Language game to provide more comprehensible input: Guess Who?

https://goo.gl/photos/JPio26rjA9UosKXR7

As I mentioned in my previous post about story listening, I am part of an amazing group on Facebook called "CI Liftoff'' where educators around the world are discussing about how to use pure comprehensible input in the language acquisition process.

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acquire28 acquisition33 adults1 children8 ci16 comics1 communicate5 communication7 communicative7 compelling10 comprehend10 comprehensible41 comprehensible input6 comprehension31 content5 culture22 describe4 describing1 Education8 engaging9 foreign language5 France4 French20 fun13 game8 guess who1 high frequency7 high interest5 input39 interest9 interesting9 language26 language learning1 learner8 learners2 message2 online7 physical2 play7 playing3 reading36 story34 story asking9 story building3 TPRS34 tutor2 tutoring1 unconscious3 unconsciously3 understand7 understanding8 write5 writing17

How to use poems with first year Spanish learners?

I found this lovely poem on Pinterest and I used it with my grade 6 students (11-12 years old) as it was the prefect review for physical description and family.

Listening/comprehension: I told the poem “TPRS style” by drawing the "abuela" on the board little by little,

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beginner10 family16 grade 68 physical2 poem4 pronunciation2 re-telling1 re-write2 read7 reading36 Spanish27 speaking37 story34 storytelling28 structures6 TPRS34 vocabulary18 write5 writing17

Describing your home town and local area in Spanish

Another IGCSE topic is about describing where you live. First I had my grade 9 students watch this excellent video about a girl describing where she lives near Madrid (you can watch it with or without subtitles):

I then asked my students to produce a short movie like the one above about their local area.

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criteria1 describe4 Education8 feedback3 film7 home3 home town2 homework2 IGCSE12 local area2 Madrid1 oral11 peer assessment2 publish2 publishing1 skills24 Spanish27 speaking37 speaking skills2 technology2 topic8 town1 video32

A fun way to describe a family in Spanish

I think I have already mentioned a few times that I really dislike going trough the boring topics of the IGCSE examinations! I am therefore trying to find new ways of reviewing some of the topics students have already learned such as describing people, and particularly describing family members.

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Blogging2 book10 creative12 describe4 examination4 exams3 family16 fun13 grade 98 IGCSE12 mini-book2 oral11 pocket book1 present3 presentation10 presenting1 Spanish27 speaking37 topics3

Talk about a picture in Spanish

A picture can be a great start for a conversation when it is hard to get students talking in the target language. In my present school, we prepare grade 9 and 10 for the IGCSE exams and one part of the exam is about students having to converse with the teachers about different topics they have previously learned.

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ab initio2 chat1 confidence4 confident4 conversation12 converse3 describe4 Education8 gain1 IB6 IGCSE12 language26 learn5 master1 painting5 photo1 photograph1 picture3 pin1 pinterest6 questions19 Spanish27 spanish playground1 vocabulary18