Category Archives: supporting student learning

classroom management Comprehensible Input supporting student learning

The Power of Gestures

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Anything we learn has to enter the brain through one or more of the five senses. The more senses we can involve in the input process the more likely the words will be retained. In addition, information we see is stored in a different place in the brain than information we hear, touch, smell, or taste. When there are more senses involved, there are more places the information is stored in the brain.

This is why it is important to use gestures whenever possible when providing input. I use gestures to establish meaning, for classroom management, to calm and focus the class, and to check for comprehension. I start with weather gestures, action words, body parts and the super seven and sweet sixteen verbs.

The steps are:

Model the gesture. It is best if the kids help establish the gesture but I always have a back up ready in case they don’t come up with one. Plus, it helps to not have five different gestures for the same word if you have five classes. Model the gesture while pointing to the word in the target language with English translation while saying it in the target language.

Delay the gesture. Say the word or phrase again but wait before you do the gesture to see if they are getting it.

Make a Mistake. Say a phrase and pretend to do the wrong gesture and see if they notice…then do it correctly.

Remove the model. Say the phrase and see if they can do the gestures.

To add variations, divide the class into groups and assign each group a different country, city, or region of the target language. (I first learned this from the incomparable Jason Fritz.) Then give commands by country name. I teach gestures for weather the first week of school so I would break the class into three or four groups and say in the target language: in France, it is raining, in Canada, it is snowing, in Tahiti, it is sunny, and then mix up the weather and countries with several repetitions.

Give chain commands. Give three commands in a row and then say go. See if they can do the three gestures in that order while repeating the words again.

Have one half of the class demonstrate the gestures to the other half of the class. This is powerful because they can see it works. They can also see how quickly we can tell who knows the words and who does not.

Another reason to use gestures is to relax and calm. I use massage with body parts and breathing to begin class, especially when we need to calm our minds and bodies. For example: Massage your temples, your ears, your shoulders. Roll your head, then your shoulders. Breath in, breath out. I like the 5 finger breathing technique.

Use gestures to teach classroom commands and for classroom management. I start out each class period with the words and gestures for “Put your phone in your backpack. Take your air pods out of your ears. I need your eyes and your ears. I also teach gestures for look, listen, read, write, open your book, close your computer. You can also use gestures and unique movement opportunities for turning in papers or returning books. Some examples: Jump to the turn in trays. Walk backwards to your partner. Walk like a robot to the garbage can. Dance to the door. Swim to the pencil sharpener.

Use gestures to show comprehension. We naturally use gestures like raising our hand to ask a question, giving the ok sign, or showing thumbs up or down if you agree or disagree. We can teach them to signal when we are going to fast or they don’t understand. I have students shake their heads yes or no to show me they are paying attention. They need to stand up or sit down for either or choices. Even for true or false questions, I have them move to one part of the room or the other. And for a comprehension check, on a scale of 1-10 hold up your fingers how well did you understand?

The bottom line is if we don’t have their attention, no information is going into the brain. I tell the students that I can’t just open up their head and put French in their brains. I have to go in through one or more of their five senses. Gestures and movement aid in retention and they are just fun!

supporting student learning tech tools

Connecting with Jamboard!

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Have you tried Jamboard? Jamboard is a free interactive whiteboard at Jamboard.google.com. Or, go to google drive and select New>More>Jamboard!

Click the + button in the bottom right to create a new jam, or use one of the premade templates at the end of this post.

With Jamboard you can:

  • Add sticky notes, drawings, images, text and more.
  • Search Google and insert images or webpages.
  • Move images, texts, notes and drawings around on the screen easily.
  • Share your “jams” with others and let them collaborate. 
  • Get an ariel view of your classroom.
  • Assign students to different frames of the jam
  • Connect your “roomies with your zoomies” via jamboard

Use Jamboards for social emotional learning, and daily check ins. How are you feeling today? Write your name on a sticky note and drag it to the column that describes your mood.

How are you feeling today according to the Chihuahua scale? Click on the sticky note, add your initials, and write the number that represents how you are feeling today and a sentence explaining why.

Use Jamboards to provide hooks, build background knowledge, preteach vocabulary, and make connections. I like to provide possible answers on the Jamboard as scaffolding. The question on this jamboard is what do you like to do in winter. When choices are provided, there is less chance students will resort to Google translate and they are reading and writing in the target language.

