Picture A/Picture B Listening Assessment

Who says that assessments must be long?!! Here is a very low-key, very quick listening comprehension assessment which I learned this past summer from Martina Bex and Elicia Cardenas while working as a coach for their Acquisition Boot Camp (ABC), and it is very simple for you as the teacher to administer. Simply, you either project two pictures onto a screen or put them on a piece of paper - these pictures are labeled A and B. You read a target sentence aloud, and you ask students to determine if the sentence is describing picture A or picture B. As a teacher, however, it requires a bit of prep work.

Pre-Assessment

1. Taking a story which you have been going over in class, select 7-10 sentences. If it is from a movie talk, you could use screen shots.
2. Illustrate those sentences. 
3. Scan them (or use a web app drawing tool) or illustrate them onto the assessment paper.
4. Place the scanned pictures in pairs onto Google Slides for projection or onto a document. 
5. Label one picture "A" and the other picture "B"
6. For each pair, determine which sentence you read will read in order to match up with the correct picture.

Assessment

1. Explain to students that you are going to read aloud a sentence from the story, and their job is to determine if the sentence being read is Picture A or Picture B. I project the pictures on Google Slides and have students on a sheet of paper number 1-10ish, and they simply answer A or B.
2. Read the sentence a couple times slowly and then move onto the next set of pictures.

Observations

1. Oh my gosh, why did I not learn about this assessment earlier?? It is so easy and quick to administer (although it takes some type to prepare it) - it took less then five minutes to administer. Students simply had to write down either A or B on their paper. If the pictures are on a sheet of paper for them, they simply have to mark the picture being described.
2. I used this as a formative assessment and not as a summative assessment. 
3. These were incredibly easy to grade too, because I was simply looking for either the letters A or B as the answer.
4. Students liked this assessment, because it was fast and easy for them to complete.
5. When picking pairs of pictures, select pairs which require a close listening and inspection of the pictures. In the example above, each of the pictures involved the phrase "duo comites (two comrades)" so students had to listen carefully to the rest of the sentence to determine what distinguished the two pictures. In other words, I could not have one picture have two people in them and the other picture being of a dog, because when students heard the phrase "duo comites," immediately they would know which picture it was and would not listen to the rest of the sentence. 
6. The picture being described needs to be OBVIOUS for students.

Telephone Relay

It is funny how one can learn a particular CI activity, pass it along to others to use, and then completely forget about it. Just recently, my colleague Rachel Ash shared a post-reading activity with our Latin 3 instructional team called Telephone Relay, and I said, "Wow, how does this work?" and she replied, "I learned this from you!" Once Rachel showed me how the activity works, then I completely remembered it (and vividly remembered when I had demonstrated it at a professional development for Rachel years ago!), but I am shocked that I have not used it in in the classroom since 2016! For some reason, it just was no longer on my radar. I am grateful to Rachel for bringing this activity back to my attention, because I really do like it.

I truly wish that I remembered from whom I learned this post-reading activity so that I can give proper credit (maybe Martina Bex or Cynthia Hitz?), but here are the directions:

Pre-Activity

1. Print out a reading of a known story - you will need a reading for every 3 students.
2. On index cards, write sentences from the story - again, you will need to make copies for every 3 students. For example, if you have 10 groups of 3 students, you will need to have 10 copies of each card. 
3. Number those cards accordingly so that all card #1s are the same, etc.

Activity

1. Divide your students into groups of 3. Groups of 4 are possible but one student will sit out each round. Groups of 2 will not work.
2. Each group will need to have two whiteboards and two markers.
3. Number each person in the group as #1, #2, and #3.
4. Persons #1 and #3 will have a whiteboard and marker. Person #3 will also have a copy of the story.
5. Person #1 will pick up card #1, and read the sentence on the card silently but not showing it to Person #2 or #3. After reading the sentence, person #1 will DRAW that sentence on the whiteboard without anyone seeing it, and then Person #2 (and only Person #2) will take a look at the picture.
6. Person #2 will TELL Person #3 (most likely in English but can be in the target language depending on the level) what was seen in the picture.
7. Based on what Person #2 said, Person #3 will look through the story to find the sentence which best matches that description and then will WRITE that sentence on the whiteboard.
8. As a class, you as the teacher reveal what the sentence was on card #1 - hopefully that is what is written on every Person #3's whiteboards.
9. Erase the whiteboards and move the whiteboards in a clockwise position so that there is now a new person #1, person #2, and person #3. If it is group of 4, there will be a new person sitting out.
10. The new person #1 will pick up card #2, and the activity starts over again.

Observations

1. This is a novel way to review a reading due to the variety of duties/tasks and rotation.
2. I give about 2-3 minutes for a round. Students will work on their own pace during that time, with the goal of having Person #3 finished when time is up. 
3. There are some strict rules about Person #1 which I enforce during this activity:
• When drawing, Person #1 cannot draw with the whiteboard on one's lap, because then everyone (especially Person #3) can see the picture as it is being drawn.
• When showing the picture, Person #1 needs to show it to Person #2 in a way that Person #3 cannot see it.
4. I like how this activity addresses many modalities and that each student does get a chance to experience them.
5. This is a great activity to get students to re-read a story and to do some close reading. 

