Language game to provide more comprehensible input: Guess Who?

https://goo.gl/photos/JPio26rjA9UosKXR7

As I mentioned in my previous post about story listening, I am part of an amazing group on Facebook called “CI Liftoff” where educators around the world are discussing about how to use pure comprehensible input in the language acquisition process.

[read more…]

acquire50 acquisition65 adults1 children28 ci145 comics7 communicate9 communication10 communicative7 compelling39 comprehend52 comprehensible100 comprehensible input36 comprehension250 content6 culture246 describe37 describing40 Education20 engaging10 foreign language35 France221 French41 fun413 game21 guess who1 high frequency217 high interest7 input47 interest10 interesting23 language45 language learning9 learner217 learners6 message4 online38 physical10 play27 playing3 reading252 story46 story asking15 story building8 TPRS71 tutor3 tutoring2 unconscious3 unconsciously3 understand67 understanding22 write59 writing55

How to use poems with first year Spanish learners?

I found this lovely poem on Pinterest and I used it with my grade 6 students (11-12 years old) as it was the prefect review for physical description and family.

Listening/comprehension: I told the poem “TPRS style” by drawing the “abuela”

[read more…]

beginner318 family164 grade 68 physical10 poem71 pronunciation11 re-telling1 re-write2 read40 reading252 Spanish33 speaking73 story46 storytelling39 structures7 TPRS71 vocabulary256 write59 writing55

Describing your home town and local area in Spanish

Another IGCSE topic is about describing where you live. First I had my grade 9 students watch this excellent video about a girl describing where she lives near Madrid (you can watch it with or without subtitles):

I then asked my students to produce a short movie like the one above about their local area.

[read more…]

criteria1 describe37 Education20 feedback41 film41 home14 home town2 homework3 IGCSE12 local area2 Madrid1 oral12 peer assessment2 publish2 publishing1 skills26 Spanish33 speaking73 speaking skills8 technology8 topic24 town12 video350

A fun way to describe a family in Spanish

I think I have already mentioned a few times that I really dislike going trough the boring topics of the IGCSE examinations! I am therefore trying to find new ways of reviewing some of the topics students have already learned such as describing people, and particularly describing family members.

[read more…]

Blogging1 book95 creative13 describe37 examination5 exams3 family164 fun413 grade 98 IGCSE12 mini-book2 oral12 pocket book1 present565 presentation140 presenting102 Spanish33 speaking73 topics19

Talk about a picture in Spanish

A picture can be a great start for a conversation when it is hard to get students talking in the target language. In my present school, we prepare grade 9 and 10 for the IGCSE exams and one part of the exam is about students having to converse with the teachers about different topics they have previously learned.

[read more…]

ab initio2 chat16 confidence92 confident8 conversation311 converse36 describe37 Education20 gain1 IB9 IGCSE12 language45 learn10 master1 painting33 photo4 photograph1 picture5 pin1 pinterest6 questions74 Spanish33 spanish playground1 vocabulary256