Showing posts with label props. Show all posts
Showing posts with label props. Show all posts
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Saturday, January 30, 2016
5 ways to use stuffed animals in class
Here are some of the ways I use stuffed animals in class:
1) story props- especially if I need to limit suggestions for stories. My particular favorite animals are, of course, cognates. Pengüino, dragón, cangarú, jirafa, koala, llama, tigre, delfín, and so on, but since the visual of a stuffed animal is so strong they tend to learn the names quickly. I am always amazed at how quickly they learn words like bat and spider, because they want to!
2) Special day rewards- once a week, my level 2s listen to an audio book, and they get to sit with their favorite stuffed animal. It's so simple but it makes the day feel special. And these are 8th graders. When I do my version of Kindergarten day, everyone gets a stuffed animal friend.
3) Story retells- it's much more fun to talk to your favorite animal than it is to talk to the wall or to your hand. It just is. It makes retells feel special too.
4) A couple of stuffed dogs are great if you are teaching Brandon Brown Quiere Un Perro, for comparisons, for actors to use, etc.
5) Modeling and practicing indirect object pronouns- in The Comprehensible Classroom's ¡Siéntate! unit, students are introduced to the structure le grita. However, I want them to hear that structure in a variety of forms, and to try to use it in a variety of ways. One of the many ways we practice the difference between le grita and les grita, le gritan and les gritan, is by making stuffed animal tableaus. Because the animals are mostly cognates, groups of kids work to show different forms of the structure with their animals, then give me great sentences about them. In order to reduce confusion when talking about "I" and "you", I simply put name tags "yo" and "tú" on the animals and we use those forms as well.
1) story props- especially if I need to limit suggestions for stories. My particular favorite animals are, of course, cognates. Pengüino, dragón, cangarú, jirafa, koala, llama, tigre, delfín, and so on, but since the visual of a stuffed animal is so strong they tend to learn the names quickly. I am always amazed at how quickly they learn words like bat and spider, because they want to!
2) Special day rewards- once a week, my level 2s listen to an audio book, and they get to sit with their favorite stuffed animal. It's so simple but it makes the day feel special. And these are 8th graders. When I do my version of Kindergarten day, everyone gets a stuffed animal friend.
3) Story retells- it's much more fun to talk to your favorite animal than it is to talk to the wall or to your hand. It just is. It makes retells feel special too.
4) A couple of stuffed dogs are great if you are teaching Brandon Brown Quiere Un Perro, for comparisons, for actors to use, etc.
5) Modeling and practicing indirect object pronouns- in The Comprehensible Classroom's ¡Siéntate! unit, students are introduced to the structure le grita. However, I want them to hear that structure in a variety of forms, and to try to use it in a variety of ways. One of the many ways we practice the difference between le grita and les grita, le gritan and les gritan, is by making stuffed animal tableaus. Because the animals are mostly cognates, groups of kids work to show different forms of the structure with their animals, then give me great sentences about them. In order to reduce confusion when talking about "I" and "you", I simply put name tags "yo" and "tú" on the animals and we use those forms as well.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Going with the flow
I think that the past two weeks have seen me hit some kind of magic flow. I wish I knew why everything is working so well, but for now, let me just celebrate.
I started teaching Brandon Brown Quiere Un Perro with my smallest, most challenging class. I had no idea what to expect from them in terms of comprehension or interest. I didn't really know what kind of activities would work for me and them, what the pace would be, and how much to plan that was other than reading. I still have no idea about pacing or activities, but I am finding myself creating compelling input easily and naturally, and the students are responding in truly incredible ways.
Here's what I wrote in my little reflection that I'm keeping about teaching it.
Also, I hit the local Goodwill this weekend and scored on stuffed animals, mostly cognates. I have enough for every kid to have one. So far, one class got to snuggle with them while we talked about ghosts and monsters and I did a Movietalk about El Cucuy (from a great unit from Martina Bex). Another class had to explain why their chosen animal would not make a good pet. And finally, one class got to do a spoken retell to their chosen stuffie today. Just because it's fun!
I started teaching Brandon Brown Quiere Un Perro with my smallest, most challenging class. I had no idea what to expect from them in terms of comprehension or interest. I didn't really know what kind of activities would work for me and them, what the pace would be, and how much to plan that was other than reading. I still have no idea about pacing or activities, but I am finding myself creating compelling input easily and naturally, and the students are responding in truly incredible ways.
Here's what I wrote in my little reflection that I'm keeping about teaching it.
I am clearly planning too much- tareas de la casa seems like the past already.
There is no way we'll get to the ciclovias movie...even if I desperately want to show it and talk about my friend Clarence the moviemaker.
I love that I have the headspace to sit and write a quick paragraph about my lessons! Of course, those 50 narrative progress reports are not being written, so there's a trade-off.But, I feel like they are getting SO much better at spontaneous conversations, and I'm getting better at PQA. Today, I asked them about bikes in their house, then skis, and made a quick graph on the board. We compared and discussed, then I showed them the bicicletas slideshow very quicky. We also had a hilarious discussion about pet collars, and one girl swore that her hamster had a collar while her friend disagreed. There was SO much language. I love teaching this novel.
Also, I hit the local Goodwill this weekend and scored on stuffed animals, mostly cognates. I have enough for every kid to have one. So far, one class got to snuggle with them while we talked about ghosts and monsters and I did a Movietalk about El Cucuy (from a great unit from Martina Bex). Another class had to explain why their chosen animal would not make a good pet. And finally, one class got to do a spoken retell to their chosen stuffie today. Just because it's fun!
S
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