Three Ring Circus

This is a fun way to preteach three verbs in an active way. I first saw Nancy Llewellyn demonstrate this activity at Rusticatio in 2010 but had forgotten about it until I saw Alina Filipescu use this in her session at NTPRS this summer. If you have any students who like to act/mime, this is a great activity for them:

1. Pick out three verbs which you wish to preview/preteach and can be easily demonstrated by an action/gesture.
2. Write the three verbs in the target language on three strips of paper, i.e., one verb per strip.
3. Pick three students who will demonstrate the three verbs.
4. Hold up the first strip, say the verb in the target language, and define the verb in English to establish meaning.
5. Now have the first student demonstrate the action of the verb CONTINUOUSLY while you begin to circle, e.g. O class, Steven audit. (ohhh). Stevenne audit? (ita). Stevenne an Lady Gaga audit? (Steven). Lady Gagane audit? (minime). quis audit? (Steven). quid Steven agit? (audit)
6. Now tell the first student to take a break and do the whole thing again with a new verb and student. Repeat again with the third verb and student.
7. Line up all three students, and now ask three other students to stand behind them and to hold the strips over their heads.
8. Tell all three students to demonstrate their actions simultaneously and continously (hence, the "three ring circus" aspect), while you circle regarding the three actions.

Observations

1. When all three students are demonstrating their actions simultaneously as part of the Three Ring Circus, be aware: depending on the action, it can be very tiring for them if you do it for too long. This is a great activity in which to practice circling, but wow, one can get in a good workout acting out a verb. At Alina Filipescu's presentation, I had to demonstrate the verb "fight," and after a few minutes, I was really tired! Next time, I will ask if I can demonstrate "sit" or "stand"....
2. I was surprised by how engaged students were in the activity. Maybe the choice in verbs and gestures lent itself to engaging students, maybe the students which I picked know how to ham it up.
3. The three ring part of the activity naturally lends itself to circling, because you can ask about particular students, what they are doing, what they are not doing, who is doing what, who is not doing what, etc.

I have definitely added this activity to my CI arsenal, but I will probably only do it every 5-6 weeks to preserve the novelty.

P.S (July 23, 2018)
Here is a video of Grant Boulanger demonstrating Three Ring Circus in Spanish.

Here is another video demonstrating Three Ring Circus at 1:36.

Readers Theater

This is an activity which sounds exactly like it is: students acting out a reading. I have always wanted to do this with my students, but I have been a bit apprehensive, because there are so many variables and unknowns, e.g., what if my students do not want to act it out, what if it bombs. In her blog, my friend Miriam Patrick wrote about her same misgivings about doing Readers Theater with her classes but saw some good things come out of it.

In November, at ACTFL, I had wanted to attend Carol Gaab's presentation on Readers Theater, but it was right after the main general assembly and by the time I finally found where her presentation was, the room was overflowing. Last semester, I attended a TPRS workshop led by Karen Rowan, and as the workshop was held at a school during actual school hours, we registrants got the chance to see her demonstrate it with an actual Spanish class. And she did a WONDERFUL job with Readers Theater with a group of students whom she had just met, and these students had never done this before. Bolstered by what I saw, this past week, I decided to give it a try with two of my Latin 2 classes.

Here are a few things which I knew going in:

1. The reading needs to be comprehensible
2. The reading needs to be compelling
3. There needs to be ACTION in the reading. Yes, there can be dialogue, but as students will be acting this out, ACTION is what will get students' attention and keep them engaged
4. Props, props, props!!

So I wrote up the following short story about two students in my class, using stage 22 vocabulary and language structures:

Gianni in Starbucks cum barbara (barbaric) puella sedebat, bibentes caffeam et ridentes. Gianni clamavit, “mea cor (heart) est plenum amoris!” subito Henry intravit; barbara puella et Henry erant hostes (enemies). ingressus (having entered) Starbucks, Henry barbarm puellam conspexit. barbara puella erat irata, deiciens Henryem in pavimento (floor). Gianni erat iratus, deiciens barbaram puellam in pavimento (floor). subito mater barbarae puellae intravit; Gianni et mater erant hostes (enemies). ingressa (having entered) Starbucks, mater clamavit, “mea cor est plena irae!”

Here is how I did Readers Theater for the story:

1. Like I do with any reading, before I handed students the actual text, I read the story aloud to the class, as I myself acted it out. The job of the class purely was to listen and to watch me. Any word which they did not know (shown by the words in parentheses), I had writen on the board with English meanings and pointed to them during the story.
2. I then handed out the story for the class to read silently, as I read it again. This time, I asked if there were any words which they did not know, and then I gave them the meaning.
3. We did a bit of basic comprehension questions. I did not want to tire students of the story just yet by doing too much circling.
4. I then told the class that we would be doing Readers Theater and to tell me who they thought in the class would be good actors. This way, the burden was on the class and not on me. We needed four actors. The class was VERY willing to volunteer each other. If a student did not want to act it out, then he/she did not have to.
5. My props were 2 desks, 2 coffee mugs; a beard and helmet for the barbara puella; a plastic sword and beret for the mater
6. Once I established who was playing what character, I simply had the actors listen to the story and act it out as I read it aloud slowly in Latin.
7. If I did not feel like the actors were "emoting" enough, I would call "cut" and give them new stage directions in English for "motivation," i.e., the point was for the play to become incredibly melodramatic so that the audience would be engaged. An example was anytime anyone entered, they had to open a pretend door, walk through it and then slam it (complete with the person saying "SLAM"). 
8. Following 10-15 minutes of Readers Theater, I did some comprehension questions in Latin, asking "qui erant in Starbucks? quid agebant? quis intravit?" and then I had the class do a timed write of the story.

Observations of Readers Theater

1. One of my classes absolutely loved it and could not get enough of it. The other class, although they "enjoyed" it, did not seem as engaged, and I actually had a difficult time finding willing participants. This does not mean that it was not a success with that particular class; I just feel like that class was more self-conscious and introverted.
2. Calling "cut" and asking for students to act out a sentence again lent itself for a natural repetition of the Latin sentence.
3. In both of the classes, if the students were not pleased with the acting which they were watching, they themselves actually called out "cut" and gave suggestions for what the actor should do.
4. The props were wonderful and really got the actors engaged.
5. The visual acting out of the story gave students another level of comprehensibility, as they were able to associate what they heard with a visual representation.
6. Students were definitely engaged in the activity, as they were watching their peers act out an "over-the-top" story.
7. It is amazing how 10-15 minutes of Readers Theater can go a LONG way in student language acquisition.

I am definitely doing Readers Theater again!!