More secret input! (post-story or reading activity)

Here is a secret input activity that I decided to do when I was exhausted and trying to teach on crutches.  Note to self: stop getting injured!!!  This, plus FVR and a post-reading review activity, took up a full hour and they didn't finish.  Hooray, Monday plan!  This secret input activity, with storyasking, was 2+ days.   It qualifies as Some Prep, in that you do have to take pictures, print them, and make a response sheet.

Secret input + being out of their chairs!

Day 1: First, I asked a story.  This story was one I created to teach some structures  for  Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro, and if you have the teacher's guide, it will soon be (or already is!) part of the online supplement.

It was one of those days where I finished the story mid-class, and had to come up with something to do for the rest of the hour.  You may be familiar with this!  Luckily, Martina Bex has lots of great suggestions for what to do in this post:  The story is done but class isn't over.

This is a mural.  

I had the kids grab mini white boards and markers, and introduced a mural to them.  (This step, for me, is really important because they tend to draw comics or more linear drawings, and I wanted something different for this activity.  We draw comics all the time.)  Murals are: non linear, with events happening in different places, all different sizes.


I retold the story from memory (which helps me remember for later when I type it up) while they drew.  I quickly took pictures of each mural.

SOME PREP:  The next day, I typed the story up and made copies for each kid.  Then I quickly imported the murals into google drive* and made a slideshow that could be printed.** I printed it in black and white.Finally, I created this response sheet: 

Click for a downloadable version!  

In class, after some FVR and reviewing the story as a class (this day, I did a volleyball translation, but  you could do any kind of oral reading activity with them or skip it and go straight to the secret input), I posted the murals around the room and gave kids a copy of the story.  They walked around the room, quickly sketching, and started finding the sentences and translating.

Some thoughts about this:  
It took a while for kids to do- longer than I was expecting.
Students were 100% engaged.
They can self differentiate- choosing the sentences that they feel like they can translate.
Some of them went around the room and did all the illustrations first (and then moved on to the next sections),  some did illustration-sentence, and some did illustration-sentence-translation, in that order.

Truthfully, I am playing around with using it as a reading assessment and assessing their translations, but I haven't decided.

STEPS for Murals/Read the Room
1) Find or create a text.
2) Explain what a mural is.
3) Read it out loud and have students draw the action as you read (or retell).
4) Photograph the murals.
5) Create a quick slideshow (or otherwise find a way to print them) and print the murals. (see below for Tech tips)
6) Give each student a copy of the text and the response sheet.
7) Hang the murals around the room.
8) Students look at the murals, quickly sketch one element, then find the sentence in the text. They transcribe the sentence, then translate it.


Technology Tips:  
*How to quickly import photos into GoogleDrive:  install the app on your phone or tablet.  Open the app and tap the + button.  Choose Use Camera, OR, if you have already taken the photos, choose upload.  They will go directly to your drive and are super easy to import into GoogleSlides.

**Change the page size in GoogleSlides.  Open a new Slides document.  Go to File>page set up> Custom.  Type 11 by 8.5.  Now your slides will print nicely.