Being totally and completely honest… I used to think that the goal of using 90% Spanish in class was impossible. At the time, I was teaching out of a textbook and our curriculum was very grammar driven. So how could I possibly teach my Spanish 2 students the preterite and imperfect (sigh) without using English? It wasn’t until I discovered comprehensible input at the CI Midwest conference that the lightbulb finally went on. Read on to find out about this transition which led to predominantly using Spanish in my classroom.
The shift…
My focus in class shifted from grammar based lessons to communicative based lessons. As a result, the type of activities that I prepared also changed. Instead of worksheets with verb conjugations, my activities gave my students lots of comprehensible Spanish and asked them to demonstrate comprehension.
Some of my favorite comprehension based activities:
1. Read & draw activities- This is one of my favorite activities because it is so simple, takes very little prep time, and my creative students love showing off their talents. And they can be used to talk about any topic: colors, numbers, winter vocabulary, weekend chat, and more!
2. Picture talk – This post describes how I set up my lesson for Picture talk AND include culture too!
3. Movie talk/ Clip chat – Here are my step by step directions for creating a movie talk. And here are 10 ways to extend a movie talk to create several days of lessons based on on just one clip.
4. Circumlocution games – This blog post describes my 5 favorite games for practicing circumlocution.
5. Short stories – This post describes how I design my lessons around a short story. Here are 10 ways to extend a short story lesson to stretch it out over several days.
What comprehension based activities have you used in your classroom? Drop me a line on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear your strategies!
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