Fun activity #4 is “Drama Inmóvil,” idea courtesy of Paulino Brener.
My students LOVE this. They beg for it- even the ones who will never talk in class. You must try it, and if you’re anywhere around a unit building on present progressive, you should do this every day for the first five minutes at least.
I copy/paste my class roster into the fruit machine picker and it chooses a random student. That student stays seated and all the others come to the front (you may have to do this in groups – my largest class is 8 so we can do it as whole-class). The chosen student gives a place and/or situation, e.g. in a park, or at an amusement park, or at the movies. I say ‘lights, camera, action’ (in Spanish) and all the ‘players’ adopt a frozen pose of what they are doing in the situation. Then I go around with a pretend microphone and interview them with rapid question/answer style – “Where are you? Why? With whom? Who’s winning?” etc. Then the chosen student selects who was the most creative (they just get cheers for it; there’s no prize, but they don’t care), I remove the chosen student’s name from the fruit picker and do it again.
It’s a winner. My dramatic students get crazy with it. My shy students do something expected but are eager to talk about what they’re doing, especially because the Q & A style doesn’t involve me standing at the front of the class saying, “Now, remember to answer with a complete sentence” (who says that in real life anyway?). I made a video of my students doing this and posted it as a private video on YouTube for Paulino. I don’t have permission to show my students on my blog or on YouTube publicly, but if you are a teacher and you’d like to see how it worked for us, send me your email and I’ll add you as a viewer.
UPDATE (Dec 2012)
These students have all graduated and given me permission to make this video available to you. Enjoy.
I like reading your blog. I enjoy seeing the various ideas you use in your class. I read that your largest class is 8. My smallest class is 29 and my largest is 33. Last year my AP Spanish class had 34 students. I try to do my very best, but it is SO DIFFICULT to teach so many students at once, students who are a wide range of skills. I have gifted and special need students along with average students in classes together. I would appreciate any suggestions you (or any of your readers) could give me on how to motivate so many varied learners and maintaining their enthusiasm and interest.
I know it is very difficult to teach such a large class. It's been a long time since I had as many as 30 students and I don't miss those days! If only every program realized how much better students learn in smaller numbers. :-/
One key in large classes is small group work. When I had larger classes, they sat at groups of four, and I changed the seating (by randomly placing name tents on the table) every single day, so that there was constant scaffolding going on. It's important to remember that they'll learn at least as much from each other than they will from you in such a large class.
Also, as a practical assessment, do you have flip or other type of video cameras? We have four at the school and I could get all of them if I really needed them on a certain day, so four groups of students could be videoing a speaking activity at one time for me to view later. You can do the same thing with any kind of voice recorder.
@SraSpanglish has larger classes and may have some help for you. I'll ask her to comment here. Hope this helps!
I'd be interested in seeing your video of this activity. I've done a "tableau" activity like this before with dialogues but I like this idea as well. My email is jmeierdirks@northbrook28.net. If possible, please don't publish my email with this comment. ¡Gracias!
I tried this activity today with my 7th graders who were learning weather expressions, and they loved it! I gave them a weather situation, and they acted out their chosen activities for that weather. Thanks for the suggestion!
My classes are actually not that large, though I have (rather unsuccessfully) taught classes of around 30. I have about 18 kids in my largest Spanish class this year (we've lost a few kids–they were at about 20). When classes were in the 20's, stations were nice, because I could differentiate AND get some face time with smaller groups. You have to be able to trust your class & have accountability, though, and I know that's not always possible.
Love, love this!!
I would love to see your video, as well. I teach Spanish at a Christian school near Philadelphia, PA and am working on present progressive with my students. My e-mail address is mmoraga@dccs.org.
Hola! I would love to see your video- can you send it to me @ katherine_delima@wayland.k12.ma.us? Thanks!
[…] anything that gets students talking and using real language to accomplish something. Drama inmóvil is a fantastic game that my students love. Spin the bottle is a game that gets students using […]
I too would love to see your video clip. Will you please send it to me @ mwood@sandomenico.org. Thank you!
I would love to see this as well! Great idea…..and it’s amazing that some people out there have so few students at a time! I would LOVE to work with less than 15! It would be so much easier to manage!
Would like to see the video Drama Inmovil, please. Thank you. Dawn
I am currently in the present progressive with my students and would love to see your video. Please send to me at loly101@comcast.net. I just discovered your site, lucky me!
I think I’ve sent the link to everyone who has asked for it here – if you haven’t seen an email from me, please re-comment.
Sara-Elizabeth
Great idea – would love to see the video to use with my students.
Please add me as a viewer. I would love to see how this works. Thank you!
Could you also send me your video clip. I am always looking for “fun” ways to engage my students, and they always want to “play games” My school email is batchata@tcaps.net Gracias
I just found your blog searching for a good authentic song to highlight commands. Is is still possible to access your Miranda private video? I’d love the Drama Inmovil video, too, !por favor!
Note that I’ve changed the privacy settings to make this video available to you.
Also @Rachel, I have updated the Miranda! post with a working video: http://musicuentos.com/2009/02/miranda/
Oh wow! Thank you and your students so much for this! Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who’s class communicates with tons of “como se dice”‘s. I love how you are giving your students opportunities to try new structures in a safe and fun environment. I love their creativity and their desire to learn new things. I just tried this with my 8th graders yesterday. Since I have a larger class, I asked four students to volunteer to be a panel of judges. Bonus! There was extra brain power to create a silly scenario. As we are doing some free reading activities this year a group of students recently discovered the word “ciruela”, so their scenario was – “La ciruela esta atrapada en el horno” (they got to this with lots of help). The winner of the drama inmovil was “matando el horno”. Thanks for a fun and communicative idea that gets kids out of their seats.
So glad you found it useful, Shannon!