Running Dictation

First at all say to you that is an activity that you can do in any moment of the year. You only will need a piece of paper and think about 5 different sentences related with the theme or unit you are explaining. The main idea is students work their second language therefore you will have to prepare the sentences in the language you interest. For example, in my case, I prepare the sentences in english because They speak valencian or spanish.

After you have the sentences you have to do groups about 4-5 students. The system is very easy : You will be out of the class and one person of each team will go where you are and you'll show them the first sentence. They will have to memorize and come back into the class and say the sentence to their partners. You have to think about long and interesting sentences ( grammar, spell, vocabulary..) and probably this student have to do many trips to finish to say all the sentence to their partners. 

When all members of the team have the sentence another partner will have to go out and start the same method with the second sentence. All persons of the each group have to go out and work with a sentence so it's necessary same number of sentence that members of the teams ( If in any team there is not enough members one of them could do 2 sentences ).

The winner is the team which all members have written all the sentences and these are good in less time.

This activity can spend about 20-30 minuts related with the age of the students but is a good way to study some parts of the subject and apend a funny time with the students.

Here you can see one example of these sentence related with the unit of the Roman Empire in 1s ESO ( 11-12 yeras old )

• 1.       In ancient Rome, the family was under the authority of the father, or pater familias.He had power of live and death.

• 2.       Insulae were three or four storey apartament buildings where less wealthy famílies rented flats.

• 3.       Domus were individual houses of wealthy famílies.

• 4.       A Roman breakfast was made up of bread, dates, cheese and olives

• 5.       Social Science is the best subject in the Institute. I Love it and I want to pass the next exam.

When Students aren't motivated in class

During this course I have seen how students became less and less interested in the subject, independently which was the topic we were speaking. At first I thougt it could be by topics or part of the year ( I mean students don't behave the same way in function of month or week day ) but ,now, I know there are another problems.

I have always said ( and listened ) that one of the most important part of the education are teachers and, therefore, I 'm worried about that so I could be the problem. Otherwise, I have tried to change the assessments , the way to teach, types of exercise..but I haven't found one solution yet.

I 've talked with my colleagues and They have the same problem and we only are in the middle of the course...

I have to make a decision in some hours and I've been thinking that while I don't find the magic key I 'm going to do students work more than now and collect their activities at the end of unit or week.

I 've tried to motivate students, to show the part more interesting of history, to change types of doing class..but I have not had any good result.

As result of this I am a bit worried but I believe in goals and, now, my main goal is to achieve students work better and , at least, pass the subject.

If I haven't been able to motivate students I must change my strategies.

Finally, I demmand colleagues who could help me in this situation.

See you.