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.  

BINGO Free Write

If there is ever a game in which students become incredibly competitive, it is BINGO. They can play this for HOURS. I have always enjoyed playing a game of Vocabulary BINGO with students, but at the same time, I felt that it was incredibly limited. We were dealing with isolated forms and vocabulary with nothing really in terms of a context, but at the same time, if I tried to impose too much in trying to create a context for the words during the game, then it stopped being BINGO. The reason why BINGO is fun is its simplicity.

I found the following BINGO activity on Martina Bex’s website, and I absolutely love it. It combines the fun of playing BINGO with a timed free write. The Latin version is called VINCO. 

1. Create a 5x5 grid and over each column, put the letters V, I, N, C and O. I do not put a free space.
2. Write a list of 35 vocabulary words/forms with which students are very familiar due to their usage. I try to keep nouns in the nominative form, but I put verbs usually in the perfect tense (e.g., cantavit, adeptus est, affectus est, circumventus est). Prepositional phrases (e.g., in fuga), idiomatic expressions (e.g., re vera, sine dubio, nisi fallor), impersonal verbs (e.g., necesse est, difficile est), high frequency forms (e.g., voluit, poterat) and even specific forms (e.g., lacrimatura, bibitura) are good too.
3. Cut out strips of the 35 words and put them in a bag.
4. Give each student a VINCO grid and a list of the words. They are to pick 25 words from the list of 35 and to fill in the grid however they choose.
5. Play a normal game of BINGO by pulling out a vocabulary word and calling out the the English meaning. As I do not have beans for them to put on their square, student mark the spaces themselves. NOTE - you will not be calling out the letter of the column like you would in regular Bingo.
   
   VARIATION - create the 5x5 grid with specific words for each column. Students will have to pick 5 words from the V list to put in the V column, 5 words from the I list to put in the I column, etc. This way, then you call out the letter like you would in a regular BINGO game. For some reason, this is VERY important to students. In planning, you will now have to put the corresponding letter on the vocabulary strip so that you can call out both the letter and word.
   
   
6. When a student gets 5 in a row, then he/she yells out (and yes, I make them yell) "VINCO!" They read back to me the Latin words, and I give out a piece of candy. I usually keep playing a round until there are 4-5 winners. After that, we begin a new round. 
7. After playing 3-4 rounds of VINCO, now tell students to get out a sheet of paper and that they will be doing a timed free write
8. Using their VINCO paper, students are to pick 5 words in a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and to write them at the top of their paper.
9. Explain to students that they are to now write a story based on the prompt that will incorporate all 5 words.
10. Show them the prompt, start the timer for however long you want them to write and then have them begin. 
11. When the time is done, much like a regular timed write, have students count their number of written words and put it in a box at the top of their paper.
12. Now in the free write itself, they are to put a box around their prescribed words which they had to incorporate in their story

Here is the prompt which I once used with my Latin 2's - it gave them a character, what she was doing, where she was and then a possible problem:

Rhonda erat in culina, cenam parans, cum subito magnum sonitum in cubiculo audivit. quid Rhonda egit?

Observations

1. Playing BINGO before the timed write made the timed write not seem like a major task.
2. Some students did not like having to incorporate the 5 words into their timed write, because they had to manipulate them into their story, and their words seemed random.
3. Most students liked having to incorporate the 5 words into their timed write, because it gave them more structure with which to work. They actually liked having to find a way to incorporate these random words into the story and to manipulate the writing for this purpose.
4. Some wished to have seen the prompt prior picking their 5 words. I will do that in the future.
5. If students do not incorporate all 5 words, tell them it is okay. It could have been that the 5 words were just too random to fit into a story based on the prompt or it could signal that they need more time

I only play VINCO three times a semester so this another way in which I can get students to do a timed write

Four Word Vocabulary Picture

I've always said that students love any activity involving whiteboards and dry-erase markers. Here is a fun vocabulary activity:

1. Write four known random vocabulary words on the board.
2. Students have one minute to draw a picture on their whiteboards which incorporates/depicts all of the words (not four separate pictures, but one)
3. Tell students if they do not know a word, then they should focus on what words they do know.
4. When the minute is up, students show their whiteboards to each other, pointing out each word in Latin.
5. Ask students to show their whiteboards to you, while you walk around and check them.
6. Pick 2-3 boards to show the class, and using a document camera, project student pictures onto the screen
7. Describe these pictures in Latin to the class, using the vocabulary words
8. You can also circle questions about words in the picture
9. Added variation - if you have time, draw a picture yourself beforehand involving the four words and show your version to students.
10. If you are able, try now to Ask a Story from one of the pictures projected. Ask the student who did the drawing for details. He/she will usually be able to come up with a great story since it is his/her picture.

