One Word Image: SCAVENGER HUNT!

I posted last school year about the power of displaying your class one word images out in the hall for EVERYONE to see. More important than this, is posting the STORY along with it! Students will be READING, sharing and oogling over Spanish/French/English/German/Chinese during their passing period! It is MAGIC!

This year I’ve found a way to MAXIMIZE these stories! I posted our first one word images in the hall in a place where not only 5th and 6th grade students would see them but ALL students, faculty and staff. Then I posted the stories next to them, and next to those I posted student storyboards with their own interpretations and illustrations of the adventures of our clascotas! (Get it!? Class+mastcota=clascota!!!! I learned this from Christan, one of the members of #lafamilialoca , our LIVE PD Group)

THEN, one day my student’s walked in and read on the agenda that we would be doing an OWI SCAVENGER HUNT! They get excited ANY time we get to leave our classroom for Spanish! (I had literally thought of this idea ON the way to school!)

I provided students with instructions INSIDE the class, and told them:

• We would be moving OUTSIDE the class
• They could work with partners, in groups or individually
  • they could CHOOSE their own partners and groups and would be getting “points” awarded to those partners or groups for how diligently they were working
    • these points mean nothing… I don’t even know where these points go or what they are… but they are HUGELY motivating! “great work! 23 points for your group!””WOW! AWESOME team work 32 points!” said in range for students in other groups to hear!
      • BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN!!?! (absolutely nothing… just encouraging what you want to see!)
• They’d be searching for answers to the scavenger hunt in the ONE WORD IMAGE stories
  • I gave them examples of the questions on the paper, specifically questions that referred to THEIR class One Word Image
    • After giving the question I asked for a choral response answer
• I acknowledged the fact that students noticed the question I asked was in English and the answer they gave me was also in English
  • I explained the WHY behind this and told them that they’d be READING in Spanish so the questions and answers would be in ENGLISH to check for comprehension
    • This is really important because some students may try and impress you and write answers in Spanish but it doesn’t actually show if they understand, they may just be really good at searching  for keywords and and copying  the words that come after
• I briefly (in one sentence) introduced ALL of the One Word Images they’d meet outside, in the TL
  • “There is a blue diamond named Milan”
  • “There is a Teddy Bear named Andrew”
  • “There is a Snoball named Canes”
  • “There is a pencil named Terrance”
  • “There is a pair of scissors named Walanteesha”
  • “There is an iPhone named Bobkeisha”
• I told students they would need:
  • their binders for a hard surface to write on
  • a pencil
  • a scavenger hunt paper which would be by the door to grab as they exited to the hall
• I told students my expectations for moving to the space with the one word images
  • Free transition (not in a line)
  • Level 1 (to learn about voice levels visit this blog)
  • Swiftly and Safely

Once we were in the space I re-introduced the characters with the same one sentence in Spanish but this time I pointed to the characters as I said the sentence then I told students to start working.

During their work, I circulated and helped direct students to different stories if they needed it but overall they were SUPER engaged and needed little to know redirection or reminders! It was an AMAZING activity. Here is a short video clip of them working (on my Instagram channel)

Here are some examples of the questions my novices were working on answering:

1. Who lives in Costco?_____________________________________________
2. What kind of food does Milan like?___________________________________
3. How tall is Andrew the teddy bear?____________________________________
4. Which character goes to the mall (centro comercial)?________________________
5. What color is Cane’s motorcycle?______________________________________
6. What kind of car does Walanteesha drive?_______________________________
7. Where is Andrew’s mansion located?________________________________
8. Bobkeesha lives in a specific store in the mall. What store is that?______________
9. Terrance is as big as a _____________________________________
10. Andrew’s hair is __________________ straight and __________________
11. Which character is in a restaurant in the beginning?____________________
12. Is Bobkeisha big or small?  ______________________________
13. What is the problem in Milan’s story? ______________________________________

They answered 20 questions and then on the back of the page (if there was time) students answered this question:

• Which was your favorite story and why?
  • Novices answered in English and students who had had me for a year answered in Spanish

Then if there was STILL time (students who were higher in proficiency were the only to complete this part) they were asked to write three of their favorite sentences from ANY story but their own class story and then illustrate them in the box below.

Students absolutely loved this activity. I loved that it took VERY little prep because I could use the same questions for every class and the stories were already written and posted. The one thing that I did do was create a box at the top of the question page with a list of the colors and their translations in English since many students were still new to colors and we were not in my room… I could’ve also brought my color poster but that wouldn’t have helped for my color blind kiddos.

Welp! There you have it! A new, novel strategy for awesome compelling input!

I hope you have a great rest of your day and a fabulous school week!

Until next time,

HAPPY TEACHING!

Love,

La Maestra Loca