This past month I saw a challenge posted on #langchat and while I'm still new to the game, I wanted to contribute however possible.
The goal is to post your top 10 go to tasks that you do in your classes with an eventual goal to have a top 100 list from teachers of all grade levels. I challenge all teachers to try this! Here is my top 10: 1. Question Master- When we watch a video I don't like giving multiple choice or basic comprehension questions (see my last blog post). Instead I ask students to listen and write questions for their group members. They can write comprehension questions, personal reaction questions or questions about unsure ideas. This helps them practice asking questions and lets them focus on different aspects of the video/audio. They then get together with their groups and ask and answer these questions. It makes these discussions much more fluid and let's me assess their comprehension in a different way. 2. Elevator Talk- This is a great warm up to gauge where students are in a unit. Imagine you are in an elevator and have 30 seconds to pitch your idea to a complete stranger. Now apply that to the language classroom. Person A has 30 seconds to answer a question with as much detail as possible. Person B has to listen and will have 45 seconds to repeat the ideas that Person A mentioned. Then the roles switch. I usually mention that when they switch they can't repeat ideas. This is a great way to introduce new sentence starters "as you said" "you have mentioned" "you discussed" "you just said" which provide new language chunks. 3. Circumlocution- This is another great activity that is similar to taboo (another go to activity). One person can see the board while their partner has two words and a picture to describe without saying the words. It's their goal to find creative yet effective ways to describe these words. I choose the practical words that are related to the theme that could be needed in real-life situations. (See this example). 4. Menti Meter- I love using mentimeter.com for so many different things. Sometimes I'll do word splashes to see what three words best summarize a reading or infographic we've looked at. There's a setting to write short posts or tweets that can also be used when summarizing. 5. Google Classroom Discussion Questions- Interpersonal writing can be a difficult thing to practice in class but Google Classroom makes that easier. I post a question and allow students to see each other's posts and respond to them. I'll assign this and ask kids to read, react and continue the conversation. 6. Interview Ladders- This is a trick I learned from Señora Shaw. Give students a sheet with a few interview questions based on the theme. Students write any key words in English (only for clarification). This helps boost confidence to make sure students know what they are asking. Then, they create a few more of their own original questions. Students then interview each other but only write simple notes to stay fully engaged in the conversation. Later, we write sentences summarizing/analyzing their data. (See this example for French 1) 7. Role Play- This is my favorite activity of them all. Asking kids to take different roles is absolutely amazing to watch. Kids really take on their new persona and you see them use personalized language, reactions, questions, vocabulary, different structures and more. My favorite so far was in my Contemporary Life unit in Spanish 4 where we did mock interviews for a company to answer the essential question of what is valued in today's workforce. 8. PACE- This is the new approach to teaching grammar as a concept (see my previous blog post). I choose an authentic resource and ask students to do simple input activities (true/false, matching, sequencing etc). Then, with guided attention and co-construction we extend the lesson to practice with new language structures in the thematic context and without direct grammar instruction. 9. Photo Circles- Students are extremely engaged when they walk into the room and notice pictures posted around the room. When it's time for the activity, each group of 2 has about two minutes to discuss their observations, their opinions or a cultural comparison. Each activity is slightly different but generates some really meaningful conversation. (See this French 2 example) 10. Bloom's Days- This sounds a lot fancier than it actually is. Each group member receives three-five tokens which is meant for each time they contribute to the conversation. On the board I put a discussion question related to our theme. The questions start at the lower end of Bloom's taxonomy and progressively increase and become more advanced and higher level. (Example 1 Spanish 4, Example 2 Spanish 3)
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