You ask the question of the day. You are excited, because you know this is where the magic happens. And then Aiden answers. Again. Two or three other students jump in, and the rest of the class?
They are looking at you, or at the clock, or at nothing.
I have been there so many times.
Why is this so common? I’m not sure but what I do know is that following a conversation in a language you are still acquiring is a lot. Some students don’t have the language yet. Some don’t have the conversation skills yet. And some need more time to process before they can say anything at all.
So what can we do?
We can change how we ask our students to respond and engage in a way that ALL the students are part of the conversation.
In this post (and in Episode 213 of the Growing With Proficiency podcast), I share the shift that changed my PQAs: task, don’t ask. Plus five simple strategies you can use tomorrow so every student, not only the confident few, is part of the conversation.
What are PQAs, and why are they worth it?
PQAs (personalized questions and answers) are questions we ask students about their lives in the target language: how they are feeling, what they did this weekend, what they think, what they like.
In my classroom, PQAs do three big things:
- They build relationships. Students feel seen when the class talks about them.
- They give students comprehensible input. Students listen to language they understand, about people they care about.
- They recycle language naturally. The same high-frequency structures come back again and again, day after day.
That is why my question of the day is one of my favorite routines.
I wrote about how I use it in How I Use Daily Routines to Provide More Comprehensible Input and Keep Students Engaged, and about asking questions that go beyond “display” questions in How to Ask Better Questions in the World Language Classroom (Using 5-Minute Blocks).
But PQAs only do all of this if everyone is part of them. That is where tasking comes in.
Task, don’t ask: the shift that gets everyone participating
I learned “task, don’t ask” from Sally Barnes, who joined me on the podcast and presented at the Spanish Teacher Academy summer conference.
Sally talks about total participation, the idea that everyone plays the piano, not only one student while the others watch. (You can read more of her ideas in 7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive World Language Classroom with Sally Barnes.)
We already do this with reading.
We don’t only ask, “Where does the story happen?” We say, “Underline the place.” “Draw it.” “Circle the expression that shows how she feels.” Every student has something to do.
So why not do the same with PQAs?
When we only ask, we get answers from the students who are ready. When we task, every student has a job: write, draw, find, predict. And the oral answer stops being the only door into the conversation.
Justin Slocum Bailey talks about getting the stakes right for participation, and I love how this connects. You can read that conversation in Aren’t Students Participating? How to Promote Participation in the Language Classroom.
5 PQA strategies that get every student answering
1. Write, Walk & Respond
How it works:
- Post 6 or 7 questions on big pieces of paper around the room.
- Students walk with colored markers, write their answer on each poster, and add their name.
- Give them about 10 to 12 minutes.
The key is the scaffolds:
- On each poster, add answer options and connectors so every student can write something.
- Students who need more support choose an option. Students who are ready add more.
- That is differentiation without making five versions of the activity.
In my Spanish 3 class, while reading María Cano by Adriana Ramírez, one of the questions was “Where do you fit better?” with options like at home, at school, etc.
Check out the results.
What can you do with the answers?
- Narrate what you see.
- Compare answers (“Five of you said…”).
- Create a text using Write & Discuss.
You can go one more step and do a silent discussion where students engage with their answers. Check out this post about Silent Discussions.
2. Draw, Dictate & Predict
How it works:
- Ask the question and set a 2-minute timer.
- Students draw their answer.
- While they draw, walk around and take notes about what you see.
- Dictate 4 or 5 sentences about students in the class.
- Students predict: true or false?
- Check with the student, then ask a follow-up question.
Last week I asked my students how they are feeling about their weekend. Students drew their answers. This is a picture of one of the drawings.
After time was up. I dictate 5 different sentences. One was:
“Whitney is excited about homecoming because she is going with her boyfriend.”
Students wrote the sentence. Checked with a partner they understood and then they gave me thumbs down if they thought it was false, and thumbs up if they thought it was true.
Finally, we checked with Whitney, and I asked, “Who else is going to homecoming?”
Tip: Write students’ names on the board as they come up. I learned this from Justin Slocum Bailey. It makes the conversation easier to follow, and students love seeing their names.
Dictation with prediction is a great way to get students engaged. Check out my conversation with Keith Toda about it: Dictation + Communication: How to Make Dictation Purposefully Communicative
3. Write, Swap & Discover
How it works:
- Students write their answer for 2 minutes.
- They swap notebooks with a partner.
- They read their partner’s answer and complete a task:
- Find something you have in common (“Yo también…”).
- Find something that surprises you (“Me sorprende que…”).
- Write one follow-up question for your partner.
- Partners read the follow-up questions and react.
How can you have students ask good questions or react with complete sentences? You provide some ideas.
As you can see in the example responses and reactions may have some “errors” but you also can tell that the errors do not impede comprehension which is the goal.
4. Find Your Match
How it works:
- Students write their own answer to the question.
- Give the conversation a purpose, for example: “Find a person who has your same favorite class.” Or “find out the most popular favorite class.”
- Model it first with one student so everyone sees what it looks like.
- Students stand up and ask 5 classmates.
- Remind them to keep answers short and specific, so the activity moves.
- When they sit down, report and recycle: “Which class won? Who chose it?”
The key of this strategy is to model how this activity is going to look like and sound like. Also, be clear with the purpose. Otherwise, students will feel that they are just practicing language and engagement will drop.
5. Predict, Ask & Verify
How it works:
- Instead of asking one student, ask the class to predict their answer: “How do you think Isaac is feeling today?”
- Everyone writes a prediction on a whiteboard.
- 3, 2, 1… show!
- Verify with the student.
In my class, Isaac is always tired, because he sleeps five hours or less. So this became an inside joke.
This is such an easy way to add novelty to our PQAs and creates great buy in from the students. They are guessing and they love to be right.
Start small: one task, one question
You don’t have to try all five strategies this week. Pick one. Write your question on a Post-it, give students a task, and watch what happens.
The goal is not only that students answer. The goal is that students listen to each other. That is when PQAs stop being a teacher-and-three-students conversation and become a class community.
Free resource: Want a simple way to start? Download my free question-of-the-day guide and template at growingwithproficiency.com/rutina. It is ready to use tomorrow.
Listen to the episode: You can hear me talk through all five strategies in Episode 213 of the Growing With Proficiency podcast. If it helps you, please subscribe and share it with a teacher friend.
¡Nos vemos!
