"Grafted Writing" by Eric Richards

I think that one of the most difficult skills for students when it comes to language acquisition is writing in L2, especially if these students already struggle with writing in their own L1. So often we tell our students to "write," and then we are not pleased with the results. In my opinion, there are a number of reasons:

• we have not properly prepared students for the task which involves writing.
• we ourselves are not managing our own expectations properly for what students are able to accomplish at their specific proficiency level (level of output, grammatical accuracy, topics, etc.).
• the task is either too broad with little parameters or too narrow in scope.
• we have not properly scaffolded lessons nor properly built up students' foundations towards writing.

Well, look no further - let me highly recommend Eric Richards' book Grafted Writing! I had not formally met Eric until last summer at the CI Summit (although I knew of his name professionally) where both of us were coaches/team members in the same cohort. At the end of the conference, he did a short workshop on getting students to write in the target language based on this book, and for me, this was the best part of the CI Summit.

One of the things which I like about this book is how sensible so many of Eric's activities are - namely that many writing activities focus on implementing readings which you as a teacher are already doing with your classes. I like how this allows me to have students do some type of writing 1-2 times a week based on our current reading in different ways and with different goals. As a result, every writing activity does not have to be a free/timed write. And yet many of his "free write" activities are scaffolded in such a way that you as a teacher are not just throwing students into a "sink or swim" writing situation.

Eric's book is firmly grounded in CI/ADI pedagogy, namely that students cannot output without sufficient comprehensible input and that output is the result/overflow of bathing students with understandable messages. While some may view a few of his writing activities as students simply copying down text and calling that "writing," that still falls in line with Comprehensible Input theory. Although "copying" itself is found on the lowest end of Bloom's taxonomy, if the messages which students are copying down are 100% understandable to them, then students are receiving repetitions of those messages through both re-reading those messages and then understanding them as they copy them down - double input, if not triple! Thus, subconscious language acquisition is occurring! And even within those activities, there is a degree of higher order thinking happening within students based on the task!

Each of Eric's activities in this book are broken down into the following sections:

1. directions/explanation of activity
2. sample text in English with which to work
3. suggestions for extension activities
4. tips and variations
5. teacher talk

If you have ever met Eric or have attended one of his presentations, you know how practical his communication style is - this definitely carries over into his writing. This book is very easy to read, his directions are not difficult to understand and to picture, and his reflections are very incisive. I have already written about his activity Treasure Hunt - Writing on this blog.

So I highly recommend Grafted Writing as a resource for your CI/ADI classroom, and if Eric is ever presenting at a conference which you are attending, attend his session - you will learn so much!

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!

Treasure Hunt - Writing

 At this summer's CI Summit in Savannah, I attended Eric Richards' presentation "Writing Strategies for the ADI Classroom" (based on his book, Grafted Writing - get this book!!) - for me, easily this was the BEST presentation which I attended that week (tied with Annabelle Williamson's "Brain Breaks," because 1) it was all about brain breaks and 2) it was freakin' Annabelle Williamson!). Eric presented SO MANY really practical ways to get students to write in the target language which are very easy to incorporate into one's curriculum.

One of the activities from Eric's presentation which I recently used with a few of my classes was Treasure Hunt Writing, and it is exactly that: a "treasure hunt" for students to find and copy down specific sentences from a reading based on a number of categories.

Directions

1. Using a known passage, create your categories. The categories can be structures, certain vocabulary words, or details. Pick categories for which students can find more than one sentence, i.e., do not pick an esoteric category for which there is only one sentence. 
2. If you want to give students additional parameters, tell students that they need to find X number of sentences for a category.
3. Give students a copy of the reading, as well as a whiteboard and marker (everything is made better with whiteboards, just like bacon!)
4. Project a category, and give students time to copy down the sentences based on the category.
5. As a group, review the sentences which students found.
6. Have students erase their whiteboards, and project a new category. 
7. Repeat again.
8. Variation - you can divide students into groups, and project all categories at once. Each group is in charge of finding sentences for that category. Students can then share and compare their sentences within their groups.

Below is an example which I used - mine was in Latin, but it is in English for you (this passage is actually based on a PQA which Eric demonstrated with our cohort group)

Cooper is not happy, because Kevin is a better basketball player than Cooper. Cooper wants to be a better basketball player than Kevin, but Kevin is the best. Kevin plays basketball very well! Cooper is athletic, but Kevin is more athletic than Cooper. When people see Kevin playing basketball, they shout, "Kevin is the best!" and they celebrate! When people see Cooper playing basketball, they do not shout and they do not celebrate.

