order based on the story. Finally, when they submit the work to me, there can be no errors. I will tell them where and what kinds the errors are, but they have to work together until everything is correct. |
Pros
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Cons
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I will do this again! I've been thinking about some variations of this activity:
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Structured input
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What did I do?
February 15 - 7th grade
I saw this technique described in the book by BVP. He calls it a task (not an exercise) since it has a communicative, meaning-based purpose to learn new information. In this case, the goal was to have students discover what weekend plans they had in common - and what they didn't. 1. We reviewed what vamos meant.
2. They worked with their Honduras partner. 3. They could either color code or write the things they had in common and the things that were different. 4. While we were doing the activity, we determined that if they both were not going to do an activity, that would go in the "in common" category. 5. As a follow-up during the last 5 minutes of class, I interviewed a group. We went over a few things they had in common and a few things that they didn't. I wrote a short paragraph/ summary using we, s/he and I forms. |
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February 16
1. We reviewed the summary paragraph from the previous class as well as what vamos a... and the -r at the end of a verb meant. 2. I borrowed an activity from a colleague and tweaked it a bit. Some of the situations had a definite correct answer while others did not. 3. Students had to read each situation and choose an answer. 4. We reviewed their answers by having them stand up for the answers in the left column and sit down for the right column. |
Pros
Cons
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I was beating myself up after the first activity because the students were speaking English most of the time so I went back and re-read the part of BVP's book about structured input (pp. 106-114). He stated what I already knew (but needed to hear again): there's no ONE way to focus on form, i.e. grammatical structures.
This begs the question: How could I restructure the task to make it more compelling? In hindsight, I should have switched the order of the activities: Do the forced choice first and then the speaking interview second. Maybe there would have been less focus on translating the text.
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