An expanded version of this lesson is available here.

This is an activity that can be done as a follow-up to a short story between week 2 and 3 of a Spanish 1 class. The Bell Ringer/Do Now assignment, called the Repasito, is displayed below.  In the example, the Repasito directs students to write five sentences in Spanish about the drawing. The drawing has to do with the story each class was presented with the day before.

Here is the basic story in 4 sentences:

A girl wants coffee.

A boy has coffee.

The girl gives the boy… [an object to trade]

The boy gives the girl the coffee.

It can almost immediately be expanded to about twice as many sentences. Expect the story to change a bit as you tell it in different classes, depending on the ability of the class and energy level of the teacher.

There is a girl in Spanish class. She wants coffee, but she doesn’t have any coffee.

There is a boy in Spanish class too. He has coffee. It is good coffee.

The girl gives the boy… [several different objects to trade for the coffee. He rejects them all].  

The girl gives the boy a toad.

The boy gives the girl the coffee.

Students were asked (above) to write five sentences about this drawing the next day as their Repasito (Bellringer).

This is where the extra words in the student-generated sentences in the example below come from. Some of the extra words were from the class “super-stars” who were allowed to add the extra sentences they had thought up once everyone else in the class had exhausted all of their possibilities. This is important. The super-stars do not get to dominate everything all the time. Let everyone have a turn at bat.

The verbs necesita (needs) and cambia (trades) had also been used a few times in class but had not been explicitly taught. Nevertheless, a few students in each class managed to create sentences with those verbs. They had also likely seen these words in the novels they had been reading for Sustained Silent Reading time.

How can level 1 students generate so many unique sentences?

Competition between different class periods helps, and so does free voluntary reading.

Ask a student to write the number of sentences each class comes up with on the white board each hour. Each class will try to outdo the previous one. During the last two classes, you might even want to throw out the lesson plan because students will all be engaged and want to do nothing but come up with more and more sentences than the other periods. No translating devices should be allowed. They may even work for the entire period, even though the original activity (the Repasito above) may have been planned to take up only about 5 minutes. During those last two periods, you may want to have a student act as an MC and call on classmates to say sentences while you sit in the back and write out each sentence that is said—correcting the grammar along the way.

STUDENT-GENERATED SENTENCES IN SPANISH

The story below, created entirely from student sentences, contains a total of 690 words. The sentences were corrected as the teacher wrote them down. Not every sentence was 100% correct grammatically, when students aid them, but the meaning of most sentences was clear. That meaning was expressed with slightly improved grammar for the written version presented to students.

This was a good start to getting kids’ confidence up about reading in Spanish. Reading a story of almost 700 total words in beginning of week three of Spanish 1 is significant. This is a big step to preparing students to read independently—and some had already begun to do so on their own. These short, high-interest, easy readers (language learner novels crafted with controlled vocabulary especially for novices) are within their reach when this happens.

Spanish teachers will notice how the vocabulary is simplified for this novice level. It was early in the semester, so students had small vocabularies. Students may have said café pelo for the girl’s brown hair color, instead of pelo castaño. But pelo café was written, to express better word order, but still with comprehensible wording. Students may have said Tiene nariz grande for “He has a big nose”, but it was written as Él tiene una nariz grande.

Much of the extra vocabulary came from students who had already begun reading extra simplified language learner novels on their own. They were able to do this because of the high-frequency verbs they had been taught with TPR in class the first week.

  1. Hay un chico.
  2. Hay una chica.
  3. Hay café.
  4. Hay un sapo.
  5. Hay dos personas.
  6. Hay dos estudiantes.
  7. Hay una chica y un chico.

 

  1. El chico es bajo.
  2. El chico es gordo.
  3. El chico tiene una cabeza grande.
  4. El chico tiene pelo café.
  5. El pelo del chico es corto.
  6. El chico tiene una nariz grande.
  7. El chico tiene orejas grandes.
  8. El chico tiene ojos pequeños.

 

  1. La chica tiene una sonrisa grande.
  2. La chica tiene una boca grande.
  3. La chica tiene pelo café.
  4. La chica tiene pelo largo.
  5. La chica tiene ojos grandes.
  6. La chica tiene una nariz pequeña.

 

  1. El chico tiene café.
  2. El café tiene leche.
  3. El café es bueno.
  4. El café está muy caliente.
  5. La mano del chico está caliente porque tiene café caliente en la mano.

 

  1. La chica tiene café.
  2. No es café bueno.
  3. La chica quiere café bueno.
  4. La chica necesita café bueno.
  5. A la chica le gusta el café bueno.
  6. La chica quiere el café del chico.