Hot Potato

This is another activity which I learned from Emma Vanderpool, a Latin colleague and few CI-user in Massachusetts. It is a collaborative activity which can be used to preview a story, to review a known one, or as a warmup using known vocabulary. Here are her directions:

1. Students should sit in a large circle. All should have a whiteboard/marker/eraser.
2. Project the story/reading on the board.
3. Students have a set amount of time to draw (varying from 20 seconds to 1 minute).
4. After the timer goes off, students then pass the whiteboard clockwise.
5. Students should then pick up from where their peer left off.
6. After the timer goes off again, students again pass their whiteboard, and so on until you judge that the time is up.
7. Return the original whiteboard to students to review what should be illustrated there.

Observations

1. For each round, I gave students 25-30 seconds to read what was on the board and then 15 seconds to draw. The 25 seconds gave students a chance to re-read the story/sentences on the board, to look at what had already been drawn, and what needed to be added. Giving students only 15 seconds meant that they had to be quick in their drawing but essentially, they drew less which allowed for more rounds and for the activity to last longer.
2. There is a lot of critical thinking in this activity, because it causes students to re-read the sentences and to compare it with the whiteboard pictures which they have each time to see what is missing. Lots of close reading required!
3. Instead of a circle, I made it one continuous circuit so that the whiteboards traveled about 8-9 students. When we finished, students got their whiteboards back, and it was fun for them to see what had been added to their original drawing. Plus, since they had illustrated the story over a series of different whiteboards, they knew how they themselves had drawn the various parts of the story, so they liked seeing how others had drawn it.

One Word at a Time - Pass and Tell

This is an activity which I just recently learned from Emma Vanderpool, a fellow Latin teacher, and it is based on Bob Patrick's One Word at a Time (OWAT) activity. Emma modified this as a pre-reading activity to introduce new vocabulary, which is the original intent of an OWAT. However, I made some changes and used it as a pre-writing activity to prepare students for a free write and therefore used known vocabulary. Here are directions for either use:

Pre-Reading (to introduce new, targeted vocabulary) - here are Emma's directions

1. Students should sit in columns.
2. Every student has a piece of paper. Inform students that they will cooperatively write a 6-sentence story. 

3. A new target word is projected on the board. The students must use that word in a sentence to begin the story.

4. Students then pass the piece of paper to the student behind them, and a new word is projected on the board.

5. The receiver should read the sentence(s) written, illustrate the latest sentence, and then write a new sentence to the story.

6. The paper should be passed 6 times

Pre-Writing (to prepare students for a writing. This uses known vocabulary) - these are my directions

1. Students should sit in columns in groups of 4.
2. Every student has a piece of paper. Inform students that they will cooperatively write a 8-sentence story. 
3. Two known words are projected on the board. The students must choose ONE of the words to create a sentence to begin the story. Here are my Google Slides which I projected. 
4. Students then pass the piece of paper to the student behind them, and a new choice of words is projected on the board. 
5. The receiver should read the sentences written, illustrate the latest sentence, and then write a new sentence to the story. 
6. The paper should be passed 8 times. 
7. Spend around 4 minutes for each slide. In the beginning, students probably will not need 4 minutes, but as more sentences are added, they will need that time to read over what has already been written and to have time to figure out what to add.

Observations 

1. It was fun for students to read their "stories" afterwards and to see where the stories went based on their original sentence.
2. Giving students a choice of known words for a pre-writing activity allowed for more variety in creating their sentences, BUT I will also try this out with giving new words one at a time like in a regular OWAT to see how it works in previewing vocabulary.
3. Although the stories became rather random, the stories still made sense to a degree!
4. Making students use a particular word(s) for their sentences gave them parameters but still gave them a degree of freedom in how to use that word(s).
5. This activity requires critical thinking, because students not only have to understand what they read but they have to create a new sentence on their own which will continue on with what has been previously written.

Horse and Puppy (Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial) - Movie Talk

This is a special movie talk for me, because it was the first one which was demonstrated to me where the purpose of a movie talk made full sense to me! At the 2016 IFLT in Chattanooga, I saw Katya Paukova demo a movie talk in Russian using this specific commercial, and because I was experiencing it like a student, suddenly, I understood its power! Katya said that the best movie talks are those which appeal to the emotions, and this one certainly will give you the feels. It is a Budweiser commercial from the 2015 Super Bowl involving a man, a puppy, and a Clydesdale horse (the Budweiser mascot). Although the commerical is only 58 seconds, it packs in a lot of emotion!

For Latin 3, I adapted this commercial, because I needed to preview such "odd" words as wander, (to) here and there, have fear, and far away. I had previously used this commercial in Latin 1 to preview words such as home, sad, happy, and afraid, so I was able to manipulate what I scripted before in Latin 1 to meet my Latin 3 needs.

