If you teach multiple grade levels, or various proficiency levels, you probably like to find an activity or project that can be used across levels. I would like to share a project with you that you can use with novice and intermediate learners. It is essentially the same concept. It differs only in how students engage with the content that they produce.
Students create a time capsule that is a snapshot of their life over the past year. I typically do this as the school year, so you will see 2019-2020 in the examples. I have students do this digitally in Google slides. I have seen in done in a journal as well with pictures and writing glued to the pages. While the tactile nature and opportunities for creative design are more apparent with the physical product I find that that it is logistically easier to manage when it is digital.
Students begin by responding to prompts in the target language.
- Name:
- Town/City:
- Birthday:
- Age:
- Personal adjectives (3) to describe yourself:
- Family (name, age, relation):
- Gratitude (3 things you are thankful for or appreciate):
- School:
- Teachers and Subjects:
- Friends :
- Activity :
- Where?:
- When?:
- With whom?:
- Activity :
- Where?:
- When?:
- With whom?:
- Activity :
- Where?:
- When?:
- With whom?:
- Music:
- Film/TV/Netflix/Amazon :
- Favorite Move or TV Program:
- Favorite Actress or Actor:
- Reading
- Favorite Book:
- Favorite Writer:
Once these are done students find pictures to go along with each of these topics and put them in google slides. I provide the template and they fill it in.
The final step is where the projected is differentiated by proficiency level. You can see a review of proficiency levels here.
Novice mid to novice high students write about what is “in” their time capsule and these sentences go on each slide with the images. At this level I usually provide sentence starters as well, such as “My favorite actress is…” or ” My math teacher is…” At this proficiency level the work is done in the present.
Novice high to intermediate low students write as if they were opening the time capsule in five years and write about they did, what they liked, who their teachers were, etc. five years ago. For languages with preterite and imperfect tenses, this lends itself to distinguishing between the preterite and imperfect. Students at this level tend (in my experience) to be better with the preterite. For the sentences that would require the imperfect I typically provide sentence starters.
Intermediate low to intermediate mid students write as if they were opening the time capsule in fifty years and writing about they used to do, what they liked, who their teachers were, etc. fifty years ago. For language with preterite and imperfect tenses, this lends itself to using the preterite and imperfect accurately, and it provides an effective way to contextualize the tenses.
I also include a speaking component. Once students are done with the time capsule, and are very familiar with all of the content, I set up time for them to have a 5-minute discussion with me about their time capsule.
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