Cooper has an elephant. The elephant is big and athletic. The elephant does not play basketball but plays soccer. When people see the elephant playing soccer, they shout, "The elephant is the best!" and they celebrate! Cooper does not want the elephant to play soccer. Cooper wants the elephant to play basketball. Cooper wants the people to shout, "The elephant is the best basketball player!"

Cooper wants the elephant to be a better basketball player than Kevin. Cooper wants the elephant to be more athletic than Kevin. Cooper trains the elephant to play basketball. Cooper trains the elephant to be a better basketball player than Kevin! But the elephant is not happy - it does not want to play basketball! The elephant wants to play soccer!

Categories

1. Copy down FOUR sentences from the story which contain the Latin word “want”
2. Copy down THREE sentences from the story which describe Kevin as a basketball player.
3. Copy down THREE sentences from the story which describe actual or possible crowd reaction.

Observations

1. This is a great post-reading activity!!
2. Students need to have some degree of familiarity with the passage, because this involves close reading. This is not at all something which I would do after introducing a passage unless it was very readable and 100% comprehensible for students.
3. Some may be wondering, "Where is the CI aspect of this? Aren't students just copying down sentences from the reading?" My response: "There is SO MUCH CI going on here!" First off, students are receiving understandable messages in reading/re-reading this familiar passage - lots of robust exposure to familiar language. Secondly, in copying down the sentences, students are receiving more comprehensible input, because they should be understanding the meaning in L1 as they copy down each word; if they are not, then to them they are just writing down "nonsense words."
4. I love that this is very low-prep activity! All that I had to do was to create 3-4 "categories" for students to find sentences based on the reading.
5. This is also a great higher-order thinking activity, because for those categories asking for a specific detail, students have to truly read the passage and to use their judgment to determine if a sentence fits that category.
6. I was surprised at how engaged students actually were in this!

Give this one a try - it is a definite keeper! Thanks, Eric!!

Write and Discuss - the OG version!

This summer I attended IFLT (the first in-person IFLT since 2019), and I did not realize just how much I needed IFLT to "refill my cup"- I came away with a renewed spirit for the school year and so many new activities (specifically communicative-based) which I cannot wait to try out in my classes. I have already blogged about "communicatifying" existing activities, and now I want to add Write and Discuss - the OG version.

I attended a session called "Write and Discuss with Sprinkles" given by Caitlin McKinney, who addressed how to do a basic Write and Discuss and then gave many variations of it. In the session, we actually took part in the basic Write and Discuss and other variations in English as if we were students. Although I had already blogged about my experience with Write and Discuss, I did not have much knowledge or experience with the original way to do a Write and Discuss, and I learned that there are SO many different ways to do one (hence, the "sprinkles" which Caitlyn presented also). Therefore, I will call this blog post "Write and Discuss - the OG version" and call my previous blog post about the activity "Write and Discuss as PreWriting".

A Write and Discuss (OG version) is another way to review a reading/story, and it is done quite early in the scaffolding process of a reading. Following a story introduction (such as a movie talk, picture talk, TPRS story, etc), ask students to tell you corporately what happened in the story in the target language for the purpose of creating a class recap. You can ask students processing questions to guide students and to garner responses. As students give you responses, you will type out the sentence out on a projected document for the class so that they can see what you are writing (Caitlin used a Google Slide for this, and that works great, but I can also see using Google Docs or some type of document). As students recap what happened in the story and continue to contribute, you can also give students the option to add sentences of events or descriptions which happened prior in the story (filling in the gaps) or they can continue moving forward with the story. When you are finished, now you have a class-created document of the story which you can then review the next day with students as a warm up.

Last week, my colleague John Foulk and I did a Write and Discuss (OG version) for the first time. We did this activity with our Latin 3 classes immediately following a Movie Talk (Sand Castle) but because it was an upper level class, we added a new element. The movie talk itself took about 30 minutes, so immediately afterwards we projected the vocabulary from the movie talk and told students that they had five minutes to write in Latin what they could about the movie talk (which hopefully was fresh in their minds since we had just completed it). We then collected their writings and read over what they had written to get an idea of what students were communicating. Then the next day, we returned their writings and showed the movie short again (to rejog memories and for those students who were absent the day before). Following that, using a projected Google Slide, we began the Write and Discuss:

We then asked students or called upon student volunteers one at a time to give us a single sentence in order to construct what happened in the story based on what they had written the day before. The first student had it the easiest, because that student just had to tell the opening of the story. As students told us sentences (either filling in the gaps or moving forward with the story), we typed up the story, serving as grammar and spelling editors while typing it up but not changing the student messages themselves.

