Character "Has/Wants/Is/Does not Want/..." Warm Up

Here is a warmup, post-reading writing activity which you can do with your students if you are dealing with a reading/novella for which there are a number of characters and descriptions. I got this idea from Kelly Gallagher's book Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It - although the book was published in 2009, there are still a lot of issues which are still pertinent over a decade later.

Essentially, you create a chart in the target language with characters and verbs (I stick with high frequency words), and you ask students to fill out the chart with information which they know to be true about that character. 

Example (in English):

Observations

1. Since this is a warmup, I like that it does not require students to write in complete sentences in the target language (unless they want to), so it allows them to respond in words/phrases to finish the sentence.
2. I also like that this warm up does involve higher order thinking, because students are having to distinguish characteristics and actions which are specific to certain characters or to show commonalities between characters. 
3. It is a great quick way to focus on character development and motivation of characters.
4. This is also a great graphic organizer for students!

Find the Disney/Pixar Character

I like to do class warmups/bellringers which involve the "forgetting hypothesis" - a warm up activity in the target language where the task becomes such the focus that students forget that they are in the target language or the target language becomes secondary. The key point is that these warmups need to be very compelling. Here is one which I created on a whim today (and I am certain that I am not the only one who does this, so I can take no credit for it. If you do this, let me know!).

It simply involves a picture of all of the Disney characters or Pixar characters and a laser pointer. This is very much like a Where's Waldo kind of activity.

Retrieved from http://www.52dazhew.com/w/585986408.html

Retrieved from  https://amhsnewspaper.com/25171/ae/the-class-of-2019-as-pixar-characters/

Directions

1. Project the picture on the screen.
2. Introduce it by saying in the target language, "In the picture there are very many Disney/Pixar characters." 
3. First, ask students in the target language to find specific characters "Where is Aladdin?" "Where is Ursula?" Where is Mulan"? etc.
4. Then ask in the target language "Who (of you) is able to find Aladdin in the picture?"
5. Then hand the laser pointer to a student volunteer and have that student locate Aladdin in the picture.
6. From there you can start asking questions about the character, such as "Is Aladdin a young man or old man? What is the name of the friend of Aladdin? What kind of animal is Aladdin's friend? Whom does Aladdin love? Where is the Genie? What color is the Genie?"
7. After you do the simple "where" questions, then state "Find a character who does not have a mother," "Find a character who is an animal," "Find one of the seven dwarves, "Find a character who is evil," etc. Because there are so many different characters who match that description, there are lots of possibilities.
8. From there, discuss the character in the target language.

Example for a Pixar character
Find Mike Wazowski. How many eyes does Mike Wazowski have? What is the name of Mike Wazowski's friend? What is the name of the little girl? What color is Sully?   

Observations

1. I was surprised at how long this warmup actually lasted. Maybe because there was much to discuss and many options.
2. I was also pleasantly surprised by how engaged high school students were. I do not know if it was the Where's Waldo aspect or because it was dealing with Disney/Pixar characters. I am sure that elementary school students will like this.
3. This is definitely one which can be used many times in the future due to the number of characters and possible questions/discussions.
4. Letting students use the laser pointer to find characters added novelty to the warmup activity.
5. Asking students to find characters which fit particular parameters made the activity a little more higher-thinking.
6. This is a great listening comprehension activity for students since it just requires them to listen and to "find" the character.
7. Students want to talk about Disney/Pixar characters forever!

This Day in History

This is a warm up activity which I learned from Justin Slocum Bailey. If you have never attended one of Justin's sessions at a conference, then you need to! I always learn so much from him, as he expands the way in which language can be used in the classroom. Justin and I have roomed together numerous times at conferences, so we both know each other's quirks.

The premise is quite simple: for a particular day (preferably the day on which you will do this), from among three choices, ask students to pick the event which they think happened on that day. I have found this activity to be a good example of Krashen's Forgetting Hypothesis, where due to the compelling nature of the message in the target language, students "forget" about the language per se, because the message itself is so compelling.

Planning

1. Find an event in history which happened on the day which you plan to use this activity. I use the following websites: On This Day, Thought Co - Inventions, National Day Calendar.
2. Find two other "false" events ("false" as in not having happened on that day) as distractors. 
3. Create a slide presentation with choices A, B, and C, and write the three choices in the target language. Add pictures related to your choices.

Implementation
As a warm up, project the slide presentation, and ask students which historical event they think happened on that day. Here is what I say in Latin every time which I do this:

Latin script
Discipuli, quid hōc die in historiā accīdit? Hodie est (ordinal number) dies mensis (month), ergo, quid hōc die in historiā accīdit? Discipuli, quid putatis? Littera A (read letter A choice)? Littera B (read letter B choice)? an littera C (read letter C choice). Quid putatis? (Get students to call out the letter). Ah, audio litteram _____ saepius quam audio litteram ____ an _____. Videamus.

English script
Class, what happened on this day in history? Today is the (ordinal number) day in the month of ____________. Therefore, what happened on this day in history? Class, what do you think? Letter A (read letter A choice)? Letter B (read letter B choice)? or letter C (read letter C choice)? What do you think? Ah, I am hearing letter ____ more often than I am hearing letter ____ or _____. Let us see.

Example for September 28 - press on slide presentation to see answers.



Observations

1. In order to preserve the novelty of the warm up, I only do this 2-3 times a week.
2. The first couple times when I did this, students were not very receptive due to it being new. Now as I do it more often, I have found students to be quite engaged. A few students have said to me, "Gosh, I wish we did this in my social studies class."
3. This warm up gives me a way to give the date in Latin in a NATURAL CONTEXT, since it is part of an activity, as opposed to announcing it at the beginning of class outside of a context.
4. I have chosen to give the date in a modern Latin context and not in a Roman context (Kalends, Nones, Ides, etc.), because quite honestly, I myself cannot keep track of how the Romans did their calendar dates. Since I want to treat Latin as a modern language, I have chosen to use the modern way for dates.
5. When picking historical events (both true and false), it is important that these events be compelling for STUDENTS! What I find compelling as a historical event is NOT what students find compelling. I suppose that I could do "what happened on this day in Roman history?" which I would find interesting, but would the majority of my Latin students?
6. Although this was not my intention, I am getting in LOTS of subconscious repetitions of phrases like "was born," "was discovered/found," "was invented," and "made its debut" in a natural way (even though I have never formally taught these phrases), since these phrases come up a lot in this warm up. In addition, because I say the same thing every time as part of the script, students are starting to be able to say it with me now.