Confession #1: I don’t really want to take the time to “teach” numbers to my students. In other words, I do not provide a lot of comprehensible input with regards to numbers. First of all, they are not high frequency, and second, numbers are not the most exciting thing. We do A LOT of counting in class, but really, that's about it.
However, they are important, and I do need to talk about them in some sort of meaningful and authentic context in class. Enter: El que sabe, sabe (he who knows, knows). This is a "numbers" game that helps me deliver comprehensible input to students using numbers in context. Confession #2: I purchased my first El que sabe, sabe game on TeachersPayTeachers from the Comprendes Mendez SpanishShop, and tried it out over a year ago with my students, but it didn’t go well. It was completely my fault, either by not dedicating enough time to it faulty directions on my part, or any number or other reasons. After all, Nelly Hughes has fantastic resources in her TpT store, and her game did provide clear directions, and great, cultural information. I just couldn't make it happen for whatever reason. I saw El que sabe, sabe again on a post by Martina Bex, and thought I should give it another shot, because FAIL means Fist Attempt In Learning, and my students still do need additional input with numbers. Well, here goes. I am going to be playing El que sabe, sabe again, this time with slides I developed about Thanksgiving! Here are the basics of the game, although Martina explains it much more succinctly in her post.
Again, Martina explains it in much more detail than I do here. You may want to check out her post if you need some additional clarity. Pro Tip: To answer a question I had, yes, teams can vote for their own answer with BOTH a star and a triangle. (At least the way I play.) Of course, there is a big risk in doing so, but if it pays off, the reward can be great. I will be playing this game this week based around Thanksgiving statistics. Here is a google slides copy of the Thanksgiving game in Spanish. If you would like to edit anything, please make a copy of the slides. Also, if you see any errors, please let me know and I will fix them ASAP. (All information about Thanksgiving is sourced in the speaker notes.) Here is a google slides copy of the Thanksgiving game in English. Have fun talking turkey with your students!
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Come Tuesday, I am officially on summer break. I know that many of you finished classes a week or two earlier, but there are still a few of you that have another week or two to go. I’m not sure about you, but I find the last day of class to be a bit awkward. You can’t really teach anything new, but you also don’t want the students just sitting around. Also, my classroom does not have air conditioning and is on the second story of a brick building facing the sun. It gets hot. Really hot. So hot that I don’t want to be in my classroom with 25 sweaty bodies, and they don’t want to be in my classroom with 25 sweaty bodies either. So, what to do? My answer...Goose Chase. If you have not yet tried Goose Chase, now is the time! I originally learned about this from Maris Hawkins, thank you, Maris! Goose Chase is an app that allows you to create a (wild) “goose chase” for your students. As a teacher, you design tasks (called missions in the game) for them to complete, and they run around to do so. Therefore, 25 sweaty kids out of my classroom, out having fun. I have used this on the last day of school for a couple of years now, and have had great success. The students are able to demonstrate what they have learned, in a fun, creative and competitive way. Here is how I set it up. First, visit the Goose Chase site and create and account. It takes 30 seconds, and is so worth it! With an account, I am able to create missions for students to complete. I add these missions on the Goose Chase website. I have found that 18 is a pretty decent amount for students to complete in a 30-40 minute period. The missions I create ask students to submit a photo or a video in order to complete the mission. As I am doing a Goose Chase game at the end of the year, I set up my missions to review what we have been doing all year in the classroom. Below are a few examples (I have translated them to English, but students read them in the Target Language):
As I create each mission, I assign a point value to each mission. Honestly, this is completely random number, don’t stress too much when deciding on points. After I have all the missions in my mission bank on the website, I now have the option to pre-set teams or allow individuals to registers. I set pre-set the teams. Using the EDU version, I can set up to 5 teams. I set them and name them A, B, C, D, and E, just to make things simple on my end. Also, by setting up teams, only one student on each team needs to download the Goose Chase app as opposed to all students downloading the app to their phone. Yes, students do have to download an app to play, but I have never had anyone complain about this at all. Plus, having only one student download the app is more equitable for the students that do not have a smartphone. The last day of class, when we are ready to play Goose Chase, I tell students that they will be playing a team scavenger hunt game. I run through my behavior expectations - teams MUST stay together, teams must not disrupt classes, be respectful, etc. I put them into teams and ask one person in each group to download the app on their smartphone. Students do not need to create an account to play, they can simply login as a guest. They will have to search for our game - provide them the game code to make this easy - and select a team. The app will then say “Waiting to Start.” Once all teams have reached this point, I choose how long I want the game to be active (usually 30 minutes), click “start game” on my computer, and the students are off to the races. The best part is that while they are out completing missions, I am getting a live activity feed on my computer of their mission submissions. I can see what team is completing which mission in live time. As the missions come in, I can add bonus points or subtract penalty points from each mission completed. I can also see a leaderboard so I know exactly what team has the most and least points. The students can also see this as well, so they know where they stand, and can make choices about which missions to prioritize per point value, if they want to. Once the game is over, students report back to my classroom for a quick debrief and (possibly) a prize for the winning team. This year, I made stickers that said “I am a winner!’ from old label stickers I had laying around. The kids were thrilled! If you have a few extra minutes to kill, you could project some of the videos that teams submitted for certain missions and have them vote on which was the best, most creative, silliest, etc. All in all, this is a great way to end the year. There is teamwork, collaboration, creativity, and a bit of fun competition. It is a positive way to send students off on their summer journeys. I have found an AMAZING, FUN way to infuse life into Free Reading time, thanks to a little post via the MN TCI Facebook group. (Thank you, Lydia Ann!)
Enter: Game of Quotes. Here’s how it works. After Free Reading time is done, instead of returning their books to the shelf, students hang on to them and game time begins. Students form groups of 4-5 and compete to find the best passage that fits a specific prompt. Basically, a bit like Apples to Apples, but for books!!! For example, I post the prompt, “Overheard in the teachers’ lounge” and students scour their novels (or other reading material) to find a phrase, sentence or multi-sentence passage from their novel that could fit that prompt. When a student finds a passage, she yells, “Got it!” Now, the race is truly on and students have 2 minutes to find a passage to fit the prompt. At the end of 2 minutes of time, each member reads their passage and group members vote on a winner. The winners of each group share their passage with the class. A much more detailed explanation can be found on The Book Sommelier Blog, where it was originally posted. (The author was inspired by this game...which I secretly can’t wait to play with my nerdy book friends.) When playing the game, it doesn’t matter if all group members are reading the same novel or not. If they aren’t, students end up asking one another questions about their novels...kids are talking about books!!! If student are all reading the same novel, perhaps as a class, the game is just as fun because rarely do two students in the same group find the same passage. Now, students are asking one other where they found “X” passage...kids are talking about books!!! I played this game with my Spanish III class recently, and we all had a blast. The slideshow containing the prompts I used can be found here. There are 25 prompts, broken into 5 different “games.” The prompts are in Spanish, but the English translation is in the speaker notes as well. (If you see any grammatical errors, please let me know and I will get them fixed ASAP.) Of course, regardless of the language you teach, you could always write the prompts in English so that students are focused on making meaning of their texts as opposed to deciphering the prompt. If the prompts are given in English (or L1), they could also be more complex, and perhaps more creative, than those I have included. All in all, this is a powerful, engaging way to showcase student creativity as well as the books in your FVR library. Happy gaming! |
Jessie Oelke
#deptofone providing compelling and comprehensible input Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
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