The Question of the Day, or La pregunta del día in Spanish, is a low-key strategy that engages students from the beginning of class and invites them to use the target language right away. You don’t really need much—start the class by projecting an image or asking a question, and invite your students to engage with it. This is the first thing your students will see when you start the class!
Why Use the Question of the Day?
The “Question of the Day” works across all proficiency levels and can be easily modified to your students’ language abilities. For beginners, questions can center around yes/no answers, personal preferences, or familiar topics. For more advanced students, you can introduce open-ended questions that require more complex responses and challenge students to use new vocabulary and grammar structures.
To implement the “Question of the Day,” start by displaying a question in the target language, such as “¿Cuál es tu comida favorita?” or “¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana?”. Give students a few minutes to think and share their answers with a partner or small group, encouraging peer communication in a low-pressure setting. Then, have a few students share with the class.
Quick Tips to Incorporate “The Question of the Day”
Make sure the questions are at your students’ proficiency level: For novice learners, stick to simple, familiar vocabulary. For more advanced learners, challenge them with questions requiring more descriptive or complex answers.
Use Visuals for Support: Support comprehension by using pictures, flashcards, or even gestures.
Relate the questions to the current lesson content: Where possible, connect the “Question of the Day” to the lesson’s topic. For example, if you’re teaching animal vocabulary, you could start with, “¿Cuál es tu animal favorito?” (What is your favorite animal?) to provide relevant context. Similarly, if you’re using a Clipchat or telling a story, base your question on it.
Los más pequeños is a fantastic book for Spanish world language or bilingual classrooms! Colombian singer and writer, Nathalia Palis takes us on an beautiful journey to discover the world’s tiniest animals and the valuable lessons they offer.
The book has colorful illustrations that are perfect for simple picture talks. For instance, when reading the first pages, you might ask your students, “¿Qué otros insectos pequeños conocen?” (What other small insects do you know?). This invites them to share their ideas in Spanish or learn new insect names in Spanish. You can engage your students by asking about the colors they see in the illustrations and incorporating TPR (Total Physical Response) to make the lesson more interactive. For example, ask whether the insect walks or flies, and let students mimic the movements of the insects. You can also play with the language by using diminutives and augmentatives. For example, “una abejita” and “una abejota.”
Additionally, the book is a great tool for practicing vocabulary related to nature. After reading about different creatures, have students create a chart listing the animals they learned, along with their Spanish names. This can turn into a collaborative group activity. You can also invite your students to create new creatures by combining some of the insects from the book. For example, combining the words oruga and araña to come up with a new animal, “oruña.” You can also have a sing-along in your classes with this beautiful song!
And there’s still more exciting news! Visit Nathalia’s page to participate in the fantastic giveaway! You have the chance to win a copy of the book this week, along with a special Zoom visit with Nathalia for for your Spanish classes.
This is a wonderful opportunity for your students to engage with the author, ask questions, and gain insights into the story behind the book. The giveaway ends on October 7th, 2024, at 3:00 PM Pacific Time. Head over to Nathalia’s page now to enter!
PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers) is a wonderful teaching technique to use with any level, but especially with novice levels. As its name indicates, PQA involves personalizing language by asking questions to your students. This is a great way to connect the language directly with your students’ experiences. PQA is also valuable for teachers to get to know their students and for building classroom community; it can be used at any time, even as a quick follow-up activity. The best thing about PQA is that you don’t need materials to start!
Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA) is an easy way to engage students with questions connected to their students’ lives and interests.
Here’s how it might unfold:
Starting with a Question: The teacher asks a simple, personalized question in the target language, such as “¿Tienes una mascota?” (Do you have a pet?).
Student Responses: Students answer according to their experience. Responses might be as simple as “Sí” (Yes) or more detailed like “Tengo un perro” (I have a dog).
Follow-Up Questions: The teacher asks follow-up questions to encourage further conversation. For example, “¿Cómo se llama tu perro?” (What’s your dog’s name?) or “¿De qué color es tu perro?” (What color is your dog?).
Engaging the Class: As the conversation continues, the teacher may direct questions to other students to keep the whole class involved. “¿A quién más le gustan los perros?” (Who else likes dogs?) “¿Quién tiene un perro”? (Who else has a dog?).