 

  1. La chica sonríe al chico.
  2. El chico no le da el café.
  3. La chica le da un lápiz al chico.
  4. Pero el chico no le da el café.
  5. La chica le da un libro al chico.
  6. Pero el chico no le da el café.
  7. La chica le da una planta al chico.
  8. Pero el chico no le da el café.
  9. La chica le da una mochila al chico.
  10. Pero el chico no le da el café.
  11. La chica no sonríe.

 

  1. Hay un sapo.
  2. El sapo es pequeño.
  3. El sapo es verde.
  4. El sapo es gordo.
  5. El sapo no tiene pelo.
  6. El sapo no habla inglés.
  7. El sapo come bichos.
  8. Es un sapo guapo.

 

  1. La chica mira el sapo.
  2. La chica tiene una idea.
  3. La chica agarra el sapo.
  4. La chica tiene el sapo.
  5. La chica tiene el sapo en la mano.
  6. A la chica no le gusta el sapo.

 

  1. El chico mira a la chica.
  2. El chico mira el sapo.
  3. El sapo mira al chico.
  4. El sapo sonríe al chico.
  5. El chico sonríe.
  6. Al chico le gusta el sapo.

 

  1. La chica mira al chico.
  2. La chica sonríe al chico.
  3. A la chica le gustan los ojos del chico.

 

  1. El chico está nervioso.
  2. Al chico le gusta la chica.
  3. El chico sonríe.
  4. La chica mira el café del chico.
  5. La chica todavía quiere el café.
  6. La chica todavía necesita el café.
  7. La chica todavía necesita beber café.
  8. La chica todavía quiere tener el café del chico.

 

  1. El chico quiere el sapo.
  2. El chico y la chica hablan.
  3. La chica le dice: –¿quieres el sapo?
  4. La chica le dice: –quiero cambiar el sapo por el café.
  5. La chica le dice: –el café, por favor.
  6. La chica quiere el café y el chico quiere el sapo.
  7. La chica le dice: –quiero el café.
  8. El chico quiere cambiar con la chica.
  9. El chico sonríe y le dice: –quiero el sapo.

 

  1. La chica cambia con el chico.
  2. El chico y la chica cambian el café por el sapo.
  3. La chica le da el sapo al chico.
  4. La chica pone el sapo en la mano del chico.
  5. El chico agarra el sapo.
  6. El chico le da el café a la chica.
  7. El chico pone el café en la mano de la chica.
  8. La chica toma el café.
  9. El chico le dice: –gracias.
  10. La chica le dice: –de nada.

 

  1. La chica sonríe.
  2. Al sapo le gusta el chico.
  3. El sapo sonríe.
  4. El sapo le dice –
  5. El chico toma el sapo.
  6. El chico sonríe.
  7. Todos sonríen.
  8. El chico y la chica y el sapo son amigos.

There are 690 total Spanish words in the sentences above. All were created by students, with minor corrections by the teacher. When students re-read this consolidated version of the story the next day, all were engaged. They felt they had helped to create these sentences. All claimed that everything was understandable.

Reading 690 words in L2, and understanding them all, and being engaged in the reading is a good start for the beginning of the 3rd week of level 1. 690 words is 1/2 to 1/3 of the total word count in many beginning novels. Not bad! Point this out to students to encourage them.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF STUDENT-GENERATED SENTENCES

  1. There is a boy.
  2. There is a girl.
  3. There is coffee.
  4. There is a toad.
  5. There are two people.
  6. There are two students.
  7. There are a girl and a boy.

 

  1. The boy is short.
  2. The boy is fat.
  3. The boy has a big head.
  4. The boy has brown hair.
  5. The boy’s hair is short.
  6. The boy has a big nose.
  7. The boy has big ears.
  8. The boy has little eyes.

 

  1. The girl has a big smile.
  2. The girl has a big mouth.
  3. The girl has brown hair.
  4. The girl has long hair.
  5. The girl has big eyes.
  6. The girl has a little nose.

 

  1. The boy has coffee.
  2. The coffee has milk.
  3. The coffee is good.
  4. The coffee is very hot.
  5. The boy’s hand is hot because he has hot coffee in his hand.

 

  1. The girl has coffee.
  2. It is not good coffee.
  3. The girl wants good coffee.
  4. The girl needs good coffee.
  5. The girl likes good coffee.
  6. The girl wants the boy’s coffee.

 

  1. The girl smiles at the boy.
  2. The boy doesn’t give her the coffee.
  3. The girl gives a pencil to the boy.
  4. But the boy doesn’t give her the coffee.
  5. The girl gives a book to the boy.
  6. But the boy doesn’t give her the coffee.
  7. The girl gives a plant to the boy.
  8. But the boy doesn’t give her the coffee.
  9. The girl gives a backpack to the boy.
  10. But the boy doesn’t give her the coffee.
  11. The girl does not smile.

