I’ve made some changes to our beginning of class Chit Chat routine in Spanish 2, inspired by Claudia Elliott’s Growing with Proficiency Podcast and I am excited to share them with you!

While listening to Episode 157, What does it mean to teach for Language Acquisition? 3 key skills every language teacher needs, Dr. Karen Lichtman mentioned that the definition of communication is sharing unknown information, contrasting that with “display questions”, where everyone already knows the answer. I felt a bit defensive because we begin each class chit chatting and I always ask them about the weather…which upon further consideration, is kind of a dumb question to ask, because we all already know the answer (and in Nevada, the answer is “It’s sunny” almost every single day).

So…I tweaked our weather conversation and you guys, the input is so much richer!! Now I ask them to give me a Spanish Speaking country, then we zoom in using Google Maps and pick a city. First they make predictions…is it hotter or colder there than here? What do they think the temperature is? Is it raining? Will it rain this week? Then we search it up and make comparisons with our own weather. The fun doesn’t stop there! Then I ask them what time they think it is in that city. After a few guesses we verify. Finally we rap it up by “exploring” a bit. Good old Google Maps allows us to zoom in and drag the little yellow due into Street View. I ask for a volunteer to “drive us” while I narrate what I see. It’s been really cool! Want to see it in action?

Then, listing to another one of Claudia’s podcasts, Episode 73: Engaging Students and Encouraging Talking in the Target Language, Erica Peplinki-Burge mentioned narrating for students who don’t yet have the language to express what they want to say. This got the wheels turning and I added in another slide to our Chit Chat routine: Good news.

After asking if anyone has good news to share, I ask if they can tell us in Spanish or if they need a little help. If students need help, I go to them and they whisper their good news into my ear (alternately, they can write it out if you don’t want the Little Darlings that close). YOU GUYS- something magical happens because when only 2 people know something– all of a sudden, everyone wants to hear the secret! Their attention is piqued!! I always gasp in astonishment and confirm that is in fact great news before telling the rest of the class, in slow and comprehensible Spanish. Then to be extra, I advance the slide for confetti and celebration noises. This past week we’ve celebrated a bother coming home from college, a new job, a grandma’s new puppy, a student releasing a new song and an A on a chemistry test. What’s better than celebrating good news with the Little Darlings, and in Spanish to boot?! Here’s a glimpse of the magic:

Grab the updated Chit Chat slideshow here! We don’t do every slide every day, but I like having a lot of slides available depending on what I feel like chatting about. I’ve written details for each slide in the Speaker Notes describing how I use it in class. If you want to make any changes, feel free to click “make a copy” and edit away! (And if you teach another language and feel like translating it, I’d be ever so grateful if you share it back with me to post here!)

Hope everyone is well! Just one more week before Christmas Vacation here…what about there?

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas: