Spanish Commands and Cooking

Hypothesis: Connecting cooking to subject matter will increase student interest in a larger percentage of students than teaching the subject matter without the cooking component.

It's not scientific, but after "testing" my hypothesis, I can confidently say that there is a measurable difference in student interest and attention when cooking is integrated into lessons.

A few weeks ago, I planned two consecutive days of lessons that included preparing food.  

Lesson 1
On the first day, I asked for two student volunteers and they became the chefs for the lesson.  Their task was to follow their classmates' verbal instructions in Spanish on how to cook eggs. 

The materials that I brought to school were: two heating units, 4-6 eggs per class, salt, pepper, spatulas, mixing bowls, utensils, paper plates, Pam vegetable spray, aprons, and chef's hats.  

The students gave them step by step instructions and the "chefs" followed their instructions and then the chefs decided to whom the eggs were given.

Lesson 2

The following day, I distributed a paper to the students in which they had to work with a partner to write instructions on how to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. (All students wrote the instructions and they decided which one to hand in - usually the one with the best handwriting.) Different students took turns reading the instructions to me and I followed the instructions e-x-a-c-t-l-y. 

I've been doing this lesson for years and it is a guaranteed fun activity to do in the target language. When I instruct the students to be specific when writing the instructions and not to forget any steps, many of them don't understand the degree of "specific". If they wrote "put the peanut butter on the bread", but their instructions don't include to use a knife to take the peanut butter OUT of the jar, I simply put the jar of peanut butter on the bread. Am I being difficult? Yes, but that results in increased interest on the students' part to listen to the instructions and realize what will happen when I follow the instructions exactly as written, AND when I have their complete attention, I am able to provide more repetitions of comprehensible input of commands, in context!

This semester, the student interest in the PBJ activity was kicked up a few notches due to James Crummel's visit to our class.  James, an anchorman and reporter, and Justin Raub, a photo journalist, from ABC 27 News, came to our classroom to film the activity and to interview the students about Spanish class.

Click HERE to see the news segment which aired 3x on the morning news yesterday if the embedded movie below does not work. The students did an awesome job and had fun watching the video in class.
 

Of course, after class, we took time to take a selfie with James and Justin.  A special thanks to the talented selfie photographer, Jazmyn!

 

As teachers, our first responsibility is to provide our students with the best instruction that we know.  Another responsibility, in my opinion, is to share what we are doing with the parents and people in our community to show them the great things happening in the public and private schools!!!!

The MANDATO Challenge: Spanish Commands

Have you ever thought of how often you hear commands throughout your day or how often you say a command? It has to be one of the most used features of a language.

The language of mothers and fathers, especially those with young children, are packed with commands. Are you a fan of cooking shows or DIY shows? Think of the amount of commands you hear during those programs. 

Likewise, teachers' days are full of commands as they instruct their students and give directions.  I doubt teachers realize how often they say a command.

Last semester, I wanted to make my Spanish students aware of how often they hear commands during the class period, so I proposed a simple listening competition. When I say a command in Spanish, I will listen for the first student to call out "¡Mandato!". Then I write the student's name on the board with a tally mark. 

I am repeating The Mandato Challenge again this semester. I started it two days ago and the tally marks are growing. Interestingly enough, some students that are usually quiet in class, are among the high scorers! In other words, the fact that they're quiet does not mean they aren't listening and acquiring the language, but rather that their comfort zone in the second language classroom looks a little different than the students that want to answer every, single question or even comment on things without a question. (To be clear, I do like having those that are like a fountain of language that doesn't have an off switch in class because they add energy and content to our discussions.)

If I can't discern which person said ¡Mandato! first, it's a draw and nobody receives a tally mark. A new addition to The Mandato Challenge this semester is if I say a command and nobody hears it, which usually happens if I am speaking to only one student or a small group of students, then I receive a point. I've earned a few points, but I predict next week I'll earn a big 'ole goose egg because they are s-h-a-r-p!

Side benefits of The Mandato Challenge
An unexpected benefit to this challenge, is that sometimes to avoid saying a command, I say Quiero que ustedes pongan sus papeles en mi escritorio (I want that you all put your papers on my desk) instead of Pongan sus papeles en mi escritorio (Put your papers on my desk), which provides input of the subjunctive in context at a time they are paying close attention! 

Eventually students notice that many times the words (verbs) are the same when I say "I want that you..." as when I directly tell them to do something. 
 
