Are you looking for new ways to get your students moving? Try a fun Write the Room Spanish Activity! They are easy to create, and they get students out of their seats! That means more engagement, and more learning! Best of all, you can create the activity so that they can check their answers!
What Are Write the Room Spanish Activities?
These kind of activities consist of a number of printed papers hung up around the room. Each paper has some kind of question for students to answer. Sometimes I provide an answer sheet, and sometimes I ask students to write their answers on a piece of notebook paper.
The papers are numbered, but it doesn’t matter where the students start or end. They just need to answer all the questions eventually!
Students enjoy these kind of activities because they can often work with a partner. This is a great time to let students choose who they work with, or give them the option to work alone! They also get to be out of their seat, and that can be such a relief to high school students who spend so much of their day sitting.
How To Make a Write the Room Spanish Activity
There are many different kinds of Write the Room Spanish activities. Today we will talk about a “Lift the Flap” Activity.
Step 1: Decide what you want your students to practice writing. It could be conjugating verbs, it could be vocabulary words, etc.
Step 2: Using Google Docs or Word, create enough questions for at least half of your class. For example, if you have 30 students, create 15 questions. This is so that there are not a whole bunch of students trying to read and answer the same question. Use a landscape orientation. Number each question.
Make the font big so that it takes up the whole page. Write out the entire sentence, WITH the correct answer in it. Or, type the correct answer under the question.
Step 3: For the questions/sentences that have the right answer in them, go back and underline that part. If you typed the correct answer below the question, underline the correct answer.
Step 4: Decide if you want to create an answer sheet for students. Make that if need be. (I usually only make one if I have used a variety of question types in my activity. That way, I can remind them what to do for each question. (Ex. Translate, conjugate, fill in, etc.)
Step 5: Print out all of the question papers. And print your answer sheet if you have one. You will need to make copies of the answer sheets, but not the questions.
Bonus: If you have the time and the machine, laminate the questions so you can use them every year!
Step 6: Grab some index cards. Cut them to the size of the underlined part of each question. Tape the cut index card to cover the correct answer on each question sheet. Only tape the top of the index card, so students can “lift the flap” after they have written their answer. This will allow them to check and see if they were right!
Depending on the question type, you may need to write something on top of the flap. For example, if you want students to conjugate the verb, write the infinitive on the flap. (Make it more challenging by writing the verb in English!)
Step 7: Hang the finished question papers around the room- order doesn’t matter. Now you’re ready for a fun, engaging, self-checking, collaborative, movement-oriented lesson! The Spanish Write the Room Activity is always a hit with my students!
And don’t forget- if you laminated the question papers, they are easier to store for next year. Our laminator is broken, so I carefully took my questions down and put them in an interoffice mail envelope. Fingers crossed they’re in good shape for next year!
Other Things To Keep in Mind About the Write the Room Spanish Activity
When creating a Write the Room Spanish activity, keep these benefits and drawbacks in mind:
Plusses:
-easy to create
-fun for students
-once they’re created, they’re easy to re-use year after year!
Minuses:
-a bit time consuming to make (*but my hack is that I ask my student aide or a bored study hall student to help me with the flaps and hanging them up! If you are lucky enough to laminate, students can cut the pages out of the lamination too!)
Resources
Write the Room Travel and Vacation
Spanish Writing Prompt Activities Lesson Plans to Build Proficiency
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