building communicative sense

this one will not take long. i just want to get it out before i forget.

i have been building on a series of designs (teaching moves) lately in my uninorte level one sessions.

i have continued to explore and exploit the potential of images. sometimes it feels strong: students seem to keep up with my intentions of getting them to learn the simple present structures, especially question formation, through visualization of actions (action verbs). other times, though, it doesn’t feel right: students fail to advance.

recently, though, i venture with the groups and ask them to not only make questions on the basis of the proposition in question. let us explain: someone says “my sister works as a secretary.” to this someone else (another student) creates the question: “where does she work?” regardless of the answer, other students may follow up with another question: “when does she work?”, or “what time does she work?”. the point is obvious, the automatization of the construction/structure of the question. students have found themselves being more fluent in making the question. even students who i though could not make it are doing so.

this time, though, i went farther. i had students follow up with a question coherent enough and related to the reply provided. for example: “my sister works as a secretary”. student b: “you said your sister works as a secreatary, right? well, what time does she start? or does she like her job? it is amazing how student can create questions. their communicative sense is effective.