Talking to students and showing them that you care about things they care about is a great way to build relationships and create a an environment where students feel safe. Any activity that will allow students to share their interests with you and their classmates is going to capture their attention. Even the most difficult students are excited to share about something they really have an interest in. Check out 3 of my favorite relationship building activities!
Special Person Interviews
There are so many ways to use special person interviews in your classroom. Choose one person to be interviewed in the target language. This person is asked a series of questions while the students in the class listen and observe.
Tailor questions to fit a unit you’re working on or general questions that you can use to scaffold and introduce students to new vocabulary and grammar structures.
I usually ask for a student volunteer to be the special person. It is never obligatory for a student to be the special person. There are always students that won’t mind hopping up and being la persona especial. If you don’t have a student, you can pull in someone from the community or school administration/faculty.
Read more about special person interviews here!
Click here to take a look a NO PREP special person resources.
PQA
Personalized question and answers don’t just focus on one student as the focal point like special persona interviews. This line of questioning provides input by asking questions to the entire class.
PQA is a great follow up to a story you’ve been working on. You can come up with questions that help students make connections to their lives and the story. You can use it as class starter, extension activity, or time filler to get students chatting and provide more input.
Read more about PQA or personalized questions and answers here!
Weekend Chat
Follow up with your students after the weekend break by asking what they did over the weekend. You can use the questions in a presentation format to give students more support or scaffold with a specific question each weekend.
For example:
- ¿Adónde fuiste el sábado?
- ¿Fuiste al supermercado? Levanta la mano si fuiste al (a la)…
Read more about weekend chat activities here!
Have you used weekend chat and are looking for new activities? Check out these activities!
What other activities do you use that are great for relationship building? I’d love to try them!
If you liked this post…
If you liked this blog post, you may be interested in these:
- What is a PQA? Personalized Questions and Answers
- Weekend Chat Activities for Spanish Class
- Introduce Vocabulary with Entrevistas for Persona Especial
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