I blogged a few days ago about coming back from CSC11 with some good ideas to make my class more fun (along with some suggestions via Diego Ojeda of #langchat “fame” 😉 and putting them together into a 10-minute class starter.
photo by Rohit Rath
The second one is “a conversar.” For this one, students pull a conversation card (that I made) out of a card box and talk to anyone about question on the card. When they’re done, they go back and choose another. The first time my AP class did it, I sat back amazed. I cannot get this class to speak in the TL for the life of me, and there was *loud* Spanish chatter for a solid ten minutes. Adjust questions for your level, and make them interesting – e.g. “¿cuál es mejor, un abrigo azul o un abrigo café, y por qué? instead of ¿qué es tu color favorito?Here are some of the conversation starters I found on the internet and wrote on my own:
- What’s the craziest thing you’ve done?
- What is the most serious mistake of your life?
- Describe the happiest day of your life.
- What’s your best friend like?
- Describe your favorite movie.
- What is your favorite free-time activity? With whom? Why?
- Who are your heroes? Why?
- What did you do yesterday? With whom?
- What books have you read recently? Describe them.
- What do you want to be and do five years from now?
- What has been an important experience in your life and why?
- Describe your favorite restaurant.
- What is your opinion about the problems in Libya?
- What are your plans for tomorrow?
- Describe an interesting trip you took.
- If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?
- Why did you choose to take advanced Spanish?
- What is your first memory?
- What do you want to do during vacation (Spring Break, summer, Christmas, etc.)?
- Do you like your neighborhood? Why or why not?
- What would be the title of your biography? Why?
Enjoy and let me know if you have more good questions I can add.
