Smack the Word

Some of you might know this activity as "matamoscas" or "the fly swatter game," but it works like this:

For Category I and II Languages:

1. Have the vocabulary words written on the board in random order, and at different angles, when the students enter the room.
2. Ask the students to write definitions in the target language for five of the words and pass them to you.
3. Divide the class into two teams.
4. Have a representative from each team come to the board, each with a different color of marker.
5. Read a definition of a word (you might have to correct or add to the student's definition). The first student to find the word and mark it -or hit it with a fly swatter if you prefer- wins a point for their team.
6. A new student from each team comes to the board, and you read a new definition for a different word.

For Category III and IV Languages:

1. Have the vocabulary words written on the board in random order, and at different angles, when the students enter the room.
2. Divide the class into two teams.
3. Have a representative from each team come to the board, each with a different color of marker.
4. Say the word. The first student to find the word and mark it -or hit it with a fly swatter if you prefer- wins a point for their team.
5. For an additional point, each student has the chance to use the word correctly in a sentence.
6. A new student from each team comes to the board, and you continue the game with a new word.

The Newlywed Game

This is actually more of a 'how well do you know your classmates?' game, but it is modeled after the old 70's game show, "The Newlywed Game." You can call it something else, but regardless of what you call it, here's what you'll do:

1. Have two students in your class pick a partner - someone they think they know pretty well, perhaps the student they've sat beside all semester. In each pair, one partner will be 'Student A' and the other will be 'Student B.'

2. Give the partners a couple of minutes to chat (in the target language, of course) - asking anything about their partner that they think they may need to know - if they have siblings, what their favorite color is, etc. While the pairs are talking, the other students - those in the "audience"- should be quietly writing questions that will be used to interview the students.

3. Send one partner from each group (the student A's) out of the room and then interview the other other partners with your student "audience." You can ask them serious questions or silly ones, and you can choose some of the questions that the student audience has written.

4. Have the other partners from each pair come back into the classroom. Ask them the questions about their partners, like "What is Maria's favorite color?" "Does she have pets?" "Does Maria like intelligent and creative men, or good-looking and rich ones?" For every answer that a student gets correct about his partner, he wins a point.

5. Send the other partner (the student B's) out of the room, and interview the student A's.

6. Call the student B's back in, and see how many questions they can correctly answer about their partners. The couple with the most correct answers wins.

I've actually never tried the above activity in class, but both our French and German professors claim that it is a lot of fun and a great way to get the students enjoying an opportunity to use the target language. It seems like a great activity to do with those 1002 or 2000-level classes that have been together as a group for a semester or two. If you do try this activity in class, let me know how it goes!

Listening Practices with the BBC

For anyone looking to hone their language skills by listening to authentic news casts, the BBC can be a great resource. The BBC has news services for several of our languages, including: Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, and Russian. For each of these languages, you'll be able to find short videos on a diversity of topics - all narrated by native-speakers of the language of study. Since the news casts are short, students can watch them several times in order to get a general understanding of the topic discussed, or to listen for specific information and answer comprehension questions designed for their level. For example, students of Portuguese 1001 might watch the following video:



As students watch and listen, they might try to answer the following questions (to be written and answered in Portuguese, of course):
1. What is the crocodile's name?
2. What country is he from?
3. How much does he weigh?
4. What is the name of his human best friend?
5. How old is the crocodile?
6. Where are the residents of the village going to put the crocodile's body?

A class of 1002 students might watch the same video, but answer more complex questions and use the past tense (a useful modification to the practice, since the poor crocodile has passed away).

For our Category IV languages, short news videos can still be useful. We can design simple listening tasks for these students, like 'listen five times and write down all the numbers you hear', or 'describe all the people shown using at least seven different adjectives.'

If you have any other ideas of how short news casts might be used in class, or if you have a specific video you'd like to share, leave a note in the comments!

The Story Shuffle

Here's an activity that I observed in Shane's Chinese 1001 class this week:

1. When the students arrived, they saw a mixed-up story on the board (all in Chinese) and were told they had five minutes to put it into the proper order.

2. The students went to the board, each with a marker, and confronted three columns of text. For example, students doing a story shuffle in English might see...

Tomorrow, October 8th        Hank went to the store             that she finds in the classroom.
Yesterday, October 6th         Egli is eating five cookies          but he will leave hungry.
Today, October 7th              Hank will look for the cookies   and bought seven cookies.

3. As the students worked together, Shane reviewed some written assignments that students had completed at home, pulling students aside one-by-one to review their mistakes with them. As one student worked with Shane, the others continued their group work at the board.

