True/False PQAs using "Has"

At this past summer's CI Summit in Cincinnati, I had the privilege of watching Bryan Kandel demo a very simple, true/false purposefully communicative activity. Bryan is an absolutely master communicator, as he made this low-prep activity SO personable and compelling for us. This activity can be found in his book Give Them What They Want: A Guide to Increasing Enrollment in World Language Class, and it is so amazingly simple to facilitate.

1. Create a list of sentences in the target language about different students in your class. The sentences can be anything which is personalized about the students. These sentences can include target vocabulary or language structures. Examples: Joy wants a dog, Amayah has seen the movie Spiderman: No Way Out, Charlene went ice skating this weekend, etc.
2. Project the sentences. 
3. Have students write True or False for each sentence on paper/whiteboards to predict what they think the answer is. Students may not ask the specific students if their sentence is true or false.
4. Review each sentence with the class by asking the student in the target language about whom the sentence is if the statement is True or False. 
5. If students have predicted correctly, they give themselves a point.
6. Continue the activity by asking the student and class extension PQAs in the target language related to the statement.
7. Total points upon completion to determine a "winner".

In my Latin 1's a month ago, I recently did this activity on day 4 of class. Because I was targeting the word "has," I created the following statements in Latin for each of my three Latin 1 classes - yes, because it was day 4 of Latin 1, there were a number of words which I had to gloss for them such as "driver's license," "sister," "brother," and "job".

• ______ has an xBox.
• ______ has a brother.
• ______ has a dog. 
• ______ has an iPhone. 
• ______ has a driver's license.
• ______ has a sister. 
• ______ has a job.

Observations

1. Wow, I was surprised at how well this activity went with Latin 1 students, even with limited vocabulary! What a fun way to learn about each other in the target language!
2. Students were actually engaged in the activity - I think the predicting and running point total added to that.
3. I randomly picked students ahead of time for each sentence, so I personally did not know the answers. Plus, because it was the 4th day of class, I had no idea who the students actually were yet. 
4. This was a great example of purposeful communication, because students were learning about each other in the target language. I definitely learned a lot about them.
5. Extension PQAs seem so natural to do after finding out if the statement is true or false.
6. Students whose names were not used have asked me if we are going to this again, because they want to have a sentence about them!
7. I plan to do this activity again with the word "wants".

Get Bryan Kandel's book, because he has so many great communicative activities in it. Thanks, Bryan!

Purposeful Communication through Pets

I have been back in school for a 1.5 weeks now (even throw in a snow day here in Atlanta!). Since it is the beginning of a new semester, with my Latin 1 students, I want to focus this semester on readings involving animals. I also really wanted to get back into being purposefully communicative with them (I feel like I began to slack off last semester). 

Remember that in purposeful communication, our goals are to learn about ourselves, each other, and the world around us. These goals are what guided this multi-day activity.

Anne Marie Chase (Senora Chase) has a great lesson about Picture Talks/PQAs involving students and their pets, along with a Google Slide in different languages which you can download. I implemented this and then extended it into purposeful communication.

Day 1

• Assignment - students filled out the Latin Google Slide as an assignment on Google Classroom. Each student was assigned just one slide to fill out, instead of a class slide which everyone filled out.

Days 2, 3, and 4

• I picked slides to project and did a few Picture Talks with students about their pet(s). The slide has all of the language/established meaning there on it. I only spent out 10 minutes/day on this.
• A way to extend the activity and to bring up past knowledge is to ask students about earlier slides from days past: "Who has a cat named Mr. Whiskers?" "Who wants a small lion?" etc.

Day 4 

• This is something which I learned from Bill Van Patten and then saw demonstrated again at this past ACTFL. After the last round of Picture Talks on Day 4, I then projected the following slide (CFA is the Latin abbreviation for the United States of America - Civitates Foederatae Americae):

• Using the chart, I began asking in Latin: "In America, what animals do most Americans have? In America, what animals do fewest Americans have?" From there, I began asking individual students in Latin, "Do you have a fish? Do you have a reptile?” to see if their pet reflected the chart.
• I then asked students to raise their hands when asked in Latin “Who has a dog?” “Who has a cat?” Draw attention that the class most likely reflects America in respect to pets: “Most students also have a dog. Fewest students have a bird or reptile." This took about 10 minutes.

Observations

1. Students actually want to talk about their pets, so a personalized Picture Talk is a great way for students to learn about each other.
2. It is a very easy, comprehensible activity to do with level 1 students.
3. If possible, consider creating a slide of your own and talking about your pet(s) you have or want. I do not have a pet but I am 100% a dog guy! Let students learn about you!
4. Extending this communication to learning about the world around them and then comparing it to students' own lives is not that difficult and is rather a natural extension.

Give this a try - thanks, Anne Marie!