10 Activities to Implement the First Week of World Language Class: Building Community and Confidence!

The first week of school is the time to do the work, set the tone, and show students the hidden potential they have inside. Many students taking a world language for the first time find it daunting, overwhelming, and downright scary. I have had students who have internalized feelings of failure, before I’ve even said “hola.” We have a few activities that can put them at ease! You can see them below, and we also have our first FRENCH FREEBIE! It’s a cognate-confidence boosting activity your students will love!

One way to combate these feelings of inadequacy is follow Zarreta’s Hammond’s advice in building intellective capacity in students from day one. Below, are 10 activities to help you to roll out the carpet and do just that, because the reality is we also have some fears stepping back into the classroom as well.

Announcement: During the first couple weeks of September, I will be talking about, and sharing more activities for the first few weeks of school. If you need the encouragement, join our group!

Teaching From the Trenches with A.C. Quintero

Activities Suited for Lower-level Students

I have a ton of many ‘Todo Sobre Mí” Activities that I can’t even count! Why do I have so many? It’s a great way to get to know your students; it’s always a great way to build confidence from the very first day!

However, before delve into the Freebie below, there is an activity I do on the very first day that really SETS THE STAGE for my class. It’s the “School Tour In Target Language” Activity. I simply take them on a tour of the school in the target language, in my case, Spanish. Click the post below to see the video and to learn all about this amazing School Tour activity. It delivers Comprehensible Input & Confidence all at the same time.

The link underneath the video contains the materials I use to implement this in class.

Updated video of my school tour activity!!! Gosh, we had so much fun.

This activity makes the learning so real.

How do I go about it? It’s all in this post https://t.co/H0eOodiORI

Got questions? Ask below👇🏾👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/7KnfZ7ics9
— A. C. Quintero (@klasekastellano) August 28, 2023

Click here for resource: Language Input From the Very First Day

This Freebie is for level 1 The French version is coming soon!

How do I set up the “Todo Sobre Mí” activity with my level 1 students, who have not had exposure to Spanish?

Before I give this activity to students, I simply model the questions, providing my own responses. I write my responses on the board as I say them aloud. This allows for 3 factors that may affect comprehension:

Students become less intimidated by the assignment. They can see my thinking quite visibly.
They have a model to follow. The writing on the board provides structure. Although I don’t require they write out their responses in complete sentences, the structure emerges.
If they students don’t quite understand the questions, which have certifiable cognates- they can infer meaning from my responses.

For example, if students do not fully understand the question “¿Cuál es tu serie favorita? When I respond, “Mi serie favorita es Stranger Things” they’ll be better able to infer that I am asking about a favorite series.

The beauty of this activity is what the questions are posed in such a way that students can easily produce the desired response (or simply understand); there’s not lot of guesswork because the questions are inferred incidentally, and are very comprehensible.

Here’s a little infographic I created to guide you!

What happens next?

After you talk about yourself using the questions in this activity, you can quiz them on your preferences, interests, and likes. This promotes more input and discriminative listening skills.

My favorite part is when they’ve responded to all the questions about themselves, and then they get the opportunity to interact with their peers.

I have students walk around and talk to about 3-4 students. Afterwards, we do a “Hot Seat” activity, where students talk about themselves. The students listening have to jot down information. Later, we do a class quiz, where I ask them questions about their classmates and they have to answer. IT’S THE PERFECT COMMUNITY BUILDER.

Credit: I first learned about the Special Persons interview from Bryce Hedstrom. He is a master teacher, and has contributed immensely the Comprensible Input community and practices. You can find more about Bryce here. He also was one of the first vendor of my comprehensible readers. I will always be grateful for his opening his arms to my literary babies.

Teaching Spanish Level 3 or beyond?

Download this freebie instead. The first part is accessible for level 2, but I personally use this activity for my level 3 and 4 classes.

However, if your students need more scaffolded help, this ¿Quién soy yo? activity is recommended as it comprises various activities to help them maximize cognates. It walks them through the process.

This Spanish 1 Novice listening resource, fits in perfectly with any unit where students are learning about common school supply items in Spanish. The listening activity features a young boy narrating his first day of school, discussing the school supplies he has in his backpack. This resource presents several activities an options to help teachers get started!

Listening Activity for Spanish level 1

Do your students need more listening practice in Spanish? Would you like them to hone those inferring skills when they read and listen to a passage? This Spanish 1 Reading and Listening Activity will do the trick!

Click this link to learn more about this resource.

Click on this link for the Cognate Connection Activity

We have it in French as well!!!

Click Here for the French Activity

Interview with Ainhoa: Make learning effortless with this activity! Student will acquire tons of incidental vocabulary words throughout the interview, and get reps of some very pivotal verbs in context: Ser, gustar, and tons of cognates! y Follow up activities included!

¿Quién soy yo? Scaffolded personal interview questions to allow students to engage in conversation, one question at a time. There are 10 building blocks of learning activities included!

Dialogue between two students about the first day of school. Perfect for acting out in class! Include vocabulary related to:

Weather

New friends

Introductions

Birthdays

Comic strip about the first day of school. Glossary and questions included!

Looking for more input-rich and communicative activities for the first week?

Click here for Activities that Pair Well With the First Week!

Click here for the Let’s Talk About Tech activity

And there’s más!

Click here for Activities that Pair Well With the First Week!

Are you starting school and have difficulty getting back into the swing of things? Our last newsletter lays out a doable plan for your to manage your energy and thrive! Click here to learn more!