The end of the school year is near!

... and students are getting antsy, or acting crazy, depending on the grades. For these last weeks of school I still find that I can teach about animals, since it is a topic most students find interesting (especially if you use stuffed animals - I have a large collection!). I also rely on games. This game is helpful to teach/re-teach important questions, if you have a Smartboard: I used flip tiles to create pages with vocabulary questions reviewing what we have learned. A student throws a soft ball at the Smartboard while we chant ¿Cómo se dice? When one tile is flipped, a word appears (in English - ¿Cómo se dice? or Spanish- ¿Qué quiere decir) and the student chooses somebody to answer the question, who then has a turn to throw the ball. I give them 3 chances to hit a tile, usually. Simple but engaging!

For many other activities, I have a document on sale at Teachers pay Teachers:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activities-and-games-for-Foreign-Language-in-Elementary-School-324625

Chances of interpersonal speaking

At times, I let students do some easy worksheet, or coloring, because it is a good chance for me to walk around while they are busy and to have conversations to get to know them better. I let them decorate their Spanish folders, and for that, I drew these sun and moon.

More on interpersonal speaking activities in lower grades

With first and second graders is always good to have them occupied, since their attention span is short. That's why I frequently use props and objects related to what we are learning. Most of them also love to do worksheets. Since I can't find many that I like online, I usually end up creating them (most of my units have them as attachments!). The other challenge is including additional speaking tasks, to encourage language output. On the topic of clothing, I came up with the idea that you will see on the video. The worksheet has 8 clothing items, each one a specific color. Before they start coloring, I explain what I want them to do when they finish, since you are always going to have those who finish fast. I tell them that they have to look around in the classroom and find somebody dressed in any of the clothing items (same color), and then go to the person and say, for example, zapatos negros, and have them sign their name on the correct square. This is a good differentiating activity for your high achievers, who will be using the language as much as they can while every body finishes the worksheet.

Here is the video. Their classroom teacher got involved too!

Telling a story using TPR

TPR (Total Physical Response) makes telling a story much more interactive and helps students retain the language. Things can get a bit crazy, though, so I have learned to use a signal to let students know when they need to settle down. In the following video with a second grade class, you can see me explaining this before starting to read the story, and the actions that go along with it. It is a story about the four seasons, available at my store: Las cuatro estaciones. 

Explaining tasks in the target language

Some of the teachers I have come in contact with have trouble deciding if they should explain tasks in English to save time and have all students on board(as I did when I started teaching!). My advice usually is to give more detail when you are demonstrating (you can use 2 puppets or 2 students who actually do what you want them to do in front of the class); to persevere: if they don't get it, try it again in Spanish in a different way until they get it; and finally to take care of those that you see did not understand and help them individually while the class is performing the task. 

I recorded a video of me explaining a task in second grade: I wanted them to work with a partner and have each other guess who in the class was wearing an article of clothing. Explaining it in English would have taken me 30 seconds, but it can be done in Spanish. This is how I did it: I showed them a video I had made with my daughter asking questions about some kids in a picture and then I asked them to talk to each other. I had to correct a few (usually the ones who don't pay attention), but everybody accomplished the task.

Cooperative learning groups and other strategies for 4th and 5th graders

I have to admit that teaching 4th and 5th grade is a chore for me. Although some years I get a motivated and fun group, who can develop higher levels of communication in Spanish, I find that mostly students are not so eager to learn as students in 1st-3rd grade. It might be that the number of students is higher in 4th and 5th, or just the stage of development of 10-12 year-old kids. Or it might just be me! (I love the hugs and enthusiasm). Over the years, I have tried different strategies: focusing a bit more on literacy (Spanish journal, reading comprehensions) helps to motivate many of them, fun games motivate others (I have a document with the games I have collected over the years on sale on my store), and interpersonal communication activities help make them more accountable (and what's more, they love speaking to each other). Another strategy that has worked for me as well is making cooperative learning groups. I arrange students in groups of 4, and change them once a year. I usually try to put in the same group students with high ability level along with new or low ability level students, so that they can help each other (I told them that it would be like having about 6 Spanish teachers, instead of just one). This year I tried having the students give input on who they could work well with, after going over the rules of working in groups and brainstorming about who would be a good group mate. These are the rules I use:

Speak in Spanish
Everybody participates
Nobody is finished until everybody in the group is finished
Be positive

I had the students write the name of 3-4 people they could work well with. From that, I made the groups and asked for the class input. I had to make a few adjustments in the next couple of weeks as we tried the groups, but otherwise it was a good experience.

For a couple of weeks we try the groups. I ask each group to perform a simple task (for example, doing the calendar) on the board. The rest of the class watches them and after they finish, they tell me how they think the group did. We do our rules check list: did they speak only Spanish?, Did everybody participate? etc., and then we give the group a grade. The first time we use English, but after that we do it in Spanish. After 2 weeks, I start a sticker reward system: I make a poster with the names of the groups, and whenever they are working in groups, I walk around checking which groups are following the rules stressing out loud whatever positive behavior I observe, and give them stickers that they can put on the poster. At the end of the quarter, the group with the highest number of stickers wins a prize. 


All this requires a bit of work and time, but it is worth it.

Interpersonal speaking activities

In elementary school, what we want the students to do is to get used to infer meaning from meaningful input, but also to use the language chunks we teach as much as they can. I try to have students all speaking to each other at least one time per class. It can be something as simple as asking them to stand up and ask each other how they are. It is hard to asses, but it can be done. In this video you will see part of the set up for the activity. I created a table with "I like" and "I don't like" columns, and inserted images of the fruits we had learned. I called students to the board in pairs and wrote their names on the left column. Then, each one said what fruits they like and dislike while the other dragged the correct fruit to the table. After that I used this worksheet for my interpersonal speaking activity:

and demonstrated with 2 students what to do: I asked each student to write their name, then I made them swap papers. Student 1 asked student 2 "¿Te gusta la sandía?", student 2 answered yes/no, and then student 1 made a check mark in the correct box. After that, I set up pairs and gave them the worksheet. I walked around listening to each pair, and gave them sticker for speaking Spanish. Some of them even used complete sentences! To keep them occupied while I was listening to each group, I added a column with colors and asked them to color the fruits. I have 19 students in each first grade class, and I did the activity (set up included) in 2 class periods.