Word Chunk - A fun, minimal prep game/activity

I first heard about this from one of Ben Slavic's dvds that I purchased ages ago.  I have since experimented with it in my classes.

While you could simply do it as a quiz or silly assessment with your students, I prefer the group activity.

My students on Fridays have PAT. So they already have groups. You could easily have them form the groups that day for the activity. Mine have to say a group chant and have a group name already established so that we can simply play this game.

So while I could have a list of every single word we have gone over for the year (or for years if they are in Spanish 2 or another level), I prefer this on the spot activity.

TPRS year 5 - speed dating and Agentes Secretos

Something I was trying to do with my Spanish 1's to help them read Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso was an activity I got from a presentation at FLAM a few weeks ago.

The presenter mentioned "speed-dating".  And instead of talking about themselves, the characters talk about the topic for 1-2 minutes and then switch.  This way they can get another pass of the information from a chapter or a concept and when we change to another person, we can change the information we ask of them.

It also brings movement and interaction into the classroom, which are so necessary in a block class or for a rainy day (or chilly cloudy day in October).

I numbered my students off (1-15 twice), told them to form two lines in order.  I explained they were going to talk about Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Paula, Luis, Los agentes secretos, etc and they had two minutes.

I didn't want to hear English.  I only wanted to hear Spanish.  Their pronunciation wasn't the most important part (gasp) because they were interacting with the text, and I think for some this made them aware of their shortcomings in pronunciation of a word so maybe they will listen more for that word later.

They were allowed to have their books as a security blanket.  Some kids read the information from the chapter (but they had to find the important information about the characters or plot).

Not a bad activity!  I might have to bring it in every once in awhile.  Definitely not bad for a 10 minute chunk in the middle of class or for another pass of the chapter in a completely different way.

For some 2:00 was an eternity.  But for others, it was about right.  They usually opted after the first round to do 1:30.

My mind is thinking about the other possibilities for this type of activity...

TPRS year 5 - Preferred Activity Time (PAT) continued...

I posted about this awhile back (see post), but I wanted to point out something I find interesting.

I used to do games every week probably twice or so.  I thought by Wednesday and by Friday we deserved a game.

I have found that with PAT, the fact that they have earned the game is so much more empowering to them.  It also helps during those blocks for them to remember how valuable their attention is (of course we still do brain breaks because I am not a slave-driver).

But notice this graphic to the left.  I have noticed that even with the reward of 1:00 per 15 minutes on task time and giving bonuses for people doing their jobs, we are still getting over 8:00 in some of the classes, which is really awesome for them.

They are constantly being complimented on doing their jobs and hearing that positive encouragement.  This has created an environment where the classroom is charged with excitement as they are walking into my classroom (as I shake their hand and say, "Buenos días".)

The classes that get that 8:00 or more minutes are doing beyond what I could ever ask and that magical fusion creates a class where we can learn so much more that PAT (and more of it) is the best reward to give them, because they are using class time so effectively.

I just wanted to brag about my students.  This is definitely an improvement on PAT since last year. I'm glad it's improving.

If you wanted to see how my board looks, here's another pic.  This is after a class period.  Then I add up the little bonuses (and subtract the negative 5 seconds (each tally) when I lose eye-contact).  The total is circled so I could add it to the spreadsheet.

It might be a little messy, but it has been working for me so far. The numbers are crossed out since I was adding them.  I also make a point to let them know why they are getting those bonuses.

If you don't use PAT in your classroom but find your class could be managed better, consider making the change!  I'm glad I have.

Stations for review

Seems like everyone is talking about stations lately.  Or at least to my twitter feed, it seems like the new buzz term for foreign language teachers.

Regardless, I have to show I am a team player at my school and tried to find a way to get them to work (more or less) with what I do.

We have to take a test over the entire Agentes Secretos book in my department for Spanish 1.  I had heard the other Spanish 1 teachers made stations to review, so I did the same.

So I grouped my kids together according to level and here were my stations:

1. 1. re-read chapters 13-14 together
   
2. write/draw/pass of some sentences from chapters 13-14
   
3. memory (match description to pictures from teacher's guide from chapters 9-14)
   
4. one scratch paper, describe pictures from chapters 9-14 with as many words/sentences as you can in 1 minute per picture.  Then compare with your group.
   
5. Who am I?  - I statements from different characters/places in the book I wrote down.  Took turns reading one, everyone else had to guess. Place confusing ones in a pile.

Each station was supposed to take 12 minutes.  I never finished the activity in any of the classes. Each group was able to get to one less station than they were supposed to!  (I must waste more time than I realize or I just use a lot of time at the beginning of class on "how are you" and the menu, and weather.)

What worked:
I did make sure to generally put together the high performers with the mid performers and the mid performers and the low performers.  The highs and lows don't mix well.  The highs tend to push each other and those groups were fun to watch in the production (output) activities).

I think this was a nice way to put the wind back into some of the kids' sails at this point in the year.

They had enough language to be able to do the writing part about the pictures.

What didn't work:
The first day, I put too many of the lower performers in the same group instead of staggering them with some of the mid-range performers.  This made it harder to push them to try.

I also accidentally put a star performer in a group with lower / mid performers and she outperformed them and discouraged them.

Final thoughts?:
I should do this every once in awhile to offer something different to my kids.

I also think it helps them get more comfortable with one another.

The prep is ridiculous though.  Not a fan, but since it wouldn't be all the time I think I could handle it.

I would share the document with all of the activities here, but it has some images from the Teacher's Guide of Agentes Secretos by Mira for the memory game.