Use of Visuals and Gestures: The teacher might use pictures or gestures to help clarify vocabulary or concepts, especially for novice learners. I specially like having flashcards for every questions (like the one seen in the picture below).
Repetition and Reinforcement: The teacher repeats key phrases or vocabulary throughout the conversation to help reinforce language in a natural context.
Encouragement: Students are encouraged to participate, even if their responses are as simple as a single word or a basic sentence.
Movement and Engagement: In younger classes, the teacher might add actions or games to accompany the questions, keeping energy levels high and the learning interactive.
You can complement this activity by documenting the responses of the student being interviewed. Later, you can share the results with the class and ask questions about that student. This allows the activity to shift from using first-person language to third-person, all within a meaningful context.
Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA) creates a learning environment where students can practice language in real-life situations.
Let me start with my own story! ONCE UPON A TIME… I used to be a teacher who relied heavily on vocabulary lists and checklists of what my students needed to memorize. For example, my third graders were required to name five fruits, five animals, school supplies, and places in the community, among other things. All these vocabulary words were disconnected and lacked context. I also expected my students to remember these words indefinitely and use them the following year. This often left me feeling frustrated, and I blamed my students for not retaining words they had only heard during the fruit unit.
Everything changed when I started teaching with stories. I began to focus on high-frequency and useful phrases and language. Instead of just concentrating on the five-word fruit unit, I told stories where students not only learned the names of the fruits but also how to express likes and dislikes while following a plot in the target language. These stories were simple, engaging, and provided the necessary repetition for my students to acquire the language, not just learn it.
As a teacher, I felt my teaching toolkit was rejuvenated. I discovered different ways to bring stories to life for my students—through pictures, short clips, picture books, co-creating stories, songs, or short stories I created for them. I didn’t switch to teaching with stories overnight. I started gradually, and with practice, I became more confident in integrating more stories into the various grades I teach. Now, I can proudly say that my curriculum is 90% story-based.
I remember that the first story I told my students was the picture book Froggy Gets Dressed (Froggy se viste). I first read the story and then retold it using props. The story was so repetitive that by the end, they were repeating it with me. From there, I started incorporating more and more stories, and now I have a full repertoire.
The best part of teaching with stories is that it gives you the flexibility and creativity to make language acquisition an enjoyable process for your students. Your students are more likely to acquire the language when they experience it in context, which makes all the difference. Bringing stories to your students can also broaden their horizons and allow them to learn about themselves and others because through stories, you can also bring culture and teach life lessons. Stories naturally incorporate varied vocabulary and grammar, providing a meaningful context for language use.
Are you ready to start using stories in your classroom? Remember to start little by little, ensure that you feel connected to the story, and practice before bringing it to class! And remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect; with practice, you’ll become more confident and proficient at telling stories!
Bingo games are great for reviewing and reinforcing the vocabulary you are exploring in class. They provide a fun way to offer repetition. Use the game’s call-out cards to introduce the vocabulary first.
Use items like small counters, buttons, or even pieces of paper to cover the numbers on the cards. You can also print the pages, put them inside plastic reusable pockets*** (Amazon affiliate link), and give your students erasable markers to mark the numbers or colors if they have them on their bingo cards
Playing the game:
Make sure your students understand how to play bingo. Ensure your students understand how to mark their cards when a number is called.
Explain the winning patterns (e.g., a straight line, full house, four corners).
Introduce some phrase in Spanish for students to use if they have the card or if they don’t have it. They might say: “Lo tengo” or “no lo tengo.”
Pause and ask questions such us ¿Hay bingo o no hay bingo? These will invite children to stay in the target language while playing the game.
Incorporate Movement: Students in upper levels can clap or jump anytime they hear an even number.
Add a Learning Twist: Incorporate simple math questions, such as ‘What is 10 plus 5?’ and call out the resulting number. When calling a color card, you can spell out the word for the children, and they can put it together to tell you the color.
Use Positive Reinforcement:The class can congratulate the winner in the target language by saying “Muy bien” or “Felicitaciones.”
Use Variety in Winning Patterns: Change up the winning patterns occasionally (e.g., four corners, small square, blackout) to maintain interest.
Looking for bingo games for your classes? Stop by my TpT store!
