I was talking to THE Bill VanPatten a lot this week about Second Language Acquisition and the possibility of working on some projects together soon.
In one of our convos, he brought up a way he had done Weekend Chat in the past. Now, the way I typically do weekend chat in levels 1 and 2 (where I normally end up teaching for whatever reason), has varied a little bit and evolved since I was doing more textbook teaching.
In level 2, I would use it to practice the preterit and have each student look through the textbook and write 3 things that they did over the weekend. I would check their conjugations and would ask them to share them with the class in Spanish. Then we would move on to something else after we finished.
Showing posts with label weekend activity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend activity. Show all posts
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
TPRS year 2 - Spanish 1 Story idea
So yesterday during our weekend chat activity... I had the following two structures to talk about my weekend that I thought could really turn into a riveting storyline later...
In one class, two students woke up in a prison and one was still unconscious. In another class, a student woke up with one leg in a bathroom and a cat. In another, a girl woke up in a the trunk of a car with 6 dead skinny people with big butts...
As you can see, the variety was interesting according to each class and we practiced the structures. I wonder if the kids related to this becuase of movies like The Hangover. Either way it was fun to play around with. Also you could go backwards as well as forwards in the storyline. Most of my students like to say, "No recuerda" (S/he doesn't remember). So most of the questions were very unanswered, but the kids got interesting, comprehensible input as they continue to learn Spanish.
So maybe next year, this might just become one of my standard stories for Spanish 1 or maybe even for Spanish 2 with some different structures.
- me desperté (I woke up)
- sentí (I felt)
- se despertó (s/he woke up)
- sintió (s/he felt [object]) vs. se sentía (s/he felt [emotion])
In one class, two students woke up in a prison and one was still unconscious. In another class, a student woke up with one leg in a bathroom and a cat. In another, a girl woke up in a the trunk of a car with 6 dead skinny people with big butts...
As you can see, the variety was interesting according to each class and we practiced the structures. I wonder if the kids related to this becuase of movies like The Hangover. Either way it was fun to play around with. Also you could go backwards as well as forwards in the storyline. Most of my students like to say, "No recuerda" (S/he doesn't remember). So most of the questions were very unanswered, but the kids got interesting, comprehensible input as they continue to learn Spanish.
So maybe next year, this might just become one of my standard stories for Spanish 1 or maybe even for Spanish 2 with some different structures.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
TPRS year 2 - Weekend chat
Well so I guess this weekend as well draws to a close. I thought I would share and think around a PowerPoint I made for last Monday. I decided that sometimes my information about my weekend is boring.
Here's an explanation of how I tend to do my weekend activity. It involves me coming up with a few phrases I can circle with my students. But then I can shift those things onto my students.
This year I have realized that my students might have something completely unrelated to talk about. So I try to ask the question, "¿Qué hizo?" (What did s/he do?) after circling with another person and finding out they didn't do what I did.
But I've been finding my weekends consist of the same structures OVER and OVER again. So last weekend, I was reading some different news stories and decided to start off my weekend with...
Here's an explanation of how I tend to do my weekend activity. It involves me coming up with a few phrases I can circle with my students. But then I can shift those things onto my students.
This year I have realized that my students might have something completely unrelated to talk about. So I try to ask the question, "¿Qué hizo?" (What did s/he do?) after circling with another person and finding out they didn't do what I did.
But I've been finding my weekends consist of the same structures OVER and OVER again. So last weekend, I was reading some different news stories and decided to start off my weekend with...
- leí (I read)
I circled around it with the class and then they didn't know what I read. I finally pointed out that it was obvious and I had read the news! I knew they wouldn't like talking about the news. But I then had made a PowerPoint of a few news stories I had read. I explained a little about the news story and then asked them to guess something about the news story. Then we moved onto the following one (or maybe we chatted a little longer about one). I thought it would be good to introduce some words we haven't really seen much and also just to do something a little different. For the most part, they were interested in it. I would like to turn it into an activity next year almost as the first activity leading into our weekend chat. Or using something I had read to then circle the structures using students in class. I think there is a lot of potential!
Monday, February 13, 2012
TPRS year 2 - It's supposed to be a bad day?
In previous years, I would often find myself taking a sick day when I would feel a little "off." There are days where I can just feel like it's going to be a bad day simply because of my attitude when I walk into school. So I would just save everyone the grief and I would call in sick and email my sub plans to the secretary.
I thought it was a good plan and everyone won. This year is different because I have already used up all of my sick days for visiting the doctor with my wife (prenatal visits). Then I took a week off after she gave birth and now I am completely out. If I miss anymore days, that comes out of my paycheck in the summer. So I better really feel sick or it's a bit pricier.
Consequently, I have been forcing myself to go in. Interestingly enough, this phenomenon of me not feeling good (when it happens) occurs on Mondays.
So today is a prime example (as well as last Monday) of me feeling really not up to teaching but going in anyway. What I found was something astounding. My students did awesome both days. They were enthusiastic and enjoyed the weekend chat. They came up with interesting things to talk about and the classes pretty much ran themselves. It's odd because it's so counter intuitive.
