Here’s a fun way to get students speaking in class…
The purpose is to find a different person that can answer YES for each square. They ask around…”Do you have twins in your family?” When they find a student that can answer YES, then they have them initial that box. A student can only initial once per paper. Students are forced to branch away from just their best friends. They end up asking and answering a lot of questions! I keep this activity short and sweet – only 5-10 minutes long for level 1 students.
This works with any unit of study, too! I use it with descriptions (Are you… serious, lazy, very romantic), past tense (Last night, did you… Watch the news with your mom? Eat dinner in a restaurant? Talk on the phone to your boyfriend?) or the food unit (Do you like… Cheese on your brocoli? Cereal with no milk? Coffee without sugar? Fries with mayo?)
A fellow language teacher left a comment on a post about a speaking activity. She mentioned how it can be frustrating when she organizes a speaking activity and the students get lazy and don’t stay in the target language. I agree! It is frustrating! However, I believe it takes a lot of time to get students comfortable using the language. The more chances they have to use the language to complete short tasks, the less they will need to rely on English. As their teachers, we can’t stop giving them chances to practice. They are not going to speak it 100% of the time unless they are really motivated or you follow them around, but they will get a little better each time. I can’t force them, but I encourage them to push themselves. Notice there is a little self evauation at the bottom of the paper… (I got this from Kara a LONG time ago…)
Students are usually pretty honest about this. If the percentage using Spanish is low for a certain class, I will step in and take control a bit, but otherwise it’s about practice – not being perfect!
I recommend doing this activity with them and get them competing to be the first one done. I offer candy to the winner, but if I win, I keep it, and sometimes eat it right there in front of them! 🙂
You can download the PDF of this activity in el Mercado.
Great activity! I like the accountability factor re: use of Spanish/target language at the bottom of the worksheet.
Do you have a template that you are willing to share?
I love the self-eval/accountability factor. Too often do I chase students around to ensure they are speaking in the TL!
What constitutes “winning”?
First one to get an initial on each square. I usually do a random check and take one box figure out the who’s initials they are and ask them… “Do you really have twins in your family?” If so, first one done wins!
There is some strategy to getting done quicker.
One day in my dream world, I will take an adaptable idea like this, and make one for EVERY unit I teach. These are perfect quick speaking activities. I love your touch of humor too! A Megan trademark. 🙂
I did an activity very similar to this today in my level 1 class. We are practicing making plans and one thing they need to be able to do is ask “what are we going to do at (an event)? I made a bingo type board with activities such as watch tv, dance, sing, etc. I had the students pick an activity and go around and ask each other “what are we going to do?”. Each student (and me, I always include myself in speaking activities, which allows me to do some formative assessing as they are speaking) answered saying “we’re going to + active activity they picked”. To make it more like a game I called it bingo. I give the winners of games a homework stamp (see Kara’s real world homework from a previous post). You can tell them the first one to get a square is the winner or the first one to get an “x” is the winner. This keeps them on task and also gives them motivation to speak!
An activity I have always wanted to try in Spanish with someone is the game where one person asks a yes or no question and the other person has to answer without a yes or no answer. do you like the movie? The movie is too long. I used to play that in highschool with my friends and I think it would be fun in Spanish
I will try this activity this week!
Love the idea! Do you stop the activity once one person wins? Do you do anything else with the activity like sharing their findings or just collect it? Thanks chicas!
I usually end it about a minute or two after the first kid gets done. Someone wise once told me that it is better not to give too much time, so that kids see that they can’t stall and expect us to give more time at the end. Sometimes I just ask them to reflect… what new word did you figure out? Could you understand the questions without reading it?
Other times we’ll stay in the target language… (in Spanish) “Who has a crazy grandma?” JORDAN! – I’ll say – What? Jordan … is your grandma really crazy?? Is your grandpa crazy too?”
It all depends on the class!
How do I print this activity?
Is a good activity but you have some mistakes… for example you should say tienes un primo EN la universidad and not un primo A la universidad
Thanks! We will fix that. You said “mistakes;” are there more? #nonnative #prepositionsarehard
Yes the others are:
Una persona QUE se llama Mike ( In CAPS what you need to add)
Also will be good to add ¿ at the beginning of all the questions.
Saludos =)
Thanks! The first question mark is in the question at the top so that’s why it’s not in the boxes.
This sound like a great idea! I would like to try it. Can I get a copy? A template so I can make my own? I have decided to include at least one different fun out of seat activity per class per chapter, since I teach three different classes I need all the help I can get. Gracias
When I replicated this for a FLES fourth/fifth grade unit on the family and physical/personal characteristics, I placed a question mark at the beginning of each square. Students at the elementary level need to be reminded that it is question and to adjust their tone accordingly. Also, it serves as a model for good writing.
I love this idea. I would like to use it with my family unit. I don’t see a link to print the activity card. Is it in this post or on teachers pay teachers?
It is not on TPT. Just copy the image in the post and paste on a document. Stretch it out.