Check out these 8 ideas for using post-it notes in the world language classroom! Add your ideas in the comments below.
Ticket Out the Door – Pose a question to the class about today’s lesson. How do they feel about the new material? What questions do they still have? Or provide a grammar or vocabulary question. They must stick it to the board or the door on their way out.
Design Your Own Post-It Notes for…Anything!
Some ideas are:
- Peer Editing – Make a key of revision marks. For example: s/e = ser vs. estar; c = concordancia. Place these on each student’s desk to help them peer edit each other’s writing.
- Ticket Out the Door – emojis based on how they felt about the lesson today
- Self reflection check-list – Do they have an intro/conclusion? Grammar? Spelling?
- Participation check-list – The post-it stays on their desk and every time they participate, they check off a box. Have them set a goal for the day or the week.
- Use of English (3 strikes – you’re out!) Every time they use English, they check one of three boxes. Once they get to three uses, there is a consequence.
Create your own post-its here!
Pros and Cons – When studying a topic that may be controversial or incite opinions, it is important to get students to see both sides. Give each student two Post-Its and they should write a pro on one, and a con on the other. Post them on the board.
Gallery Walk – For the traditional gallery walk, students use large paper to write out their ideas, then the rest of the class circulates and can use Post-Its to add extra comments or questions.
Progress Check – At the end of a lesson, you can ask students how they felt about the lesson. Do they feel they understand the material really well, just okay, or not that great. Have a bulletin board or space on your wall dedicated to these three categories. As students leave, they simply stick their post-it to the appropriate category. Don’t require students to write their names, as that identification may prohibit them from being honest. This serves as a visual for the teacher to gauge students’ understanding.
Annotation – As students read a text, they can use post-its to take notes about the most important parts of the text. To keep it simple, they could use 6 post-its, one for each of the big question words: who, what, where, when, why, how. Then you can have the students put all the “who” post-its in one spot in the room and see if they all understood the text. Have a designated spot for each post-it.
Brainstorm/Word Cloud – When starting a new topic or unit, write the main word on the board or a large paper. Give each student a post-it and they should write one or two words they associate with that term. Then, they can stick them next to the word.
Positive Notes – Students often write in the target language in an academic setting for academic purposes only, but what if they had the chance to write short, fun notes that they would share with their friends? They could take the time to write positive, uplifting notes and leave them around the room (on desks, in books, on the door, etc.) for other classmates to see. In the target language, they can write notes such as “You got this!” “Have a great day!” “You are loved!” Model this by doing this on your own at the beginning of the year and encourage students to join in as the year progresses.
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