I loved this activity so much, because although each class came up with the basic recounting of the Movie Talk, each class also differed in what they corporately wrote up. Below are my three different Latin 3 classes with their versions of the story:

Observations

1. Oh my gosh, I love this! What a great way to recap a story and have students do it for you, with you serving as their guide.
2. I like that what I am dictating from students is being projected for students to see. 
3. I felt that this was another way for students both to interact with the passage in the target language and to receive more understandable repetitions of the language.
4. Because this was a Latin 3 class, students were comfortable writing in the language prior to the Write and Discuss. NOTE - lower levels may not feel so comfortable doing a prewriting before the activity, so use your teacher discretion. Prewriting is not a requirement of a Write and Discuss. When Caitlin demonstrated a Write and Discuss in her presentation, I felt successful as a "student" with her just asking us questions aloud to elicit responses. 
5. It was John's idea for students do a writing of the story for five minutes immediately after the movie talk and prior to the Write and Discuss. When we did the Write and Discuss, students actually had something to which to refer when giving suggestions for the next sentence to add. 
6. I was surprised at how many students actually volunteered to provide a sentence. Again, maybe because they had already written something, this lowered their affective filters in offering a sentence instead of having to create/remember a sentence on the spot in Latin or answer me asking processing questions.
7. Many students wanted to "fill in the gaps" with their own sentences between sentences which had already been provided - wow, I was impressed!
8. I was surprised by how many students used vocabulary beyond what was provided for them or created their own sentences which were not originally from the Movie Talk.

So consider doing a Write and Discuss with your students (you do not have to do the prewriting portion that John and I did - a Write and Discuss functions just as well without it), because it is another great way to conduct a post-reading, communicative-based activity.  

"I Can" Writing Proficiency Check-ins

This is a type of writing check-in/assessment which I have learned while serving as a coach for Martina Bex and Elicia Cardenas' Acquisition Boot Camp (which by the way is a GREAT course for those wanting to learn more about CI/ADI instruction). I am not going to spend time here describing this type of assessment, because Martina does such a good job of this in her blog. Essentially it is a writing check-in/assessment over a current reading where students can choose at which level of writing proficiency with which they are most comfortable for that particular reading. However, to use this type of assessment, a teacher truly must have a good understanding of language proficiency. With what degree of language control are students able to communicate? Words? Simple sentences? Create new language?

Whenever it comes to language output with novice and intermediate language learners, we as teachers need to expect errors (and lots of them!). We need to realize that grammatical mistakes and shaky language control are typical in these proficiency levels; therefore, they are expected and okay! As a result, we need to focus on what it is that students are able to communicate and what we as sympathetic receptors can understand from their messages.

Observations

1. I absolutely love this how this is set up - thanks, Martina!
2. I view this type of "assessment" as merely a check-in for students to let me know where they are with the material - what have they acquired so far with the new material? Where are they with language output? Simply, it is a snapshot of their proficiency at the moment, and the snapshot is neither good nor bad. It is simply to inform me (and hopefully students) of where they are at. 
3. Personally, I do not grade these, but I definitely do look at them. If you look at Martina's original directions, you will see how she grades these according to a proficiency-based rubric.
4. I like the choice aspect of this, because it gives students permission to proceed at their preferred level of comfort when it comes to written output. Also, within each level, there is a degree of choice so that students can choose those options which will best display their mastery. 

Writing Activities

 I have compiled a list of writing activities about which I have posted on this blog and have put this list on a separate page. It now has its own heading on the menu on the blog home page. You may also access it below:

Writing Activities

Embedded Writing

This week, I was cleaning out my files in my Google Drive and came across this activity which I had completely forgotten about and have not used for years. It is a post-reading, writing activity which I learned from a conversation that I had with Bess Hayles at NTPRS a number of years ago and then saw demonstrated by Betsy Paskvan. It is a very low-stress, low affective filter way to get students to write without overwhelming them into a full-blown timed/free write. It is very similar to an embedded reading, but this time, students are supplying the missing information. 

Instructions

1. Take a paragraph from a reading which you have been covering in class. 
2. Type the sentences out on a document as a list but leave a lined space between each sentence. 
3. The objective of the activity is very simple: Students' task is to write a sentence of their own in the target language in that lined space which makes sense between the two sentences. It can be an expansion of the sentence of previous sentence, be a transition between the two, or explain the need for the next sentence. Did something happen in the story between the two sentences that is missing? 

