Tag Archives: communicative activities

104: Revisit Teacher Toolbox Episodes

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This is episode 3 in my 2023 summer headspace series. This is a chance to revisit episodes from the previous school year during the summer months when you may have a little extra time. Beginning August 28th, you will see new episodes with exciting new topics every Monday.  For today we take a look back at episodes 69 and 85, 2 of my Teacher Toolbox episodes with activity that you can use right away in your classroom. 

Activities Mentioned: 

  • Quiz-Quiz-Trade
  • At the Table
  • Shipwreck
  • The Card Path
  • The Die Decides
  • Logic Puzzles
  • Learn/Practice/Apply
  • Time Capsules
  • ChatGPT 

Episodes: 

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99: Planning Communicative Activities Efficiently with Hope Anderson

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Do you find it time-consuming to create effective communicative activities? We can all feel that way at times.  In this episode, we are talking about how to do this more efficiently.  Hope Anderson, a Spanish instructor in Arizona, joins me to offer suggestions for going about our communicative practices a little more efficiently, while also being quite effective. Something for all of us to learn.

Topics in this Episode:

  • breaking down exactly what we mean by communicative teaching
  • how to determine if an activity is truly and authentically communicative
  • the value and benefits of authentic communication in the language classroom.
  • ways to engage students in communicative tasks without taking a ton of time
  • using templates when creating tasks

Connect with Hope Anderson:

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

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Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
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We record conversations remotely, so you can be anywhere.

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70: Simple Ways to Make Activities More Communicative with Julie Baker

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In this episode, we are talking about how we can create a supportive classroom environment so that learners, particularly those new to language learning, feel comfortable speaking the target language.  Julie Baker, The Director of the French Intensive Language Program at the University of Richmond,  joins me to take this a step further with simple ways of modifying speaking activities that we all are likely doing so that they are indeed communicative. 

Topics in this episode:

  • what it means to have a “safe space” for speaking the TL, why this is important, and how we can create this type of classroom
  • motivating students to speak and interact in the TL with some ways to facilitate this in the classroom
  •  how to determine if our activities are truly communication, rather than simply practicing structures and vocabulary
  • simple ways to make our activities more communicative with concrete examples
  • assessment and evaluation of communication, compared with assessment of language structure and vocabulary

Connect with Julie Baker

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me on the podcast.
We record conversations remotely, so you can be anywhere.

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Posted in Classroom Procedures, Podcast Episodes

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