  Reviewing content before a mastery check or assessment is a great chance to gamify your classroom and still get in lots of student-to-student collaboration and repetitions of key structures or vocabulary for a unit.
This blog isn't going to dive into how I teach using Sr. Wooly, but instead just one activity that I did. I traditionally teach Guapo, Confesión de Víctor, and Feo as a trilogy over a week or two in Spanish I. I like the story, vocab, and ability to work in that description, clothing, and other classic vocabulary sets since I don't teach a traditional curriculum. I think it makes it more authentic and engaging for sure! I think this game can be easily adapted to any content or topic with a little creative thinking. I like that it ties in random/luck like The Unfair Game, The Lucky Reading Game, Grudge Ball or Decisiones which are all review games we love here in my classroom. What you need: -A common topic students are familiar with and have been working with! -Task cards - simple tasks that require students to show mastery or practice using information covered in class (Translate, Write, Draw, Fill -in -the-blank,Write a question, etc.) -Posters or drawings on the board you can assign or hid random points behind. For my Víctor review it was different headshots of Víctor from throughout the story. -A way to indicate that a team has chosen a poster (a piece of paper, writing initials on the board, dragging and dropping an image if you have an interactive board) I used 'Víctor's signature' so he was effectively singing the headshot as a way to keep it all on theme. All of my materials for this Victor version are linked at the end! How to Play: 1) Place your students into groups of 3-4 students 2) Set a timer for how long you want to play (30ish min is good! But less can work , too) 3) One student comes up and gets a task card and takes it back to their group. You can see my Víctor Trilogy ones HERE. (I cut them apart and printed them on different colored paper for each group for my own organizational needs) 4) When a group thinks they have the answer they bring the task card up and if it's right they get a signiture to place on the headshot they want to. If it wasn't write give them a hint or point out whats wrong and send them back to fix it. 5) They keep going repeating steps 3-4 until the timer runs out. 6) They you flip over the posters to reveal how many points each was worth. Multiply it's worth by how many signatures each group they assigned to each specific poster. Watch a video explanation HERE! For example: If Equipo Morado had 5 signatures under the poster worth 5 points, 6 under the one worth -20 , and 7 under the poster worth 50 points. So that team would have 655. (But I also make my students do the math in Spanish to review numbers and because they are better mathematicians than I am). You can make them worth 5, 10, -5 . It really doesn't matter. It's all random. I would recommend changing it from one class to the other or they'll tell each other which ones to pick! That's why I write on the back of my laminated posters each class with random point amounts. Here are my slides for the Víctor Autograph Review if you happen to also teach these or want to see what it looks like as well as the posters and signatures. I'd love to hear how you adapt this game to other topics!
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 Technology is a beautiful thing, when it works, right??... Well hopefully it usually works for you and you can use some of these sites , games, and ideas to enhance your lessons and make your lives easier!
I am always looking for websites and other fun things to make class more engaging OR my life easier, so with no further ado and in no particular order here are 10 websites I use often in my classroom and some of the ways that I use them! Gimkit Gimkit is a student favorite, especially with all the new and different game modes coming out. Students answer multiple choice questions, listen and click an answer, or type in an answer in order to gain money or energy to complete different game mode tasks. My students love the fishing mode, draw it mode (think Pictionary-- it's awesome) and tag. mode This is a paid subscription , but my district does pay for it. The reason they pay for it and the real reason I love it is that with the paid subscription I can get data on my students. After they finish playing I get a student-by -student write up that shows how many questions they answered, words they missed, words they never missed, etc. I love assigning Gimkits as we read novels so I know what vocabulary we need to focus on or target during that unit. I also like that Gimkit has a HW option like Blooket where you can assign practice or review to students to do on their own. And as you will hear with many of these, I love that other teachers have created lots of sets for almost any curriculum or novel and I don't have to recreate the wheel. Blooket A student favorite no matter the level. I like that the modes are engaging and as new ones come out my students get excited to review or introduce content using the interactive fun modes. I like to use the traditional, kahoot-esque modes for reviewing content as a class. I also like this mode for assigning homework , review materials, or extension activity options. There are so many sets available on this website as well. I've rarely had to make