My kiddos LOVE LOVE LOVE Quizlet Live. I’m not as enthusiastic. It is fun and students are engaged but if they’re just matching Spanish words with their English translations, they’re not getting filled up with input. I’ve been playing around with how to make Quizlet Live an input/ reading game. Here’s what I’ve come up with. If you’re brand new to Quizlet, here’s a little intro video (not mine!) of the nuts and bolts of Quizlet Live. 

To prep: If you don’t have a Quizlet.com account start there. You can upgrade your account to the Teacher Account. I just have a free account and it works just fine. Create a new set. In the left hand column, write a single word. In the right hand column, write a sentence with a blank. So for example:

Cake                Today is my birthday and I am excited to eat ____________________.

Water               After running, it is important to drink a lot of ____________________.

Breakfast          In the morning, Mrs. Chase loves to eat bacon and eggs for _________.

Or, to give them more reading, rather than a sentence and a word, write half a sentence with another half of a sentence. This works great when you’re reviewing a story or movie talk:

Suzy is too excited to sleep because tomorrow is Christmas.

The day is working on a special surprise, a trampoline for Suzy.

The dog Buster watches the animals investigate the trampoline outside.

Christmas morning, Suzy wakes up and runs down stairs.

Type up your clues so they’re nice and comprehensible and focus on the words you want them to get more reps of. Be careful that there’s only one possible word that will fit with each clue.

OR, write out a complex sentence and split it in half. Make sure that the 2nd part of the sentence isn’t interchangeable with any other 1st part! I love making making sets like this for Movie Talks!

To play:  Click the magic “Quizlet Live” button on your screen in front of your class. Students will go to https://quizlet.com/live on laptops, tablets or phones and log into the game with the code the teacher projects. It’s important that students type in their real names, as they will have to find each other to form their teams. Sometimes having an alias is fun but not for this game!

The sentence will show across the top of their screens and then students will have the individual words on their personal list. It’s great because they’re working together translating and figuring out which word makes sense. And they’ll keep seeing the same sentences over and over! Yes! Comprehensible input AND Repetitions! Whoo Hooo!

Who wins?: Quizlet will put students in random teams and I like to shuffle the teams often to give them the chance to work with a lot of different students. Every 4 or 5 rounds I shuffle teams and they sit with their new teams.  I think the easiest way to keep track of the winners is to assign poker chips to the winners of each round.  (Hey, we’re in Nevada!) Although students are playing in teams, everyone is keeping track of their points individually by holding their poker chips.  (See this kiddo’s chips he’s lined up below- he’s won 3 rounds so far, but all in different teams)At the end of the game I do my normal routine Stand up if you have at least 1 chip. Stand up if you have 3 or more chips. Stand if you have more than 5 chips…(But if Spanish, obvio) Winners get a stamp on their stamp sheet. 

Variations: Play with characters and descriptions. (White characters in the 1st column and their description in the 2nd column. This would be fun to review a novel your reading or a telenovela you’re watching.  I’m going to make a Gran Hotel one now for my 4s!)

Or you could type questions and answers. (Answers is the first column and questions in the second)

Or…I’m sure there are other things to do with Quizlet Live other than matching a word with its translation. Help me brainstorm! ¿Por favor?

Looking for another techy game!? I love Kahoot Jumble to give them lots of CI!