August 30, 2009
Verbally fill in the blanks
After the class becomes familiar with a song, I like to a do an activity that is similar to the fill-in-the-blanks activity, but verbally instead of written.
I start by singing the song a capella. Then, I suddenly stop without warning, and the students immediately sing the very next word in the song. You will have to coach them to provide only one word, rather than the rest of the phrase. The other challenge is to keep the rhythm of the song going. For example:
ME: Maestro, ¿puedo ir al baño, por favor. Yo necesito — (I suddenly stop singing)
STUDENTS: –ir–
ME: –al baño. Por favor. Es una — (I suddenly stop singing)
STUDENTS: –emergencia.
ME: Y ya — (I suddenly stop singing)
STUDENTS: –hice–
ME: mi tarea.
Once again, it’s important that students try to retain the rhythm and melody of the song. They don’t just say “emergencia”. They sing it.
I find this method to be a great way to start class. Without even saying hello, I just start singing, which always gets their attention. I like to review old songs this way, too. Sometimes I don’t want to waste 3-4 minutes to pull out some old song that doesn’t have much to do with the day’s lessons. However, as a quick 30-second activity that manages to get their attention, review old material, and amuse them at the same time, I think it’s a pretty decent way to start class.
Fill in the Blanks: The Game
A game that is based on the activity above. Two teams. On the chalkboard are 20-30 notecards with all of the vocabulary and/or important phrases from the song. For the song ¿Puedo ir al baño?, there would be the following notecards:
- puedo
- por favor
- Maestra
- esperar
- ir
(and so on…)
One person from each team approaches the chalkboard. Like the activity above, I sing a capella, and stop suddenly. The first person to grab the correct card gets a point for their team.
This activity is rather time-intensive in that you need to create all the cards and find some way to make them stick to the chalkboard (I use magnetic tape), but I find it’s a great activity that reviews the song’s content very well.
- Page 1 – Introduction
- Page 2 – Lyrics Sheet
- Page 3 – The Performance
- Page 4 – Concrete Instructions
- Page 5 – TPRS
- Page 6 – Verbally Fill in the Blanks (and a game)
- Page 7 – Karaoke Videos
- Page 8 – Closing
Too much clicking? Combine everything onto one page
Gracias Sr. Wooly,
Your tips are great. We have been enjoying your songs in class and the students request it daily, but now you offer some great advice and I look forward to applying them. Especially the “crawling all over the desks” part. jejeje.
Keep up the incredible work.
Sr. Kent de la Chalupa
I fully agree with you about setting things to music that you want them to remember. My principal last year in one of his visits, took up some maracas and sang with us. He reminded me this fall that he still knew “fui, fuiste, fue.”
I found that some verbs can also be learned with the Mexican Hat Dance main refrain music. Verbs like “Estoy, estás, está…” fit to the rhythm — but only if one includes the vosotros form.
I do admit to the kids that they’ll hate me forever, but music works!
Thanks for the great ideas! My students LOVE “Guapo”. We draw Victor and talk about what he’s really like. We sing it and the boys take turns acting out Victor’s role and the girls are the “Victorettes”. This quarter I think I’ll have them bret out into groups and perform the song with props of course, as a presentational assessment. They will videotape it and then we’ll watch them all in class. Gracias Sr. W!
One of my classes found an explanation for “Sam” not having enough time to get to el baño before class…he was talking with friends at the supermarket while looking for a special pink apple that could “rap” “Feliz Cumpleaños” to give to Mr. Bill, his math teacher. He finally found the special apple at Disney World, where a vacationing classmate sold him the apple for $250. Mr. Bill estaba muy contento…pero Sam no tenía la oportunidad para ir al baño antes de la clase de español. Now that you know the background, you can see that “le traeré una manzana” is quite an offer from Sam! Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi! I just wanted to share something that has worked really well in my class. We did the invitation song and after listening and singing the original, I put them in pairs and then they changed the lyrics to other vocabulary words–like jugar al futbol, ver la tele, etc. Then they presented to the class–with fake phones, props, etc. It has been so fun!!!!