This post is designed to show an entire lesson, start to finish, broken down, step by step. You will see how I introduce new vocabulary, use manipulatives and get kids moving, competing and engaged. It is not the only way to do it, but it is one way, and I have found it to work. When I was a kid, there was a toy called Fashion Plates, where you basically did these crayon rubbings over plastic squares of different outfits onto paper dolls to make them fashionable. I did this in the late 80s…the term fashionable could be debated, but the idea still holds. I loved those stupid things, not because of the crayon part, which always seemed to come out too dark or light, but because I was in control of the outfit. I could make it crazy or beautiful or not fit the stylish 80s model at all, which made me laugh. Fast forward 25 years…teacher-me realizing that I need a way to get the kids to work with clothing vocabulary in the curriculum. I know what you’re thinking right now… “Oh, no…she’s going to make them make fashion plates or something terrible.” Yes and no. The idea of dressing paper dolls may or may not be fun for everyone in my class, especially the older basketball players who are just trying to get through Spanish 1 to move on with their lives, so the crayon rubbing thing is a no-go, but there are ways to get them working with this vocabulary…come with me! Before we start, our “I Can” statement for the day is... “I can understand and identify articles of clothing when I hear about them.” I know that seems super simple, but for the 1st day of vocabulary introduction I want to make it PAINFULLY clear what they are supposed to be able to do at the end. The eventual goal is to pick a store based on print and radio ads, have a simple conversation about clothing in a store with a sales person and then be able to buy the clothing. Again, this is the 1st lesson introducing clothing vocabulary towards that goal. It’s the last unit of Level 1 so they should be Novice-Mid with some Novice-High. Warm Up We always start with a daily slide that gives them what they need for the day, in the target language, and the warm up. Today's daily slide had them get scissors, an envelope, a sheet with clothing squares, and a sheet with a paper doll boy, girl and bear. I don’t know why the template I found had a bear on it, but it did, so we just learned the word for bear too…variety is the spice of life. For their warmup, it told them to cut up the sheet of paper doll clothes (in squares because it’s faster to cut), put them in the envelope and glue the doll sheet into their notebook. While you may not think paper dolls will amuse everyone, and you’d be right, dressing a paper doll is waaaaayyyy better than just staring at me while I talk about clothes. Also, when do these kids ever get to play for no reason at this point in their lives anyway? There’s value doing things just for fun because we can. Ok, soapbox moment over, back to the lesson. Interpersonal Speaking Practice & "I DO" (teacher input) I do a few minutes of “Futbol Speaking” which is me throwing them a ball and asking conversational questions in Spanish, and then I have the last person read the “I Can” statement for the day. After they know what we’re doing, it’s my turn to actually teach something. I start with my daughter’s baby clothes in a little zebra striped suitcase for the “I do” part, so I can show them what each item is and speak about it in Spanish and describe it, etc, and as I do that I ask them to find in the envelope the clothing item and hold it up. Obviously, they can find a picture of shoes if I’m holding up shoes without knowing the word yet, so everyone is on the same page and they’re feeling successful. "WE DO" Modeling & Guided Partner Work Once the clothing is all introduced and out on everyone’s desk, we can play. First, I call out the word for the clothing item and then have them touch it. After a few of those, I say a sentence with a certain item to put on the girl or the boy and they find it and do it. This way everyone is participating and doing and I can look around at 30 kids and see who does not understand my directions. This is a great silent check for understanding because I’m not ready to call them out and have them perform yet, but I can still see what’s happening. The sentence I’m speaking is also important because I want them to hear “La chica lleva….”, “El chico lleva…”and “El oso lleva…” a million times before the lesson is over so they are comfortable with the structure without me explaining it. "YOU DO" Independent Partner Work After a few rounds of that, they’ve heard the words enough that I can give them the reigns. They work in partners to call to each other and practice back and forth. I project the sentence starters and a word bank with the picture and the word (NO ENGLISH) so they have support if needed. I circulate the room checking in with partners and listening. I