Category Archives: Reading

Foreign Language Vocabulary and Verb Form Magic Squares

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I saw that some of my students were working on Magic Squares in their math classes and I saw my in.  Magic squares are a grid of 9, 16, or 25 boxes and when the numbers 1-9, 1-16, or 1-125 are inserted into the grid the total of each row, column and diagonal line is the same (15, 34 and 65 respectively).

Foreign (World) Language Verb Form Magic Squares (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comI created verb and vocabulary activities that ask students to fill in the number of the correct answer in the grid and then when done they can add up the rows and check their work.  This has been great for all sorts of verb forms and vocabulary (pictures work really well).  The trick is to work out the number solutions on your own and to then fill in the grid.  Students really enjoy this and it works great as a pair activity as well.  Below is an example where students fill in the number of the correct subject/verb with the correct verb form.

Foreign (World) Language Verb Form Magic Squares (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.com

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Posted in Activities and Games, Grammar and Structures, Reading

Litterature Activity Centers

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If you are looking for follow-up activities to engage students in a text that they have read in the target language,  consider setting up reading stations (sometimes called centers) in the classroom.  These centers typically center on a particular interest of the student and you can have each student complete one or two of the activities depending on time and interest.  When students have a choice they tend to invest more time and focus  more attention.  Here are some ideas for setting up reading stations in your world language classroom:

reading centers

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Using Wordle in the World Language Class

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Wordle is a resource for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery.

These word clouds can be used as a pre-reading activity in a a second language.  Students can look for the most prominent words and begin to decipher what the text will be about.  Student writing can also be put into a word cloud and you can have other students visually look at the text.  There are many interesting uses for this free tool.

Here is an example using a Neruda poem:

SABRÁS QUE NO TE AMO

Sabrás que no te amo y que te amo
puesto que de dos modos es la vida,
la palabra es un ala del silencio
el fuego tiene una mitad de frío.

Yo te amo para comenzar a marte,recomenzar el infinito
y para no dejar de amarte nunca:
por eso no te amo todavía.

Te amo y no te amo como si tuviera
en mis manos las llaves de la dicha
y un incierto destino desdichado.

Mi amore tiene dos vidas para amarte.
Pore eso te amo cuando no te amo
y por eso te amo cuando te amo.

Wordle in the Foreign (World) Language Classroom (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpess.com

Check out the site HERE.

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Foreign Language Reading and State Testing

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We live in the age of state testing. For those teachers who are in public schools, there is a need and expectation that all subject teachers attend to the literacy needs of students. Traditionally, the level of foreign language in the middle school (and even high school) has not been sophisticated enough to contribute to the language arts framework.

Janel Paquin, the Past-President of the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (MaFLA), recently addressed the literacy issue during the Association’s Summer Immersion Institute. She became aware, while doing advocacy work in Washington, that foreign language classes must contribute to the literacy needs of students so that the departments are valued, respected, and funded.

We hear about foreign language programs and individual languages being cut on a regular basis these days. One way of defending language programs to the wider school community is to emphasize reading and writing in the language classroom and making others aware of how this contributes to Language Arts curricula (while still focusing on speaking and listening of course).

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Creating Reading Activities

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Reading Activity for Foreign (World) Language. (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.com

The following reading sequence engages students in reading activities that not only help with their foreign language skills, but also contribute to their overall reading and writing ability.

Regarding reading activities, it is important to keep the following in mind:

  • Reading comprehension is not a memory task.
  • Follow-up activities should engage the reading during and after the reading process (with access to text as needed)
  • Learner comprehension of a text is often more advanced than their read-aloud level.

It is best to engage students through Reading Station Activities. Here are a couple of guidelines to help guide the process:

  • Begin with a short text with enough details to challenge the learner.
  • Include new vocabulary.
  • Include lots of familiar vocabulary.
  • Readings should get progressively more detailed (vocabulary and structure) as students are exposed to new language elements.

Once the students have read the text either as a class, independently, or in groups, they will move on to station activities. Remember, the purpose of the station activities is to help the student understand the text, so don’t spend too much time making sure that the students all understand the text before moving on to the station work.

In terms of room set-up and student flow, try the following:

  • 5-8 stations works well.
  • Depending on the number of students, they may work alone or in groups.
  • Each station should engage the comprehension of the text in a different manner.
  • Students choose 3-4 stations (2 if they choose a challenging one)

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Reading Stations in the Foreign Language Classroom

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Students need to engage with a text to truly understand the themes, concepts, vocabulary and structures.  Reading comprehension questions don’t provide much engagement with text.  Here are some ideas for creating reading stations for your foreign language students.  These are activities that require students to engage with the text and make meaning.  These are general activities that can be modified to fit various reading proficiency levels.

Reading Station Activities for the Foreign (World) Language Classroom. (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comHERE are some Spanish Reading passages that work well with these activities.

Station 1: Photos

  • Students arrange photos chronologically according to the text.

Sentences (individual or in small groups)

  • Students  arrange sentences chronologically according to the text. They should not be sentences taken directly from the text, but rather use different words.

Match Photos with Vocabulary (individual or small groups)

  • Students have a number of words from the story (familiar and new) as well as a picture representation of each word.

Station 4: Bingo in a Bag (small groups)

  • Students take a blank bingo card and fill in words that you give them.  All students have all of the answers to questions that you will put in a bag, but their boards will be different.
  • Students take a question (about the text) out of a bag and mark the answer on their bingo card. Play continues around with each player taking turns and adding the question back into the bag.
  • When a student gets 4 in a row, the teacher verifies and the student is declared the winner.

Drawing (individual or in small groups)

  • Students use pencils, markers, or crayons to draw a storyboard for the story

Writing

  • Given a choice, students will compose a written piece. They should have a number of options to choose from. You may want to consider giving them a RAFT, which is a choice of writing assignments in different forms and from different points of view. You can learn more about the RAFT writing process HERE.

Try these ideas out and think of some other ways to engage students in a written text.  Please comment on this post of you have some ideas to share, particularly for non-fiction texts.

HERE are some Spanish Reading passages that work well with these activities.

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