Here’s another trick to get more reps.

We’ve been using this story (un accidente de autobús), which is based on the structures crashed, broke his ankle and “that’s life”.  It’s a home run story that always goes over well because there is a lot of action.  After a lot of personalized questions and asking the story in class, I projected this image.

It fits well because we also spent time recently talking about cowboys.  With a partner, students take turns talking about the image in Spanish.  I set a timer for 2 minutes and tell students to go back and forth saying whatever they can about the image.  They must take turns, and they cannot stop talking.  It is impossible to be finished because there are an infinite amount of statements that could be made about the poor cowboy.  Students are encouraged to talk about the story behind the image.  Tell your partner how he broke his arm.  Why is he smiling?  What is his name?  What happened to his tooth?

After the two minutes, I lead a class discussion about the cowboy.  This discussion can lead to the class building a story together.  One student could write as you construct the story.

Another option is to use the image for a freewrite.  The same idea but in writing.  Students write for a given amount of time about the story behind the image.

The key is finding a good image.  The cowboy was perfect for me in this unit.  We’re not always so lucky . . . but we do have cameras and pens.  We can always create an image if we need.