Observations

1. I like this activity, because although students are writing in the target language, they also have parameters in adding new details and meaning to a story.
2. For beginning levels, you may want to do this as a guided activity first to familiarize students with writing and with the activity itself. For example, for the sentence between #1 and #2, you could ask students aloud, "What is the boy or girl feeling? Happy? sad? Can you describe the boy or girl? Is the boy or girl doing anything?" This will help give students a number of different ideas and details which they could add. Many times I have found that it is not necessarily a lack of vocabulary knowledge which prevents students from writing but rather a lack of direction or ideas to follow.
3. This is actually a very good higher-order thinking activity, because students must create a sentence of their own which makes sense between two other existing sentences.
4. Depending on the level of the class and its familiarity with writing, you may choose to leave two lined spaces between each sentence as a higher-level challenge. Students must then write two sentences between each sentence.
5. I would scaffold this late in a unit lesson plan, because students do need to be familiar enough with the story that they can add new details of their own.
6. Variations of this activity could be pairing up students or having students pass their papers to another student after they complete writing a sentence, and the next student must write the next new sentence.

Again, I found this activity tucked away in a Google Drive file - I may need to see what else is in my Google Drive!

Write and Discuss as Pre-Writing Preparation

Update - there is a new blog post detailing "Write and Discuss - the OG version"

Writing in the target language is a skill which we want our students to develop, but so often we give students a topic and say, "Go ahead - write!" Students struggle to put down words, and even as sympathetic readers (an ACTFL term) who are focusing on "Am I able to understand what students are communicating errors and all?", as teachers many times we see that it can be difficult for students to "produce language." I am a firm believer that students cannot output unless they have enough comprehensible input and that students will write when they are ready to write. Personally, I feel like students can never have too much comprehensible input - we want to bathe our students in it to such a degree that as a result, students will naturally overflow with output. So if we are providing students with input, why do they struggle with writing and putting down ideas as output?

A few weeks ago, I gave my Latin 2 students a timed write where the topic was about Incitatus, a novella by Emma Vanderpool which we are reading. We had been back for second semester for 3 1/2 weeks, and I had spent the first week previewing the target vocabulary and structures through a movie talk and a subsequent reading. The following 1 1/2 weeks we read (and re-read!) through the first chapter of Incitatus, and in my opinion, I felt strongly like we had covered it to such a degree that students should be able to write about it, right? I was wrong! Now it wasn't that students could not write, but I could tell that many students were really struggling. My question was why? Was it that students were not ready for it yet? Had I not given them enough input for them to be able to output? Was I pushing them into something which was above their current capabilities? Was I at fault for possibly projecting too high of an expectation on them?

In many ways, there are other factors involved, so I cannot oversimplify the situation and say that comprehensible input is a panacea for all of this. I know that if I were to ask students to write paragraphs in L1, many would struggle even with that. So what are some ways I can assist students in helping them to write in the target language?

In looking over their post-writing reflections, a number of students wrote that we had not done a timed write since Thanksgiving (December was dedicated to exam stuff), so they felt very rusty when it came to an extended write. Other felt that they did not feel like they knew "enough" Latin from the story to answer the prompt. This feedback was very helpful.

This week, we did another timed write, but this time, I did a pre-writing activity the day before to help prepare students for the write. As a class we previewed the writing by doing a Write and Discuss, which is exactly what it sounds like: as a class, you corporately review a story together by asking students to help you retell the story by writing it on the board in the target language, and then you discuss it. We are currently finishing up a Movie Talk reading on The Smoke Seller, so since it was a Movie Talk, I projected screenshots from the animated short as prompts. Each time, I asked students to volunteer responses in Latin for what was happening. I wrote their responses (and edited their grammar when I wrote it but did not call attention to it), and students copied down what I wrote on the board. Many times, I would guide students by asking in both English and in the target language "Who is in the screenshot? What is that person doing? Where is that person? What is emotion of that person?" 

On the next day, we did the actual timed write and used the screenshots as prompts.

Observations

1. Wow, in their post-writing reflections, students told me that they felt MUCH better about this timed write than the one they did in January. In their post-writing reflections, here is what some students had to say about the Write and Discuss activity: 
• "Working on how to write and practice really helped." 
• "The activity yesterday really helped immensely with giving me ideas about what to write." 
• "Going over the story yesterday helped vocabulary stick to me more." 
• "I was able to remember details in Latin about the story better."
• "I felt much more confident in writing this time than before."
2. This was a great way to review a story corporately together for the purpose of preparing students to write.
3. Having students write down the sentences as I wrote them down definitely kept students focused and also helped prepare them for the timed write.
4. Reviewing the story in this manner definitely gave them more understandable input!
5. Due to the hybrid teaching situation last year, these Latin 2 students are probably more like "Latin 1.5" in terms of their foundational knowledge of the language. This Write and Discuss pre-writing activity truly did give them a lot of support for their actual timed write.

