Why Italy
Calling all Italian language teachers, how do you make the learning of a language interesting?
Learning a foreign language is essential in todays world but it is a struggle to convey this to students who prefer their sport and cyber entertainment to being able to communicate to our world neighbours. What is your opinion?
Public Comments
- I teach Spanish. These are some things that I do: Instead of doing a typical worksheet she would decorate 8 or 10 pieces of construction paper. She would number them 1-10 and draw a funny face or something on them. She pinned them to the cork board at the top of the chalk board. She would then call on one student (a shorter one) to choose the number and then a different taller student to get up and flip it. On the other side were problems to be worked. It broke up some monotony and they would go over it together after everyone had a chance to work on it. The flyswatter game... Put random answers all over the board. Read a problem and 1 person from each of the 2 teams tries to solve it. The first to hit the right answer with a flyswatter gets a point for his/her team. I tell them that they are only allowed to hit 1 answer... otherwise you have them hitting randomly without even trying to actually figure it out. Create a jeopardy board with terms and problems. This is better for a review. Get pieces of bulletin board paper and tape it up on the wall in different spots of the room. Give the kids a few problems. They must work together to solve them on the bulletin board paper. It is just different from working problems from a worksheet. They can then discuss and review the problems with the rest of the class. If you have a lot of terms in one chapter or for a unit you can do concentration in small groups for matching the word with its meaning. Use a board game that you can photocopy. The kids use a coin for a marker. Make up several questions, photocopy them and place them in envelopes. The kids roll the die and then draw a question. If they answer/solve it correctly they may move the number rolled. If they are wrong then they can not move. First to reach the end wins. Checkers... each square has a problem on it. In order to move their man to a spot they must first solve it correctly. Sometimes the math teacher that I worked with would have the kids fold their paper so that it had 8 squares and then give them 8 problems to solve. They do one in each box. It is just different; grabs the attention a little bit. I have generic wipe off boards that I use. The kids like it; again it is just something different. I took sleeves that are used for scrapbooking; covering and protecting the pages. Inside each one I put a piece of white cardboard. Each kid gets one, a dry erase marker and a paper towel. We do problems, they hold up the boards and I can see if they are "getting it" or not. Board practice is a way to get kids up and out of their seats so that they do not tire of sitting for so long. I give a problem and if they are right they get a point for their team. I do not do it as a race. Group work is also a way to break up the monotony. Anything that you can have them work out as a small group is good. I remember the other teacher using shapes and little projects that I do not really recall. For each unit read the teacher resource suggestions and see if there is a way to make a group activity. I hope these help. I am a Spanish teacher, but my friend and I found that many of the activities can be adapted and changed so that they work for either subject. This is just a way to do the same old thing in a way that makes the students feel interested.
- Melanie has some FANTASTIC ideas. I highly recommend you try them. I nearly failed French in high school until my teacher let me make a movie in French as a special project. It was much more interesting. This guy has some activities that my friend used when teaching English overseas: http://www.fredjones.com/PAT/index.html
- The first anwer is fantastic .In additon, have them listen to music in Italian and translate. Translating poetry is good too. For practical purposes, have them write how to hook up a dvd player in Italian. oh and writing an e-mail in Italian is good too. Il Divo sings in a few different languages. I <3 the group!
