Conversation Class Lesson Summary
Language Resident Name: Rosina Desimone
Day and Date: Wednesday, September 24th
Language and Level: Spanish Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed: How to advice and recommend effectively in Spanish 2
Goal of the class: For students to effectively give recommendations, advice and even convince in Spanish
How did you structure the class:
Ice-breaker: Short game: “Simon Says”
Warm-up: The students brainstorm all the expressions they remember from the previous lesson on how to advice and recommend in Spanish, while the teacher draws a mindmap on the board with the expressions.
After brainstorming and reviewing all together the words and expressions on the board, the teacher cleans the whiteboard. Instead, she writes only two words: “Pelota” and “Libro”.
Then, she asks the students to think of all the words that describe and make reference to a “Pelota”. The teacher writes the words in the word below the label “Pelota.”
After that, the teacher divides the class into 2 groups. She tells the students that they are inventors of a revolutionary product: a book that has all the characteristics (previously written on the board) of a ball (Pelota in Spanish.) The teacher gives up to 5 minutes to each team to come up with a description of their revolutionary product, in order to convince a client (the teacher) to buy it.
The team with the most creative and original product (and arguments) is the winner.
What technology, media or props did you use?: –
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
We all loved this class!!! I found this activity in one of my books from my pedagogy class and what really surprised me was that an activity that I plan for 15-20 minutes of class time, took the whole class! The students were constantly speaking in Spanish and we the class even extended for some minutes after it was due to be over. They didn’t want to stop talking about their creations! The 5 minutes it took for them to plan the product took more time than I had planned, as they constantly asked me for expressions and vocabulary to describe their “product”. After that, they needed more time to sketch their argument to convince the client. The “confrontation” of both products was the part of the class the students enjoyed the most, as they were using vocabulary for debates, recommendation, related to technology and advertising. They even got to talk about their “companies” labor policies!!! They really enjoyed the activity!!!
How could this class be improved/modified?
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