How to Engage Students in Spanish and French Class: 6 Creative Ways

1. Use PowerPoints with Captivating Visuals, Humor, and Silly Stories

The more quality photographs I use in my PowerPoints, the more students sit up and lean forward. I’m talking about eye-popping images of real people, not clipart. Photos with visual appeal and a pleasing layout. Although it takes time to find just the right image, the neck-craning results are worth it. Of course, it takes even more time to find a photo that unequivocally conveys the meaning of the word or expression I’m teaching. But once I’ve created the slides, I have them forever. Check out the visuals in this Spanish Christmas PowerPoint: LA NAVIDAD

USING HUMOR

If you can get them to laugh, you’ve got them.  For example, when I play The Dating Game with my students, unbeknownst to them, I put my own picture on the board along with the other movie stars.  Inevitably, some boys always choose me and when they find out it is so uproariously funny that sometimes it takes me a while to stop laughing and get back to teaching.  

This story uses the Irregular Preterite many times in context and is one of my students’ favorites.

Here is the TPRS story for the French Passé Composé Irrégulier.

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HOUSE AND CHORES TPRS STORY

CLASSROOM OBJECTS TPRS STORIES

SER TPR STORY AND ACTIVITIES

Here is the TPRS Story for the French verb ÊTRE

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The Story for reinforcing THE VERB TENER is a favorite of my students.

Here is the same story for French: FRENCH AVOIR TPRS STORY

These are only a few of the hundreds of stories in my teacher toolbag for providing comprehensible input and getting my students hysterically engaged.

Below are more ways to get students enthusiastically involved in learning.

2. Give students choices for homework:

For example: “You may either draw the vocabulary or write it twice in Spanish”.  Sometimes students come up with an assignment that is better than mine.  For instance, my AP students wanted to watch a telenovela, so I gave them the assignment of watching several episodes and then writing the next episode. They told me that was their favorite assignment, and it was great listening practice for them.

When students get a choice of which assignment to do, they are more enthusiastic about completing it.

3. Poll the students to find out what current icons are popular with them

It’s hard to keep up with the current students’ rage, so I frequently poll students. Once I find out what they. like, I embed those images and icons into my curriculum.  Justin Beiber used to be in practically all my activities. Who are the teenage heartthrobs now? Find pictures of them and insert them into your activities.

4. Engage students with hands-on activities

Interactive Notebook Activities use more of the senses and therefore keep students on task. Google Drive activities also have fingers flying and moving objects around.

5. Show Videos for comprehensible input

When I show videos, I get 100% student participation. Who doesn’t love a movie? But most videos are either not authentic or are above the students’ level and therefore not useful in the classroom. For that reason I created many of my own videos to reinforce vocabulary and grammar structures and to repeat language in context. Click the link to learn more: Spanish Videos for Comprehensible Input

6. Project an online stopwatch

I use good tension in many forms, and this is just one way to keep students hustling. After assigning a task, I project the online stopwatch. It counts down on the screen as students are working and keeps them focused. Works like a charm.

I would love to hear ideas from other teachers.  How do YOU engage your students?

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