4. After all students had reviewed their work with Shane, he told them that it was time for them to read him the story in the right order. Each student read a different sentence.

Students doing the English-language version above would read the following:
Student One: "Yesterday, October 6th, Hank went to the store and bought seven cookies."
Student Two: "Today, October 7th, Egli is eating five cookies that she finds in the classroom."
Student Three: "Tomorrow, October 8th, Hank will look for the cookies, but he will leave hungry."

After the students had read the story in the correct order (and had their pronunciation mistakes corrected), Shane asked them questions about it in Chinese (When did Hank buy cookies? Who eats the cookies? Egli, are cookies your favorite food? How many cookies will Hank find in the classroom?) Shane used the students' names and information about them in the story, and the students really enjoyed the activity.

Great activity, Shane - and nice job using time spent on group-work to quietly work with individual students as well. Nicely done!

Get in Line!

This week's Friday idea comes courtesy of Professor Robinson, our German professor, who calls this activity "Get in Line." Each student is given a note card with information about who is in front of them in line, and who is behind, and students must ask each other questions in order to line-up in the correct order. For example, one card might read (in the target language):

To the right: studies history
I am from Russia.
To the left: likes art

The student with this card would then walk around the classroom, asking "Do you study history?" and "Do you like art?" until she finds the people who should stand to her left and to her right. Another student might have the following card:

To the right: is from Russia
I like art.
To the left: studies economics

This student would go around the classroom asking "Are you from Russia?" and "Do you study economics?" until he found his proper place in line. Of course, you might want one card to read "To the right: Nobody" and another card to read "To the left: Nobody" - or else you'll have a circle instead of a line.

When the students have lined-up, they can prove that they are in the proper order by making a statement and asking a question: "I am from Russia. Do you like art?" "I like art. Do you study economics?" If they are in the correct order, each student will ask a question to the person on their right, and get a 'yes' for an answer. If not, students will have to ask questions again to rearrange themselves.

Spectacular Classes: Act it Out

In one of the most energetic and fun classes I've seen, members of Jen's Chinese 1001 class perform a dialogue. Notice how they do not simply say the lines, but accompany the words with the proper gestures and actions:

Some of the wonderful techniques Jen employes here include:

1. She has students get up and act out the scene. By acting out the dialogue rather than just saying it, student are more likely to remember it - for some reason, matching words with movements seems to help with memory (think TPR).
2. Acting out the scene also gives students a sense of how useful the vocabulary they've learned can be, giving them an example of how they could actually manage 'real life' situations with the language they've acquired.
3. Jen has allowed the students to add funny details to the scene, keeping them engaged and letting them use the language to express their own personalities. She gave them a task - greet your guests politely, conduct introductions, and offer a beverage - but students still had room to be a bit creative within that framework.
4. When the scene was finished, Jen encouraged the students and pointed out what they'd done well as well as what they should practice. Then the next group presented their scene.
5. Notice how much fun the students are having!

Great class, great tutor! Thanks, Jen!

Spectacular Classes: Draw a Card

Some of our amazing language tutors have agreed to let us film parts of their classes, generously sharing their ideas and techniques! So, without further ado, I welcome you to the Spectacular Classes Series!

In this video, some of Adesi's Italian 1001 students sit before a pile of index cards. Each card has a word or short phrase written on it, in Italian, but the cards are face-down, so that students cannot read them ahead of time. One by one, students draw a card and read the phrase aloud. The student is then challenged to say as much about the word or topic in Italian as they can. Watch how it works:

Notice some of the great techniques Adesi puts to use:
1. She encourages the student with nods and smiles, showing she understands and is engaged in what the student is saying.
2. She conducts the practice all in Italian.
3. When a mistake is made, Adesi corrects the mistake and has the student repeat the proper phrasing. Adesi does not let a mistake become a distraction, nor does she embarrass the student. Correction, repetition, and then the activity continues - fast-paced and fun.
4. When the student starts to pause between phrases, Adesi asks some related follow-up questions.

Great work, Adesi!

P.S. - You might have noticed the music playing quietly in the background. Adesi is also trying a technique in which instrumental music with a defined rhythm is played quietly during the class. The music is intended to help students focus, and to make connections with the rhythms of the language. She'll let us know how the experiment goes, and will share more information if it proves to help students.

Music and Poetry Writing Warm-Up

Since April is National Poetry Month, next week I plan to try a new musical warm-up with my class - this time leading into a poetry-writing exercise. This is how it will work:

1. Students will listen to a song, filling-in missing words. Since we're studying the different uses of two verbs that both translate to "to be" in English, the song I've chosen includes lots of repetition of these two verbs.

