#ACTFL17 Self-Centered PBL for Novices

There are very few PBL units that I could package and recommend to pretty much anyone. So many, like the product pitch and visitor videos, are heavily dependent on my colleagues and context. But there is one topic that is perfect for both teenagers and novices:

Themselves.

What luck that teenagers love talking about the very thing that novices are supposed to talk about!

Now I usually do this unit at the beginning of Spanish II (once I tried it at the end, and my kids felt cheated that we didn’t start with it–they would have done so much better the rest of the semester, they said!), but this could work with almost any group with everyone performing at least at the Novice Mid level. I tried it in my online Spanish III class, and if the product pitch project weren’t so ingrained in the very culture of our school, I totally would work it into Spanish I in time for New Year’s resolution making too.

So here is my best effort at sorting out how you can set up this popular unit in your own class.