 

  1. There is a toad.
  2. The toad is little.
  3. The toad is green.
  4. The toad is fat.
  5. The toad doesn’t have any hair.
  6. The toad doesn’t speak English.
  7. The toad eats bugs.
  8. It is a handsome toad.

 

  1. The girl looks at the toad.
  2. The girl has an idea.
  3. The girl grabs the toad.
  4. The girl has the toad.
  5. The girl has the toad in her hand.
  6. The girl doesn’t like the toad.

 

  1. The boy looks at the girl.
  2. The boy looks at the toad.
  3. The toad looks at the boy.
  4. The toad smiles at the boy.
  5. The boy smiles.
  6. The boy likes the toad.

 

  1. The girl looks at the boy.
  2. The girl smiles at the boy.
  3. The girl likes the boy’s eyes.

 

  1. The boy is nervous.
  2. The boy likes the girl.
  3. The boy smiles.
  4. The girl looks at the boy’s coffee.
  5. The girl still wants the coffee.
  6. The girl still needs coffee.
  7. The girl still needs to drink coffee.
  8. The girl wants to have the boy’s coffee.

 

  1. The boy wants the toad.
  2. The boy and the girl speak.
  3. The girl says to him, “Do you want the toad?”
  4. The girl says to him, “I want to trade the toad for the coffee.”
  5. The girl says to him, “The coffee, please.”
  6. The girl wants the coffee and the boy wants the toad.
  7. The girl says to him, “I want the coffee.”
  8. The boy wants to trade with the girl.
  9. The boy smiles and says to her, “I want the toad.”

 

  1. The girl trades with the boy.
  2. The boy and the girl trade the coffee for the toad.
  3. The girl gives the toad to the boy.
  4. The girl puts the toad in the boy’s hand.
  5. The boy grabs the toad.
  6. The boy gives the coffee to the girl.
  7. The boy puts the coffee into the girl’s hand.
  8. The girl takes the coffee.
  9. The boy says to her, “Thank you.”
  10. The girl says to him, “You’re welcome.”

 

  1. The girl smiles.
  2. The toad likes the boy.
  3. The toad smiles.
  4. The toad says “rivit” to him.
  5. The boy takes the toad.
  6. The boy smiles.
  7. They all smile.
  8. The boy and the girl and the toad are friends.

FOLLOW UP

Rearrange the random student sentences to create a narrative like the one above, which the students can read with one another using Ping Pong Reading

Each student will have a copy of these sentences. In a class, the sentences would only be written in L2. Sentences are translated into English below for readers here that do not speak Spanish. Students enjoy searching for the sentences they have said as they do the ping-pong activity. It becomes compelling reading because each student can see sentences that seem as though they have spoken themselves.

Keep in mind that the following sentences/story is a composite. No one student, would be able to come up with all of these sentences. It will be a group effort. Nonetheless, nearly every student should be able understand most of the final set of sentences. They cannot produce all of these sentences, but they can comprehend them.

It also helps that it is their own classmates, rather than the teacher, or the textbook, that comes up with these sentences. This student creation of the sentences shines through in the simplicity of many of the sentences that students will create. A teacher would make them more nuanced or difficult, but coming from students they seem like purer, simpler language and ideas.

HOW TO GET THEM THERE

  • Previous Vocabulary

Vocabulary from the previous week were words that got students up and moving. These were words that are useful for talking about classroom jobs and words that help us to get to know one another with Special Person interviews.

Up & Moving Words:       stands up,  walks,  sits down,  touches,  points at,  grabs,  fast,  slow

Classroom Words:           window,  floor,  lights,  chair,  door,  screen,  projector,  books,  class

Get-to-Know-You Words:            is called,  is in grade,  lives in,  prefers,  likes it,  boy,  girl

  • New Vocabulary

All of these new words are import because they are high frequency in any language. Use classical TPR to introduce the new vocabulary with gestures. This section is very brief. We stop using the gestures once most of the students recognize the words when they are spoken. There is no need to continue with the gestures after that time. After the first day, and briefly as a review on the second day, the gestures for these words are not used again. We want students to associate the sound of the word with the meaning and not have to rely on visual cues. If we keep using gestures, students tend to tune out the listening and depend on the visual cues of the gestures.

  • Has Cup two hands together like you have something tiny (sounds a bit like tiene) in there.
  • Looks at Hand to forehead as if looking at something while shielding from glare.
  • Wants Bring two hands to chest as if bringing something dear to your heart.

Use this new vocabulary with novel commands. Tell the students to do unexpected actions using the new words.

An expanded version of this lesson is available here.