Use Jamboards to get to know student’s interests and make class connections. For this four corners, I said a hobby and they moved their sticky note to the corner that reflects their feelings for that hobby.

Use Jamboards to annotate text. Students can circle unknown or key words, highlight the main idea, underline supporting details, and use symbols to make connections or ask questions.

Use Jamboards to review text. In this example, after reading a story together, I changed some details from the story. Students were asked to find one wrong detail and rewrite it correctly on a sticky note.

Use Jamboard to play games. You can purchase or create game templates for tic. tac. toe, connect four, and flyswatters.

For connect four you need 42 questions, or 42 vocabulary words. You can have the students make the questions for you. When reviewing for a test, or a chapter of a novel, tell them to make four questions each: one multiple choice, one open ended question, fill in the blank, true or false. Research shows that when kids create questions for a quiz they do better.

Use Jamboard for assessment. You can duplicate a slide up to 20 times and assign students to a slide. Here is an example of a simple vocabulary match.

Learn more and get free jamboards here, Ditch That Textbook. Bertha Delgadillo is the master of world language jamboards. Check out her blog and youtube videos. I love the thinking routines at this website. https://www.weareteachers.com/jamboard-ideas/

Ready to Jam? What do you see, think, wonder about Jamboards?

fun supporting student learning tech tools

Let’s play!

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Gimkit, Blooket, Kahoot, and GooseChase are the four games we are going to play at the PNCFL Virtual Regional Conference this Friday night, March 5th at 7:30pm. Come experience how to play these games with your students and win prizes while learning. These are among my favorite games to play with students and here is why.

Gimkit is a gamified experience to help kids review terms. Basically, you can play several different games with a set of questions, problems, or vocabulary words. It is $59.88 per year, but I think it is worth it. They offer a 30 day free trial, with no credit card attached, and they allowed me to extend my free trial at least once. I love that GimKit was created by Josh Feinsilber when he was a junior at Issaquah high school in Seattle for a high school project. One lucky participant will win a year subscription to Gimkit in our raffle.

Classic Gimkit is similar to Kahoot but with more options. Students can compete in teams or individually. Student try to earn the most money by answering questions correctly. They can shop for power ups to receive more money per question, or buy insurance against wrong answers.

Teachers can also use the assignment feature to give homework. You set a due date, and students work through the kit at their own pace, answering questions until they reach a set goal.

What I like best about Gimkit is the different games you can play with the same set of questions. Trust No One is the new game mode in Gimkit very similar to Among Us. The objective of this mode is simple: locate the impostors and vote them off the ship. The core of this mode is the same as all other game modes: students answer questions at their own pace. However, instead of earning cash, students earn power ⚡️. The more power students acquire, the more they can help their side win!

Crewmates can use their power to run investigations on other players. Investigations help crewmates identify other crewmates. With enough investigations, you can rule out enough people to eventually find the impostors. Impostors can use their power to sabotage crewmate operations or blend in as a crewmate with investigation removers, fake investigations, and disguises. When it’s time to vote someone out, the teacher or a student can call a meeting. This is where students can discuss their observations, suspicions, and evidence. When the discussion ends, it’s time for students to vote on who they think the impostor is. The student with the most votes gets ejected off the ship. Students ejected can still participate in the game. Instead of using their power on normal actions like investigations, they’ll be able to donate their power to teammates to help their side win.

The Floor is Lava is another game mode in Gimkit. As much as they love to compete against each other, they are even better when they work together. All students work together for a common goal: to stay above the lava as long as you can!

There are other games in Gimkit we are still exploring: Humans vs. Zombies, Boss Battle, Infinity Mode, Super Rich Mode, Drained Mode, Hidden Mode.

KitCollab allows your students to create the Kit together. After students join the game, they will submit a question to be added. You can accept/reject the questions that come in. Then, you play a game of Gimkit with the Kit the class just made. This would be a great get to know each other activity by having students contribute 2 truths and a lie. A new feature on Gimkit is Ink, a place for students to publish their writing.

Blooket is another fun way to have your students practice different skills by utilizing various games modes to keep them engaged while learning. https://www.blooket.com/ Blookit is free, you can pay to upgrade, but you can do a ton with the free version. Students can play various games with the same set of flashcards or questions. Question sets can be imported from Quizlet. Sets can be assigned to individuals as homework or played as a class. Each game provides a quick tutorial. Again the classic version is a lot like Kahoot. Factory, Cafe and Racing seem to be the most popular games with students.

