Card Talk – Online!

This post will assume familiarity with the Card Talk strategy. If you haven’t heard of it or done it before, check out my post here about it and then come on back for some thoughts about how to bring it online!

As we move into a school year where many of us are fully online (and many are doing some sort of wonky not-normal something), I have been thinking about high-powered strategies and how to best bring them into the online environment. At the same time, I have talked to so many other teachers who are falling into the spiral of internet discovery that leaves them with too many ideas and not enough confident planning. It reminds me to be clear about what are the most important principles for my teaching – access to high-quality input, personalized discussions about relevant content, frequent chances to read on-level texts, and getting feedback on all of the above – and stick to making those things happen, over and over again.

I have always loved Card Talk for a couple big reasons. For one thing, it is a very flexible strategy. You can give a prompt for any sort of topic/theme, and boom! You have generated content for possibly weeks. For instance, this year level 1’s prompt is the typical beginning-of-level-one “Show a picture of an activity you like to do (bonus: put a picture of you doing that activity!)” Level 2, starting a unit about food? “Show a picture of a food that has meaning to you and/or your family, and another picture of a food you absolutely hate.” Level 3, beginning the year with a unit on art? “Show a picture of an artwork you listen to/view over and over again, and another picture of an artwork that really inspires you.”

The other big reason I love it is because it lends itself so nicely to community building. It does this by beginning conversations around individuals that enable us to draw connections between the members of our classes. This has been helpful to remind us all that behind the screens are real people who share some of the same interests as you – which we will be able to capitalize on once we’re back together in the beautiful future!

Adaptations for Virtual Learning

For synchronous learning: I shared a blank template (like this one you see here) with my entire class, and created an “assignment” on our Learning Management System (LMS) to fill in their slide, and then tell me which slide number they had claimed.

To prepare for class, I scrolled through and found two slides with similar-seeming interests (maybe both are related to sports, or music, or both students do gymnastics!). I copied these into my daily slideshow, and maybe noted some high-frequency or interesting vocabulary that I would need to have a conversation with my students about that interest. (I keep note paper in front of me while teaching asynchronously to keep my thoughts organized.) With some slides, I also had to edit them down a bit, because some students took the directive of “post a picture of AN activity you like” to fill the entire slide with every video game they had ever played ever. I wanted to keep the discussion focused, so I cut it down to about 2 or 3 pictures for each student (and explained that I had done so during class).

During class, I did a big drum roll, and then showed the students’ slides. While doing the activity, instead of sharing the slide fully presented, I instead showed the slide in the “edit” mode, as we would see it when we are working on it. That makes it easy to use the “presenter notes” at the bottom of the slide as a sort of whiteboard to introduce new vocabulary in big font.

With my level 1 students, because they had posted a picture of themselves on the slides, I used that as an opportunity to begin physical descriptions like, “Ah, Soandso has brown, wavy hair. Nice! I’m bald, I don’t have hair. (fake cries)”

Then, I moved into the discussion about that student’s interest(s). The power questions that tend to generate lots of good discussion are where a student does the given activity, as well as with whom. That usually provides enough fodder to stick on the slide for a couple minutes, learning more about the student’s preferences.

With any activity focused on just one kid, it is important to strike a balance between talking to just that kid and panning out to address the whole class. The questions directly to the kid tend to generate most of the content, whereas the questions to the class (“hey, translate what we just said quickly in the chat,” “Do you do this, too?” “Which of these two alternatives is better?”) keep the rest of the class engaged.

After discussing one slide for a while, I moved to the next, and drew connections between the two students. I rounded out the period with some Write and Discuss, Translation of the Class Text, and a Quick Quiz.

For asynchronous learning: I have not done this asynchronously, but I could imagine altering the template for the activity to generate the information I would need to do a presentation without the student there. In the “presenter notes” section, you could include “wh- questions” (who, what, when, where, why) that the student has to fill out in addition to posting their picture response to the prompt. This gives you as the teacher more information to work with as you perhaps create a video recording (I use Screencastify!) of you describing the student’s response with all the information you have, also comparing it to yourself! To check for understanding, you could have students write a short summary in their L1, or do a 4-question true/false quiz in the L2 after watching the video.

In the beautiful future…

I have kind of appreciated having the “cards” online. I didn’t have to spend money on card stock (HELLO) and didn’t feel bad about environmental waste. Perhaps I will make “creating the card” a digital assignment for the future to reduce waste and make it easier for me to see them all at once and plan. Hooray positives!

I also found myself getting frustrated that we were “only” getting through 1 or 2 cards in a long period, but that is also totally okay. Less is more with online learning! Better to feel very solid about even one card versus just hitting students with tons of new info and words about their classmates.

Have you done Card Talk online? How did it go? Leave your tips and tricks below!