Purpose: Making word wall encourages
students to record new vocabulary, use a greater variety of words and revise
words regularly.
Students
create dictionary in back of exercise book.
Turn Italian writing book upside and
open it from the back. Fold/ rule of 2
columns (English and Italian) on each page.
If you have a bigger book, use last 26 pages in book. If not, put 2-3 letters to a page, for
example, A-C, D-F, G-I, J-M, N-P, Q-T, U-V, W-Z over 8 pages.
For example, a
double page of 2 sets of 2 columns
A-C
|
D-F
|
||
l’ananas (m)
|
pineapple
|
il delfino
|
dolphin
|
la banana
|
banana
|
l’elefante (m)
|
elephant
|
ciao
|
hello
|
la foca
|
seal
|
§ Group
letters as you think appropriate.
§ Keep
in mind that in an Italian-English dictionary there are only 21 letters used
for most words.
§ Exceptions
include: jeans, windsurfing, koala, xylophone and yoghurt from borrowed words.
Decorate
a bulletin board as a literacy resource for your students.
Either use Italian flag colours (red,
white and green), Italian soccer team (light blue) or theme colours (depends
your theme may be sports, places, foods, hobbies etc). A visually appealing board will create more
interest. Decide whether you want student to create words as whole page tiles
(in A4 or US letter etc) or cut strips in half length ways. Ask students to write clearly for legibility
but add some colour or draw a symbol to show meaning of the word.
For example,
l’arcobaleno
|
l’Italia
|
punto .
|
il punto interrogative ?
|
+ più
|
- meno
|
* per
|
/diviso
|
il sorris:-)
or il sorriso |
l@ chiocciol@
|
Students
play Scattegories for verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
Based on the board game, students are
given a category or theme and have a time limit to brainstorm known vocabulary.
·
You may vary the time limit according to the
category difficulty. Start with 2 minutes.
Extend time if they have prior knowledge of topic. Leave time shorter if you have to determine
prior knowledge at the beginning of a new topic.
·
Decide your own scoring system. 1 point per
word. ½ point if word are missing the article/not showing gender and number)
Extra points if showing mixed gender and number options. i.e. la mela =1 , mela
= 0.5, la mela/le mele = 2.5 points
For example,
A-Z of fruits:
l’ananas, la banana, la frutta, il limone, la mela etc.
Smaller themes
such as time: lunedì, gennaio, il secondo, la settimana, l’anno
3 letter words
beginning with B: la banana, il bambino, il bue, il buio etc.
Small words 3
letters or less: a, di, de, da, fa, ma, io, tu, lui, noi, te, me, dio, mio etc.
·
Option: students may use a dictionary, until
they become more confident. However, dictionary
work will slow students while they look up and then copy vocabulary onto game
sheet.
Teach
with implicit teaching sentences:
changing
to singular, plural, negative and affirmative across all topics and grammar
rules.
Emphasis in the beginning will give
students a strong foundation and allow using language confidently.
For example,
Simple sentence:
Il gatto beve il
latte. (singular/affirmative)
Variations:
I gatti bevono il
latte. (plural/affirmative)
Il gatto non beve
il latte. (singular/negative)
I gatti non bevono
il latte. (singular/negative)
Brainstorm
themes for prior knowledge: animals, colours, sports, food etc.
Students share all prior vocabulary
and/or grammar that could relate before introducing additional vocabulary. This activity encourages linking words
between topics as opposed to pidgeon holing and separating vocabulary. Student
may volunteer borrowed words into English such as Spaghetti. Teacher may need to give articles from gender
and number patterns to complete list as brainstorm.
For example,
Topic of Food
la pizza, la
pasta, gli spaghetti, le lasagne
New words to try
to predict:
il latte, l’acqua,
il caffè, il pollo, il gelato, il zucchino
New words that are
less likely to be guessed:
la bistecca, il
panino, il pane, il pomodoro, la lattuga, il cetriolo, il sedano, la zuccca.
Introduce
variety of texts for reader’s comprehension: news, sports, history are many
topics easily available.
In
newspaper, books and online, there are many authentic texts on many
topics. Perhaps your students are more
interested in tv, movies or sports than reading about historical events in
Italy. If you can engage their attention,
it will be halfway to learning a new topic.
It will halve the teaching load over constantly retuning them in to the
topic even lesson.
Possible ideas:
l’uomo d’accaio –
Man of steel (film)
Francesco Totti
(in newspaper and online – soccer)
lo squalo ( movie
– Jaws)
Italia’s got
talent (TV)
Masterchef Italia
(TV)
Mythbusters (TV)
Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles (TV)
Art Attack (TV)
Students
can start from basic colours:
from
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black and white.
Extend colours by topic: Oympics
medals, more unusual colours in paints (turquoise, sky blue etc.) Activites to
expand colours: paint palette, paint by numbers, rainbows. Students draw a
paint palette and label colours.
Students draw a symbol / picture of a new vocabulary word and make into
a paint by number. Students can complete own or swap with a partner. Extension activities include writing a
descriptive sentence. More complex sentences can describe colours, as well as
size, and shape. Advanced students can
include similies such as green as grass and blue as the sky.
What activities do you teach to build vocabulary?
Please comment on favourite activities and/or which ones you would like to try next.
What activities do you teach to build vocabulary?
Please comment on favourite activities and/or which ones you would like to try next.
How do expand on beginners' vocabulary? Please comment with your favourite ideas :-)
