I am near the end of my trimester and trying to review some of what we have learned to prepare students for their upcoming final assessments. Valentine’s Day is fun, but I don’t want to miss a day of language learning just for fun. Speed-dating is great for getting students to use the language in short conversations. They get a ton of practice and feel more comfortable in pairs than speaking in front of big groups. I set my room up in a big circle with desks facing each other like this…
Then I will give them a list of questions for each student to answer on their own. These questions will include what we have learned this year in level 1 like the following: What’s your name? Where are you from? How old are you? What do you like to do? Plus other fun questions like these: Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? Are you romantic? What’s your number? Do you like to dance? What is your favorite restaurant?
I let them know they will be “speed dating” and they need to find out important info about this new person. Don’t leave without finding out their name (and number if interested!). Find out how old they are too… You won’t want to date them if they are 10 years old. I encourage them to pretend they are someone else if they want to. This gets them thinking about how to answer questions according to their character and pushes them to learn new words.
Castanets to signal it’s time to mix it up!
I have used a bell or percussion instrument to signal for them to move, but this year I’m looking for a smooching sound app to spice things up! I will give them 15 seconds one time, 30 the next, and sometimes 1 minute (which gets uncomfortable, but it great to get them asking their OWN questions.) At the end, I have them pick the most interesting date they had and have they write down what they learned about that person (in the language) and the guy and girl with the most votes will win a cupcake/candy from me!
Celebrate AND stretch their skills! Valentine’s Day is a great time to try SPEED DATING! Â
* They may not speak in the target language 100% of the time, but 5-6 minutes of actually speaking the language is a lot more than 10 seconds if we were asking the questions!!
I love this activity!! It is very creative, challenging and you are taking students out of their comfort zone, talk to different people in class, you assure everyone’s participation and it is really fun to know how to do one of the most important things if they ever visit a Spanish speaking country: make friends and get a date!!
Felicidades!!
Mine had a lot of fun with it today too! What I love is that if they totally mess up a conversation a new one will start up in a minute. It really boosts their confidence! I told them “I hope you all date a latino one day.” Ha I wonder if I’ll get any emails about that 🙂
Cannot WAIT to try this! I love the idea of having them make up personalities to eliminate the awkwardness {especially with middle schoolers}
I love this activity. I do it as a “getting to know you” in the upper levels and a second time using “alter-egos”.
I took over a Spanish 1 class mid-year this year, and this was a great evaluation of where they stood since I didn’t know them. It was also great to see how excited they were when the realized that they had spoken Spanish for 20 minutes!
I have never had them vote for their favorite, but I like that idea too. In my upper levels they can vote on personality and speaking ability…..
Love your blog!!!
Heather
Thanks Heather!
My kids speed date every week. I have a power point of questions on A 2 min timer/slide.
When you speed date each week, are you incorporating it with the lesson learned during that week? If so, how?
Share!
I call it “speed-friending” lol. I use it at least once a unit to practice their chapter questions and conversational skills.
Any ideas of how to write a lesson plan using this?
Awesome idea! Thank you!
I think I will give this a shot, thanks for the fun idea!
Do you have a sample of the paper they have? so they have questions typed up and then do you just tell them or have a space to write most interesting date (name/?) or give a few more details as I would love to try 🙂
Hi Tracy. It’s been years and you may never even see this but I’m going to try this with my students. I’d give them some questions at the top for them to ask, then a table below where they can jot down some notes (not complete sentences) about their potential dates. That way they have info for the writing component at the end, but it remains conversational for the “dating” part.
I would like a sample of the activity if someone has it… thank you!
Love this! I am a veteran teacher of 23 years & I thought your tips & ideas were GREAT! I will be using this in February! Thank you for tying it all together!
Wow! 23 years… impressive. Thanks Kate! I use this activity any time of the year when I need them to chat. I call it “Sillas rápidas.” (fast seats)
Class wanted something fun tomorrow, so I’m going to try speed friending with my 8th graders. Thanks for the idea!
Good! Let us know how it goes or if you give it a twist. 🙂