I attended a workshop with the incredible Carol Gaab about how to use PQA’s (Personalized Question & Answer). This is such a powerful tool to use in your Spanish classroom, that I bet you’ve already used! It’s an input activity I use the entire year to grab my students’ attention in real time. Plus, it builds a real sense of community since your students get to know one another. To summarize PQA’s, you create a series of questions that are student focused to get their ideas and opinions on a topic. For example “¿Qué te gusta…?” However, there was one line that Gaab used that really struck me. Read on in this blog post to find out the secret she shared and how it has changed my approach to PQA’s.
THIS line really stuck with me:
The point is not to finish the activity. How freeing is that? So often we feel rushed to “cover” material in school. But this activity will save you so much time lesson planning because there isn’t even a need for an answer key! Carol Gaab taught me that as language teachers, we have the freedom and responsibility to not finish an activity if it means that we are having meaningful conversations in the target language. So how exactly can we sustain an activity for that long? Personalized questions and answers (PQA’s) hook your students and make the class content all about them and will simplify your lesson plans. Read on for some new ideas for how to use PQA’s in your classroom today!
Tips for getting the most out of PQA’s
- Focus more on using high frequency verbs, like the Super 7, than low frequency vocabulary. Use class time to give them the Spanish words that they will get the most mileage out of when communicating in Spanish.
- Write key words on the board in both languages. If the students’ favorite food really is lobster, don’t hesitate to write “Langosta- Lobster” on the board to help facilitate comprehension. This helps to build the list of vocabulary words that are lower frequency but are meaningful to the entire class. And since they’re talking about their favorite things, they will be more invested in acquiring and using this Spanish vocabulary.
- Use gestures! Act things out, physically point at the words on the board, and make exaggerated facial expressions. A great way to get your language learners to understand the Spanish!
- Pick interesting questions! Mix it up. Instead of just asking what their favorite food is, for example, ask them what is the strangest food they’ve ever eaten. The more student engagement the more they will be into the activity, leading to increased acquisition. Plus, this is a simple way to naturally include question words into your lesson and engage their critical thinking skills.
- Get data! There are tons of different activities you can use to differentiate the PQA’s. Take surveys, have the students vote in an online poll, or have them raise their hands to show their preference. This immediate feedback lets the Spanish teacher know that the students are comprehending the material and it keeps the students engaged because they love seeing their classmates opinions. Another option is to have them write a summary in Spanish based on the data either as independent work or in small groups.
- Create Spanish Games! Use that data the following day to continue the discussion or make fun games that require them to guess the class preference. How much do both middle school and high school students love a guessing game?! Check out this fun Spanish game that is closely related to PQA’s.
- Turn them into Task Cards! I love using PAQ’s as question cards for my students to practice interpersonal speaking. Each task card has a question and an answer starter to help my students of different levels. Check out my ready to print task cards here and get your students speaking in Spanish!
PQA’s are an amazing way to spark dialogue in your Spanish classes, no matter what the grade level! Plus its a great activity that you can use right from the start of the school year and get instant feedback from your Spanish students. There is nothing that my high school students love more than discussing themselves. So let’s use that interest to get them interested in the conversation to build their Spanish language skills! Have you tried PQA’s in your world languages class? Drop me an email on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear your advice!
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