Here are two more examples of how to reinforce a grammar concept in student-friendly ways that increase accuracy. Most definitely NOT the only way to do it, but just ideas on how to keep the focus on communicating for a purpose!
1.) SER:
Whenever students are learning to describe, it’s easy to think they need all forms of SER (to be). I like to break it down into so students can focus on grammar in context. Here’s was the “can do” for one day:
They don’t need every conjugation of ser in one day, so the whole day was focused on “You are…”
We watched a few videos like this one…
They read some sweet tweets.
Then we finished up with compliments all around! They each wrote one anonymous compliment and turned them in and I read them to the class. I wrote a few myself so everybody felt included. They all gave a sarcastic “Awwwww” between each one!
Needless to say they learned “you are” and I think it stuck because it was in context!
2.) Commands (the imperative):
I noticed my level three students were inconsistent using commands. They knew a lot of commands that they learned in phrases like “Come here” and “have a good day” and “tell me” but other times they’d goof it up! So I planned for a mini unit to teach commands in context. Day one I set up game instructions for dominoes, perinola, and loteria in game stations around the room.
They highlighted what they could understand and looked up 5 new words. When they figured out the directions, they got to play. After they made it through the three stations, we played this Kahoot to see what they really learned about the latino games.
Day 2: Time for the mini-lesson… I found a few memes and asked them to find the pattern.
They figured it out right away. So then their job was to explain how to play one of the 3 latino games. Could they do it? Yep!
Next day, they all had to come up with a “How to” video to teach the class something they might not know how to do. I showed them mine and let them try to match my skill. (No laughing, I pulled a muscle making this video).
Then, they made their own simple video and we set them up on iPads around the class and they got to go around and learn new things.
One week – lots of input, lots of practice and zero worksheets.
Grammar & Proficiency Series
What’s Grammar Got to Do with It?
What is the song in the background? It’s catchy! Also – well done!
Loving these grammar posts! Mil gracias!
Not going to lie… I laughed! 😀 Thanks for giving me a few chuckles today.
Love this!!! What are you using for easy video creation? Anything that’s web-based & not Apple-specific? We’re a BYOD environment, which means lots of different tools, but most of them are cracked phones! 🙂
LOVE this! Authentic, fun and engaging! Can’t wait to do this with my students!
I don’t know if you addressed this someone or have already posted about it, but where do you find tweets that are so specific to what you want to teach? Also, how do you read them? I’m curious about your process of reading, translating, and comprehending. Thanks!
Finding: Sign in to your twitter account, then in the search bar, put a specific word or phrase in the TL. So if we are learning about Valentine’s Day, I’d search: amor, corazon, tarjetas de amor, cancion de amor. As I read those, I start clicking on the hashtags too that are relevant: #diadeamor #mimedianaranja #diadeamistad This was about videos, but I go through a similar thinking process before I search Twitter: http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/authres/videos/youtube-task-5-the-search/
Reading: I have a few generic activities that they do with them. I want them to be open-ended so students are picking out the main info. I rarely ask them to translate them, but I find many will do that on their own. Here are some fav interpretive activities: write a hashtag, highlight by categories (http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/activities/modes-skills/reading/idea-71-highlight-away/), categorize vocabulary & adding it to their personal lists (pic w/ orange pen http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/planning/whats-the-function-vocab/), and write a response back (technically interpersonal in nature). This post may also give you some ideas:
http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/activities/modes-skills/reading/30ira/
How do you catch students up that have been absent on a day that you teach something like this? That’s what I struggle with.