NOTE - the actual commercial ends at 0:58 but is replayed for the remainder of the video

English script

Latin script

Observations

1. Even though this commercial is only 58 seconds, I was able to get a good 30 minutes as a movie talk in narrating, pointing/pausing, asking processing questions, and using PQAs.
2. You may need to explain how this commercial relates to Budweiser, since students asked me: Budweiser Super Bowl commercials traditionally spotlight their Clydesdale mascot and not the beer itself (thankfully). Warning - the man is holding a Budweiser bottle in his hand at the very end prior to the Budweiser logo so you may want to end the movie talk before that. 
3. There is another Budweiser Super Bowl commercial involving the puppy, horse, and man. The previous year in 2014, the commercial was about how the puppy, man, and horse first met, and how the puppy brought about a love connection for the man. I do not know what happened to the woman in the 2015 commercial - did the relationship not work out but yet the man kept the dog? Did the woman tragically pass away? Is the woman on vacation in the 2015 commercial? I like the 2015 commercial much better!

Thank you, Katya, for introducing me to how a movie talk should be done through this commerical!

Lists - Brain Break

This is a brain break, which I learned from my colleague John Foulk, who in turn learned this from Miriam Patrick. The premise is very simple: students individually (and corporately) will create/add to a list based on a category. Call upon students one at a time in a prescribed order (such as seating), and when that student responds with a word to add to the category, write it on the board. Students cannot repeat a word already stated, and the brain break ends when someone cannot add a new word to the list. However, I have changed it so that students can help each other out when a student cannot think of anything new to add in order to keep to the brain break continuing.

Some category examples

• Fast-food chain restaurants - this topic needs a lot of defining if you choose this, as everyone has a different idea of what a fast-food restaurant is. I ended up defining it as "a restaurant where there is a drive-thru window, you have to order at an order box, and then pick up your order at a window." While restaurants may have a pickup window for mobile/online orders or offer curbside service, you must speak to a worker first at an order box! 
• Chemical symbols/names of elements on the periodic table - I have printed out an alphabetical list since I myself do not remember many of these!
• Cartoon characters
• Items found in a kitchen
• Cable TV channels
• State capitals 
• Current Olympic sports (both winter and summer) - Narrow this category just to the sports and not subcategories in the individual sports. For example, Athletics/Track and Field is a category but not the 100m dash since the event itself is part of that category. 

Observations

1. Allowing students to volunteer additional words for students who cannot think of an answer continues to add to the community building of the class. Students did not want the brain break to end!
2. When I did the fast-food category, I could tell which students had grown up in/visited other parts of the country, because they would name fast food chains local to that area/region, such as In 'n' Out, Whataburger, Hardees, Karl's Jr., Jack in the Box, etc. - lots of fun!
3. Because the Toyko Olympics just happened, this topic was current in students' minds.
4. This is one brain break which students constantly request, so I have to keep finding new categories!

Dictations Revisited

In students' return to an in-person, post-hybrid classroom, I have realized that they need A LOT of guided support. We cannot make the assumption that everything is going to be "business as usual" and that we can pick up from where we left off last year. As I have stated before in previous blog posts, I have entered this year with the mindset that students did NOT acquire any language last year (or at least the majority of students did not), so I need to focus on sheltering vocabulary (and not grammar) and giving them a lot of support in the beginning. While last year teaching hybrid in a primarily digital environment was definitely challenging, there were a number of revisions and adaptations which occurred to usual face-to-face lessons which I liked and am now incorporating back into my regular teaching. One of them is the dictatio activity.

The basics of the dictatio still remain the same in terms of the activity itself. 

1. I read aloud a sentence SLOWLY in the target language many times while students write down the words as I say them.
2. After the 3rd time of reading the sentence aloud, I project the sentence on the screen.
3. Students make any spelling corrections to their sentences if any words are misspelled.

Here is how I have changed the way in which I do dictations:

1. I write all unknown/new targeted words on the board prior to the dictation with their English defintion in order to establish meaning right away for students and will point/pause at those words when they come up in the dictation. This way when students are writing down unknown words, they are able to understand the meaning immediately instead of waiting for me to project the sentence and having to ask then.
2. I now give students a handout/digital document that has three boxes: sentence, corrections, picture/translation. This is something which my instructional team did with students when we were trying to conduct dictations virtually via Zoom (it did not work well at all!).
3. Students will transcribe the dictation in the Sentence box.
4. When I project the sentence, students will the correct spelling for any misspelled words in the Corrections box. If they had no spelling errors, they write Optime!
5. We now do a choral reading of the projected sentence to establish meaning.
6. I then give students one minute to either write down a translation of the sentence into English or to draw a visual representation of the sentence. At an IFLT many years ago, I saw Annabelle Williamson do this with elementary school students, and I was amazed at how focused they were in doing a dictation!

Observations

1. Establishing meaning of unknown words for students during the actual dictation has been very helpful for students, because now they can have an immediate understanding of these new words as they write them down.
2. The format of the handout gives structure to students as they perform this activity.
3. The choral reading afterwards continues to establish meaning for students with the dictated sentence.
4. The one-minute of writing down a translation of the sentence or drawing the sentence gives students something to do with that sentence (albeit for a minute).