More Observations about Student Grammar Errors

This semester, I am focusing on having students do free writes for their writings. Previously during a normal face-to-face teaching setting, I would have students retell the particular story in Latin which we had been going over for that unit by writing it down in a composition book. Since we had reviewed the story so much as input, writing would be a natural way for output to occur. However, in this digital setting and having students type out their writings of the stories on a Google Document, I soon found that many students were just copying and pasting from digital copies of the story which were already on Google Classroom from previous assignments and submitting that as their writings. As a result, I decided to focus on free writes, where I give students a prompt for them to complete, and their job is create a sequel to the story on their own from that prompt.

Here are some examples of Latin 3 student writing based on the prompt which my colleague John Foulk created: Monstrum et puer nunc sunt amīcī. Cum monstrum et puer aquae appropinquant, subitō…

Example 1

Monstrum gaudet. Monstrum est laetus. Monstrum est lateus qoud amici habet. Monstrum numcam habet amici. Monstrum non queritur dentes e ocolus. Subitio de aquae Peppa pig surgit. Peppa vult cibum. Peppa dicit “puer dat cibum NUNC!” Puer timet. Monstum non placet Peppa.Puer est eius amici, non vult puer timit sed vult puer lateus. Monstrum petit Peppa. Peppa  pettit monstrum. Petit e petit e petit Subito Peppa cadit in Aquea et perit. Puer est lateus sed non iam timet. Peur est latues quod oculous habet et puer potest videre monstrum est un amici.Monstrum et Puer ambulat ad tabernam. Subito Peppa surgit et didct “redibo”. “Non iam pax in gens sed bellum, bellum gerit contra puer et monstrum.”

Example 2

Puer cadit in aquae. Puer non potest natare. Puer est patitur. Monstrum nonscivit liberate puer. Monstrum parat videt mortuus est puer. Monstrum est tristis et patitur, videt drowning puer. Monstrum tristissimus et fugit ex from aquae. Monstrum in dolore et searches for miles ut liberate puer. Monstrum et miles fugit ad puer, sed puer non iam in aquae. Iam puer cum piratae. Piratae liberavit puer et nunc puer est piratae. Pirataes non placet monstrum. Pirataes bellum gerit monstrum. Sed Monstrum fortissimus. Monstrum caedet pirataes et pirataes nunc mortuom. Monstrum vicit pirataes et nunc odit puer. Puer est vulneratus et non iam placet Monstrum. Puer odit Monstrum. Puer fugit ab ex monstrum. Puer videt aliud monstrum sed non amici est. Nunc Puer odit et ab fugit omnes monstrum.

Example 3

Imperator appropinquant. Imperator fortis et audax. Imperator habet arma et vult bellum gerit. Imperator of Bikini Bottom ingens et cancer. Monstrum et puer timet. Monstrum et puer vult pax, non vult proelio. Monstrum iubet ut pax. Imperator iratus et non vult pax. Imperator cadit in terra. Imperator manet in terra. Imperator patitur sed imperator vulneteratus. Imperator non iam vult bellum gerrit. Monstrum, puer, et imperator nunc sunt amici. Subito, regina Sandy appropinquant. Sandy considit in terra, Bikini Bottom. Monstrum, puer, et imperator considit in terra. Imperator audit Patrick et SpongeBob mortus. Imperator iratus et non lauetus. Imperator in dolore. Monstrum et puer in dolore. Omnes Bikini Bottom patitur. Pauci homines such as Squidward non patitur et guadit. Squidward laetus et canit carmen. Monstrum, imperator, puer, et Sandy non nunc sunt amici with Squidward. Omnes iratus at Squidward. Imperator et Sandy videt taberna. Imperator, Sandy, monstrum, et puer vult comedere.

Now if you are familiar with Latin, the first thing which I am sure that stands out to you is the SHEER AMOUNT of grammar and spelling errors! And I am certain that for many of you, it is very PAINFUL to read. However, if I view these writings through the lens of a sympathetic reader (an ACTFL term), then wow, these students are communicating in the language! Even though these are Latin 3 students, in terms of language acquisition, knowledge, and grammar control, they are novice-high/intermediate-low writers. If my students were children learning their first language, they would be equivalent to 2-3 year-olds. As a result, their language is going to be incredibly MESSY! To use an example from Bill Van Patten, when a 2-year old says, "Mommy go bye-bye," do you correct that child's grammar and choice of vocabulary? Absolutely not, because you as a sympathetic listener know exactly what that child is attempting to communicate. That child is piecing together whatever vocabulary has been acquired to communicate. You can try to correct that child, but we know that the child's language will improve over time with more input and exposure.

I have used this illustration before, but it is so true!

