Citas en el Cafe by Kerryn Frazier

Arrange the desks in an inside-outside circle set-up. My students know the "citas" routine, so they are able to quickly move the desks into these groups at the start of the activity, and quickly move them back into their original setting when the activity has finished.

There are various possible setups for this activity. You could tape pre-written questions in the target language to each desk. The student at that desk asks her partner the question. That student answers, and then asks his partner the question that he has taped to his desk. The teacher rings a bell or gives another signal and students shift one seat to the left. Now they have a new partner and a new set of questions.

Another way to do this would be to read the questions aloud to students. In this variation, all students are answering the same question at the same time with their partners. The teacher would then ring a bell or give another signal and students would shift one seat to the left. In larger classes, I find that this method makes it easier to formatively assess students and give feedback in the moment.

I usually center the questions around the theme we are studying in class. For example, if we are studying daily routines, sample questions might be:
                                                 1) Do you spend a lot of time getting ready in the morning?
                                                 2) On the weekends do you prefer to wake up early or sleep in?
                                                 3) On school nights, do you go to bed early or stay up late?
                                                 Etc.

Questions should be asked and answered in the target language. Students should be encouraged to explain their answers to their partners, continuing to speak in the target language until the signal is given to change partners.

Kerryn Frazier teaches Spanish at Foxborough High School. Ms. Frazier will continue to post activities for use in the world language classroom. Many of these activities were created by Ms. Frazier and her colleagues in Foxborough, and others are adaptations of activities found at MaFLA and other professional development.