Pancho Cumacho

This is a VERY fun activity which I saw Alina Filipescu demonstrate at NTPRS this past summer. It is a great 5-10 minute activity which is a lot like Hot Potato, and it is definitely full of comprehensible (albeit fast) repetitions. My students LOVE this game and the fact that I the teacher will play the final round against them. Here is a link to a blog post which Alina has written up about Pancho Cumacho (there is also a video of the game). 

http://tprsforchinese.blogspot.com/2015/09/pancho-camacho-game.html

NOTE - for this game, even though I am using Latin words, I still keep the name Pancho Cumacho purely for the phonetics. I could not find a Latin name which would have the same effect.

Thanks, Alina for showing us this game!

The Marker Partner Game

Today, I played the Marker Partner Game with my students. This is an activity which Cynthia Hitz, a CI/TPRS Spanish teacher, mentioned in her ACTFL presentation last November. The game is a lot like Spoons, and yes, it is just as competitive and high-action! It is a great way to review a reading in the target language and to get in comprehensible repetitions of the language in a very fun way. If your class is in need of some much needed energy, this is a very dynamic activity.

The directions can be found on Cynthia's blog -http://palmyraspanish1.blogspot.com/2014/05/active-reading-review.html

Cynthia has SO MUCH good stuff on her blog. She's a wonderful woman whom I only really know through Twitter; follow her @sonrisadelcampo. I have met Cynthia a few times in person at ACTFL, and I have learned a great deal from her blog and presentations. I recommend that you bookmark Cynthia's blog, because it is definitely worth reading.  

Lesson Plan - Want to Have, Love, See. Take, Give to Him/Her

I've received a lot of very positive feedback about my Week 1 Lesson Plan. Here is my lesson which I recently used to teach the verbs want to have, love, see, take, and give to him/her; and the nouns dog, money, and baby. I chose those particular verb structures, because they are high frequency, and because students already knew the verbs want and have, I could easily add on the infinitive to have and teach it as a single structure. It is not necessary to use those particular nouns, but to me, they seemed somewhat compelling for the story.

English version
Yoda sees Kim Kardashian. Yoda loves Kim. Kim sees Yoda. Yoda does not love Kim. 

Kim wants to have a dog. Yoda sees a dog. Yoda takes the dog. Yoda gives the dog to her. Kim loves the dog, but aww shucks, Kim does not love Yoda.

Kim wants to have money. Yoda sees money. Yoda takes the money. Yoda gives the money to her. Kim loves the money, but aww shucks, Kim does not love Yoda.

Kim wants to have a baby. Yoda sees a baby. Yoda takes the baby. Yoda gives the baby to her. Kim loves the baby, but aww shucks, the baby explodes.

Latin version

Yoda Kim Kardashianem videt. Yoda Kimem amat.Kim Yodam videt. Kim Yodam non amat.

Kim canem habere vult. Yoda canem videt. Yoda canem capit. Yoda canem ei dat. Kim canem amat, sed edepol! Kim Yodam non amat.

Kim pecuniam habere vult. Yoda pecuniam videt. Yoda pecuniam capit. Yoda dulciolum ei dat. Kim pecuniam amat, sed edepol! Kim Yodam non amat.

Kim infantem habere vult. Yoda infantem videt. Yoda infantem capit. Yoda infantem ei dat.

Kim infantem amat, sed edepol!  infans displodit.

Day 1

1) Dictatio of story version #1 (dictatio directions)

Day 2

2) Teacher retells story aloud and acts it out w/ circling and PQAs (sorry, no script this time!)

Day 3

1) Readers Theater of story (if you as the teacher play Movie Director with this, you can get students to redo their stage directions after each sentence to get in more reps of the language!)

2) Choral Reading of story

Day 4

1) Read/Draw of story

Day 5

1) Partner retell of story in Latin, using Read/Draw

2) 5-minute timed write of story, using Read/Draw as a story map

Day 6

1) Project student-written timed write endings and read as a class (pick out any endings which students wrote for their timed write, edit them for grammar purposes, and write them on a document or powerpoint)

2) Read Dating of Story Version #2