The games in Blookit include: Cafe, you have to feed your customers by purchasing food and serving them in a timely manner. In Factory you purchase characters who earn money for you, it includes glitches so you can mess with other people. In Battle Royale the class is in teams and races to answer questions fastest. There are power ups and slow downs. Tower of Doom is solo mode, students work through 3 different maps. Gold quest is another game in Blookit that is popular with my students.

Kahoot is an oldie but goodie. What sets kahoot apart from the rest is the ability to teach while playing the game. The teacher can control the speed of the game and stop after certain questions to explain answers or give examples. Kahoot is my favorite for formative assessment as we can see how many were right or wrong immediately while playing. Also, kahoot is the only one of these games where students who are not logged in can still see the questions and answers and therefore can still participate by writing their answers in the chat or on a piece of paper. Kahoot is still basically free and you can search and use sets from other teachers. Kahoot now has some new interactive features. You can add slides, embed videos and add multiple choice, true or false, open-ended, or puzzle type questions. You can teach from the kahoot or assign it as individual work.

GooseChase is an online platform that helps organizers create and run digital scavenger hunt experiences for team building, learning, public engagement, or a variety of other events.  Each GooseChase game has a list of missions for participants to complete. You can create your mission list using a bank of 100+ tested missions or by designing your own from scratch.

Missions have a name, description, point value and an optional link or photo to provide extra information. Sometimes participants submit a photo or video, while other times participants check-in at a specific location or solve a puzzle or riddle.

Gimkit, Blooket, Kahoot, and Goosechase are great games for the classroom or distance learning and kids love them.  Come and experience them with your colleagues this Friday night, 7:30 (PT) after the PNCFL general membership meeting.  And tell us, what are your favorite games to play with students?

Building Community supporting student learning

Building Relationships and community through Zoom

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I don’t know about you, but getting students to talk when they do not have to turn on their cameras or microphones has been a struggle this year, and it looks like it will continue into 2021. Here are ten ideas to get reluctant students to respond in a zoom class.

  1. Use the rename feature in Zoom. In addition to learning each others names, students can answer questions in the rename screen and learn more about each other. For example, write two words to describe your day. Or what is your favorite: hobby, month, class, food? What do you value most or want to be? Having a question of the day as an entry task, helps me know they did not just turn on their camera and go back to sleep. The answers can be used to start class discussions and form connections. Ask students… is there someone who has answered something similar to you? Is there someone’s answer you want to know more about? You can also use the rename feature to form groups or teams. I like the rename feature in gallery view when I want to see everyone’s name and answer at the same time.

2. Another option is to ask a question and have students write their answers or give story suggestions in the chat feature. You can allow students to answer privately in chat so that only you can see their answer. A fun idea I learned from Justin Slocum Bailey to build community is ask a question, for example: If you were invisible what would you do? Have students write their answers privately in the chat and then pick say three answers. Display the three choices and the student names and have students try to guess who said what.

3. Prime the pump. Show a picture related to a topic you want to discuss, then have students list the first three words that come to mind in the chat open to everyone. Then tell them to find someone with the most similar list to theirs. This will trick them into having a connection to the topic and provide them with some key vocabulary.

4. I like to use the polling feature in zoom. Students can express opinions, which story did they like best this week? What super power would you like to have? What is your favorite color? How are you feeling today? What are you afraid of? Students can predict the results ahead of time, they can also rank order their choices.

5. Be sure to include brain breaks, breathing exercises, and movement activities into your lessons. A scavenger hunt is one quick way to do this. Tell students they have one minute to go find something red. Have them hold their item close to the camera, take a screen shot and then have them hold their item far away from the camera and take another screen shot. Discuss one or two items, look for similar or unusual items. You can use these screenshots to do a short write and discuss. Here are some free scavenger hunt resources from Spanishmama.com

6. Use the white board feature in zoom, (although I prefer Jamboard but that’s a future post.) You and/or the students can write on the white board using the text or draw features. Students can listen to a story and draw a picture, or write a short text to demonstrate understanding. There is a stamp feature. Students can be given a choice of options and they stamp their choice.

7. Use conversation starters like would you rather? Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible? Would you rather have three eyes or two noses? There area several ways you can have students respond. You can number the choices and have students hold up one finger or two. You can use the stamp feature on the whiteboard or just have students move or point to one side of the screen or the other to get some movement involved.