Why can I relate to the above illustraion? Because the first time I truly spoke Latin in 2010 at Rusticatio, a weeklong immersion event, everything that came out of my mouth was in the nominative case and in infintives. Keep in mind, I have my Masters in Latin, but when it came to truly speaking in Latin for the purpose of communication and conversation (something which I had never done before), I was a novice - a very LOW novice. My grammar was horrible! Case endings, verb endings, and subject/verb agreement went out the window, because all i could do was just get vocabuary to come out of my mouth - any vocabulary!! 

I love Nancy Llewellyn's quote which she traditionally gave in her opening talk at Rusticatio:

You are going to make the same kinds of grammar errors that if your own students were to make them, you would skin your knees running to grab a red pen to correct them. So be patient with yourself.

That was ten years ago. I can say that I am probably an Intermediate High level speaker now, but I still definitely struggle trying to put it all together with correct case endings, subject/verb agreement, correct usage of subjunctives, noun/adjective agreeement, pronunication, etc.

So when getting students to write in the target language, be sure that there has been plenty of input first so that there is a natural overflow of output, but be prepared for it to be messy. However, if you are viewing the output from a proficiency viewpoint instead of a performance lens, you will be amazed by what students are attempting to communicate in the language.

Running Dictation with Categories

This is a take on a regular running dictation which I learned from Miriam Patrick. This is a great post-reading activity involving characters from a reading or sentences involving categories. It still has the basics of a running dictation where a runner will run to a list of sentences in the target language, memorize what is written, and then dictate what is said to a writer. This twist, however, has the writer put the sentence now in a particular category.

Pre-Class Directions

1. On a document, create a number of categories, such as characters in a reading or other natural categories. 4-5 categories are a good amount.
2. Write short sentences in the target language for each category. 4-5 sentences for each category are a good amount.
3. Scatter the sentences on a document so that all of the sentences are not grouped by category.

Classtime

1. Put up the sentences along a wall in a random order either in the room or outside of the classroom. You can post copies of the document. I recommended making one copy of the sentences, cutting the sentences into strips, and taping them to an outside wall.
2. Pair up students.
3. Each team will need a writing surface and a writing utensil.
4. Give each team a copy of the category document.
5. Explain that one person will sit with sentences and the other person will run to ONE of the sentences. It is not necessary for them to run to the sentences in order but rather to run to just one of the them.
6. The person who runs will look at the sentence, memorize it, run back to the partner, and dictate the sentence in the target language.
7. Both members will then determine into which category that sentence that goes, and the writer will write that sentence under that category heading.
8. Then, the two will switch roles - the writer will now become the runner, and the runner will then become the writer.
9. Explain that they may NOT use their phones to take a picture! They again can only look at one sentence at a time.

Example:

Non est defessus

Exclamat “Narra fabulam mihi”

Ludit (is playing) cum amicis in silva

Habitat in parva insula

Iecit rete in mare

Vidit aliquid in mari

Putavit arcam esse navem

Est defessa, sed narrat fabulam

Non vult narrare fabulam

Vult matrem narrare fabulam

Est monstrum

Est in Labyrintho

Habet caput tauri

Est in arca

Est cum parvo infante in arca

Invenit feminam in arca

Vendit pisces

Accepit nummum

Vult caedere Minotaurum

Non vult auxilio esse (to help) patri

Observations

1. This is a quick post-reading activity and takes about 10 minutes.
2. I love the higher-level thinking that goes on in this activity. Instead of just parroting back sentences, students are using the sentences for a reason (a "task" perhaps), which is putting the sentences into categories.
3. This is also a higher-level thinking activity, because runners and writers need to communicate to each other which sentences they already have.
4. The sentences need to be short, since runners are dictating them for a purpose. It frustrates students to have long sentences where they have to keep running back to the sentence.
5. The sentences need to be comprehensible, since the both the runner and writer need to understand the message communicated.
6. I love the multiple layers of input which is going on - the runner reading the sentence and then dictating it to the writer, who is listening and writing it down.
7. I like cutting up the strips and posting them all over the walls outside the classroom, because students are moving all over the place and really start to read each sentence as the activity progresses to determine if their team already has that sentence.

The Card Game

In my B.C.I (Before Comprehensible Input) days, there were lots of vocabulary activities which I loved playing with students, because they enjoyed them so much. Now that I am a CI teacher, I realize that many of them really do not lead to true language acquisition, but at the same time, does that mean I should throw them out? However, with a slight twist here or there, they can be adapted and be used easily for CI purposes. The Card Game is one of these activities.

I learned the Card Game years ago from my district's world language coordinator. It sounds like a very basic activity, and quite honestly, when I first explain it to students, it sounds the stupidest game ever. However, the Card Game was one of my students' favorite activities, because it was so competitive. NOTE - because my class is deskless, it is almost impossible for me to play this game, but if I were to have desks, I would definitely play it.

