Managing choral speaking

 

In my previous post, I wrote about language lessons in the "new normal", particularly with regard to choral speaking.

To help manage choral speaking, I have made some PowerPoint slides which tell the students which group should be speaking at any one time.  It also tells them what they should be doing while others are speaking.  There are slides for two groups and three groups, and the PowerPoint is available for Spanish, French, German and Italian.  You can download it from here.

Grouping in 3 groups (which I will have to for my classes of over 30) was a slight problem for Spanish, as the flag only has 2 colours.  So the three groups will be Los Rojos, Los Amarillos and Los Escudos, which I will probably type onto the slide.  Great for phonics too!

5 in a row

Yesterday afternoon I had an enjoyable lesson with my new Year 6 Spanish class.  At the moment we are learning about sports, mainly to introduce opinions which they haven't done before, being new to Spanish in September. 

The whole-class speaking and listening, and the individual writing, was followed by this 5 in a row activity, which is from this lesson pack. 

• The children played in pairs, and there was one group of three.
• The 5 in a row grid has 64 squares, and the aim of the game is to win by getting 5 squares in a row, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.  
• Each team member will need a different coloured pen or pencil.
• The children take it in turns to point to the square that they want and then say the right sentence to go with it.  
• If their partner agrees that they are correct, they colour in the square with their colour.  Alternatively they could write their initials in the square.
• The winner is the one who has five squares in a row in their colour.

To say it got a little competitive is an understatement!  There was plenty of target language being used and they were very good at playing tactically to block their opponents.  The group of three found it especially hard to get a line of 5 and had to use nearly all the squares.

This grid could also be used for a Blockbusters-style game, with one student moving vertically and the other horizontally.

It could also be used for a Knights game.  Students move in an L-shape, like the knight in chess, colouring in the square that they reach, as long as they can say the word or phrase correctly.  The student with the most squares coloured in their colour before both players get stuck wins.

If you would like to have a go at 5 in a row, there are quite a few games to try on Light Bulb Languages:

French - numbers to 15

French - numbers to 64

French - colours

French - fruit and vegetables

French - aller (present tense)

French - avoir (present tense)

French - être (present tense)

French - telling the time

Spanish - numbers to 15

Spanish - fruit and vegetables

Spanish - numbers to 64

Spanish - colours

Spanish - places in town

Spanish  - ir (present tense)

Spanish - ser/estar (present tense)

Spanish - tener (present tense)

Spanish - telling the time

German - numbers to 15

German - numbers to 64

German - colours

German - telling the time

Italian - numbers to 15

Italian - numbers to 64

Italian - colours

Italian - telling the time

If there is a 5 in a row game that you think would be useful to your classes and which isn't already mentioned here, please get in touch.  I already have the grid made and it's easy to adapt for a new game.

What's in a name?

It won't have escaped your attention that I make a lot of resources.  You might even have used some of them!  When creating a resource, I want it to be as authentic as possible, and so choose carefully the names that I am going to use.

My favourite website for choosing appropriate names is Meilleurs Prénoms.  I particularly like it because you can select a year to see the most popular boys' and girls' names for that year.  For example, let's say I'm making a new resource for Year 4.  They are 8 or 9 years old, and so are likely to have been born in 2008.  So I click on "Tendances" on the homepage of the website, then "Prénoms par année".  Underneath the lists of names there is a box where you can enter your "Autre année". I have entered 2008:

The lack of a name in the no.1 position on each list is a fault that I've noticed the last few times I've used the site.  Hopefully it'll be put right soon.  So if I'm making a resource for Year 4, I'll use some of the names from this list.  If they were to go to France, the children their age would more than likely have these names.  Similarly, if I'm making a resource about family members, I'll choose appropriate names for the parents and grandparents.

Here's the list for 1970.  I recognise quite a few penpals and exchange partners!

Some other name-related websites that I like:

French

The 1000 most common surnames in France

An alphabetical list of names for pets

Spanish

This Spanish website allows you to see the most popular names in recent years (scroll down to below the lists to see the years to select)

Calendar of Saints' names, month by month

An alphabetical list of names for pets

Most popular Spanish names by decades

German

This German website also shows you the list of the most popular names for a given year.

And finally, an interesting graphic which shows how the names of countries, continents and oceans translate in their native languages.

Italian

Most popular names by year