Making Mundane Practice New and Engaging with ID Cards!
The beginning of Spanish 1 (or any novice class) can get boring fast! Kids are just repeating their names, where they are from and their birthday all class and they feel like they aren't doing anything. Enter: ID cards! Having students take on another identity is fun for students, even if they think it is goofy, and it helps them practice the same sentences but with new material. It helps keep them from getting bored!
Students find the monsters silly and funny (at least), but they are pretty authentic cards. The names come from top Spanish name lists, the addresses are real streets in real cities, the telephone numbers are aligned to some Spanish-speaking countries and the date of birth is written in the Spanish way of abbreviating dates.
Here is how I have used the cards so far:
(In all of these cases, students walk around the room asking these questions over and over again to multiple partners and switching cards to keep it interesting-check out my blog post of quiz-quiz-trade cards to learn more)
1. ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿De dónde eres?: On day 1 students learned how to answer these questions as we got to know each other. But that was old starting day 2. So I broke out the cards and they went around and asked/answered the questions using their new identities.
2. ¿Cómo se escribe tu nombre?: students aren't really getting that much practice by spelling their own names over and over again. The cards help them practice "mi nombre se escribe..." with the letters in Spanish that keep changing because they keep changing cards. It also makes them really look at the names and practice the pronunciation of Spanish names.
3. ¿Cuál es tu número de telefono?: this gives students a number to read off of, instead of making numbers up and only using the numbers that they know. (In addition, I use the telephone number quiz-quiz-trade cards that have an "answer key" on the back)
4. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?: just like in number 2, students aren't getting date practice if they keep saying their own birthday. These cards help students see the Spanish abbreviation for dates (day/month) and practice calendar vocabulary.
5. ¿Cuántos años tienes?: these dates of birth are all over the place so students have to do a little math and get to practice this question with new numbers.
These are 5 ways I have used these cards in just the first week of Spanish 1! Soon, I plan to ask things like "¿dónde vives?" and we can practice years with the date of birth. There are many possibilities. Even in upper levels students can ask things like "¿Cuándo naciste?" or can pretend this is their old address and ask "¿Dónde viviías cuándo tenías ____ años?".
Can you think of any other ways to use these cards?
If you want to buy these awesome ID cards for your class click here! The packet itself comes with activities to use for speaking/listening/writing in addition to the ideas here.
