I’m super excited to announce that I will be presenting a webinar for ACTFL on using Card Talk to personalize language learning, and build the skills of creating comprehensible input and interactions in your language classes!
Who: The CCLT SIG and the German SIG (join for free if you are an ACTFL member!) What: The Personalization Mindset: Using Card Talk to Build Proficiency and Community When: March 4, 2024 from 4-5pm PST Where: Online! Register for the webinar here.
As for why? – Maybe you want to learn how to do the activity Card Talk because you’ve never done it before. – Maybe you’ve done it before, but want to work through some trouble spots you encountered. – Maybe you want to learn different ways to utilize Card Talk in your class. – Maybe you’re looking to build more skills of creating comprehensible interactions with your students. – Maybe you’re brand new to “teaching with CI” and just want to soak up as much information and perspective as you can!
If you’re looking for somewhere to get started, I have blog posts about Card Talk, as well as doing Card Talk online that can be a good place to start.
Looking forward to seeing y’all then!
Are you going to be there? Let me know in the comments below!
Inspired by the reflections of Bill Langley, I wanted to take a moment to look back at fall semester 2023 and reflect on what I learned and experienced.
Questioning
My goal for this year has been simple: more questions! Asking lots of what Mike Peto calls “Artful Questions” allow students to hear more language in context as students get repetitions on vocabulary and grammatical form. I think I’ve upped my “artful questioning” this year so that students feel very comfortable with new language pretty quickly. I was also super interested in this research article by Gardner and Lichtman, which showed that contingent questions (aka either/or questions) helped students be more confident and accurate in their own output – I’ve upped the volume of either/or questions in my classes and am looking forward to more confident student output!
What has also gone well for me this year has been adding more personalized questions with new vocabulary. I’m always trying to find ways to connect what we’re learning with the lives of my students, and I feel like I know my students better this year than any other year. When I’m unsure what to ask next, leaning into the use of Sweet 16 verbs and question words helps me find the next logical (and engaging) thing to ask.
Leaning Into Card Talk
I used to do Card Talk for a week or two at the beginning of the unit, and then sort of abandon it after interest had run out or I wanted to move onto something else. A lot of “cards” went unused, even with students asking if one day we would look at theirs.
What has been really nice this year has been returning to the “cards” from the beginning of the year throughout the semester. Honestly, any time I was struggling with planning and needed a quick “filler” that still felt worthwhile, displaying a new card and chatting about it with the class turned out to be super engaging for students. There has been lots of personalization in my class because of this foundational activity, and it’s been fun to see how much language growth we’ve achieved in one semester when we pick up and talk about a new card.
New Activities
Overall, I try to limit the amount of different things I do just to make my own planning easier and not have to teach new activities to my students all the time. It saves time and we can go deeper with language if we’re not constantly explaining new activity formats. But! I do love trying stuff out, and these three activities have been huge winners for me, so I’ll be keeping them in the rotation:
Quick Draw (AnneMarie Chase) This is a great, fun game to review a text that students are familiar with that takes the teacher off the stage and engages students’ competitive spirits. Students love drawing, and half of the fun is the images they create! But they’re also secretly reading and rereading a ton…! (AnneMarie is a master of secret input!)
Input-Based Vocabulary Quizzes (AnneMarie Chase) This is the first year of a dual-credit “college in the high school class” for upper level German, and I am beholden to a textbook for the first time since I started at this school. As such, I have wanted to make sure kids are getting lots of exposure to each textbook chapter’s vocab, and these input-based quizzes have been really great to meet the textbook’s goals while also meeting my goal of getting students lots and lots of contextualized input.
Hatschi Patschi (Cécile Lainé) I had heard of this activity before, but never saw how to implement it in my own classes until I read Cécile’s blog post linked above. Though it got a bit, uh, physical, my students LOVED this game. A great way to practice answering questions about familiar topics, and also have FUN.
TPR
I have used gestures in the past to help students remember specific target structures, but never done just classic TPR. I think part of what stopped me was not knowing what to start with and how to build up with it over time.
