Context

What are the objectives?

1. Students will be able to write weekly installments about the imagined childhoods of pop stars, sports figures, or fictional characters to place on a class blog shared with a sister school. 

2. Students will be able to will follow and comment on each other’s stories as they develop their own writing.

What level is this for?

I want to teach middle school students, but most middle school programs are not long enough to get students to Intermediate Low proficiency, which is the minimal level for this activity. If your program has two years of Spanish, this activity may be possible at the middle school level.

ACTFL Proficiency Level: Intermediate Low

"Writers at the Intermediate Low sublevel are able to meet some limited practical writing needs. They can create statements and formulate questions based on familiar material. Most sentences are recombinations of learned vocabulary and structures." 

Image from ACTFL.

 What skills and standards are being met? or, Is this worth my time?

National Standards:

Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.

Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

ACTFL K-12 Performance guidelines: Intermediate presentational:

“Produces vocabulary on a variety of everyday topics, topics of personal interest, and topics that have been studied” and “May use strategies to communicate and maintain audience interest such as use of phrases, imagery, or content, and uses reference resources as appropriate.”

21^st-Century Skills: Creativity and innovation

“Students demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work, developing, implementing, and communicating new ideas to others” and are “being open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives.”