Write & Discuss is one of the hardest working tools in my kit. If you’re unfamiliar with the strategy, drop everything and head on over to Write & Discuss: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways for a description and video examples. If you’ve been around the W&D block a few times, here are 2 ways to freshen up the old standard this past week, one for lower levels and the other for for upper levels.

Alternate Universe: (Lower Level)

In Spanish 1, we did a Clip Chat for the absolutely darling commercial El mejor de la clase. It went quicker than I was expecting, so I was trying to think ahead to stretch out the Write & Discuss to fill the rest of the period. The ceiling tiles of my portable parted and inspiration struck! Halleluiah!

It started out as a normal Write and Discuss. I grabbed my wireless keyboard and they took out paper. I asked a few questions about what had happened in the clip and we started writing it together. But when we approached a key detail, I told them we were going to write the Alternate Universe version. The basic story stayed the same, but we swapped out the names, places, key verbs and other nouns for silly alternatives. Instead of “una estudiante rubia que se llama Emma”, she turned into a poor teacher in one class, a crazy scientist in another and a rich doctor in the third. Instead of asking, -¿Alguien tiene una lapicera?- she needed a pizza in one class, a rock in another class and finally a cat at the end of the day. I asked, they suggested, I picked a funny suggestion, and as I typed they copied it down.

(Pro Tip: as you’re deciding which suggestion to go with, pick one that matches the number and gender as the “real” answer. So if the real answer is “le da un regalo“….you could accept “Le da un elefante” or “le da un diamante” but don’t accept “le da una motocicleta” or “le da mil gatitos“. You’ll see why in a minute!)

Here’s one period’s “Alternate Universe” story. The purple indicates the “Alternate Universe” details for your benefit, so you can see what we changed from the original story. When I typed it up in class, all the text was black.

After we had their “Alternate Universe” parallel story completed, they worked with a partner to read it together, and restore the story to its original version (the one we had established while watching and discussing the clip) by crossing out or erasing the alternate universe details and filling in what really happened. It gave them a reason to re-read our text and it gave me a super easy grade to put into the gradebook as a “reading quiz” (I just spot checked as I circulated the room, everyone was working hard so everyone got full credit!) For absent students, they’ll just write out the translation of the Write and Discuss or translate it out loud for me into English.

Here’s one student’s “quiz”:

It was an easy way to write together (there was lots of giggling as they suggested silly details) and a good reason to read it again carefully to “correct” it. It’s the simple things that keep them working hard until the bell, right?

Hybrid Write & Discuss (Upper Level)

In my Spanish 4s, we spend a lot of time discussing the telenovela Gran Hotel – debating who is the worst character, when will Alicia finally admit she’s in love with Julio and for crying out loud, why is Andrés so nice?! Before we watch, we always Write and Discuss as a way to review the drama that happened previously and to catch up the students who were absent.

In this year’s Spanish 4 class, I have some particularly high flying high flyers whose Spanish is outstanding. (Truly a testament to my colleagues Julie and Jared’s commitment to loads and loads of Comprehensible Input.) And in the same class I’ve got a handful of Novice High Students that took Spanish 1 during Quarenteaching and still haven’t quite gotten the hang of school every day. What I’m trying to say is that I’ve got a really wide chasm between my struggling Little Darlings and my Rock Stars, much more pronounced that in years past.

Traditional Write and Discuss has been good for my Strugglers but I’ve been having this nagging feeling that I’ve been holding back the Rock Stars. This is how Hybrid Write & Discuss was born.

Out loud we reviewed the most important drama from the previous day and I wrote just a few sentences on the board. Students participated by feeding me details but they didn’t copy the sentences down as I wrote.

Then I gave them 10 minutes to write their own summary of what happened previously, incorporating the sentences on the board into their writing. Essentially, they had to “connect the dots” between my statements. The High Flyers took off with it, writing paragraphs that would make you weep! And the others had the scaffolding of solid example sentences to copy down, and a map to guide their summary.

It’s rare that I feel like I’m able to meet all my Little Darlings where they’re at linguistically, but this Hybrid Write and Discuss nailed it. So, what else could I do but wake up early on a Saturday morning to tell you about it!

Hope you’ve got a cozy weekend ahead of you! I’m by the fire with a pot of tea, waiting for a storm to roll in over those mountains and giggling at Archie’s preferred lounging position:

Happy December, friends! Cozy up!