“Beefed up” grammar lesson in the TL
I had to present a 10-minute mini-mini-mini grammar lesson to a small group in my grad class on Thursday. And now, I have to “beef it up” by adding 2 of the following things we’ve been reading about:
- positive input enhancement–where you use underlines, caps, bold, and (I think) vocal inflection and gestures to emphasize the specific focus of your lesson.
- pre-communicative practice–this is where focus on form comes with little or no meaning. I can feel the #langchat PLN cringing already (some may recall my bewildered tweet about my textbook supporting worksheets), but the more I think about it, I hold that a little confidence with at least one thing before the risk-taking begins is probably beneficial.
- careful and vernacular style activities–careful being those activities where form and correctness is the emphasis, vernacular being those activities where you are trying to get your point across, actually communicate. I agree that there is a time and a place for each–though probably more times and places for vernacular.
- information gap activities–it seems that activities where the student doesn’t already know the answer actually work better than activities where they do! Fancy that!
Honestly, I probably had the positive input enhancement covered when I put the lesson on gustar/ encantar/ interesar/ aburrir (gracias, @senordaves!) together, and a touch of the pre-communicative/ careful practice. Nevertheless, I “beefed them up,” as per the assignment, and added an information gap activity.
The document I’m submitting is here, should you wish to adapt it or see the whole, gory thing. Otherwise, here’s a sample:
- Post a sign in each corner of the classroom (for me gusta, me encanta, me interesa, & me aburre respectively).
- Say: “Tengo una lista de objetos y personas.” (show list) “Cada persona u objeto…” (point at ítems on list one by one) “o te gusta” (go to gusta corner, point at sign, give thumbs up, repeat) “o te ENCAAAAANTA” (go to encanta corner, point at sign, put hands on heart, repeat) “o te interesa” (stroke chin, point at sign, look interested, repeat) “o te ABUUUUURRE” (go to aburre corner, point at sign, exasperated voice, roll eyes, slouch, repeat). [positive input enhancement w/ gestures & voicing]
- “Si te gusta el objeto o la persona, vienes aquí.”(plant self in gusta corner) “Te gusta, aquí.” (go to next corner) “Si te encanta, vienes aquí” (plant self in encanta corner) “Te ENCAAANTA, aquí.” (go to next corner) “Si te interesa el objeto o la persona, vienes aquí.” (plant self in interesa corner) “Te interesa, aquí.” (go to last corner) “Si te ABUURRRE, vienes aquí.” (plant self in aburre corner) “Te aburre, aquí.”
- “Pero PRIMERO (hold up 1 finger), ¡necesitamos PAPEL (show paper) y LÁPIZ (show pencil)! Vamos a tomar NOTAS (mime writing). Cuando tú VES(point to eyes), VES algo sorprendente, que es una SORPRESA (mime shock), escríbelo. Cuando OBSERVAS tus compañeros de clase y VES una SORPRESA (mime shock), apuntas (mime writing).
- Por ejemplo: ‘[student’s name], ¿¿A TI TE encanta DAVID BISBAL?? ¡A mí me encanta David Bisbal también! ¡Qué sorpresa!’ (mime writing) *O* ‘[another student name] ¿TE ABURRE la clase de ESPAÑOL? ¿La clase es ABURRIDA para ti? ¡No sabía! ¡Qué SORPRESA! (mime writing)¡Qué horror!
- “Entonces, necesitas ANOTAR (mime writing) al MENOS CINCO (hold up 5 fingers) CINCO sorpresas cuando observas las otras personas. CINCO sorpresas de la clase en tus nota.
- Go back around the room pointing at signs, doing voices, and gestures: “O te GUSTA…o te ENCAAAANTA…o te interesa…o te ABUUUUURRREEE, ¿sí?” (nod, get them to nod or say sí) “Te gusta (point), te encanta (point), te interesa (point), o te aburre (point). Bien. Empezamos.”
- “Número uno: chocolate…Hershey’s, Snickers… Te gusta el chocolate (point), Te ENCAAANTA el chocolate (point), Te interesa el chocolate (point), o te ABUUURRE el chocolate (point). Ahora, muévense.”
- Interview one or two students at each corner, e.g. “¿Te gusta? ¿No te encanta?” Prompt for “Me gusta” and “No me encanta” with “¿Sí, qué?” etc [pre-communicative practice, focus on form with a little meaning]
- Repeat steps 8 & 9 with Enrique Iglesias (with pic), Japón “Tokio, Nagasaki, Harajuko, Anime, Manga…”, Leer (demonstrate reading w/ book), Shakira (with pic), Estudiar historia (point to student history book), Pizza, Bailar salsa (do a little dance).
- “¿Todos tienen uno o dos sorpresas? Acuérdense: necesitan CINCO (5 fingers). OBSERVEN (fingers to eyes, then different students) tus compañeros de clase. Continuamos.”
- “Ahora es un poco diferente, solo un poco (use fingers to show a little bit). Una letra, de hecho, una (1 finger) letra, N. Los objetos de la lista y las personas de la lista ya son plurales (wiggle all fingers). Los objetos son plurales y las personas son plurales. Entonces (go to gusta corner, point to sign) te gustAN, (go to encanta corner, point to sign) te encantAN, (go to interesa corner, point to sign) te interesAN, o (go to aburre corner, point to sign) te aburrEN.”
- Back to center of room, point to each corner—with voices and gestures: “Te gustAN, te encantAN, te interesAN, te aburrEN. ¿Sí? OK, nuevo número uno: Transformers—Optimus Prime, Autobots, Decepticons, Shia LeBouef, Megan Fox–Transformers. (pointing to corners) Te gustan Transformers, Te encantan Transformers, Te interesan Transformers, o te aburren transformers?”
- Repeat steps 8 & 9 with Frijoles, muchachos GUAPOS, islas tropicales, mujeres inteligentes, deportes de Duke.
And then they ask the ones that surprised them “why,” to be discussed and expanded to using the pronoun le.
1 Comment
Sra. Jacobs · October 6, 2011 at 6:18 am
Great idea! I am starting to teach "me gusta" today. I am going to do 4 corners with "me gusta," "me gusta mucho," "no me gusta," and "no me gusta nada." I am so glad that I looked at your blog on this early morning. My lesson plans have totally changed for today! Muchas gracias por compartir!
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