Week 2- The First “Exam”
*This is a classic post from my previous blog, Musings de la Maestra McH. Enjoy!*
Here’s a run down of my plans for my 100% TL Spanish 3 class this week.
We’ve been working on city locations and giving directions as well as the irregular preterite verbs traer, querer, decir, venir. I feel as though my students have a good grasp on the verbs because they’ve heard them so much from me last week and I’ve been able to work them into teaching and asking them question using the target vocab. I’m giving them the chapter “exam” on Thursday. I am modeling it off of Cynthia Hitz (@sonrisadelcampo) exam she shared in this blog post. Cynthia, whom I never met but would love to observe someday, has been very kind in sharing advice with me via Twitter as I embark on this journey. I thought about when students would really need to use this language in the real world and what they would need it for. From there I created my exam. Here are the sections.
Listening– Your host mom has left your a voicemail with a list of errands and directions how to get to the places. Follow her directions and trace your path on the map. Students will be able to listen and pause the audio as much as they would like.
Writing – You need to leave your host brother directions how to find you. You will draw two places randomly (a start point and end point). Leave him a note with instructions on how to get from point A to point B. To grade this I will follow your instructions without looking at the starting or end point until I’ve followed your directions and will see if I ended up in the right place.
Vocab – Your host sister has come to visit you in Nebraska. You leave her a map but it’s in English. Label the following places in Spanish on the map to help her.
Irreg. Verbs – You went to an exciting party last night. You Spanish-speaking friend texts you the next morning to see how it was. Respond to his/her texts in Spanish using complete sentences.
This will be a much shorter exam than those I’ve given in the past and a completely different format than the students are used to but I feel it is a more realistic test of their skills.
To prep for this here’s my plans for the week.
Monday-Review what exam will look like. No surprises in my classroom. Using shower curtain liners, create a city map with your group (4 people per group)
Tuesday-Practice giving directions. We’ll do some large class practice first then break into groups. Using their maps from yesterday each person will write a set of directions and their group mates will have to follow them. I will then give each group short stories using our target verbs and vocab. One student will read the story while the others act it out.
Wednesday – Using scratch paper, label your maps one person at a time. See who can label the most items from our vocab and who can do it the fastest. May have groups switch maps and repeat. In groups of two, practice texting each other (using small white boards) using a guide I provided to practice the irregular verbs. If time allows I may have two students “text” while another two students act out their conversation.
Thursday- Exam day!
Friday- We’ll be working with Belanova’s No me voy a morir from Zachary Jones (@ZJonesSpanish). Zachary Jones has had a big influence on my teaching as well, inspiring me to work language into the classroom in fun, interesting ways I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.
So those are my plans for the week. Eventually I’d like to start posting some materials I use on this blog for others to use or be inspired by. I’ll post at the end of the week and let you know how this week actually went! My plans tend to change on the fly.
Until Next Time,
Maestra McH
