This technique is not new but it is something that I need to do more in my classes.  It

worked very well so I wanted to share what I did.

Recently, my students have shown me that they need more writing practice.  In addition to continuing to provide more comprehensible input, we did a guided writing this week.  We wrote what has happened so far in episode 4 of El Internado.  I wrote everything on the board as each student provided input and copied what I wrote.  Here is what it looked like:

On the board I wrote “Elsa”.  I asked in Spanish” In the beginning of the episode, what did Elsa do and how did she feel?”  The class answered, I wrote, they copied what I wrote.  I then asked in Spanish “Why?”  And they said why and I wrote it and they copied it.

I did a quick grammar pop-up with the past subjunctive phrase “quería que…”  All I said was that the verb after it has to be in a special form so that is why it is viera and not vio.

I then wrote “Paula” and asked similar questions.  I did another grammar pop up with “no pensó que…”

I continued to add a character’s name and the class told me what they did so far in the episode.

I did not tell them what to write.  It was a story-asking conversation.

Why the guided writing worked:

• I was able to point out word order as I wrote on the board
• I was able to do grammar pop ups immediately as they wrote
• I was able to ask them how to spell some words
• It helped them with writing

Optional Extension Activities:

• Draw a storyboard of the writing
• Have a student type it, read it next class
• Create reading comprehension questions
• Have students add details that were not mentioned
• Do another guided writing for the second part of the episode