So, we know our kiddos need a bazillion repetitions of a structure to acquire it. And we know that the input has to be compelling and interesting for it to do any good. And we know that personalizing our input makes it waaaay more interesting and much more fun. And now my Spanish 1 little darlings know my secret hidden talents and they think I’m a circus freak. You’re going to love this video!

PQA or Personalized Question and Answer, is one way to get in a zillion repetitions and personalize the structures we want our students to acquire. Basically it’s just asking students questions, intentionally targeting and repeating the target structure, and making it as interesting, compelling and fun as we can.  And of course, doing all the things we CI teachers do: going slowing, teaching to their eyes, staying in bounds…you know the drill!

Today I wanted to talk about the verb “Puede” (she or he can or is able to) and every year I target “puede” by talking about students’ secret talents.  I’ve got a fun video for you to watch. If you’re not a Spanish speaker and you’re dying to know my freaky human tricks, I’ll give you an English example of this PQA below:

Teacher: Class, Does anyone have a secret talent? 

(silence, because I haven’t warmed them up yet!)

Teacher: I have a secret talent, well, I have two secret talents! Watch! I can (point and pause at the word and translation on the board) close my nose. Who can (point and pause) close their nose also?  Kevin, can you close your nose? Try it?

Kevin tries and fails. The class laughs because it’s pretty hilarious.

Teacher: Class, Kevin can or can’t close his nose? Poor Kevin can’t close his nose. Kevin, are you sad because I can close my nose and you can’t?

And on and on and on…until I reveal my next secret talent: I can sleep with my eyes open. Lots of English questions ensue and I answer in Spanish, milking the verb can as much as I can ; )  And then we talk about theirs. Who can roll their tongue? Who can lick their elbow? Who can raise only one eyebrow? Can anyone move their ears?

Lots of giggles today. There’s more yelling out in English than I’d like, but, hey, hey sure were engaged!

Wanna try out some PQA? Ask them about their secret talents!