Tag: review

It’s the Final Countdown!

This time of year, I can’t help but start to hear that song in my head as I pump myself up for the school day. I don’t know about YOUR class, but this time of year, they are starting to shut down.

Of course, I can’t blame them, because teachers are also distracted by all the end of the year grades and phone calls home and paperwork and meetings and planning and testing and…. well, you know what I mean!

So, how do we beat the overwhelming apathy? How do we keep them engaged in learning?

Gamify ANYTHING you can gamify!

1- The Unfair Game is a great, low-prep option. You can read more about that HERE.

2- You could play good, old-fashioned baseball with review questions. You will have to create the questions before starting the game, or simply use questions from previous exams if you are reviewing for a final exam. In this game, you simply draw a baseball diamond on the board and move the teams around the bases by answering questions that are of varying difficulty (single, double, triple or homerun). You can play with 2-4 teams. I have found that more than that seems to have many students not participating at any given time.

3- Of course, there are online options like Blooket, Gimkit, Quizizz and Kahoot. All of these are great options to keep students engaged.

4- This time of year, I appreciate crosswords for vocabulary review. It is an easy way to allow students to self-check their review AND keeps them off screens.

5- Trashketball is another fun variation of the baseball game. It involves a rolled up piece of paper with some duct tape over it and an empty bucket or trashcan. I usually have point lines on the floor with colored masking tape. A student or group (if you play in teams) has to get the answer to a question correctly in order to try to earn points for their team.

6- If you have a smaller class or even if you have chairs that don’t have attached desks, you can play musical chairs. You can place the chairs into several groups and allow them to play that way. Whomever ends sitting in the chair has to answer a question correctly or be eliminated.

7- JENGA is always a fun option too! You can get any Jenga set. There are small ones at most dollar stores and generic sets online. My favorite way to play this is with a life-sized Jenga that you can easily make by cutting 2×4 boards or buying the version you can play in your yard. For this one, each must be numbered. If the student places it on top without it falling, they have the chance to answer the question that corresponds to the numbers of questions you have prepared. They get points if they do both things. There are a number of variations for this game. First, you could have them play one class game in teams. Second, you could have two sets and have them play in groups with each set. Finally, you could have the small sets and allow partners or groups of 3 to play. Students are ALWAYS engaged in this one.

I hope some of these ideas help you find some way to engage students. Please comment with a game you use in your classroom. Maybe this way, we can all find something new to use this year!

Happy teaching!

Alana

Station Activity – Comic Stories

Happy Sunday! Looking for something to do TOMORROW with no prep? I got you covered! This is a quick, easy station activity or group assignment or individual assignment!

I originally created this to be part of my review stations for the end of the year in both my Spanish classes and my ESL classes. It works great as a quick, 15 minute or so station, but… kids LOVE to draw! So, if you make them draw AND color, this could quickly become a full class period lesson. First, you would have them try on their own. They would need to sketch what they think it says. Then, have them work with a partner or table group to make sure they all understood the same story. Once they are sure, they can finalize their sketch and color it. Finally, as a last step, have them write to answer the questions. For beginners, you may have them write in the language they are most comfortable with. For intermediates, they should be able to write in the class language. You can also add some extra questions or have them continue the story for 1-2 frames on the back of the paper as an extension!

Here is the English version! The English and Spanish versions can be found on my TpT store for a quick, easy download. Or, feel free to take the story and just have students fold their paper into 8 sections and write the story in! No copies needed! I have been in schools before where making copies was just not possible. So, it just makes it a little neater if you are able to print.

Hope this inspires you to get them talking and working together! I will have this and other review station materials up for sale on my TpT store, but, as mentioned above, feel free to just have them do it on paper. The key is to sail on into the summer with low stress and high engagement!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

Easy Station Review for Reading in Spanish

One section of our final exam is reading comprehension. Due to the timing of state testing this year, I have to create some stations my students can do independently and in shortened periods. So, I had created the page below HERE is a link to the PDF.

This is super simple, but I have it glued into a file folder and laminated. Then, I put a passage I want them to be able to read and answer questions about.

You can have them choose the questions to answer. You can number them and assign certain questions. You could assign ALL questions. You can have them work in groups or together. You could even cut the page up and pass out one question to each group and have them answer about a passage you read together. There are SO many variations!

I even print these on a half page and then have students glue them into their interactive notebooks.

I hope this gets your students reading and showing you what they know!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

Picture Perfect – A comprehensible way to review vocabulary

In the name of keeping it comprehensible, here is a super simple way to review vocabulary and/or grammar.

This one is for reviewing “mandatos” for the final exam I am required to give. I made it super quick, so excuse the quality, but hopefully it gives you the idea of how to do this. You can then use THIS as a template to change for whatever you are needing to review and/ or introduce.

I use these sometimes with pictures of my students, things in our school or even get other teachers to help me by letting me take pictures of them with the items or doing the actions for that set of vocabulary.

Then, I talk about each picture. This gives me a chance to review previous vocabulary and also reinforce staying in the class language for as long as possible.

For example, I would use the slide above to talk about the children by describing them and their clothing, reviewing colors, reviewing what they are doing (or any other form of the verb). I could talk about this picture for 2-3 minutes without much effort by pointing to all of the different visual supports.

As always, I hope this idea helps you have an easy day or inspires you to create something simple like it that keeps students engaged and you able to easily stay in the class language.

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

Review Materials – Make them Interactive!

As I posted this week, I am creating lots of materials to help my students review for the required vocabulary and grammar in the school where I teach. I do not teach these out of context throughout the year, but we do have common semester assessments, so I want them to feel prepared. I believe strongly in the use of comprehensible input for true language acquisition, so this is quite a deviation from the way I generally teach.

That being said, I wanted to review but keep it fun, interactive and comprehensible. So, I came up with a method I explained in an earlier post HERE. I have taken all the required vocabulary and started to create some interactive activities we can do together or in small groups. Here is one I created to review zoo animals and prepositions of place. I was able to watch students use vocabulary, listen to instructions and demonstrate an understanding of animals and prepositions of place.

This can also be used with younger students to teach the vocabulary and have them practicing the vocabulary in an interactive way. You could certainly print the zoo page and the animals stickers and have students do this in class without the use of computers as well.

Here is the place to move and label the animals.

Here are some of the stickers I used.

Hope this inspires you to get them talking and working together! I will have this and other sets of common vocabulary units up for sale on my TpT store, but you could certainly just use notecards with simple drawings or pics you print. The key is to sail on into the summer with low stress and high engagement!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!