Yearly Archives: 2010

French & Spanish Speaking Activity: Shipwreck

Your students will build their proficiency, polish their skills and create increasingly complex sentences with this dynamic and interactive speaking activity. Naufragio/Naufrage encourages strategic thinking and friendly competition.

Let’s take a look at how it works:

In each of the squares, there are pictures, numbers, time or subject/infinitive. Whatever the theme is that students are working on. Students play against an opponent or two and each player has a different colored pencil.
Player 1 begins by choosing a box and identifies the verb form or picture and then creates a sentence, depending on the proficiency level. There are reference pages to support students in level up their language.
Players use a colored pencil to claim squares by forming rows as they earn points and hone speaking skills. They also try to block the other players from doing the same. That’s where it gets really fun and engaging. So fun that they forget about how much of the language that are actually using.

Students have useful and essential tools to engage in this small-group activity, including reference pages to assist in building sentences and checking their accuracy.

Each resource includes:

Directions for how to do the activity
A reference page with vocabulary or verb forms
A reference page for building sentences
Game boards

There is absolutely no prep required. Just print out and you’re ready to go.

Spanish Naufragio Vocabulary Topics:

Spanish Naufragio Verb Form Topics:

French Naufrage Vocabulary Topics:

French Naufrage Verb Form Topics:

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Posted in Activities and Games, Grammar and Structures, Speaking

Tagged activity, game, Speaking, verbs, Writing

Foreign Language Writing Prompts with Outlines

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Foreign (World) Language Writing Prompts and Outlines (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.com In an effort to try to cut down on the number of drafts that students need to write, particularly when the language issues are in the areas of spelling, accent placement, verb forms and adjective agreement, try using this approach. Give the students the topic in advance of an in-class writing assignment along with the prep sheet (see example below). The prep sheet is for student use and reference during the writing assignment in class. The left hand side has room for brainstorming and outlining, while right hand site has spaces for nouns, verbs in the infinitive, verb conjugation tables and any other grammatical or mechanical language element that students need to focus on. Students then write in class and use this sheet, which they have completed on their own based in the topic. This information is essentially what students will need to reference when working on additional drafts that the teacher has corrected. This approach has students notice and reference on their own and will most likely make an additional draft unnecessary. Try having students write on a topic with and without this type of sheet and see how the student work is different. The grammar topics on the right side should reflect the topic and what the teacher wants the students to use while writing.

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Posted in Classroom Procedures, Grammar and Structures, Writing

Tagged Grammar, verbs, writng

Foreign Language Word Recognition and Vocabulary Review

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This is a fun way for students to practice or review vocabulary . The activity is based on magic squares. There are 16 squares in each grid and each contains a vocabulary word (vegetable vocabulary in the example below). Below to the grid are 16 pictures. The student writes the number for the match in the grid. If done correctly, each row, column, and diagonal add up to 34. Great as a class starter or for a substitute. There is also a template below so you can make your own version with your own vocabulary.

You can make these activities in a WORD document using the template below or you can download the activities below the template that have the words and pictures in them.

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Posted in Activities and Games, Reading

Tagged Reading, vocabulary

Verb Reference when Speaking and Writing

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This handy reference for students has verb forms on both sides. I photocopy it on card stock (two-sides) and cut it into strips so that students can put it in their books, usually in the lesson we are currently studying. My students really like having this easily accessible reference so that they don’t always have to go looking through their book for verb forms when speaking and writing. The example below is for beginning/intermediate students, but more advanced students would benefit from more advanced verb forms and conjugations.

This handy reference can be made in a WORD document by making columns or text boxes. You can also download them completed in French and Spanish here:

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Posted in Classroom Procedures, Grammar and Structures, Speaking, Writing

Tagged Speaking, verbs, Writing

Classic Battleship to Get Kids Speaking

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I always like to use classic games such as battleship in the foreign language classroom. These types of activities don’t typically require a lot of explanation because students are familiar with the how the game is played and they can get right on task practicing their language skills. You can read about how language instruction is improved with “fun and games” in a post that I wrote previously.

Here is an example of how battleships can be used to practice clothing vocabulary and colors in Spanish. Students place boats (filled in boxes) on the game board. Students play against another student and try to find and sink the boats of the opponent. There are pictures of clothing down the left side and colors across the top (this can also easily be done with with subjects and verbs). To choose a square, the player must say the article of clothing and the correct form of the color. All of the necessary vocabulary (boat names, hit, sunk, miss, examples of how to say a sentence) are on the sheet for student reference. There are two grids for each player to use, one to put his/her own “boats” on and the other to keep track of the opponent.

