One of my favorite classroom activities is Write and Discuss and we often follow a Clip Chat with W&D as a way to create a text that everyone can read. Last week, however, after we played around with this adorable clip chat, we tried something new and it was the most fun we’ve had in a long time- we wrote a “Choose your Own Adventure” style continuation to the Clip Chat, and my four sections of Spanish One helped by contributing ideas and reading the other classes’ story ending. There was much laughter and requests to go back and read the other options. They were asking ME to read more SPANISH?! And enjoying themselves!? And were laser-focused?! Win-Win-Win-Win! Read on for the details and example.
Before class, I found this template online, made a copy and got to work. I typed in the end of the clip chat and made up two options. That’s all I did. Talk about low prep with high dividends:
Immediately following the Clip Chat, we read this slide together and I asked which option they’d like to write. My first class picked “The boy says to her, “Hello, my name is Marcos” and they started to talk. So, I click that link, which took us to the pre-linked slide and we started brainstorming. Now…did this happen totally in Spanish?! I wish, but their best ideas were blurted out in English, so I corralled their enthusiasm, took their best suggestions (that I could write comprehensibly), asked follow up questions in Spanish and we nailed down the details. I typed up the story while asking a few more questions and getting feedback from students, Write and Discuss Style. Here’s where this story went:
Usually when we do W&D, I type and students copy down the text into their notebooks. Is this necessary for language acquisition? No…but I find that my Little Darlings do best when they have a task that helps them stay focused and keep their hands to themselves (and they are high schoolers!). For our “Choose your own Adventure” ending, I asked if they could stay focused without writing along with me. They eagerly assured me they could. I was skeptical, so I reminded them that if they needed help staying focused, they would need to copy it down …but guess what?! All my Little Darlings participated beautifully without any issues at all! Miracle of miracles!
We spent about 15-20 minutes reading, brainstorming and writing, then in the next period of Spanish 1, we picked it up where the previous class left off. In the screenshot examples, my 1st period of Spanish 1 came up with the ideas “he invites her to Olive Garden” and “He asks if she has a boyfriend”. They wanted to pursue the Olive Garden storyline, so we moved into that slide. They suggested the ideas “she got sick” and “he forgot money”. Out of those two suggestions, they wanted to finish off the “he forgot money” storyline, leaving “she got sick” and “he asked if she has a boyfriend” for other classes to figure out. The class that came after read their handwork, brainstormed more options and finished off another storyline or two, just as much as we could do in the allotted 15-20 minutes.
To keep things comprehensible, especially with unfamiliar vocab, it’s easy to drop in an emoji. My favorite site is https://emojikeyboard.org/. Click on “Search” on the far right, and type in what you’re looking for:
Even with four classes, we were not able to finish the slideshow in one day, so that made for an easy lesson plan the following day. We reviewed the story in the clip, re-watched the clip, read all the possibilities that had been written by other classes, and took up a new storyline to work on.
We’ve gotten so much milage out of this simple idea and we’re not done yet! Once we’re finished, I’m going to print it out and bind it to make a little book to add to our free reading library. This certainly will not be our only “Choose your own Adventure” Write & Discuss…I’m already looking ahead to plan our next. I’m thinking Soy Yo has a lot of potential for great endings.
Teach Spanish 1? Here’s our entire “Choose your own Adventure”. Even if you don’t teach this Clip Chat, feel free to show the clip then read through our story endings, if you’re needing a low stress, low prep, high giggle plan:
La continuación de El mejor de la clase
Señora Chase 
Hola, I really enjoy getting your newsletter. Thank you! I like this idea which incorporates Choose your own Adventure cliptalk. But, I’m fuzzy on the details. Did each of your classes come up with just one slide (with two options)? And then the next class built upon those options and added an additional one? You say that on day two, you “took up a new storyline to work on.” Was this a continuation of the previous day’s story line? I’m anxious to try this with my students. However, I am mostly retired and teach just one class. Perhaps I’ll ask them to come up with additional ideas in groups of two or three and then I will add them in. Best,Tracie
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That is a good idea to ask groups to brainstorm but then you facilitate the writing and putting it together.
In my classes, we spent about 15-20 minutes on this the first day, and we just did as much as we could in that time. In most classes, we wrote 3-4 slides in that time.
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Love this idea, AnneMarie! I just observed a friend teaching last week who did Write and Discuss in each of his classes at every level and was convinced that I need to be incorporating it more into my classes. I often have it as the goal, but we just never get to it, thinking that with just a few more minutes left of class, I can give my little darlings more input when they really need more repetition with the input they’ve already had. When I’ve done daily W&D in the past, it has seemed so monotonous, but I know that it’s necessary and helpful for my kiddos. This is a great twist. Thanks for sharing! I, too, so love getting your emails.
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Thanks for commenting!! W&D is so good for them- I feel like it distills the input from class. It’s not their favorite part of class but it’s one of mine😂
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