I got a copy of Berty Segal Cook’s Teaching English Through Action and everything clicked into place. By following (but also modifying for my own needs) the lesson plans provided, I was able to inject some movement into my students’ days, which really has helped with focus. Having someone else’s structure made it easy to modify for my needs (most specifically for my deskless classroom).
But it also helps with listening and vocabulary! TPR gives immediate feedback to both student and teacher, so it’s easy to see what needs more repetitions and practice before moving on. I’m a fan – I think 7-10 minutes of TPR most days will remain especially for my lower level students to build listening stamina and vocabulary.
Warm Ups
I’m still pondering on this one: I find that the same students aren’t doing my Warm Ups every day. Many are able to answer questions I ask while we are checking the warm ups, but my wish would be that they write down German at the start of class to get their minds into German mode while I have time to take attendance and check in with students.
I had contemplated handing each student a quarter sheet of paper every day with the warmup on it that they return to me at the end of class (the other blank side could even be used for the end-of-class Quick Quiz), but that feels wasteful. Having a warmup sheet with 2 weeks of spaces on it, like I do now, is more environmentally-friendly, and gives space for notes, new vocab they learn during the warmup, writing down our weekly Classroom Passwords…
Still thinking about this one. I’m thinking I just need to make clear that doing the warm up is part of our opening routines, and warmly insist that students follow the routine with greater fidelity.
Setting Up for Absences
I went from being almost-always at work to feeling like I was missing tons of days this year. Between ACTFL, family events, illness, and PD opportunities, I’m missing a lot of time this year.
Luckily, I knew about many of these things ahead of time and could plan for learning to happen, even if I wasn’t there. Part of the success I’ve had was training students on my expectations of where to find assignments if I wasn’t there, and part of it was setting up students with specific jobs for my absences that help the class function very well. Sub notes have been very complementary and kind, and work completion is up over other years, even on days where I was unexpectedly absent. Even in years where I am anticipating being in school most of the time, I will continue to train students to adjust to my absences without missing a beat.
Writing
I just purchased Eric Richards’ book Grafted Writing a couple weeks ago and have already implemented three of the activities into my own classes. I highly recommend it as a way to scaffold student writing in class in an input-focused way!
German Club Planning
This has felt really great: since I put out the call on social media that I was soliciting ideas for a German Club Ideas Master Document, so many teachers have shared their amazing resources with me, which I have been able to share back to other German teachers who are spread too thin. (A special thanks to Amanda Beck, whose Central States presentation on German Club activities formed the backbone for a lot of the list.)
The result of this is that German Club has gone from something that really weighed on me to something that is not at all stressful. My officers have resources to plan with so it’s not always on me, and we’ve tried tons of new activities this year that members have loved. Win win win!
What have been your reflections from fall semester 2023? Comment below!
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!
Edit from 2020: Are you teaching online? Read the post below first, and then check out this one for ideas on how to adapt it to online teaching and learning! Good luck to you!!!
Card Talk is another essential activity for CI classrooms. It has had some different names throughout the years that you might be familiar with – Ben Slavic’s“Circling With Balls” is definitely the progenitor to what many now just call Card Talk. (Because…#thatnametho) (My understanding is that he named it that way because so many students drew sports balls on their cards when he was teaching. #sportsballs) Many teachers start off the year with Card Talk to build classroom community and learn about their students, but this is an activity whose flexibility really lends itself to being used at any point throughout the school year.
Why should you do it? Not only to learn about the opinions, aspirations, and experiences of your students, but also to connect students to each other through your discoveries! It can be exciting hearing about someone who shares some part of your life when you’re new to a class, to a school, to an area, etc. Plus, Card Talk can be a great way to front load some high-frequency vocabulary about a subject if you’re either required to follow some sort of mandated curriculum, or are diving into a focused unit of study about a (perhaps AP- or IB-aligned) theme.
When do I use Card Talk?