8. Students can also use the reaction symbols in zoom to respond. They can react with clapping hands, thumbs up, a heart, joy face, open mouth, and tada. How can we better incorporate these reactions to connect with students reluctant to speak or turn on their cameras?

In addition to the reaction symbols, teachers and students can give and receive nonverbal feedback using the symbols at the bottom of the participants window. Students can answer yes/no questions. They can express likes and dislikes with thumbs up or thumbs down. I can use the hand for questions, or to judge how many people think they know the answer before taking volunteers. They can tell me to go faster or go slower. They can also tell me they need a brain break, or clap to show appreciation.

9. Partner interviews, discussions, mixers, or group work can be done in break out rooms. I use them sparingly as I am finding that not all kids like the breakout rooms. As usual, clear objectives, a set period of time, and some accountability help. When coming back together be sure to ask them for their partners answers so they actually have to listen to each other to complete the task. I emailed each student a fake age between 1-100 and they had to find out each other’s fake age in the break out rooms.

10. Teach students to change their virtual background. Then they do not have to show their actual workspace if they do not want. There are several available through a google search. Students can also change their virtual background to answer questions like where would you go if you could travel now? Look for similarities among answers. Or post a picture of what you had for breakfast this morning, or would like to have for breakfast each morning. Who has the healthiest breakfast? Find a picture of your favorite animal or pet and post it to your virtual background so we can talk about it.

Teachers can change zoom backgrounds to include maps, locations, sweet 16 verbs, rejoinders, and question words. Keep pictures you want to use in zoom virtual backgrounds so that they are not in between you and the students, like they would be if you were showing a power point. You can put your entire presentation as Zoom virtual backgrounds and switch them as needed. This is a French version of a sweet 16 verb chart adapted from Mike Peto.

Finally, I encourage kids to say good bye to me either my unmuting, typing in the chat, or turning on their camera and waving goodbye to me. I ask them how I am doing and to give me some feedback. I tell them it is hard to teach to blank screens. And every once in a while a shy kid hangs around after class and tells me “Your doing a good job, you’re my favorite teacher” and it makes it all worth it. How do you build community and get reluctant students to respond in a virtual classroom? Share your ideas here.

Environment supporting student learning

Class at Home

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If you are suddenly transforming a home space into a classroom here are some ideas for you. There are all kinds of free resources available to support students from home. I did a blog at the beginning of the school year with links to free resources available to support student learning while decorating your room at the same time. Now that we are turning our homes into classrooms, I thought it might be a good time to repost. I have these circumlocution posters in my classroom but decided to print out a set for my home classroom.

At first I had them taped to my whiteboard but realized this is going to be a pain going from French to Spanish. So I came up with this.

I strung a piece of twine and used clothespins so I can switch them out easier. There are lots of question word posters available for free that you can print out at home, or make your own with markers.

I had an old white board in my office that I covered with white board paint. You can see the difference in the two photos above. You can buy white dry erase paint and put it on anything to create a white board. However, an old white binder works also. Even though there is a white board function in Zoom, sometimes it’s a nice change to go old school.

I revived and old cork board by covering it with fabric and hot glued some framed postcards from Paris onto it.

Don’t forget to add plants to your work space. They help clean the air. I just went out to my yard and cut some bamboo and clipping off other plants. I like baskets and boxes for stashing miscellaneous things.

Surround yourself with things that inspire you or bring you joy. You can print inspirational quotes off the internet and frame them, or have pictures of your favorite people near by.

I wanted to change my zoom backgrounds, but couldn’t find our green screen. So I looked around the house and found a Seahawk’s blanket that works great, sheets, paper it doesn’t really matter.

This is now my recording studio.

Tina Hargaden posted a really cool assignment called where I work today. Each student added a slide to a google slide show with a picture of where we are working these days and some sentences about our space. It was really interesting to see all the different places and ways people are working. I think I am going to try it with my students this week.

Where is your work space and does it bring you joy? Post your current work space photo here with a short description.

supporting student learning

Let’s just chill!

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Let it go…the online lesson planning, the grades, the evaluations, the hysteria. Let’s just chill. A few weeks of missed instruction is not going to damage anyone in the long run.

Teachers, like first responders, are also stressed and have their own health concerns along with those of their families, children, and elderly parents to deal with. Many teachers have never used Zoom or other online formats and are stressing over an uncertain future. This is a very sensitive time for all.

Let’s reconsider mandatory online learning. Instead, let’s just regenerate, so we can be centered and fully present for our students when we return.