new ones. *GAMEIFY BLOOKET AND GIMKIT* with Musical Chair on Gimkit/Blooket Not that Blooket and Gimkit aren't already fun , engaging, games, but let's take it to the next level and make it a movement-based game. As students play I randomly yell Levántate and students have to stand up and walk around the room. When I yell Siéntate they have to sit down and begin playing at the computer closest to them. The goal is to be at the winning computer when the timer runs out. You will have to set expectations of sitting down where they are closest and not purposefully sabotaging computers etc. You can have everyone put in a code name in Spanish instead of their real names so that kids don't look for certain computers. Quizziz This website has assessment, instruction, and practice (HW) options . I like assigning them as HW as a comprehension check for students. It will give the m a percentage and clearly let them know if they should move on. It's fun to do a class/group one at the end of the unit or before summative assessments because it will break down questions by which was hardest, etc. It also gives a class percentage so you can see how proficient your students are. It still has a game aspect just not various modes like Blooket and Gimkit. There are lots of assessments created by other teachers on there as well. I do not pay for a subscription by any means I just use what is free or create what I need. I like them for reading standard checks. Quizlet Quizlet is like the ancestor of Blooket and Gimkit. In many ways Quizlet walked, so some of these other sites could run... that being said it probably has the most sets available over the widest range of topics and curriculums. It's also a great option for students that want flashcards or something like that. I post links or provide them often so students can review before retakes. *LEVEL UP* with Quizlet Live Relay Race This is a student favorite every year and you can read how to do Quizlet Live Relay Races from Mis Clases Locas. Seriously, your students will love it and it get's them moving! Educandy Another great option for student individual work time , extension, or intervention. This site takes any set of vocabulary you may have and creates lots of little games for students to play to practice. These games include tic-tac-toe, crosswords, memory, word searches, etc. Not as organized as other sites nor as many sets, but it's pretty easy to make them from Quizlets. However, it can only be played on as an app, so your students would need personal devices OR a classroom iPad as a station is a great way to use it. Flipgrid Flipgrid is a site that allows you the teacher to pose a question verbally or written to your students and they respond with videos. I use these often for speaking assessments, because it's great for students that don't want to talk in front of others as well as it allows me to listen to them speak as many times as I need to in order to give an accurate score. Students can also respond to each other by recording video responses to each other's questions. It's free, it's user friendly, and it's great if you're going to be gone and you still want your students to talk and give them feedback. Flippity Flippity.net is powered by Google and houses a variety of templates from Google Sheets that become things like Jeopardy, Word Searches, Name Wheels, Digital Break-Out Rooms , etc. No more wasting time on formating or creating just punch in your information and let the template do the work. I highly recommend the name wheel which I use often because it makes groups for me, puts students in order for conferencing, and so much more. EdPuzzle This site really blew up during the pandemic, but I still love it for review, extension, and intervention. I also love using it for movie talks , because those aren't my favorite CI activities to do. But basically you can link any YouTube video and insert questions throughout the video that students need to respond to. I use the free version and pre-made videos other teachers have made. I like to use these for listening assessments sometimes , too. Garbanzo This is an education website that is tied to the SOMOS curriculum from the Comprehensible Classroom by Martina Bex. You can read more about it at her blog here. I often use it to intro a new SOMOS unit in Spanish I or as extension as we go through the unit. I like the data it gives me and the repetitions my students get in. They are adding more stories and podcasts and things all the time! Sr.Wooly Sr. Wooly is a video and graphic novel creator and it is AMAZING and so worth every cent. We use curriculum money to buy our subscription. I love that each story has assignments housed on the site and that they come with activities, lessons, and a very collaborative community. It's a great sub plan and you'll gain access to several graphic novels if you're wanting to teach with novels. *BONUS* saying 10 websites has a good ring, but I also use, Duolingo I have all my students create accounts day one and any time they finish fast they know that it is what they are supposed to be working on with free time in my class. They could also choose to free read from our classroom library, but most work on duolingo on their Chormebooks. I also use the podcasts often in my upper classes and will be sharing more on that soon. What sites do you use in your classroom? Am I missing any on this blog? |