The Create phase is a session of Guided Oral Input. Talk about them there cards!
Card Talk belongs in the “Create” category of activities, or what we might also call the “Guided Oral Input” part of a lesson. This is an experience that generates language and common experience in the classroom, which become the basis for further literacy work. (Most activities, like stories, characters, Movie Talk, etc etc. that people think of when they think of CI fall into this “Create” category, as they generate a lot of novel oral language, but don’t forget to also have strategies from the Write, Read, and Extend/Assess categories to provide the most complete L2 literacy experience for your students!)
As for when to use this activity during the school year…it can really be whenever! Many teachers do this early in the school year (read: first or second day, first or second week) as a way to break the proverbial ice and build classroom community (and also reinforce classroom expectations and procedures). But you could just as easily bust out Card Talk in the middle of the year to align with whatever topic or theme comes next for you. District requires you to do a daily routine unit? Card Talk it! Looking to talk alllll about your culture’s delicious food? Card Talk it! Getting into 3rd- and 4th-year discussions about stereotypes and regional identity? Card Talk it! We’ll see how below…
How do I do it? – Logistics
I have done Card Talk effectively two different ways: on paper, and digitally.
On paper: Each student needs a piece of paper to write and draw on, as well as a marker. I would shoot for 8.5×11″ printer paper, or card stock if you can get it – these “cards” can function as name tents if you want them to. Marker helps the images and names be visible throughout the classroom. If you are feeling NEXT LEVEL, use differently-colored paper for each class, to keep them separate. If you are Recycling Royalty, there’s no shame in using the back of a scrap piece of paper! (I am of German descent, so my Recycling senses are strong…)
Once students have the necessary materials, they should fold their paper in half hamburger-style and write their name in large print on one of the sides. (Is there a more professional way to write hamburger-style folding? Is it “lengthwise?” Whatever we’re all teachers here and it’s my blog darn it) On the same side as their name, students should draw a large image – without words as much as possible – that is a response to the Prompt. You may want to have students divide that side up so that there is space for both their large written name and the image, and we ask for name on the same side as the image to link the two together in our conversation. If you’re doing Card Talk early in Level 1 or 2, your Prompt can be “Draw something that you like – an activity, a sport you play, something you do in your free time, whatever!” (Some students may need some loving reminders of what is context-appropriate to draw on a card for a “school assignment,” *teacher wink*) For more prompt ideas for levels 1 and 2, as well as ideas for upper level courses, see the “Pro Tips” section below.
Sam likes hot Cheetos, and Willa likes turtles. These cards were the source of so much joy and community, and they were scrap paper!
Students only need about 4 minutes max to write their name and draw their picture. (We’re talking a quick sketch in one color, not an artistic masterwork.) After they have finished, you have some choices. I have typically used Card Talk in the beginning of the year, so I have students prop up their cards so I can use them simultaneously for the activity, and to learn names. OR: Scott Benedict turned me on to collecting all the cards, quickly sorting them by category (sports, video games, food, etc.) before choosing a first card for discussion.
Digitally: I link a slide show to our Learning Management System that has a template for students to fill out. There are enough copies of the slides for each student to claim one, and the instructions are right on the slide for students to edit and create their “cards.”
Slide template for digital Card TalkMy example because I LOVE READING AND READING IS COOL
Use your Precision Teacher Judgment to pick a student’s card that you would like to engage the students and class in discussing. You’ll be holding on to it to use as a visual scaffold for much of the activity, or displaying it for the class to see.
To start, signal for students to bring their attention to the whole class, and if you have a signal that indicates a transition from the L1 to the L2, give that signal now!
How do I do it? – Procedure
After you have picked which card you are going to discuss first and gathered your class’ attention, show the card to the whole class. You can say something in the L2 like, “OooOOoo, look at Soandso’s card! How interesting!” Alternately, if you’ve collected your whole class’ cards, you can ask, “Hmm…where is Soandso?” while looking around the classroom. You will likely already know where they are, but it will give you a chance to repeat the student’s name early on in class in a positive light. This also give you a chance to use those question words early and in context, boom.
