In our increasingly sedentary culture, it’s important to give students opportunities to move and interact face-to-face during the school day. A [low-stakes] communicative class quiz is the perfect way to inject a little energy into your classes! Use this adaptable model after presenting any content to students, be it information in a lecture, a story…
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Embedded Storyboard (Updated)
I made a new version of my embedded storyboard today (the idea originally came from Michele Whaley). With the old one, which was meant to include the most general/basic information at the top and then add more details moving down the columns, it was difficult to explain the problem and give the basic plot outline…
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“Strip” Bingo
Get your students’ attention with the name of this quick version of BINGO! OVERVIEW: Turn a reading into a competitive game with this twist on traditional BINGO. I learned this activity from Kristin Duncan, who re-posted it on her blog after reading a post by Andrea (surname?) on the MoreTPRS listserv in March 2013. If…
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This or that?
Have you ever taken a moment to think about just how complex ‘reading comprehension’ is? There are an infinite number of skills that a good reader must possess in order to truly comprehend a text, and very few happen consciously. This week, I have realized that my students are often unable to separate ‘this’ from…
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Word Sort
Word Sort is a fantastic higher-order thinking activity that you can use to explore a text or topic. I first learned about Word Sort in the Teacher’s Guide for El Nuevo Houdini; I believe that the brilliant Kristy Placido came up with it. It’s used in one of the last three chapters, because we’ve not…
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Pick the Pic
Pick the Pic is another super simple activity to use when you want to review a story or need a listening assessment. To do it, you’ll need sets of illustrations that can be described clearly… and that’s it! How to Pick the Pic After you’ve finished a story (and maybe after you’ve typed it out…
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Managing Responses
While preparing for the Yup’ik Immersion training last week, I spent a lot of time scouring the internet for elementary TPRS resources and suggestions. Michel Baker’s blog and Carol Gaab’s article (linked in the YI post) were most helpful. According to their writing, one common obstacle for elementary TPRS teachers is managing student responses during…
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Ping Pong Recall
While taking advantage of Ellis’ after-church nap to catch up on the blogs that I follow, I read this post from Cynthia Hitz (@sonrisadelcampo). While Cynthia originally used the activity to recall a story that she co-created with her language students, you can use it to collaboratively recall any content with students in any subject…
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Who said it? Reading activity
Who Said It? is a simple activity, really, and it’s excellent to use after any story or reading that has multiple characters–whether or not the text contains a large amount of dialogue. Who Said It? reviews the story, offers repeated exposure to the linguistic features in the text, and makes it easy to practice the…
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