I just stumbled across this activity that I used to use on the first day back from break in Spanish 2. The activity and discussion that it sparked easily filled the first 55 minute period after break. It’s a simple form for a communicative activity in which students interview each other about their Christmas vacations. After they get…
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Gallery Walk for language classes
A Gallery Walk is an activity that gets students moving and sparks discussion. An official Kagan Cooperative Learning structure, this activity can be adapted for many uses and fits in well with a Comprehension-based™ approach to language teaching. GALLERY WALK While ‘Gallery Walk’ can used to describe many different kinds of activities, whenever I refer to…
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Top Ten reading activity for language classes
This is an activity that can be modified in about a million different ways, so I’d love to hear about variations/adaptations that you have used in the past or develop in the future!Give a reading to students or have a class discussion. Most recently, I have used this to review a chapter in a book,…
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The Name Game
I have my very first ever student teacher!! (Well, I guess they are called ‘interns’ around here, but you know what I mean.) Her name is Julia, and she is super fabulous. She just spent…a long time (a semester maybe?) with an awesome French/Spanish TPRS teacher at a high school in our city, so she…
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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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Hole Punch
WL teachers are always looking for new strategies to keep kids in the target language, especially when you let them loose for communicative activities. My go-to strategy is to make sure that all students have a piece of paper in their hands (even if the activity doesn’t have a form or worksheet, have them hold…
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Important Numbers
First Day Seating with character cards
[Literary] Team Windows
Team Windows is another Kagan structure that works most wonderfully for small-group discussion about literature. In small groups, one member will make a statement, and the remainder express agreement or disagreement with that statement. One group member writes down the statement as well the number of group members that agree with it. How to run…
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First Person Practice
Watch out, world! I’m about to post a string of seductively fun ideas from the brilliant mind of Mrs. Debra Abshier! She is a Spanish teacher at another middle school in our district, and not only is she a fountain of ideas, but she is HILARIOUS. If you attended the ACTFL Conference this year, you…
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