To expect all families and teachers to have the resources and skills to move to distance learning this quickly is beyond ambitious. Many families don’t have internet access, computers, desks, and other school supplies. The student’s home learning environments will vary greatly. Schools provide a stable, equal, and resource rich learning environment whereas homes, for those students that have a stable home, will be filled with distraction and competition for space and resources. It will not be a “Home School” environment as a majority of households are two worker families. This new learning environment will be unsupervised. We need to dial down the pressure on families and teachers right now. We should give students, “suggested activities” to do but not require it.

Students really need less screen time not more. Trying to do a mixer activity these days, where students walk around and get information from each other face to face, is painfully awkward to watch. Students are addicted to their phones and computers. The social interaction at school is a vital part of their ever diminishing interpersonal relationships. Since students in our district were provided their own computer several years ago, I have observed a steady decline in student social skills.

Let’s look at this as a sign from the universe. A time to relax, recharge, rejoice in the down time. I am looking forward to organizing my home, enjoying some neglected hobbies, and connecting with friends and family.

Let’s just all stay home for the next few weeks and enjoy the time that we never have with our families and loved ones in our own home. Cook, read, play games, take a walk, and just chill.

Interpersonal Activities supporting student learning

Bracketology

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I learned a new term at ACTFL 19… Bracketology. I heard it in a presentation by Lisa Shepard. She used this example about things we can do to help the environment. Students discuss each pair of choices in order to select which will move onto the next round.

So I started thinking, this is a great format for any topic. Create a list of 8 or 16 things to be grateful for, unusual holiday traditions, things kids want for Christmas, things you can do to stay healthy, or reasons to study a language. Pair them up in brackets, and have they kids discuss and then vote on each pairing until the champion is determined.

Or, have kids create their own brackets around a topic. Then have the class debate and vote… hot dogs vs hamburgers, pizza vs tacos. Or use bracketology for hobbies: football vs. soccer, winner takes on baseball vs. volleyball.

8 Team Single Elimination Tournament Bracket : Front

Of course bracketology in not a new idea. Many world language teachers do March music madness and have students choose between popular songs. What about creating brackets for 8 holiday songs?

There are brackets created for children’s books and novels in the target language. Make your own with these blank book brackets.

One of my favorites are the brackets for Chrismas commercials by Dustin Williamson. There are resources on Teachers Pay teachers, some are free like Noel madness.

How can you incorporate bracketology in your classes?

Environment supporting student learning

Free Supports for Students

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There are a lot of free resources available to world language teachers that provide scaffolding for student interactions as well as functional room decor. To start, welcome them into the classroom with these free cómo estás and comment ça va posters from the Creative Language Classroom.  They also have signs to post inside your door so you can say goodbye in different ways.  I frame them and change them up every couple of weeks. 











My opening routine each day involves the student greeter or special person.  There are special person interview posters in many languages available from Bryce Headstom.  Here are other free options for special person posters in French and in Spanish.





There are many question word posters  available in French, Spanish and other languages.  I transformed an old cork board with black chalkboard spray paint.  Here are some chalkboard style question posters in French and Spanish.  Add lists of possible answers for each of the question words below the posters as they are learned so students can refer to them in their writing and conversations.  For example, under the “where” sign, list possible responses like: in the school, at the restaurant, in the park, at the mall. 










One of the first things I focus on is high frequency verbs.  I like these “sweet 16” verb posters in French and in Spanish.  





The TPRSbooks.com website has free emoji rejoinder posters in several languages as well as lots of other goodies (click on your language after following the link).  Rejoinders are words and phrases people say to keep the conversation going.  I laminate them and have students hold them up and say the expression at appropriate times.  Here are a couple of rejoinder lists from Amy Lenord in Spanish and translated to French by Catherine Ousselin.  I use them to make my own graphics at spark.adobe.com.          








                      





Circumlocution is a strategy for describing or defining a concept instead of saying or writing the specific words.  Teaching students circumlocution techniques helps them stay in the target language when they don’t know a word.  I use these Free Circumlocution posters at the Teachers Pay Teachers website.  I have lists of rejoinders and circumlocution words for students to create class posters, or digital versions with images posted to a Padlet, as an emergency substitute assignment.   










 It’s always great to spend Fridays talking about what students want to, or are going to do, for the weekend.  Then we return on Mondays and talk about what students did or wanted to do.  Past tense doesn’t have to wait for second year.  Students can be given supports for the weekend conversations. Here are some free products I really like to support the weekend conversations in Spanish.  Also available for free is a weekend chat human bingo in Spanish.