Materials

1. 5-6 different colored stacks of 3x5 index cards, with each stack being 20-25 cards. Depending on the number of students, you may need more or less.
2. A list of 20-25 vocabulary words which students already know. Again, depending on the number of students, you may need more or less. You can also use short phrases if you want. I would not use sentences because they are too long.

Pre-Activity

1. In each stack of colored index cards, write one vocabulary word VERY BIG in the target language per card. By the end, you will have 5-6 different colored stacks, with each stack having the same vocabulary words.

Activity

1. As the teacher, take one of the colored stacks of cards.
2. Divide the class into 4-5 different teams (depending on how many stacks of colored cards which you have left).
3. Give a different stack of colored index cards to each team.
4. Have each team distribute its cards to its team member. Each team member may not necessarily have the same amount of cards. Usually 5-6 words is a good amount of cards for each student.
5. On the board, write the names of the colors of the cards in the target language on the board. Each color represents a team.
6. Have students lay their cards out on their desks FACE UP so that they can read what is written on the cards. Each student should have between 4-6 cards. 
7. Now ask students if there are any words which they do not know and to ask you for the meaning. This is really important in order to establish meaning. 
8. Explain to the students, "I am going to call out the English definition of a word. If you have that word, then hold up the card as high as you can as quickly as you can. HOWEVER, there are 4-5 other teams who have that same word. The first correct card which I see gets a point. Also, just because I call a word once does not mean that I cannot call it again."
9. As the teacher, pick a card from your stack, and call out the English definition.
10. If students have that word, they are to hold up that card. Whatever team's correct card you see first will get a point.
11. As the teacher, put the card back in your stack, and pull out another card. Repeat the directions - the first team which gets 10 points wins.
12. At the end of the round (when a team gets 10 points), have teams switch cards within themselves, e.g., students with green cards will switch stacks between each other. Now students have a new set of vocabulary words. If students do not know the words, they are to ask the student who just had them.
13. Play another round.
14. After 2-3 rounds, tell students that they are to either:
1.  do a writing in the target language which involves the words which they have in their stack OR
2. draw a picture which uses the words in their stack 

Observations

1. This became my students' favorite game (when I had desks). I played it as an adult when I learned it, and WOW, it is a very competitive game.
2. This game is FAST, so this can frustrate the slower processors.
3. What I like about this game is when students switch stacks and I call out a definition, students, who just had the card but switched with someone, can get very frustrated, because they no longer have that word. This shows me that those students know that word now.
4. Although you can have students do a writing afterwards, I have found that drawing a picture was easier for students and did not require as much thought as preparing to write something. 
5. Because this can be a fast game and students will argue which card was held up first, I will also pick a student who will help me judge which team held up its card first.

Emoji Picture Story Retell

A few months ago, I wrote a post about using emojis as part of a Find the Sentence activity. Here is an extension activity which you can do with emojis and can be used following doing Find the Sentence. 

Today in my Latin 2 classes, I used emojis as a story picture retell. Yesterday, I had students do an emoji Find the Sentence with a Movie Talk reading which we had been doing for the past few days. Today, I gave students the story written in emojis (and some English words where there was no fitting emoji) and had them retell the story to each other in Latin in partners. The Movie Talk story itself was incredibly basic with lots of repetitions and limited vocabulary, so it seemed like a perfect story to "emoji-ize" and to experiment as a story picture retell.

Monsterbox

Observations

1. Because yesterday the class had done a Find the Sentence activity with these same emojis, students were already familiar with what Latin words these emojis represented, because meaning had already been established.
2. Because vocabulary was limited, it was a very easy story for students to retell relying only on the emojis. If the story had extensive vocabulary, I think that it would have been more difficult due to an overabundance of emojis.
3. Not every story lends itself to being "emoji-ized" due to not every vocabulary word having a matching emoji. As you can see in my story above, there are no emojis indicating size, so I had to write those words in English, as well as the verb want. 
4. As an extension, I had students then use the emoji story as a guide for a timed-write so that what they verbally expressed had a place to go.

Overall, using emojis in this way is a novel way to do a story picture retell, and it is definitely one that I will do again in the future. At the same time, however, it does have its drawbacks due to a limited emoji language.

Latin Snail Mail Project

If you are a Latinist who is wanting to incorporate more active Latin in your own daily life or to become more adept at writing in Latin at your own level, then here is an opportunity for you. My colleague Miriam Patrick (of both Pomegranate Beginnings and Stepping into CI) has started up a Latin "“pen pal/writing” project called Latin Snail Mail which focuses on getting Latinists to “find their own voice” when writing in Latin. There are two ways in which you can get involved:

1. writing postcards in Latin – allows for very short messages in Latin.
2. traveling journal in Latin – allows for longer messages, such as compositions, stories, poems, etc.