After you have identified the student and had the rest of the class observe their card, you can repeat simple comprehensible language like “Hmm, look at Soandso’s card! Wow, so interesting!” Again, shower the love early on. THEN: take a stab at describing what is going on on the card, in slow, comprehensible language. Think breaking it up into chunks of meaning, a la: “Soandso…plays…the guitar!” Point to the card as you repeat that line again, and then you might also go to the board to write the word for “plays” in L1 and L2 on the board, and “guitar” if that is not as cognate-y as it is in German and Spanish. Remember: the card is the visual scaffold for your conversation!
All you’ve said so far is that Soandso likes to do something. Easy. You’ve been looking into every students’ eyes to confirm that they’re with you. Maybe do a quick “What did I just say?” in L1. Now is a good time to confirm with the student in question – “Hey Soandso, you play the guitar, right?” This gives them a chance to answer affirmatively, and may sometimes be necessary if a student’s artwork requires a bit more…um…interpretation.
You’ve stated what the student likes to do, confirmed it, and are now ready to expand with some details. Using our example of playing guitar, you can ask things like, “Do you play guitar super well? Like Jimi Hendrix?” (obviously assuming that yes, they are a world-class guitar player) “What songs do you like to play? Are you in a band? How long have you played guitar? What style of music do you prefer to play? Have you ever played a big concert?” Here’s the thing: you only have to pick one or two of these detail options to make an interesting conversation. If this is early, your students might not be able to handle too much more new information/language anyways. Pick a detail and park on it for a while, savoring the new information as it comes.
And here’s a natural segue: I like to alternate between questioning the individual student and panning out to the rest of the class. I can either ask them similar questions to ones we’ve already covered with the student (“Who else in the class plays guitar? Who plays in a band?”) and then compare them to the individual student, or just confirm details and comprehension with the class using some artful questioning. (“Does Soandso play the guitar or do they play the piano?” “Yes or no, does Soandso play in a band?”) Both serve to slow you down from adding too much information, and get some natural repetition on whatever has already come up. Surveying the class and tallying the results on the board can also be a helpful visual scaffold.
If you’re ever stuck, two power questions are “Where?” and “With whom?” (“Do you play guitar in the [Nearby Concert Stadium]?” “Do you play in Justin Bieber’s band?”) Students can answer however they like. We’re not going to call their parents later to confirm that their child plays in Justin Bieber’s traveling rock band…teachers have no time for investigative journalism, per my survey of the field. But kids can be whoever they want in class, and maybe there’s a bit of fanciful invention allowed. Or they can answer honestly! Either way, whatever they say is cool (as long as it’s school appropriate/kind) and can be fodder for further conversation.
Ride the waves of energy that come with talking to the student and the class. HEY THERE remember we are always striving to talk TO the students, not at them. It’s all about the class communicating so that we can all learn more information about each other. That serves both content and affective goals, especially early on. Find out more information about the student, always checking comprehension, involving the class, and reviewing.
When you’ve discussed a student’s card, learned some interesting supporting details, and you feel the energy starts to wane a little bit…move on! You can pick another card and repeat the process. (“Oh wow, that was so interesting that Soandso plays the lead guitar in an emo band. I used to do that, too. Thanks, Soandso. Hey, class, look at Whatserface’s card! She does competitive horseback archery!”) It can be helpful to set time limits for yourself so the Create phase doesn’t feel too mushy and ethereal, so maybe stick to 10-15 minutes of Card Talk at a time before transitioning to another mode. Abandon ship at any time if the “feel” just isn’t there, and be ready to move to the other parts of your lesson early with literacy activities and brain breaks.
What do I do with it now that we’ve finished?