Download Battleship Games Here:

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Posted in Activities and Games, Listening, Speaking

Tagged battleship, Listening, Speaking

Find your Match-Speaking Activity to Practice Foreign Language Vocabulary

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This is a great well to keep students in the target language while they focus on a particular vocabulary theme. The example below using clothing. Give slip of paper to each student with pictures of five articles of clothing. There are 6 six pairs total. In the example below the slips on the left are paired with slips on the right.

Students circulate in the classroom and ask each other which clothing they have (they should not look at others’ answers or show theirs). The entire activity should take place in the target language. The objective is to find the other person who has the exact match. If there are more than 12 students in the class, photocopy additional slips and students need to find their group of 3 or 4 that all match. If there is an odd number of students in the class, be sure to give a slip that matches a group.

The first group to pair up without speaking English or looking at each other’s slip wins the round. Students can then exchange slips and play a second and third time. Before playing, review the vocabulary that students will need.

These activities can be made in a WORD document by cutting and pasting images, or you can download the activities that are already made here:

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Posted in Activities and Games, Speaking

Tagged Listening, Speaking, vocabulary

Effective Reading in a Foreign Language

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As teachers proceed with reading and reading strategies in a foreign language, it is important to keep in mind these characteristics of successful and unsuccessful readers. The list below will help teachers determine what reading strategies are needed by their students.

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Posted in Classroom Procedures, Reading

Using “Context Clues” to Determine Word Meaning

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When faced with an unfamiliar word, students need to consider the context of the word in order to locate clues for predicting the meaning. Teachers often talk about using “context clues” to determine meaning, but there is very little published on what the strategies might be to engage this process. Below are some suggestions for explicit instruction on determining the meaning of an unknown word.

Type of Word: Is the word used as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.?

Articles often preceded nouns.
Adjectives are typically before or after a noun, or after a form of “to be”
Nouns are often found after prepositions
Regular verbs have predictable endings
Subject pronouns often precede verbs
Adverbs are often found in front of or after verbs

Semantic Relationship: Other words in the sentence may provide clues to the meaning of a word.

The noun in a sentence may provide a clue to the meaning of the verb. For example: The architect designs buildings.
The verb in a sentence may provide a clue to the meaning of a noun. For example: The architect designs buildings.
Nouns and verbs may provide clues to the meaning of another word in a sentence. For example: The architect designed the building using a state-of-the-art computer program.

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Posted in Classroom Procedures, Reading

Class Starters (Do Nows, Warm Ups) for the Foreign Language Classroom

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Class Starters (often called Do Nows, Warm Ups or Quick Questions) are a great way to set the tone for the work to be done in class. It is also a great opportunity to have students review vocabulary and grammar regularly so that the concepts stay active. These activities are also an effective tool for class management, particularly when students know that they are receiving a grade. typically give a grade out of 5 points for each day.

Below are some ideas for class starters in a world language class as well the document that students use to record their answers.

Reorganize jumbled-up letters in a word
Write words in singular or plural
Write correct form of an adjective
Write correct verb forms (in various tenses)
Organize words to make a sentenc

Here is a more extensive list of Do Now Activities.

Click here for my blog post about short activities that can be used as Do Nows or activities for Fast Finishers.

Reorganise jumbled up letters in a word (To practice spelling, alphabet and revise vocabulary) Tell students the topic that all words belong to.

Write words in the singular or the plural (To practice singular and plural articles)

Determine the correct form of the adjective (To practice adjective forms and agreement)Give students a noun and they write the correct form of the adjective)

Give the correct verb forms (To practice the forms of regular and irregular verbs)

Give students a subject pronoun and 5 or 6 verbs. Students write the verb forms.

Reorganise words within a sentence (To practice word order, agreements and revise vocabulary) Tell students the topic.

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Posted in Classroom Procedures, Writing

Tagged class management, warm up, Writing

Teaching Circumlocution to Students

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It is often challenging for students to say or write something when they do not know the correct word (or can’t remember the word) that they want to use. During a conversation or speaking activity, students sometimes struggle to find the right word. When this happens, it’s usually not practical or possible to use a dictionary. For this reason it is important to explicitly teach the skill of using circumlocution.

Circumlocution is a strategy for describing or defining a concept instead of saying or writing the specific words. Students should be taught how to do this and the teacher can give them tools to help in the process.

Here are some suggestions to teach students the art of circumlocution explicitly:

Use vocabulary that you already know.
Try to think of another way to convey the message.
Use a synonym.
Use a more general category word (fruit, clothing, etc.)
Explain what and object is not.
Point and use gestures, actions, and sounds.

Here are two documents that give examples of how to use circumlocution as well as some activities to practice the strategies.

Circumlocution in Spanish
Circumlocution in French

This is what my Circumlocution wall looks like with the English translation below.

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Posted in Classroom Procedures, Speaking, Writing

Yearly Archives: 2010