Sometimes when I say a command and one or two, (or sometimes 10 or more), students call out ¡Mandato!, and I add a tally mark, there may be a student that didn't hear it and will ask, "¿Qué dijiste?" (or sometimes they blurt that out in English - we're still in the real world here folks). They asked, so I write what I said on the board for them to see it in print. It's like "pop-up grammar" but they initiate it! Other times after I add a tally mark I'll ask the class to tell me what I just said and then we quickly move on to what we were doing.

It adds energy to class because the students are waiting, listening, ready to shout ¡Mandato! which captures everyone's attention.

If you want to see how this works, give The Mandato Challenge a try in your classroom. Have FUN with it! 

Commands - Writing "How to " lists

Commands are an integral part of a language, (at least I know they are in English and in Spanish), which means there are many ways teachers to create activities around commands that have a focus on communication and not on grammar rules.

Below is an activity that will keep the students engaged while focusing on meaning.  You can tell students to write informal or formal commands.  Both will work fine with the assignment.

1. Prepare for the activity by writing a list of How To topics. I've included mine for you to use or for help give you ideas.
A - How to plan a trip to Hawaii.
B - How to plass Calculus with an 'A'
C - How to impress your boyfriend/girlfriend
D - How to convince a police officer not to give you a speeding ticket
E - How to become a millionaire
F - How to earn/save money for college
G - How to lose weight
H - How to win a marathon
I - How to write a novel
J - How to throw the best party of the year
K - How to avoid/discourage telemarketers
L - How to be a great friend
M - How to make someone smile
N - How to succeed at your job interview
O - How to learn a 2nd language

2.  Model the activity. Ask the students (in your TL) to name suggestion they would give to their friend to tell him/her how to get an "A" in your class.

3. Tell students to find a partner. Each group randomly chooses one of the cards A-O listed above.

4. Give the students a large sheet of paper, (I have a roll of white butcher paper that I use for activities like this), and a marker.  Allow 8-10 minutes for students to write 6 commands to tell someone How To do whatever is listed on their notecard.  Then students hang the papers on the walls.

5.  With their partner, students write A-O on a paper.  Read the lists on the papers and decide for what the commands are written.  Write answers in Spanish.

6. Switch papers with another group to go over the answers.

Having groups of 2 helped to keep all students engaged.  The one part of the activity that I wasn't pleased with was when we went over the answers.  I felt as if I were losing some of the students' attention. I'm still trying to decide how to improve that part of the activity.

A variation of the above activity is to tell the students to write their lists on an 8 1/2 x 11" paper instead of a poster size paper.  Then list the HOW TO categories on the board.  Read one of the commands that the students wrote and students decide for which category the command was written.

 

Learning (Spanish) Commands - Usted Form

Students write commands to solve problems.

Note: This is also known as a Commands Gallery Walk

I use a fabricated story about my cat when I teach formal commands.  The activity is described below for how I teach it in Spanish, but it can easily be adapted to any language.

I begin by telling the following story in the Target Language about my cat: "My cat loves to hunt and every day it hunts and kills either a bird or a mouse. But my cat doesn't like to eat what it hunts so it picks up the kill in it's mouth, walks to my neighbor's house, and drops it's hunted prize at the front door of my neighbor's house.  My neighbor is very angry with me and my cat." Then students say commands in the usted form to tell me what to do.

This year I decided to have the students create their own short scenarios.  

1. The students wrote their fabricated "problems" on a large paper and hung them around the room. I limited their stories to 5-7 sentences.

2. Then I gave each student a pack of post-it notes.  

un problema con un caimán

3. Students had to write a command for each of the "problems" and stick their post-it note to the paper.  They could not repeat any verbs already mentioned on other post-it notes on the paper, and the individuals could not use the same verb on more than one paper.  (I had 15 students in class, each had to write commands on post-its for 14 of the "problems", they did not have to write on their own paper, and the student could only use a verb one time.)

4. After the students have written a command and put post-it notes on all the papers except their own, the owner of the paper reads the commands and chooses the 3 they like the most to share with the class.

The students enjoy listening to their classmates' "problems" and the creative ways to solve the problem.  Having the students write on post-it notes instead of directly on the paper meant students didn't have to wait until the previous person was finished writing on the paper, a time-saver.  

Update 2017: Recently in my inbox from Pinterest, there were photos of suggested pins for my Spanish boards. One was a Pin that used my idea but instead of the students creating a problem, the teacher wrote the problem and put it in a clear protector sheet and then students added the sticky notes as described in this post.  I added the picture I found on Pinterest to give you a clear picture how it was done. I'm unable to give a photo credit because the Pin on pinterest leads to a dead end.