Each week, there are writing prompts so that you have a subject on which to write. Upon signup, you will receive directions about how this all works (to whom to send postcards, journaling). Most of those participating are here in America, but there are a number of folks who are overseas.

I joined the postcard share right before Memorial Day, and already I have sent a number of postcards in Latin to some of those who are part of this. Last week’s postcard topic was de temptestate (about weather), and since we had days of rain/cloudy weather due to Subtropical Storm Alberto coming through here in Atlanta, it was very easy to write short messages in Latin on the topic. This week’s postcard topic is de urbe (about your city), so again, a very broad topic which one can address personally.

If one wants to write lengthier sentences in Latin or to wax more eloquently in the language, then I would suggest signing up for the traveling journal option.

Observations

1. It is very enjoyable communicating in Latin via postcards - this is not old-school translating random English-to-Latin sentences involving soldiers and catapults in Gaul! I get the chance to write about personal topics related to my life. 
2. Since I do not know the Latin level of those to whom I am writing, I am forced to be very comprehensible, and due to writing a postcard with very limited space, I have to be very succinct (no Ciceronian sentences!). This is why something like this is perfect for those Latinists wanting to try out active Latin or for someone who does not have a lot of time.
3. You only have to write one postcard a week, although some write 3-4 a week. Honestly, it does not take much time to write down a message, although sometimes I do have to think about what I want to communicate in Latin (and if I have enough room on the postcard to say everything I want to say). 
4. Finding postcards was an issue - apparently, the local drug store/Target no longer sells postcards, so I had to buy sets on Amazon (I bought a whole box of Pixar-themed postcards). The next time I pass by a truck stop on a road trip, I will stop in order to stock up on tacky, tourist postcards. 
5. In order to participate, you do not have to be a master communicator in Latin - you just have to be understandable in the language!
6. It is actually quite fun now going to the mailbox as I anticipate possibly receiving a postcard that day. Who would ever have thought that I would look forward to receiving a postcard written in Latin?!
7. I love that in doing this, I am continuing the historical tradition of using Latin as a daily communicative language.

So consider being a part of this, whether it be through the postcard share or the traveling journal. You can also follow this on Twitter using #latinsnailmail - folks are posting pictures of both the postcards and messages which they are receiving.

Latin Snail Mail Project

4-Word Story/Snapchat 2.0

Here is a new twist on 4-Word Story which I implemented last week. It was the second day back from winter break, so I wanted to do some review with my Latin 2 students but not make it feel like it was review. I felt that doing 4-Word story would be a non-threatening way to get students back into Latin, but I wanted to change it up a bit to preserve the novelty. For this, instead of having students draw pictures to go with their sentences, I had them create Booksnaps/Snapchats, since we had already been using this tool in class. 

Students turned in their Snapchats and sentences online to our class Dropbox so that I could edit their sentences grammatically and then cut/paste them onto Google Slides so that I could show them in class. 

Student directions

1. Create/illustrate an ORIGINAL 4-frame story which uses at least FOUR of the following words:

• in silva
• vis est
• dat
• occidit
• cibus
• avis
• saxum

     2. Write a sentence or two IN LATIN which narrates your illustration for each frame.

NOTE - you may only use KNOWN words, i.e., you may only use words which we

have learned in class these past two semesters or from last year. Any words which we
have not done this past semester or from last year are OFF LIMITS.

     3. Create a BookSnap/Snapchat for each of your sentences. You must have a minimum 

         of four pictures. DO NOT WRITE YOUR SENTENCES ON THE SNAPCHAT!

     4. This is YOUR OWN original work!

Student examples:

Observations

1. Because students were already familiar with both 4-Word Story and creating Booksnaps/Snapchat, melding the two activities did not seem to confuse them. 
2. The new piece of the puzzle was that students had to submit their sentences separately (instead of writing them on their Booksnaps/Snapchats), because I wanted to edit them and to cut/paste them to create a slideshow. I implemented our class dropbox for this.
3. As you can see, some students wrote at a novice level (basic sentences), while others were able to write at an intermediate level (compound sentences, using clauses). That is perfectly fine. All that matters to me is that students are making an attempt at  communicating in the language.
4. Those students who did not have access to a phone or to Snapchat had to do a paper copy of the activity.
5. Going over the stories in class is a great way to get in more repetitions of the language in a compelling way. 
6. Because the stories are student-created/teacher-edited, they are written at a very comprehensible level for students.