This is the final part of the story that I began at the beginning of January with my first and second graders (part 1; part 2; part 3). The target vocabulary terms are opposite adjectives – tall/short, fast/slow, nice/mean. It has been super fun in class. The other terms in today’s story were
Necesita ayuda – needs help
Va a – goes to
Le dice – says to him/her
Up to this point, I have reviewed the adjective vocabulary with TPR actions and the kids can do the actions when I say the words. I have found that the best way to practice this is to play Simon says with the TPR actions.
One problem that I encountered today was confusion with nice/ happy and mean/angry. In the future, I will have to differentiate the TPR actions and the words much more so that they are completely different to avoid confusion.
The story is below:
DV es antipático. DV necesita un amigo. DV no tiene un amigo. DV va a el chico bajo. DV le dice, “Necesito un amigo.” Chico bajo le dice “No. Eres antipático.”
DV va a el Chico alto. DV le dice “(same statement)” el Chico bajo le dice, “(same answer).”
DV va a la chica rápida. DV le dice, “(same question)” La chica rápido le dice, “(same answer)”
DV va a la chica lenta. DV le dice, “(same question)” La chica lenta le dice, “(same answer)”
DV va a la chica simpática (student number six from the first day). DV le dice “Necesito una Amiga.” La chica simpática le dice “sí sí ven aquí!” (chica simpática and DV give each other a high five)
Darth Vader is mean. DV needs a friend. DV doesn’t have a friend. DV goes to the short boy. DV says, “I need a friend.” The short boy says, “no. You’re mean.”
DV goes to the tall boy (same statement and same answer)
DV goes to the fast girl (same statement and same answer)
DV goes to the slow girl (same statement and same answer
DV goes to the nice girl. (Same statement). The nice girl says, “yes yes! Come over here!”
They give each other a high five.
I made sure to give an extra special round of applause for the students who played Darth Vader because I wanted them to feel loved by their class. I didn’t want them to think that no one wants to be their friend.
Reflection on the Entire Story Unit
I think that the story presentation was great overall, but there were some things that could be improved:
1. Fewer vocabulary structures–the kids had trouble keeping track of the words. I think that if all of the parts of here story were as repetitive as the final part and only focused on those few terms, the kids would be able to acquire them better.
2. Better TPR actions–the actions for alto and bajo and rápido and lento were easy for the students to understand, but, as I stated before, the actions for nice and mean where too similar to previous actions we have done for happy and angry and this caused some confusion.