Who likes it?

This week has been such a positive one (but also the longest week in the world). My seventh graders had me jumping for joy. Not one of them got below a B on their assessment on their and others' likes and dislikes.

This is how we did it: Once I felt that they were ready to start producing the language, we took food items, and they answered questions about their own likes and dislikes. I would mention a food item, and they would write whether they liked it or disliked it. This didn't take long.

Soon, I had them going around and asking others what they liked. We did this by having them play human BINGO. They had to go around asking and answering questions of each other. If they found someone who liked the item, they could cross it off and write that person's name. When they got BINGO, I gave them group points. It was so fun, and we continued to do activities similar to that.

Then, I wanted them to start talking about others, so I gave them all mini white boards. At first, I would have one student come to the front, and I would mention a food item. The students sitting had to guess if the student standing liked it or disliked it. They would show their boards, and then the student standing would reveal the correct answer. Eventually, this game progressed, and I would have the students guess if both the students standing liked or disliked the food item, and the students standing would reveal it by saying "yes, we like..." or "no, we don't like..."

For the assessment, we did the same thing. I gave them pictures of food items and, in some parts, they had to talk about themselves. In others, they had to pick a group of students and guess whether they liked the item or not. In one part, they talked about their best friend's likes and dislikes. Etcetera.

 The results were phenomenal! It is amazing how the students can pick up on grammatical concepts without even realizing it! I told myself that I wouldn't be too picky with the grading; I have to remind myself that communicating is the most important aspect of a language. If the students wrote "Me gustan bananas" instead of "me gustan las bananas," they would still be understood--thus communicating the message. However, I didn't even have to worry about it because these errors were VERY FEW and far between! And zero students made this mistake throughout; they just made it on maybe one or two questions (probably from writing too quickly). I am gleaming. <3