A nice zero prep writing activity

 This is an activity I love to use, sometimes in an emergency (take one look at the pupils and decide they aren't up for what I'd planned) or sometimes because it's a great lesson. It can fit in early in the pupils' progression, to practise and start to memorise language, or it can work later on in the sequence as you work on modelling how to make a great answer out of the language pupils have. It can be done with different levels of support, and can be taken on in different directions.

The simplest variety is I write a text on the board in Spanish. The pupils translate it in their books into English. (At this point, scoot round the class and find the one person who is copying the Spanish instead of translating!) Then when they have done that, I rub it off the board and ask them to translate it back into Spanish in their books.

The advantage is, that they have only just seen the Spanish, so as well as working it out or using their Keep Talking sheets, they can try to remember what they just saw. Sometimes I do ineffective erasing, so that the faded ghost of the text is still on the board for them to have a glimpse of the original Spanish version.

In my old school (pre 2006!) I had a whiteboard with a pull down projector screen over it, that I could use to hide the text. If we got to the point where the pupils wanted to look at the original, we could do pens down and I would briefly let the screen back up for those who wanted to have a look. They would challenge themselves to do it with as few looks as possible. 

This also works if you have some pupils who finish translating into English quickly and can make a start on translating it into Spanish. You don't have to rub it off the board yet. Get them to start on the Spanish and tell them they can look at the board if they want, but they should keep a tally of how many times they need to look. And to try and do it with as few "looks" as possible.

The example above (sorry about the dead dog) is another solution to the speed of finishing problem. Some may finish all 3 paragraphs into English while others have only finished two or even one. This is fine. Stop the translation into English now, remove it from the board, and ask all pupils to translate what they have done so far into Spanish. That way the speedy pupils have a lot to get through. And the pupils who have taken longer, have the correct amount for them to translate into Spanish in the time remaining.

The example above is quite complicated. You can do much simpler versions. And we originally constructed it as a class on the board as a model answer, working through with pupils what logically came next in the story and how to correctly form the tenses (for example). Then they were able to successfully translate it into English, having just participated in writing it in the first place. And then turning it back into Spanish in their books replicated the modelling on the board I did with them to start off with.

When I project it rather than rub it out (or used to hide it with my pull down screen), at the end I can reveal the text and ask them to correct their version. I tell them I am not interested in anyone saying they have no mistakes. I want to have a class who can find mistakes. It is also possible to do this as a listening, with me reading the correct version as a last chance for pupils to make any changes as I read it.

And then I ask them to close their books and tell a partner the story. Not word for word, but their version of it.

So a great lesson, modelling language, modelling how to use it as a story. With lots of support and challenge. And no preparation.