Who are you? Activity in Spanish

CSCTFL Takeaways

Interactive Input: Beyond Simple Questions and Personalization

Mira Canion – MiraCanion.com

Activity – Who are you? – share by Mira Canion

• Give students two minutes to write in the target language on the prompt Who are you? Make sure to let them know that they will be sharing in both small and whole group settings.
• Once the timer goes off, have students pick the two words that most define them.
• Students walk around the room doing hands up, pair up to find partners. (If they need a partner, they raise  hand, and high five someone else to identify partners).
• In partners say the chosen two words. If either of the words match, students put a thumb up for each match.
• This repeats until students have ten partners.
• At this point, students sit and write a reflection. This way once students are asked to share as a whole group, they all have something to say.

This activity would be great with lower levels as it is low anxiety with only using two words, and allows for students to show their understanding without even talking. Even early Spanish one could come up with two words to describe themselves in Spanish. It would be a great getting to know you or back to school activity. The teacher is free to roam and listen, getting to know the class, and students get to see what words their classmates use to describe themselves.

To level up this activity, students could instead share two sentences, or after sharing add other words. To mix it up it could also be changed into four corners based on what kinds of words are chosen (job, hobby, personality, identity, etc). After the activity the teacher can circle with a variety of questions to continue to get more repeated exposure to the vocabulary. For another twist the same activity steps could be completed, but instead of just talking about themselves it could be a famous historical figure or a character from a novel that is being read in class.