View Content #27773

This activity features the process of using a wrap-around activity to complement an interaction from a Complex Learning Scenario (CLS).

Outcomes:

The teacher will be able to:

• Articulate critical content related to a given iteraction in a complex learning scenario.
• Write a wrap-around activity to complement an interaction in a complex learning scenario.

Materials: Text message log (Spanish and English), Word sort cards

Procedure:

1. Examine an interaction in the (CLS). Our example features a text message log that showcases messages between a secret agent, Agent 23, and her boss and some friends. In the CLS, learners are tasked with examining the log to figure out a strategy for giving suggestions in Spanish that is appropriate for both friends and bosses.

2. Idenitfy the critical content in the interaction. In this case, here is the content:

• Grammar: Weather, tourist activities, and mitigating words (quizás)

• Vocabulary: Forming questions with negation, forming commands (second person only), common declarative expressions with the infinitive (tener que, hay que, es importante)

• Strategies: Forming suggestions with commands, declarative statements, and questions and negation.

​3. Articulate the wrap-around activity. In this case, a variety of strategies to deliver suggestions in Spanish are provided in the text message log. A great activity to help learners discover those strategies is to put each utterance on its own card and have learners engage in word sorts with the terms. The first phase should be an open word sort (learners organize the cards according to any categories they come up with), and the second phase should be a closed word sort (assigned categories according to strategy: commands, declarative statements, and questions and negation).

Notes:

The featured wrap-around activity is a point of departure intended to build schemata for this particular language function. After the word sorts, teachers are encouraged to continue working with learners and to articulate other practice activities related to understanding and practicing strategies for suggestions.