End-of-Year Card Talk: Plus a Low Prep Reading Activity and Gallery Walk

This week in episode 94 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast, I’m chatting about a great end-of-the-year activity. I’m highlighting Card Talk but with a twist. In episode 82, I also had a discussion about Card Talk with Ben Fisher, listen here to episode 82 for more general information on Card Talk.

What is Card Talk?

Basically, Card Talk is a great way to get students talking and sharing about their lives, experiences, and interests. It’s simple, effective, and provides a lot of comprehensible input.

It is a strategy where you ask a personalized question or you write a prompt for the students, and your students are going to illustrate the answer. Then, you are going to narrate the answer, while also following up with more questions.

You, as the teacher, provide the input. And, because your input is based on your students’ responses for that card, it is very personalized input. You can do this for classes of any level, which is what also makes this such a great activity! 

Card Talk with a Twist

I recently went back to school to teach after taking a year off, and I don’t really know any of my students or where they are in their proficiency journey. Additionally, we only have three weeks of school left so Card Talk is a perfect activity for the end of the year. 

In my Spanish 3 class, I used Card Talk with this specific prompt: “The Best and the Worst in the School Year”. So, on the front of their card, they drew a moment that was the best of their year, and on the back, they drew the worst moment of their year. 

Next, I collected all the cards and randomly selected ten drawings. I then wrote a paragraph describing each event. Since this was for Spanish 3, I focused on using mainly past tense verbs. I even added some connectors, just to elevate the level of the language.

Then, I created a table with the 10 descriptions. In front of each description was a space for them to write a number. 

Card Talk Gallery Walk

I numbered the ten drawings and taped them around the hallway. Then, I gave students a handout with the ten descriptions. Next to each description, there was the space to write a number but also a space to translate the paragraph. 

Students worked in pairs for this part of the activity. They read the descriptions together and discussed them. I told them to go really slow and make sure they understand all the descriptions. I also walked around the room to offer support when needed or when I thought a student might need help understanding the description. This took about 10 minutes.

After reading, the students went into the hallway for the gallery walk. Their task was to match the descriptions on their sheet with the drawings, writing the correct number next to each description. 

After the Gallery Walk

Once the students matched all the descriptions with the drawings, they returned to the classroom. Then, they translated each description. The reason that I had them translate the descriptions was because I wanted to make sure that they understood the text, especially because I was really focusing on high frequency verbs.

After translating, I had them arrange the ten events in order from worst to best using a table with ten boxes. Finally, we had a class discussion about the activities. This was fun because they debated on which moment was the worst. It was out of three worst moments. Listen to episode 94 above or here to find out which one they chose. 

Benefits of Card Talk 

The discussion part was such a success for several reasons:

• Personal Connection: Students were reading about each other’s year, guessing who was who.
• Engagement: They had to read, discuss, and order the activities, which promoted a lot of meaningful interaction.
• Community Building: We learned so much about each other, which helped build a stronger classroom community.

Personalize Card Talk 

If you’re working with thematic units, Card Talk is a great way to personalize your content. Here are some ideas:

• Clothing Unit: Ask students to draw their favorite outfit.
• Food Unit: Draw their favorite food.
• Travel Unit: Draw their dream trip or their nightmare trip.

You can also use this twist for weekend chats by asking students to draw the best and worst parts of their weekend. Using your students’ experiences as input in class makes the learning process more engaging and relevant to them. Card Talk with a twist is a fantastic way to incorporate reading, personalization, and community building into your language classroom. Listen to episode 94 for more details and tips on using Card Talk with a twist.