Blog hop today and Monday speaking days

I am sorry for getting to this post a bit late! I am participating in a Blog hop with several other awesome middle and secondary educators. I have decided that since I have recently posted about station activities and my Christmas activities, my top items in my store right now, that I will instead write about my Monday Speaking days. To receive a free item from me....go to my TPT store and look at my items, then come back to the blog and in the comments tell me which item you would like to receive :) Or write a comment below about your favorite speaking activity! I will select a winner from those who comment, and I will send you the product of your choice free via email!
So, please leave your email in the comment section, or email me your email at nightlightlessons@gmail.com.

It is good to do something a little bit different and this is it!  The next person in the blog hop is found here! http://lifeonthefourth.wordpress.com

I truly hope that you will enjoy checking-out all of the great blogs by master teachers, and win some free products in the process! Jennifer is the organizer of this hop, and if there is a broken link, you can check-out all of the blog links by going to her blog: http://teachinghighschoolmath.blogspot.com

Mondays are a great day to have students speak about what they did over the weekend. I like to have all of my Spanish II students talk about what they did over the weekend as a way to both acknowledge that they have lives outside of school, and I am interested in them as a whole person, and as a great way to practice the preterite. One of my favorite activities is to have the students stand in a circle (our desks are in a circle so they are not moving far), and then each student takes a turn saying one thing that he or she did over the weekend. In order to challenge the students to be more creative with this activity, and to ensure that the students are listening to each other, I do not allow them to repeat a verb that has already been said by another student.

Another speaking activity that I do with my students is a "cocktail party, "round robin," or inside-outside circle. Half the class stands in a circle, then the other half of the class finds a partner. After each round of speaking, the students on the inside of the circle rotate to the next person. To practice narration, I will ask students to tell their classmate the most funny thing that happened over the weekend. Or, I might ask them to describe a movie that they saw recently, a book that they read, their favorite class assignment ever, etc. When doing this activity, I think that it is important to emphasize that students should only converse in Spanish. I tell my level two students that if they finish speaking early, that they can either continue conversing in Spanish or be silent. I do not allow English conversation as an option.

I hope that you enjoy today's blog hop! It will end at Midnight on Sunday night so be sure to comment by then! The winner will receive an email from me on Monday. In case you get lost in the blog hop, here is a list of the participating blogs!
http://teachinghighschoolmath.blogspot.com
http://scienceinthecity2.blogspot.com/
http://www.alessonplanforteachers.blogspot.com
http://scienceteacherresources.blogspot.com/
http://liveteachcreate.com
http://TeachingFSL.blogspot.com (French blog-Yay more language resources:)
http://missmathdork.blogspot.com
http://mrsodonnellsroom.blogspot.com/
http://lifeonthefourth.wordpress.com
http://poetgrl78.blogspot.com/2012/12/s … g-hop.htm