No matter the year–COVID impacted or otherwise–students need opportunities to speak the languages that they are acquiring. What sounds like a simple task can also feel daunting to design & execute, especially in the sea of other challenges.
Enter Semi-Spontaneous Speaking. These activities have been sitting in my “do this someday” files since Central States Conference of 2017. I ran across notes for them when I was purging some files and realized that I had re-discovered a gold mine! Betsy Houchins & Nicole Clement created & shared these ideas, and then I turned them into slide decks / card decks to use in class. Wendy Farabaugh then converted the Spanish decks to French. Merci Wendy!
Each activity gives students a short prompt within a framework that encourages them to think & speak using the language that they already know. Some–like the 3 in 8 activity–are gameified, while others like Parejas de Palabras are a solid introduction into later activities that require comparison. All are engaging, challenging, and have been classroom tested.
You can find the folder of activities for Spanish and French here. German is in the works and will be added soon. I’d love to offer more versions in other languages–please reach out if you are interested in contributing.
Aventuras Nuevas 