Today was the unit 3 assessment about activities for level 1. I was excited to see what they could do, but I could feel their fear when they entered. They knew the assessment expected them to give more information than the previous. Some were giving up before they even started. I switched up my lesson plans and did a little game called “Pasa la tabla” (Pass the board) to ease their nerves.

I put students in groups of 4. Each group had one dry erase board, marker and eraser. I let them use notes this time. Next time we play, I will not let them. I showed them the above rules on the board. To start a round, I showed them a picture and started the 3 minute timer. They had to create one really long sentence based on the picture. After each person wrote ONE word, they had to pass it to the next person.

Example picture:

Example board (I wrote this example. The student boards had errors, but that’s acceptable at a novice proficiency level.):


When I called time, one person from each team brought the boards up to me. This board earned 19 points (one point for each word). If a word was hard to understand, I did not give a point. On the chalkboard, we kept a running tally of their scores. I sent them back and I showed another picture. Sometimes I added that they had to include a negative form or use a specific word like “favorite”.

After we finished (about 5 rounds), we talked about why we played that game. They realized it was about making detailed sentences. NOW they were ready for the assessment! Here’s an assessment that is showing Novice High characteristics:

Ivonne R. showed me this cool Datexx Miracle Cube Timer. You flip the box to the show the amount of time you want on the top and the timer starts. I will be purchasing one of these! I need a quick way to keep track of time during games and activities.