help with pronunciation if they’re really struggling or if they ask me, because it’s a paired exercise and they’re in a low-stress situation where no one can hear them but me. They want help. They just don’t want to be embarrassed. Show Me! Formative Assessment with Movement Now that they’ve practiced and are feeling good, realistically, they’re bored now. How engaging can this be after a few minutes with all these supports, right? Also, they have been sitting forever! Gotta get up. So, now they come back to me, and we do Fast 5 Real Fashion Quiz without the word bank or the sentence starters. They all stand up. I take a quick survey in Spanish of “Who is wearing ____?” and they raise their hands if they’re wearing that thing, and then we take our real quiz. I call out in Spanish “Touch your shirt. Touch your shoes. Touch your hat.” And they do it as fast as they can. We do 5 for practice and 5 for real and then I ask them if they think they really know their stuff because they’re going to have to prove it in a minute. I need them to divide up boys v. girls for the game we’re about to play, and since they’re already standing, it’s not a big deal. As they move, I tell them to come up with their “champion”, the person who they decide knows the vocab best so far, to start our game. Competitive Practice: Listen & Do I made 2 identical sets of biggie-size card stock clothing that I use to play this game. I'm hoping to make a printable set to post soon, but I haven't gotten there yet. The handout with the doll people is projected on the board so it’s big too, and the clothing is divided up and placed equally on both sides. The 2 champions come up to start the game and they stand on their side looking at their clothing. I tell them “La chica lleva la bufanda” and they have to grab the bufanda and put it on the chica. (Originally I used tape on the back of all the clothing, but I got fancy and now I have magnets on the back because they stick to the white board.) We start playing with calling just 1 item, then add another and then add another. Eventually I am calling sentences like “El oso lleva la falda, el chico lleva el abrigo y la chica lleva los pantalones.” Remember how I liked controlling the Fashion Plates and making them funny? Same idea. Competitive Pratice: Their Turn Now, to this point it has been me calling the sentences, but once we are in complex sentences, my job is done. I turn it over to them and the people sitting get a chance to call the sentences. To make sure of success, they have to start over with just 1 item, not 3. To ensure fairness, I have to alternate teams so the people don’t just call all the girl items because they’re girls and standing closer to the girl paper doll. Sometimes the "professors" get a little carried away with their sentences as you can see. Exit Ticket: Closing Listening Quiz Anyway, as time winds down, we declare a winner, return to seats and they have their closing exit ticket assessment. I give them another paper (½ sheet this time) with the same dolls that we’ve been using the whole time. This is their listening quiz. I will call 10 sentences about wearing clothing and they have to DRAW the clothing on the correct person and number it so I know they understood enough to do it in the write order. The quiz sounds like “ #1. La chica lleva los tacones” and they’ll draw high heels on the girl and write a #1. Then the quiz is over, they turn it in, return the materials to the supply station and the bell rings. Reflection So, to recap, their “I Can” statement was “I can understand and identify articles of clothing when I hear about them.” They had the chance to see and hear the vocabulary with physical objects, work on it with paper cutouts while listening to me, listen to a partner and move paper cutouts, speak to the partner and build their own sentences, stand up, listen and identify their own clothing, stand up, listen, and compete using big clothing in front of the class, and finally take a listening quiz where they had to understand the whole sentence and draw its representation. I believe that the students need multiple ways to interact with the vocabulary in low-stress situations and listen and absorb before they’re expected to speak. They did speaking in this lesson, with me about things they knew from before. When they had to speak about what they were being introduced to, it was in pairs while everyone else was also speaking, so they were not put on the spot in front of the class. When the I Can statement focuses on understanding, and I’m delivering new vocabulary, I want them to listen as much as possible. This becomes the jumping off point for everything we’ll do in future lessons related to clothing.
Introducing vocabulary doesn't need to be about lists and drill and group repetition. It can actually be entertaining for you and them! Have fun!
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