During the process of Card Talk, I find myself writing details on the board that we discover through the conversation. These might be words like “tournament” or “team” or “whaling harpoon” for your sports conversations, or “song” or “genre” for music conversations. You might have supported these by drawing little pictures to go with the L2 words in lieu of L1 translations – or not! Either way, all of this scaffolding that you’ve built up during the oral conversation can be excellent support for the Review portion of the lesson (which might just be a quick series of questions about things you learned together), and then for the shared writing during Write and Discuss. Your writing can flow easily because you can just follow the information that you’ve left as hints for yourself on the board.
Keep all the cards at the end of the lesson, and hold onto them. You can always pull out a card and Card Talk it on a day when you’re feeling less prepared, or if you just want to fill some time with some pleasant conversation. I usually do Card Talk a few days in a row at the beginning of the year to teach how to chorally respond, stay in one conversation, and how to signal when comprehension is lost. Plus, the class gets to know each other better as you help draw connections between students (and yourself!).
It’s also nice to whip out the cards later in the year, and talk about them as fond memories. Students might start producing phrases or sentences as you review them and they bask in the glow of their lovely memories. (One girl last year drew a cat on her card, so naturally we talked about cats, but she was also lightly teasing her own drawing, so we called her “the most artistic artist” for the rest of the year. And it came from Card Talk!)
During Comprehensible Cascadia, someone mentioned that it might be fun to give the cards back to the students and have them use them as talking pieces for little Presentational assessments. Maybe you set up a Flipgrid or Seesaw assignment where they talk about themselves. Using the card as a scaffold/support can help them feel more confident, because they’ve already heard the class talk about their card. I might try this during this coming year!
One last use of the cards and Card Talk is to personalize stories you tell with your class, or any other activity where everyone is interacting. Once you learn things about your students, you can put those things into their conversations and stories. Or maybe you don’t get to a card during Card Talk, but you can pull out the information and put that into a story – the kid who drew it may have forgotten that they drew whatever on their card, and imagine that you’re a Psychic Teacher with Magic Powers. Maybe a kid drew a horse, and in a story you’re telling, suddenly a horse appears! That might lead to an aside with that student, talking about their interest in horses and maybe personalizing the details so that everyone’s heart siiiiings.
Pro Tips!
Go slow! You may be tempted to explore EVERY ASPECT of EVERY CARD of EVERY STUDENT as SOON AS POSSIBLE to BUILD COMMUNITY and HAVE SO MUCH FUN. Slow down there, Turbo. (message cc: myself) We do not want to overwhelm students early in their language acquisition journeys, and each card may cause us to introduce a good bit of new language. Stick to fewer details / less language at first to build student confidence in comprehending and responding, and students will thank you for going slowly in their new language. Plus, this can also help us savor the moments more and remind us that the kids are the curriculum – we got nowhere to be, y’all. Just with our students. Take time also to review “old” cards to refresh that language and that knowledge.
Ask the next natural question! This activity is a lot like making small talk at a cocktail party. Ask yourself, “what do I want to know about this image and this student that will help us know them better and appreciate their lives more?” If you have to script out your questions ahead of time, there’s no shame in that! Take a peak at the cards during your planning period, and make a list of questions, if that helps you feel more confident. Then you can flow more naturally: “You like to swim! Where do you swim? Are you a good swimmer? Do you swim competitively?” There’s no shame in being very prepared, and then magically pulling out that specific card that you’ve prepared well when you’re with your class. You’ll find that preparing for one card actually helps you prepare for the rest of them, as the questions tend to be similar across time and topics.
Compare and contrast with the class! As I hinted at above, it can sometimes just feel like you’re talking to one student while everyone else awkwardly listens in. Involve the class by surveying them, comparing them, contrasting them, checking their memories. You might create a tally of people who do the student’s activity well, okay, and awfully, and then name a couple “experts.” (I have had at least 4 Fortnite “experts” in each class whom I asked all varieties of questions about the game.) Connect students who share similar interests: “Oh! Both Soandso and Whatserface play soccer! But they play on different teams!” This activity is all about building community and common knowledge about the many wonderful people in your classes.
