Muy talentoso: a PBL/TCI story

It’s almost time to gear up for the Lenoir-Rhyne Language Festival! In Spanish I last year, my kiddos selected two songs, developed dances and costumes, created maracas with water bottles and duct tape, and performed a mashup of “La Bamba” and “Danza Kuduro.” They also got a lot of great ideas on what they wanted to do this year.

Since they are wise old Spanish II students now, I’m opening up the dance floor, so to speak. There are four different competitions at the festival:

• poetry recitation
• cultural bee
• song
• skit

I’m working on a stations-based entry event to give them a taste of each before they choose their event, but in the meantime, I want to reinforce some essential verbs (puede, hace, and hay) and vocabulary they’ll need to discuss their plans.

I had a hard time finding my twist on the competition topic, but I think I got it (think: America’s Got Talent) And I finally managed to stick to my One Word when I wrote the story! Also, I think I’m getting the hang of setting up enough freedom through simple questioning a la Martina Bex (I think seeing Mme Wendy’s example helped me grasp the simple approach a lot better too).

So once again, I made a story form to preview the story and get some student input, especially since I think I finally got the story structured in such a way that there is room for fun suggestions.

Also: I had students print it out before they left today, in case we actually get 8″ of snow instead of 8″ of rain. That’s right: story form snow day plan!

I think I’m getting the hang of the storyasking, and if you don’t believe me, check out my previous TPRS/TCI attempts:
Mucha basura
El mejor invento
Libros son buenos