2. We'll read the song's lyrics aloud, and students will summarize the song in 'plain prose' - in Spanish, of course. (It's easy, since the song could be simply summarized as 'the man singing likes a woman, but she does not like him, so he is sad.')

3. Since the song includes similes and metaphors using the 'to be' verb, I'll have students then write their own love poems in Spanish, following the same model presented by the song: A) a description of  the poem's recipient - 'you are ....' B) a description of the poem's author - 'I am like a...' and C) a description of how the author feels when the beloved person is near/far. (Of course, these types of statements will force the students to use the two being verbs, and I can walk-around and correct their mistakes before the poems are read to the class).

Since we've studied weather expressions, some food vocabulary, words that describe different emotions, etc., I'm going to have students use only words they already know when writing their poems. I'm hoping this provides some fun examples, and a good review of past vocabulary and grammatical structures. When students are finished, we'll have them recite their masterpieces, and vote on our favorites. I'll let you know how it goes...

If you have any other ideas for good warm-ups involving music or poetry, please leave them in the comments! Have a great weekend!

The Realia Project: Images for Class

A nice (and easy) way to include some culture into a language practice can be to have students simply discuss a photo or advertisement from one of your countries of study. Russian tutors can bring photos of Moscow, for example, and give a different photo to each student. Beginning-level students can describe the photograph with simple sentences, while more advanced students can either use the photos to invent travel advertisements or as a jumping-off point for fictional stories they invent about the people and places pictured. Of course, this gives the tutor an excellent opportunity to discuss the real places or traditions shown, and hopefully encourages interest from students to learn more.

If you are looking for an easy way to get photos to use in class, The Realia Project is a good resource. Typing "Moscow" into the quick search on their site provided 150 images, each with a brief description. Of course, Google Images works well too...

How else have you used photographs in your classes?

A Total Physical Response Warm-Up

Here is an idea of a TPR warm-up that can work in your class:

1. Bring four or five props into class that have something to do with the vocabulary your students are studying. For example, if they are studying reflexive verbs, bring a mirror that they can use to look at themselves, a jacket students can put on, a boxed bar of soap they can use to pretend to wash themselves, etc.

2. Have students look at the props and write sentences about them. For example, "I look at myself in the mirror."

3. Students read their sentences aloud, and mistakes are corrected. The best (or most interesting) sentence for each prop is selected.

4. Students listen-and-repeat the selected sentences while the tutor acts out their meanings, and then say the appropriate sentence as the tutor goes from prop to prop, miming the appropriate actions.

5. The props are then placed in a line on the desk. Students form a line by the desk. One-by-one, students say the sentences while using the props to act out their meaning. For example, for the sentence "I look at myself in the mirror and smile at myself," the students would pick up the mirror, say the sentence, and act it out.

6. Students then take turns inventing sentences about the props for a classmate to act-out, switching roles between acting and speaking.

TPR: Total Physical Response

This short video describes a language teaching technique called TPR (total physical response), demonstrates some lessons in which it is used, and discusses some of its advantages:



Of course, since we only meet with our students twice a week, our expectation must remain that they study new vocabulary, grammar concepts, and dialogues at home and come to class already prepared to try to use the language, not just listen and understand. Still, TPR can be used as a method to get students talking in the language as well, such as in the video segment where they give one another instructions. TPR can be a great way to practice new structured patterns that require a lot of repetition, without making the class feel boring.

What do you think? Is this a technique that you could use in class? Do you already use some sort of TPR in your classes?

Three Musical Warm-ups

Using 'realia' in the classroom - examples of the language or culture produced for real situations rather than specifically for students - is always a great way to encourage our students to engage with their language of study outside the classroom. Music can be particularly useful - once students are introduced to a singer, group, or musical style that they like, they'll often spend hours on YouTube listening, which is a pretty fun way to study a new language. So, in the name of promoting student engagement with the target language outside of the classroom, I give you three examples of warm-up activities that use songs:

Fill-in-the-Blank Lyric Sheets
First, find a song that uses some of the vocabulary that students are studying, or that repeats an example of a new grammatical point. For example, I use ¿Dónde Estás Corazón? by Shakira when reviewing question words and the verb estar with my students.Next make worksheets with the lyrics - but with some of the words missing.You can usually find the lyrics of popular songs online to avoid having to transcribe them all as you listen. During the first few minutes of class, students listen to the song once or twice, trying to fill-in the missing words. When finished, students take turns reading the completed lyrics. Finally, students summarize the 'main idea' of the song - in the target language, of course.

