Strategy: Circling “I” during PQA

I’ve written about a few ways that I circle “I” and “we” forms in class, but I’m feeling really good about what I’ve been trying to do in class, and you can get input on ALL THE FORMS! And I’ve found that it’s been GREAT scaffolding for students to get them speaking about themselves!

If you’re already doing PQA it’s a super easy addition and can work with ANY PQA. All you gotta do is throw in the word/phrase “Would say”.

So, start by asking a student a question. Restate the information to the rest of the class, circle the information if need be. Then throw in “would say”, and circle that.

EX: -Bill, what time do you wake up? (2nd person!)
–5:00
-Do you wake up at 5:00AM or do you wake up at 5:00pm?
–PM.
-Class! Bill wakes up at 5:00AM (circle circle circle) (3rd person singular!)
–Class, would Bill say ‘I wake up at 5:00AM or I wake up at 5:00PM’?(circle circle circle) (1st person singular!)

The next step is to try to get at least two students that have the same answer.
-Freddy, what time do you wake up?
-5:00AM
-Class! Bill AND Freddy wake up at 5:00AM (3rd person plural!)
–Class, would Bill and Fred say ‘We wake up at 5:00AM or We wake up at 6:00AM?” (1st person plural!)

You could ask questions directly to Bill and Freddy and use 2nd person plural if you use it (no vosotros for me, though).

After a lot of repetition of the 1st person, I did change it up and ask students, “If ‘(in TL)I wake up at 5:00AM’ means ‘I wake up at 5 AM’ How would you say “I wake up at 8AM?” and give students an opportunity to output *IF* they are ready. I do not often do formal speaking, but I try to give students the opportunity to show off what they are able to do.