We have a test on Monday & today began the review games. We began with a word search that I found for free on TPT. My kids love word searches but this one they said had too many letters. One student even commented "Señora, this is like a college word search." I replied "Señor, they don't do these in college." We then went over descriptions really quickly i.e. when can we tell its femn v. masc, plural, where does the adjective go etc. Then I had a stack of index cards with the bulleted names below. The students had to relate adjectives to each celebrity only using Spanish. We did this for at least 10 minutes. The students answered questions such as "Es alto o bajo?" "¿De dónde es él?" etc so we got lots of CI and the kids loved expressing their opinions!
- Nicki Minaj
- Ariana Grande
- Beyoncé
- Lebron James
- Rick Ross
- Kid President
- Barack Obama
- Pablo Picasso
- Madre Teresa
- El Papá
- Blake Shelton
- Hugh Hefner
CI Update
This is my 1st week of truly pushing CI. I just keep telling myself what I heard in a presentation by Andrew DeMil from the University of Tampa "Don't teach about the language, teach the language" and it keeps me motivated! I will warn you, CI, takes LOTS of time. I did 10 minutes the first day and was pretty successful and I think it is only because of my pre-planned questions. I will attach the ones I did about food upon my arrival to school :)
Proficiency Grading
OK. My students LOVE this. They know exactly what I am looking for and exactly how they can improve by looking at the "I can" statements I have posted on our online grade book. I have followed the ACTFL statements for novice mid i.e. "I can state the date & time." I am grading them each as 10 pts. 10 pts when you can do it and do it repeatedly and 0 if you can't by the end of the 9 weeks.
Okay, all for now. Will post mucho this weekend :)
I just started with CI this year, using tprs. It's awesome and it's really worth the time it takes. It's slow, but the students get a deeper understanding of the language. This comes from them using it rather than learning about it. There aren't any short cuts in acquisition, so it takes time, but it's more natural for the students.
ReplyDeleteIf you came into my classroom, you'd think we were just goofing off the whole period and telling stories, but behind the scenes, there is a lot more going on. The kids are processing language and responding based on the topic we're discussing rather than talking about grammar. I really hope that you stick with it, because on top of how effective it is, it can be really fun and I know you'll totally get into it and have a great time!