I use these four corner signs to get students out of their seats and practice a little spontaneous interpersonal communication in Spanish and French.   I like to make things for my home and classroom and I recreated these direction word signs that I saw in Saint Malo, France.  These signs are also great for four  corner activities.  Check out my other free classroom decor hacks here. 










I also like to print quotes of the internet and frame them for my classroom.  Again, using the same frames, I can switch them up to go with different themes.   

























 These are a few of the free supports I have found so far.  If you know of others please share here and have a great year!




                    

                                

        


        
    

    




    

                



            

                

	Environment supporting student learning Tools




            

            

                Back to School Freebies to Decorate your Classroom.
            


            

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There are several places on-line to get stuff free to decorate your classroom.  Bryce Hedstrom has The Special Person Posters in several languages and lots of other goodies on his free stuff page.




The Creative Language Classroom has great free stuff to decorate your classroom also.  I use their proficiency indicator signs and their activity to teach the proficiency levels to students the first week of school.  See my prior post for this lesson plan.  I also love their Greet Them at the Door signs, How Are You posters, and Question Word posters.




Martina Bex has an entire google folder with helpful posters on her website.   There are links to her Question Word Posters in French and Spanish at Teacherspayteachers.com.  There are actually lots of free items on Teachers Pay Teachers, each seller has to post at least one free item as a sample of the quality of their work.  Just enter what you are looking for in the search bar and if it is not there consider creating it yourself and making it available to others.  For example, with a simple search I found these free posters in Spanish.  Check out my free word ladders in French and Spanish that can be enlarged into posters or framed and placed around the room.


Amy Lenord has a free list of rejoinders in Spanish that make a great word wall and there are a couple other free on TPT.  Here are some free classroom labels in Spanish and in French.


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I found these 10 French phrases on Pinterest that will make awesome class decorations.




 




I also found this free Pledge of Allegiance poster  on Pinterest in two versions one colored and one that students can color.


For more ideas Check out my Pinterest Page.






What Freebies can you find or share for back to school?




                    

                                

        


        
    

    




    

                



            

                

	supporting student learning Tools




            

            

                Supporting Student Success
            


            

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I recently returned from the iFLT17 conference in Denver where I discovered additional ideas for supporting student success.  Annabel Allen aka La Maestra Loca demonstrated a simple activity to generate vocabulary for students to use in stories.  Post butcher paper around the room with the headings: names, places, transportation, food, animals, sports, colors, characters (in your target language).


Show the kids what you want them to do by moving to each poster and providing examples of the categories in the target language. Give students markers and instruct them to walk around silently and write words under each heading.  This activity could be used to activate background knowledge about a topic, and to share vocabulary among students, leveling the playing field.




 


 


 




Many teachers use word walls to scaffold student speaking and writing.  I really like this word wall idea from Jason Fritz.  Most comprehensible input teachers have the question words posted permanently in their classroom.  Jason adds butcher paper under each question word and writes vocabulary related to that interrogative as it comes up in class.  For example, under the “Where” sign he writes at school, at the restaurant, at the park, at the mall.  Under the “Who” poster he might write mom, dad, superman, abuelo.  There are sets of question word posters free from Martina Bex at Teacherspayteachers.com in French and Spanish.




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 




One way I support students during interpersonal activities is with sentence stems.  I like to make sentence stem graphics for free with Spark.adobe.  It’s quick and easy.  I use them at chat stations to prompt conversations.  Or I display them on the screen from my computer or under the document camera to keep students in the target language during partner activities.  These are very similar to the language ladders you can create with kids from a prior post.






Make sure to give them a few rejoinders, so they can respond to their partner’s statements.  For pre-made lists of rejoinders and ideas for words to create your own rejoinder posters (or have the kids make them) go to GrantBoulanger.com.




Students can keep lists and other resources in their binders.  Some teachers keep words groups on rings and hang them on hooks in the classroom as a resource for students working independently.






 




Lots of elementary teachers use Language mats to help students with writing and speaking.  I’m not sure why we don’t use them more in upper levels as well, especially with high frequency verbs in several useful tenses.  Here is an example I found in French. literacy-mat-french  There are more free mats for various levels at the TES website in French and Spanish.




 


 


 


 


 




How do you support students for success?  What tools or resources do you use?  Please share your ideas here.