As I think about it, most of the days I can remember this year of me going into school grumpy have ended up being wonderful days for TPRS. I wonder what causes this.
Either way, it's proof to me that teaching kids through stories is a heck of a lot better than teaching them the traditional way.
Today I even had a student observe a class (since he's been hearing about how awesome Spanish class is all year) and he (of course) enjoyed it.
I thought it was a good plan and everyone won. This year is different because I have already used up all of my sick days for visiting the doctor with my wife (prenatal visits). Then I took a week off after she gave birth and now I am completely out. If I miss anymore days, that comes out of my paycheck in the summer. So I better really feel sick or it's a bit pricier.
Consequently, I have been forcing myself to go in. Interestingly enough, this phenomenon of me not feeling good (when it happens) occurs on Mondays.
So today is a prime example (as well as last Monday) of me feeling really not up to teaching but going in anyway. What I found was something astounding. My students did awesome both days. They were enthusiastic and enjoyed the weekend chat. They came up with interesting things to talk about and the classes pretty much ran themselves. It's odd because it's so counter intuitive.
As I think about it, most of the days I can remember this year of me going into school grumpy have ended up being wonderful days for TPRS. I wonder what causes this.
Either way, it's proof to me that teaching kids through stories is a heck of a lot better than teaching them the traditional way.
Today I even had a student observe a class (since he's been hearing about how awesome Spanish class is all year) and he (of course) enjoyed it.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Día 61 - Weekend Activity
If you've noticed, I've stopped doing a daily blog because I was almost blogging at times for blogging's sake and decided instead that I should only write an entry when I had something to talk about.
Today I feel like I have one of the best jobs in the world. This is what TPRS teaching feels like when it goes well. You forget for a brief period that you're a teacher because they kids are enjoying the language and they're trying. It's true that most students do try to say things in the language when they have felt comfortable with it. But for almost all students, this comes with lots of repetitions. We must not forget to give them the repetitions needed in order to help them understand the structures of the language. And some of my students are amazing me at the language they produce when before they never really did.
But TPRS gives them a chance to shine like never before. And they can be funny in the language which helps a lot of them because you're telling stories and those can easily be made funny.
We did another Weekend Activity today. It's really just a warm-up for the week and we can get in some preterite practice. That is, one of the past tenses in Spanish,
So today I came up with the following true-ish statements about my weekend. (Sometimes things I think will produce great language flop). But today I was on.
-------------------------------------------------------
Durante el fin de semana: (During the weekend)
The language from the first sentence alone made for an interesting story and numerous parallel stories. I had students killing elephants with their tongues and killing deer with tree trunks in the zoo. It was great practice and we also threw in some colors, days of the week, places and other random objects to kill something with. It was great. In one class, a student was supposedly pregnant with 21 babies from a previous storyline and one of the students ended up pushing him down a staircase with a friend and killing the babies (IN SPANISH). Sure, it's a tad violent. But not all of the stories are violent. And to cure the manic Monday feeling, you gotta do what ya gotta do.
Today has been sensational so far. I think it helped that I was able to pick something that students wanted to talk about. Although with all the details you can add in a story (with whom, with what, where, when, how) any story can become somewhat engaging if you can get your kids to add the right details!
Today I feel like I have one of the best jobs in the world. This is what TPRS teaching feels like when it goes well. You forget for a brief period that you're a teacher because they kids are enjoying the language and they're trying. It's true that most students do try to say things in the language when they have felt comfortable with it. But for almost all students, this comes with lots of repetitions. We must not forget to give them the repetitions needed in order to help them understand the structures of the language. And some of my students are amazing me at the language they produce when before they never really did.
But TPRS gives them a chance to shine like never before. And they can be funny in the language which helps a lot of them because you're telling stories and those can easily be made funny.
We did another Weekend Activity today. It's really just a warm-up for the week and we can get in some preterite practice. That is, one of the past tenses in Spanish,
So today I came up with the following true-ish statements about my weekend. (Sometimes things I think will produce great language flop). But today I was on.
-------------------------------------------------------
Durante el fin de semana: (During the weekend)
- Maté una mosca (I killed a fly)
- Mi gato me pegó. (My cat hit me)
- Cociné (I cooked)
The language from the first sentence alone made for an interesting story and numerous parallel stories. I had students killing elephants with their tongues and killing deer with tree trunks in the zoo. It was great practice and we also threw in some colors, days of the week, places and other random objects to kill something with. It was great. In one class, a student was supposedly pregnant with 21 babies from a previous storyline and one of the students ended up pushing him down a staircase with a friend and killing the babies (IN SPANISH). Sure, it's a tad violent. But not all of the stories are violent. And to cure the manic Monday feeling, you gotta do what ya gotta do.
Today has been sensational so far. I think it helped that I was able to pick something that students wanted to talk about. Although with all the details you can add in a story (with whom, with what, where, when, how) any story can become somewhat engaging if you can get your kids to add the right details!
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