Summary
Just in time for Halloween, students view “mysterious” scenarios that occur at school. Using their knowledge of Spanish interrogatives, students develop questions that will help them solve each mystery. Students share their questions verbally with a partner and then input these questions into a class GoogleDoc. These questions are provided to the students and displayed for the entire class in order for the students to discuss appropriate use of vocabulary and grammatical structure. As an assessment of understanding, students create their own mysterious videos, and share these videos with their classmates, who then create questions to better understand these scenarios. This lesson is designed for beginning Spanish students, as it gives them a chance to create appropriate and relevant questions using new vocabulary.
Reflection
Teacher:
“I liked that the students could view some brief scenarios that their teachers were involved in, rather than a movie scenario with actual actors. This seemed to engage the students in the lesson and got them excited to ask questions. I also liked how the students had to be very creative with the questions they asked and how the questions were phrased. The activity forced the students to either learn new vocabulary for words that they wanted to use in their question or “work around” the vocabulary that they knew in order to ask something relevant to the scenario.
When I do this lesson again, I think I will give each group of students one interrogative that will be the “focus” for their mystery scenario. Many of the student videos focused on who, what, and where, which are more frequently used interrogatives. Adapting the lesson with this slight change would give the students more practice with less frequently used interrogatives such as how or how many. To save time and complete the lesson in one day, the students could also take a picture to represent their scenario, instead of shooting a short video. I liked the video, but taking a picture would allow me to save time if necessary.”
ITRT:
“This was an incredibly fun lesson that took relatively little prep-work to complete. The lesson was designed specifically so that students could practice creating questions and use the associated vocabulary and grammatical rules associated with questioning, but could be adapted so that students could actually solve a problem as well, though this would take a little more prep time and class time. For example, the initial scenario videos could be “crime scenes” or some other actual mystery. If students ask the “appropriate” questions and justify why these questions are relevant to the scenario, then the teacher could provide answers to these questions that act as “clues” to the scenario. Discovering and putting together a number of these clues could help the students to solve an actual mystery. This would allow the students not only to practice questioning, but also solve a possible real-world problem.
TIPC Ratings
Not Observed – 0
Research and Information Fluency are not an instructional goal for this particular lesson.
Developing– 3
The teacher models a range of communication methods during this particular activity by using video and GoogleDocs to present information and facilitate the lesson. Students use both of these tools as well during the lesson. The Google spreadsheet allows the students to view all of their classmates’ responses and diagnose and discuss common vocabulary and grammatical errors. The students also use various tools (iPads, Digital Cameras, Flip Cameras) to create a movie which will communicate a “mystery scenario” to their peers.
Approaching – 4
The lesson is designed specifically so that students can practice creating questions and use the vocabulary and grammatical rules associated with questioning. The teacher and student “mystery videos” allow the students to practice creating questions that are relevant to specific scenarios, justify the relevance of their questions, and ultimately understand when and how to use each interrogative appropriately. Students also use the class Google spreadsheet to think critically and respond to the following higher-order question that will ultimately help the students gain a better understanding of interrogatives:
- Diagnose the most common grammatical and vocabulary errors that you see. Why do you think your classmates are making these mistakes? How would you correct them?
Developing – 3
Although the students do create a final “product” for this lesson, the focus of this lesson is more on the questioning that occurs rather than the actual product. However, the students are given choice within their group of what scenario they should create and record. In creating these short videos, the students have to determine how they will get their classmates to ask specific questions. In order to create this video, the students must use digital recording tools in order to summarize and make predictions.
Student Artifact
Mitchell Interrogatives – Period 4 Group 6 from HCPS Instructional Technology on Vimeo.
Download Files
Mysterious Questions – H21 Resources
Contents:
- H21 Lesson Plan
- Assignment Instructions
- Interrogative Scenario Videos (Ex. 1, Ex. 2, Ex. 3)
- Student Scenario Question Examples (Google Spreadsheet and Form)
- Sample Student Interrogative Video
