Yesterday the students in my 7th hour Spanish I class asked if they could interview the student teacher. This was compelling stuff for them. The energy and interest were there and the questions kept coming, so the interview continued for the entire class period. I was very proud of [...]
We just finished the fifth week of school. This year in my level one Spanish classes I am focusing on "Special Person" interviews. I am not teaching to an overt grammar syllabus. I have not done any units. I have not even told any stories yet. I am focusing [...]
To give you an idea of the type of input students are getting, as well as what they are able to do with it now, here are the details about three students in the same class as that of writer the previous sample quiz. All of this information came [...]
Here is an analysis of the quiz in the previous post. Typical level I language emerges in personal interviews and is produced on the quizzes. Students are using the high frequency words they are hearing in class. Here is what I can see at a glance when I look [...]
Here is a typical example of the second "Special Person" (still not 100% satisfied with that name--if you have any suggestions please let me know) Quiz. Students were asked to write at least 20 sentences about five classmates we have interviewed most recently. She wrote 28 sentences. This girl [...]
If you have not started doing personal interviews it is definitely not too late to start doing them. You can jump in at any time. Here is how I do it. I start the first round with just a couple of questions: (1) What is your name? (2) What [...]