I’m learning new words with this topic!  Here are a few:

• delizar – to swipe
• tuitear – to tweet,  hotly debated – should it enter the Spanish language or not?
• unidad de red – cloud storage

So how do you teach it to tech savvy teenagers?  I’ll be honest.  I haven’t cracked it and I’m teaching the module at the moment.  I’ll add to the ideas below if I stumble on anything useful.

Translation challenge

Divide students into A and B before revealing a slide with these:

	Translations A	Translations B
5	Sentence in Spanish here	Sentence in English here
10	Tougher sentence in English here	Tougher sentence in Spanish here
15	Equally tough sentence in Spanish here	Equally tough sentence in English here
20	Horrible sentence in English here	Horrible sentence in Spanish here (present subjunctive anyone?)

Student who gets the highest points score wins.  They can start wherever they like.

 

A3 Answers B2 Responses and C1 sentences

This is an adaptation of an idea from the brilliant Rachel Hawkes.  You give the kids questions like the ones below but tell them that you want an A3 answer.  The kids then have to include those things in the answer to the question.

¿Para qué usas Facebook?

¿Tienes un blog?

¿Cuántas seguidores tienes en Twitter?

A use perfect tense                                            1 use a linking word that is not “y”

B use a sentence containing lo/la                 2 use an opinion without the word “gusta”

C use present tense                                           3 include a time phrase

D use opinion                                                      4 include an item of vocabulary from last lesson

5 lines up

Whilst this is not in anyway linked to the internet topic, it is something I am experimenting with.  All learners rule off their page 5 lines up from the bottom.  This new section of book is for any new vocabulary.  This could be something they ask me for, something they find in the dictionary, or a new word encountered in a reading or listening text that they plan to look up later.  It has the advantage of allowing them a means of retaining the new language and also shows it linking to the learning that took place in that lesson.  Hopefully that should mean that words heard once or seen once, are not simply forgotten.  My hope is that by processing it a few more times that they will retain it.  It might also foster some independence.

Language Gym Verb Trainer & Boxing

The topics in the AQA book have a hefty amount of grammar (perfect tense, verbs with prepositions, por/para and the present continuous).

The Language Gym website has a great verb trainer but also in the “games room” section there is a boxing game on technology. It is a nice way to consolidate and extend vocabulary.  It could be very effective in the practice phase of a lesson or equally as a consolidation homework.  The rock-climbing game is really clever although I feel terrible when I get it wrong and hear the “aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh” sound.

How long can you keep it  up for?

This one is all about conversation.  Give groups of 3-4 students a series of cards with questions and maybe some support via a speaking mat if needed.   Nominate a starting student.  Explain that student 1 can question any of students 2,3, and 4.  After 2,3 or 4 has answered then they have 3 options.  The first is to ping the question back at person one.  The second is to ask someone else the same question.  The third is to ask another question of someone else.  Tell the group they have to keep the conversation going as long as possible.  Write up on the board the amount of minute and half-minutes they have managed to keep the conversation going in Spanish.  I think some teachers call this group talk.  It may well be that but I want the focus to be on the time aspect.  They tend to feel more confident and sit taller when they realise they have just managed 5 minutes in Spanish together.

Perfect Tense – “Have you ever…?”

The AQA book uses the internet topic to introduce the perfect tense so once the students have got the concept then you could get them generating a series of 5 questions for their partner on any topic.

¿Has jugado … ?

¿Has probado …?

Tarsia Puzzles & Dominoes

Tarsia is one of my favourite activities but does take a while to set up.  It is a good plenary or starter to recap something you have taught in a prior lesson.  You will need a printing and photocopying budget!  Clicking the link will take you to the website where you can download the program.  It allows you to make activities such as dominoes.  You can also make triangles of little triangles where all the vocab must match in both languages.  Maths teachers use it for formulas.   Remember to set the form of entry to “TEXT” or it will crush your letters together.  If you can trust your students with scissors then they can chop them.  If not, employ the skills of your tutor group and bribe reward them for their efforts.

2 options for use:

1. English – Spanish vocabulary matching  “deslizar” = “to swipe”
2. English word – Spanish definition “Youtube”= “Sitio para videos”  “desinstalar” = “proceso de borrar app”.

 

¡No te metas a mi facebook!

Resources for this lesson can be found here

Lyric video here

If the lesson plan and resources on TES are not enough then how to exploit songs can be found in the Teacher’s Guide section of Frenchteacher.net

Spanish Text Lingo

I believe the kids call them “group chats” now but teach them some basic Spanish phrases for this purpose.  See if the students can work out any of the following:

• grax – gracias
• tqm – te quiero mucho
• bss – besos
• komotás – ¿Cómo estás?
• de nax – de nada
• 50538 – I’m not telling you this one.  Turn your phone upside-down and read it

Verb Tables / Verb Stars

There is a lot of good grammar in this topic if you are following an AQA scheme of work so make use of it as an opportunity to teach them verb tables and how to use them.

descargar – to download

descargo    descargüe    voy a descargar    he descargado   etc

Whilst I am not a massive fan of learning styles theories, I appreciate that some learners prefer to lay out information in different ways.

Lists – colour-coded subdivisions:

Descargar

Present:  descargo

Past: he descargado / descargüe  / descargaba

Future: voy a descargar / descargaré

Make sure students stick to the same colour coding or they are simply going to cause themselves confusion.

Brainstorm / Star

Put infinitive in the middle and add others around it.  To make it more asthetically appealing putting a star around the infinitive is useful.

How many different ways can you use that infinitive?

There are many verbs in Spanish that precede an infinitive.  Students could use those as well.  Germanists will know what I mean by Modalverben.

Puedo / Quiero / Tengo que / Debería / Me gustaría etc