Move on! One time, I pulled out yet another card that indicated that Soandso liked video games, and, surprise, this kid loved Fortnite specifically. I looked around and saw like 8 of my other non-gamer students astral project out of their bodies, because we had already touched on the topic before. So I moved on! If a topic isn’t bringing energy to the class, or the student you pick isn’t providing tons of details that move the conversation along, there’s no shame in confirming what you have learned with the class, and then moving on. Give each card a good faith attempt, and be okay with switching to something else. You can either pick another card, or move into a Review of everything that came up in Card Talk that day.
Provide choices! Especially early on in a course, students might feel uncomfortable responding to more open-ended questions because they might not know if they can say some words in L1, or because they’re worried whether or not they’ll say the L2 “correctly.” You can circumvent this by offering some choices to the student – “Do you play the guitar in a band or by yourself? Do you create your own songs or play songs by famous people?” Include some choice options in your preparation so you can assuage the nerves of your poor L2 babies when you’re like HEY TALK L2 WITH ME and they break out in a panic sweat.
Prompt ideas! – This one gets its own section below…
Prompt Ideas (roughly by level)
You can use Card Talk in any level to learn about what students generally like, but you can also use it to adapt to any thematic unit or topic you might be teaching. Just have students respond to the prompts with a simple drawing! Useful vocabulary for a topic or theme usually comes up in response to prompts like these. Here are some ideas based on what is typically “asked for” by traditional scopes and sequences at each level – if you have more ideas, comment below and I’m happy to quote you and add them to this list! You don’t have to do Card Talk to start any unit if you don’t want to – these are just suggestions!
Level 1: What do you like? What is your favorite place in our school? What is your favorite class? What is your favorite food? What is your favorite food from the Target Culture? What do your typical meals each day look like? How do you stay healthy? What is your favorite room in your home? What do you buy when you go shopping? What is your favorite place in our town? Who is your best friend, and what are they like?
Level 2: any of the above, plus: What are you afraid of? What are your favorite activities in your favorite class? How do you spend your time after school? What is your least favorite/grossest chore to do at home? What is your favorite mode of transportation? What does your ideal weekend look like? What is one of your favorite childhood memories? What holiday means the most to you? What is your favorite scene from your favorite book/movie/TV show?
Level 3: any of the above, plus: What sorts of art do you appreciate most? What do you think symbolizes our local community? What technologies have had the greatest impact on our society (either historically or recently)? What job do you want to have when you are older? How will the future be different from now? (Economically, environmentally, politically, etc.) What is something typically [Home Culture]? On the other side of the paper, what is something that is typically [Target Culture]?
Level 4+/AP/IB: any of the above, plus: What do you think is the greatest challenge the world [/Home Culture/Target Culture] is currently facing? What is a new technology you can think of that would positively change the world of the future? What one stereotype about [Home Culture] do you think is absolutely false? On the other side of the paper, what is one stereotype that you think is true about [Home Culture]? What is one aspect of [Target Culture] that you find very different from [Home Culture] and would love to incorporate into [Home Culture]?
What if I want to learn more?
Again, Card Talk has evolved over the years, so see the posts above from Ben Slavic to check out “Circling With Balls.” Here’s a video of him talking about it from his TPRS training series.
Cameron Taylor created this document that gives a rundown of how to do Card Talk. It looks like Cameron also gives the instructions for the activity in the L2 – NEAT! And I just found this video of him delivering those instructions!
Brett Chonko has this awesome video here that shows him in the first day of the school year doing Card Talk with students. He also peppers in a lot of talk about what students can expect from a “CI” class, and even does Write and Discuss on the first day! #pro
Here’s Tina Hargaden doing Calendar Talk, moving into Card Talk, and then doing a Write and Discuss. So…much…clapping…! And here’s another video where she sets Card Talk up with her class.
Here’s AnneMarie Chase doing Card Talk with her class. She is an expert at going sloooow, and she uses lots of artful questioning to include the class in the conversation.
What do you think? Do you feel ready to use Card Talk? Comment below and send me any questions you might have!
