Let them do the talking!

At the start of the new quarter, I started feeling frustrated that my students could not carry on basic conversations in Spanish.  My fifth hour class particularly sets me on edge because they are very smart, just lazy and prefer to chat in English and talk over me during PQA.  So I decided to try a partner-based activity.  It actually worked pretty well, I think because:

1) It was a break from the novel we've been heavily focusing on

2) It was a chance for them to be social and feel like they were having "real" Spanish conversations

3) I had just assigned them new table partners so they actually didn't know a lot about one another

Attached is the project requirements and some sample interview questions.  I had the students doing a lot of question generation and mini interviews leading up to the day I handed out the project requirements.  

What I liked about this assignment is that they took it a little more seriously because they were writing about someone other than themselves.  

Appropriate for advanced level one, level two.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mi-companero

I'm going to post things on TpT from now on.  Everything I create will be free until I create something really amazing and original.  Stay tuned :) 

Fun Friday "Dr. Seuss"

I picked up on a tradition from the teacher I did my middle school student teaching with.  "Fun Friday."  Every other Friday, provided we aren't really behind, I let my students watch a pixar movie in Spanish. It's only every other Friday, and it's only after we take quiz or do something first.  So in total, they get about twenty minutes of a pixar movie in Spanish, twice a month.  But you would think they get hours of it, the way they talk about it and get excited about it.

Since tomorrow is Dr. Seuss's birthday, I opted to throw out making them do quizzes and assessments before watching the movie today.  Last night I went and bought "El Lorax."  I actually felt pretty okay with the educational value of what we did for this "Fun Friday."

I actually got a lot of enthusiasm out for the student's in the discussion and while reading the bio.  I think I'll do this every year!

1)  Students responded to warm-up questions on the board for practicing familiar structures (me gustan, tengo, quiero).  Students wrote their responses on a piece of paper. The questions in italics are examples of questions I asked to solicit further discussion.

      1.  ¿Te gustan los libros de Dr. Seuss?

          (¿Cuál es tu libro favorito? ¿Tú lees los libros con tus hermanos? 
           ¿Los libros son para adultos o para niños?)

      2.  ¿Tienes un libro de Dr. Seuss en tu casa?

           (¿Cuáles libros tienes en tu casa?  ¿Tienes unas películas de Dr. Seuss?)

      3.  ¿Quieres mirar "El Lorax" hoy?

           (¿Es una película buena?  ¿Ya has visto la película? ¿Cuántas veces?)

2.  We read a Dr. Seuss biography together and completed the comprehension questions on the back.  I can't remember exactly how I got the information for this mini-bio (I really need to keep better track of my sources), but I am pretty sure I just used wikipedia and condensed the info to make it level appropriate.  Sorry if there are any errors! You can download this here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/127967561/Biografia-de-Dr-Seuss


3.  I told them while watching the movie they needed to write down five words Spanish-English they understood on the top of the bio sheet.

Now for the next couple fun Fridays we will continue watching "El Lorax."  I might even track down the book en español to read in a story circle when we finish watching the movie.