Proyecto: Mi Lotería Personal

We just started a project in 6th grade that has already been a lot of fun, using La Lotería Mexicana. I already knew I wanted to use it as a way to reinforce articles and the gender of nouns in a fun and hands on way, but while muddling through the PBL project design process and trying to connect that to the expensive curriculum that was just bought for me this year I realized this could be a good way to wrap up some of the curriculum objectives from Avancemos 1 into a project - specifically, Unit 1 objectives from Avancemos 1. After beginning this project, I already know I need to connect Lotería to more lessons and projects. It's been great to see the student engagement, from both my native speakers and others who have played this game with their families. (Here in San Diego, there's even a local brewery that has Lotería nights instead of Bingo nights.)

Here's our project so far. You can also see my project overview here: tiny.cc/proyecto-loteria-6

1. We played La Lotería in class using this bilingual student version: Bilingual Bingo / Lotería Bilingue. It's nice for my mixed level class because we can read the rhyme out loud, and anyone who can understand it (usually my native speakers) can call out the word in Spanish. (¡La luna! ¡El sol!)
   
   
   
   
   
2. We looked at a selection of creative Lotería sets in class to glean examples of different types of words. Most of my students were sorting nouns by gender and by type of word (person, animal, etc.) but my native speakers were categorizing words by their stressed syllables. (We've been looking at sílabas tónicas in order to help with correct accents. It's the first time this year I've heard these kids whining that the work is too hard, so I think I've finally manged to find a task at their level!) Here are the Loterías we looked at - albeit selectively. Your use of these Loterías may depend on how comfortable you and your students are with the human body, alcohol use, and racial commentary.)
   
   
1. A traditional set of Don Clemente Lotería cards from a local Mexican supermarket
2. Lotería Clemente Jacques, 1930s (México)
3. Lotería Clemente Jacques, 1960s  (México)
4. Lotería de Posada (Arte de José Guadalupe Posada, 1852-1913) 
5. Lotería Moderna de Teresa Villegas (This project was a great excuse to buy her gorgeous Loteria book.)
6. Lotería los Compadres (Moderno de México)
7. Lotería 50 nombres para la muerte (Erik de Luna, México)
8. Lotería Huasteca (Art of the Huastec people, Alec Dempster & Arturo Castillo Tristan)
9. Lotería Star Wars (Chepo Peña)
10. Lotería de Fotografías de México (Jill Hartley)
3. We'll also be reading this book, which is a sweet bilingual story. I would start the project with this book normally, but I ordered it right after beginning the project.



4. We will be creating our own Lotería cards that share something about ourselves. Students will choose objects that represent something about themselves, and the "hints" on the back will be sentences about themselves, using the language skills we have been practicing. I've created some examples, like this card that features a baby teacher with her baby cat.

I can't wait to see what my students come up with! 

(Disclaimer: Links to Amazon products are provided via Amazon's Associates program. I receive some money if you end up buying these products through the ads on this page. I'm grateful for this opportunity through Amazon, but also through their Prime shipping which allowed me to come up with this project and pretty immediately get the books and games I needed  to start it right away with my students!)

Games for review and practice: Two great resources

This coming week my middle school students will be taking some quizzes - a vocabulary quiz on verbs for interests and pastimes for 6th grade, and a ser vs. estar quiz for 7th and 8th grade. Both quizzes will be taken and graded online (thanks to Google Forms and Flubaroo) but in class we have also been using some fun digital tools for review and practice!

At the beginning of the school year, I focused a lot on individual learning styles and ways to practice that work for each individual. More recently, our focus has been on group work. Our school's virtue of the month for March is Cooperation, and this is a good time to find ways to learn together, with lots of group explorations and assignments. Our review for upcoming vocabulary and grammar quizzes has also been in groups, using two review games:

Activity: ZAP


How I used it: 
I put students in groups and gave each group two whiteboards. I asked the class a review question (normally the translation of a vocabulary word or a sentence.) The first group that had the answer up (and correct!) got to choose a number from the Zap board - and scores were changed accordingly!

Will probably work well for:

• Spur-of-the-moment practice - all you need is the online template, and whiteboards. 
• Groups with good teamwork and generally good behavior, and who love a competition! 
• Student-chosen groups, since the end scores are less a result of correct answers and more a result of blind luck (based on the numbers chosen!)

Will probably not work well for: 

• Any classes that are already loud and chaotic, since this can get pretty crazy - especially with the random swapping of scores!

Tips for success:

1. To make sure everyone gets a chance to participate, require that students rotate the board among their group members - or require that all team members have a board and all have the correct answer!
2. Require students to request numbers in the target language.
3. If groups are too chaotic, play with individual students, each with their whiteboard, and randomly select a student each round to give their answer. (Choose from a jar of sticks, etc.)

 

Activity: Flippity.net Quiz Show

How I used it: 
I used Flippity's amazing template to created leveled questions related to what we were studying - Verbos y Opiniones and Ser vs. Estar. It is time consuming to come up with 30 separate items, but once you type the questions and answers into the online template, it automatically creates a Jeopardy-style quiz show. You click on the numbers to pick questions in each category and difficulty level, and click buttons to choose teams that answered correctly or incorrectly - the site keeps track of scores automatically. (You can add or delete teams, edit team names, and adjust scores as needed - for example, I give bonus points for the first teams ready to play, and take off points for things like off-task behavior or misuse of supplies.)

Will probably work well for:

• Mixed level groups: I made sure to distribute my native speakers evenly throughout my teams.
• Carefully leveled items: I put items using new vocabulary (or that included written accents and other common mistakes even for my native speakers) in the 500 spaces.
• Test preparation: You can even try out some new test items.

Will probably not work well for: 

• Spur-of-the-moment practice, since you need to create the questions.
• Student-chosen groups, if you have a wide variety of language levels in one class.

Tips for success:

1.  Make sure every member of the team writes down the answer correctly - this requires the groups to check in with their team, and makes sure everyone is getting practice (even if one team member is significantly stronger in the language.)
2. Don't have teams hold their boards up right away, or it's too easy to copy other scores. I give a countdown to finish up, and ring a bell. You can also randomly choose a team member to show you their board. (It's pretty easy to sneakily add a missing letter or accent!)

Flippity also includes some great resources to create online flashcards and other tools, using Google sheets as templates.You can check out the resources I have already created with this tool, or easily create your own. Huge thank you to Steve Fortna for creating this resource, and to Ashley Fulks for passing it on!

Numbers in Spanish: Some ready-to-use activities

I feel that I am always trying to sneak Spanish numbers into my curriculum. Numbers on their own are not very exciting, and I try to build my lessons on communicative (and hopefully engaging) objectives. If there is not an established and well articulated language curriculum, I often encounter students who are tired of going through several years of repetitive lessons: greetings, numbers, colors. The challenge is always finding interactive and quick ways to refine and review these skills, while still offering structure for the students who are starting with limited experience.

Uno was always my review card game of choice - until I discovered the magic and ease of ¡Pesca!

Out of everything I have tried over the years, here are a few resources and activities that have been successful to review and practice the numbers in Spanish. These are ready-to-go activities that you can use this week if you'd like... or today in the next class period, if you are quick on your feet. (You probably are, if you are a teacher.) These are things I have used successfully in classes with a wide range of levels and experience: from students fluent in Spanish to students who are in the first Spanish class of their life.