Obervations

1. Drawing a visual depiction of the vocabulary word gives students another way to acquire vocabulary.
2. Since students are drawing the vocabulary words themselves, it personalizes the acquisition process
3. Even though everyone is drawing a picture using the same four words, I am always surprised by how many different interpretations there are. Students are too and enjoy seeing each other's pictures. 
4. I will usually do 2-3 rounds of this activity in a period, lasting a total of 15 minutes (if I do not do an Ask a Story from one of the pictures)

Word Chunk Game

I learned this activity at the 2013 Pedagogy Rusticatio, and it is one which i find students either love or hate (meaning, if their team wins, they love the game, but if their team loses, they hate it). The Word Chunk game is a combination of translating sentences aloud into English and trashketball. It is a truly competitive game and can get rather intense depending on your students.

The basics of the game: teams compete to be the first to translate aloud correctly Latin sentences into English. Bob Patrick gave me directions for this game (and Bob got them from Ben Slavic's blog), and with Bob's permission, I post them here.

Directions

This game is both low stress on the teacher (unless students having lots of fun in your classroom stresses you out!) AND while having fun an intense vehicle of language acquisition. It is used with material, a story for example that you have already been working on with students, so I think of this as a Friday kind of activity to review a story, especially with structures or vocabulary that has been challenging. First the set up; then the procedures:

• Students are divided into small groups (3-6 per group, depending on class size. 3 is better but in huge classes you may have to go with larger groups)
• Groups are in small circles around the edges of the room so that there is a long alley down the middle of the room.
• At one end of the room, a box is set up on a stool/desk that approximates a basket.
• 3-6 whiffle/tennis/jelly balls are lined up at a “free throw line” some 15 feet or so away from “the basket”. (how many balls depends on the size of your groups)
• Teacher pulls sentences directly from the story which you have been reading in class, but you can also edit them to focus on what you want to focus on.
• Create numbered slips of paper for each team TWICE, i.e., if there are 7 groups, then create 14 slips of paper, each numbered 1-7.
• Put these slips in a ziploc bag, bowl, hat, etc.
• Each group must come up with a name for itself, in Latin.
• The game proceeds like this. Teacher reads the first sentence slowly, aloud, and continues to do so, over and over again. Group members huddle together and decide, together, what the sentence means. 
• THEN, ask a team to pull a slip of paper from the bag. Announce the team name which corresponds to that number
• THEN (very important--this prevents one person from doing all the work) the teacher calls on someone in the group to give the answer. ONLY that person can answer, and if the group feeds the answer, they are disqualified. HOWEVER, if the person makes a mistake, group members may correct it. The teacher must distinguish between FEEDING the answer and offering CORRECTIONS. Corrections are allowed. Feeding the answer is not. Because the group never knows who the teacher will call on, they learn very quickly that everyone must know what the sentence means before they raise their hands
• Students may request that the Latin sentence be repeated again AS MANY TIMES as they want when called on to translate
• If the person called on gives the correct English meaning of the sentence, the team receives TWO points goes to the free-throw line and shoots for points. Team receives one additional point for every basket scored. Teacher or student keeps score.
• If the person does not give the correct English and the group cannot correct mistakes, the teacher pulls another slip of paper and the process is repeated.
• After a team has completed shooting baskets, do not return their number right away. That team still has one number in the bowl/bag, but everyone else still has two. Return that number after the next round. Complete the process for each round.

This is a listening and comprehension game. They are “re-reading” old material, which is always good. They are helping each other understand. Because you can focus on certain structures or words, and because you are reading slowly, clearly, over and over again, they are getting multiple repetitions of Latin that they otherwise would not have done on their own. Students swear by how helpful this game is. My problem is not overusing it. - Bob Patrick


Now back to me. Here are my personal observations about the game:

• This is a great CI activity due to the sheer number of repetitions said aloud, which is actually what you want.
• This is not a game to do right away if your students are not familiar with hearing Latin spoken aloud in a context, such as in a dictation or a story told aloud. Your students need to be somewhat familiar with the sounds of Latin.
• As the teacher, I myself will create the teams so that there are no “stacked” teams
• I myself create the sentences as part of a larger continuous story, but I will be sure to use vocabulary, language structures and familiar phrases which we have done in dictations, TPRS stories, readings, etc. ad nauseam so that it is 100% comprehensible for students. In other words, students are already familiar with hearing these words/forms aloud in Latin in a context.
• I do not make the sentences too long, because it is easy for students to get lost and to feel overwhelmed. You as the teacher do not want to raise anyone’s affective filter in this game. Sometimes, i will read a very short sentence on purpose to give everyone a fair chance.
• I personally love this activity, because I am amazed how it does further language acquisition in disguise of a game. I truly do not think that students realize just how much this activity helps them.

So give it a try - you’ll be surprised both by the results and the fun which you and your students will have.