Twitter in the World Language Class

By Diego OjedaEvansville High School

Things to consider when using Twitter with your students

1- Remember that each tweet has a large audience. Every tweet you or your students post reaches all person or hashtag followed.2- Many students are already texting in class, why not make it about learning?3- Twitter in the classroom creates a sense of community.4- Twitter serves as a reinforcing link between the curriculum and the real world.5- Twitter takes away the notion of inside the classroom walls and outside of the classroom walls.

Things to consider when using Twitter with your students

6- We need to use the tools the students use to make learning relevant.7- You can tweet from any computer. Twitter is not exclusive of mobile devices.8- Looking for conversation props? This Twitter activities will have your students chatting beyond your believe.9- If you decide to work in class with Twitter, it’s essential that you use it on a very regular basis, why not every day?10- Each one of these activities is meant to involve all the students participating in the Twitter exchange.

BIRTHDAYS

Under the hash tag #birthdays, the class will:

-Write their birthday-Congratulate other students on their birthday.

Dreams

Ask your students to tweet every morning about what they dreamt the night before

My homework

Ask students to share their daily assigned homework in the target language.

The last song of the night

Students Tweet in the target language the name of the song and group of the last song they

heard before going to bed.

Guess the song

Students will share a line of any song. Classmates will try to discover the song this line

came from.

Who wore what?

Students will use the target language to ask via Twitter who during the school day wore a

specific shirt, pants, shoes, etc.

The teacher’s outfit

Before the next class, students Tweet the outfit they think their teacher will wear the next

school day.

My You Tube, Metacafe or Veho

In 140 characters and using the target language, students try to summarize their favorite You

Tube, Metacafe or Veho video.

My guilty pleasure

In 140 characters or less, students will have to describe that food that is not very healthy but

that they love to eat.

Secret lunch

Ask a group of students to plan a lunch to invite classmates. The place at school and food to be served will be a secret that will only be shared

via twitter.

What are the ingredients

A student or the teacher proposes a dish from the target culture. The other students give an

ingredient at a time till is completed.

Food tells it’s story

Once the recipe ingredients are finalized, students will start tweeting comments about the

history and interesting facts of the dish. (When to eat)

Where is this?

Many mobile devices can take pictures that you can download on your tweets. Ask students to take pictures around town for other students to discover in the target language where the pics

where taken.

Guess the picture

From a cropped picture students will discover the landmark and place. (Iguazu).

Let’s go on a trip with…

Students will impersonate a famous foreign person and will tweet about the most interesting places in his/her country.

Simple Acrostic

Choose a topic, a word or a set of words related to that topic, and students will write a 140 acrostic using each one of the letters in the

word.

My dream place

In 140 characters and without disclosing the name of it, students will describe in the target language their dream place in the world. The

activity can be extended to a formal presentation in class.

Let’s write a story

Students will write a collective very short story in the target language. Each student writes a word at a time. Students need to copy, paste

and then add their own word. (Create a hash tag for each story)

Debate

Twitter can also be used to debate in the target language about a certain topic. A debate can be

as simple as stating something like: The color blue is the best color.

Plain conversation

Propose a topic, create a specific hash tag for it and let your students tweet chat about it in the

target language.

Open statements

Ask your students to share something about themselves that not everyone in the class might

know.

Famous person

Using the target language, describe a famous person. Students have to guess who it is.

What would this historic character tweet about?

Ask students what some historic character would tweet about during historical moments.

For example, what would John Adams tweet about the day the US constitution was signed?

What do they do?

Students will tweet a problem related to a specific occupation. Classmates will have to

guess what the occupation is. (Birds are in my way)

How can I get there?

Decide on a country where the target language is spoken. Students will have to tweet different

ways to get there, describing each step.

How can I convince…

Post a situation in which someone wants to convince someone to do something. Students

will have to explain how to make it happen. (How can I convince my parents to let me use

their car next weekend?)