Song Lyric Scramble
Choose a song in which the refrain is repeated several times. Give students strips of paper, each with one line of the refrain printed on it. Students then listen to the song, and try to put the lines of the refrain in their proper order. More advanced classes can put an entire song in its proper order.

American Idol
Give students a short song to memorize, or have them memorize the refrain of a longer song. Students must then either sing or recite the song for the class, and will be rated by their classmates on their accuracy, pronunciation, fluency - and style.

Of course, having the students summarize the main idea of the song in simple prose (in the target language) is a great way to get them talking after listening to any song, and they always want to give their opinions about if they liked the song or not.
Any one else have any good ways to use songs in the classroom? Leave your ideas in the comments!

Show 'n Tell

In order to encourage our students to say more than a few words at a time in the target language, I sometimes like to assign short ‘show-and-tell’ presentations. Here are the instructions as I’ve written them for my 1001 students:

After a short practice session, each student will present a five or six-sentence description in Spanish of a visual they’ve brought to share with the class. Each student should be prepared to show a visual and explain its importance. Your presentation should be entirely in Spanish and given without the aid of notes. For example, a student might bring a photograph of a family member and describe that person to the class.

Some ideas of possible topics include:
1. A photograph of members of your family – tell who is pictured, describe each person briefly, and tell something that each person likes to do.
2. A Spanish-language song, artist, or album you like – tell where the artist is from, briefly describe the artist, tell how old she/he is, and say something about his/her style.
3. A page out of your weekly planner – tell something you do on each day of the week, and give the time for which it is scheduled.
4. A photo of yourself at a Salsa Night - describe the club where Salsa Night is held, tell where it is in Atlanta, tell the time it opens, and what days and times there is Salsa dancing.
5. A menu from your favorite Mexican restaurant – tell its name, where it is, when it opens, what you like to eat there, and a brief description of the restaurant.

Students must prepare in advance, since they have to bring a visual, but I encourage students to simply speak about the item they’ve brought, rather than trying to memorize a prepared speech word-for-word.

Some Fun Class Activities

Vocabulary and Writing Practice

Preparation:
Prepare a set of index cards with new and old vocabulary words. Make sure that each word is written on two different note cards.

In Class:
1. Shuffle cards.
2. Students draw a card each.
3. Have students look for the other person with the vocabulary word.
4. In their small groups, students define their word and write as many sentences as possible that includes their word until you stop them.
5. Afterward, students write their sentences and definition on the board.

Extra:
6. The other students could check for mistakes in the sentences.
7. The group with the least amount of errors “wins”

Reading, Speaking, Listening

Preparation:
Choose some sentences from a reading passage or a dialogue students have recently studied. Write them on slips of paper with one half sentences being on one slip of paper. Have enough slips of paper for your entire class.

In-Class:
1. Students stand and mingle. They read their half sentences to one another until they find the second half of their sentence.
2. Once they find their match, all sentences are read out.
3. Students form a line in the order of how the sentences appeared in the text.
4. Tutor reads the original text and student re-arrange themselves to correct any mistakes.

Our First Friday Idea Posting...

Happy Friday! These four games can serve as useful warm-ups during the first 5-10 minutes of class, or can be used during the last few minutes if you finish your planned activities early:

The Flyswatter Game – Write vocabulary words on the board in random order. Have a pair of students go up to the board, each with a flyswatter (or anything else you have on-hand that the students can use to hit the correct word). Call out a clue or definition, in the target language. The first student to find and hit the correct word wins a point for her team.

Vocabulary / Alphabet Bingo – Students fill out a bingo board using words form a new vocabulary list. The tutor then calls out definitions or clues in the target language and students mark any words that they have written on their boards. They call BINGO when they have five words marked in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

For languages in which students are learning a new alphabet, this game can be modified:
1. students write the alphabet in random order in the spaces on the bingo board
2. the tutor calls out the name of the letter or character and uses it in a word or sentence (in the target language)
3. students mark the characters as called
4. the first student to get five in a row wins, and must read back the winning characters in the order they have written them on their board

Taboo – Pairs of students are given one of two lists of vocabulary words (one partner gets list A, the other list B). Keeping their lists hidden from their partners, the students take turns describing, in the target language, terms from their list until their partner guesses the correct term.

Categories – Pairs of students are given one minute to write down a list of words – in the language of study- associated with a topic (Example: foods). At the end of the minute, each team reads their answers. Teams win points for each original answer (answers not shared with other teams). A new topic is then given (Examples: greetings, family members, or cities where … is spoken), and the next round begins.

I hope these help if you ever need an idea for a five-minute activity or review game in the coming weeks. Feel free to add your own ideas for classroom warm-ups in the comments.