SET INDUCTIONS
(Anfangsaufgabe/Anfangsaktivität/Denkt mit!)
(Refers to establishing a certain mind set in a classroom, in anticipation of what is to come. Also known as anticipatory set, warm up,
attention getter, etc. It gets students ready to learn, ideally using some strategy that will lead into the lesson. The set induction should
take no more than 2-5 minutes.)
Set Induction
Set is a mental state of readiness
Induction brings it on
Set Induction gets learners thinking and ready for the lesson
Anticipatory Set is another name used
Set induction should:
Contain a statement of the learning
Relate the objective
Involve the learner in the learning
Daily Warm-Up:
The need for predictability remains high at the beginning of the lesson, especially if the teacher is using the target language exclusively. Follow a fun regimen of
daily routines.
Create a poem or chant describing daily routine. The students can gesture as they recite target language rules such as "I sit down", "I watch", "I listen", etc. This
warm-up activity takes less than one minute, yet it serves a dual purpose of reviewing familiar material and reminding students of the expectations.
Next, it's calendar time. Produce a magic wand pointer to review the days of the week and count the numbers. Each day, systematically choose a special "magic
wand student" to point to the calendar as the other students respond chorally.
Finally, greet students individually and ask, "How are you?" This can be done in a variety of ways.
Examples and Ideas:
Objects (using pictures, statues, variety of relevant objects, experiments, video clips, etc.)
Teacher (can dress up, act something out, use physical motions, write something on the board and not say anything at all, do anything
out of the ordinary.)
Guests (can come in and do any of the above)
Audio (this can be music, instruments, speaking in another language, simply quoting something unusual and/or relevant, reading an
excerpt of something unusual and/or relevant.)
Students (change seating arrangement, do an out of the ordinary group activity or boredom busters, skits, questioning the students re:
something very relevant or totally irrelevant to them.)
Be creative and always save your ideas in a file to be used at another time. (See below)
Set Inductions (Warm ups, hooks, attention getters, bell ringers...)
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New Persona:
Teacher comes into classroom using a „new persona“, i.e. strict teacher, movie star, visitor who cannot
speak English, etc.
Teacher Act:
Teacher comes into classroom
wearing boots and short skirt to illustrate a grammar point depicting
a boot. (Good for Spanish teachers)
Kitchen Pot:
Teacher comes into classroom with
a big pot. She pulls out the adjective endings that are „in the pot“ and
gives to a student to superimpose
over German adjective ending
chart.
Sweeper:
Teacher comes into classroom
with a broom and sweeps.
Then she tapes signs with
subordinate conjunctions on
the broom handle to illustrate
that now the verb goes at the
end of the sentence.
Lost Love:
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Memory Cards:
With memory game of lots of pictures, teacher and students describe the pictures according to current
theme. Ask about weather conditions, animals, etc.
Memory Match:
With memory game (or something
similar), teacher has students find
their match, either the opposite
picture, the matching or coordinating picture and then have students find a clue from other student, ask a question, etc.
Opening Song:
Routine and structure are important
in school. Begin each circle time
with a simple "Hello" song in the
foreign language. Choose a traditional song from the target culture
or create your own. Use the same
song each day in order to signal
the shift in languages and focus the
children's attention.
Input of New Words and
Phrases:
Guided Practice:
Now is the time to bring out your
fun and surprises. Use props, costumes, pictures, storybooks, drama, songs and movement to introduce new language expressions
and concepts. Reinforce the weekly theme in the foreign language
lesson. For example, if the weekly
theme is "Dinosaurs," you can
count dinosaurs, graph them, sort
them by size and color, and tell dinosaur stories.
Dating skit to fit with a song about
lost love. Guy is sitting & reminiscing about having this great relationship, two people act out all the
things they did together. Then
another guy shows up and steals
the girl because he does something
better.
Short games or activities will reinforce the new language expressions. Students like to identify items
that they pull out of a mystery bag,
act out stories as the teacher narrates, or challenge that friendly
puppet friend to a game of concentration or tic tac toe. The possibilities for guided practice are as limitless as your imagination. Just remember to keep the games noncompetitive and make sure everyone gets a turn. If possible, crafts,
coloring, or small group games can
extend the lesson.
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Goodbye Song:
Create closure to the day's learning
with a rhyme or finger play related
to the theme. After about 20
minutes of language immersion, it
will be time for individual "Goodbye's" and a closing song.
Coloring:
Color-by-number activities are a
fun way to help students independently read colors in the target
language. Choose from the multitude of free coloring pages online
and create target language colorby-number activities. Translate
the code for geometric, mosaic
surprise pictures for even more
motivation.
Reading about Colors:
Speaking Games:
Once kids are comfortable
hearing and identifying colors
in the target language, it’s time
for them to speak. Spread out
a path of colored paper stepping stones and send kids on a
"Rainbow Walk," reciting the
colors as they walk the path.
Play games of Candy Land
(Milton Bradley) in small
groups, en-couraging players
to identify colors out loud. Go
Fish and Tic Tac Toe are other
effective partner and small
group color activities.
Graphing Colors:
Enrich language learning with a
little content. Kids can create
human bar graphs depicting
their favorite color, or the color
of their clothes, hair or eyes.
Surprise your students by allowing them to graph -- and then
eat -- the colored candies in
packs of Skittles, M&M’s,
Smarties, or Sprees. (Just be
aware of allergies.)
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Hullabaloo by Cranium:
Hullabaloo is an outstanding TPR
game. Mats with various colors,
shapes, and basic vocabulary are
spread out on the floor. An electronic device instructs players to
spin to an orange mat, hop to a triangle, or zoom to a food. Cranium’s
Hullabaloo can be purchased in either English or Spanish. Teachers
of other languages can develop
their own homemade versions of
this fun, active game.
Total Physical Response (TPR)
Activities:
The fun and effective TPR approach developed by Dr. James J.
Asher encourages students to
physically respond to teacher
commands. Make a simple request such as, “Touch something
red.” Kids will love the opportunity
to be up on their feet in search of
something no one else has found.
Make the activity more complex
by telling children to do various
actions such as jump, spin, clap,
or roar like a lion if they are wearing a particular color.
Listening Comprehension
Games:
Speaking is not required at the early stage of language acquisition, so
focus on listening instead. In the
Fly Swatter Game, provide two
players with a clean fly swatter and
an array of color visuals spread out
on the floor. Call out a color and
see who can swat it first. Keep
score to determine the champion
swatter. Color-Shape Bingo and
the game of Twister (Hasbro) are
other motivating color-themed
games.
Introduce Colors in the Target Language:
Use immersion techniques to
model the new colors vocabulary. Visual aids can be as
simple as pieces of colored
construction paper, or as complex as works of art from the
target culture. Color songs and
rhymes are effective and culturally appropriate as well.
Masks for Warm up:
Create paper plate masks with
happy, sad, and neutral faces.
Students hold up a mask to respond.
After aural-oral color activities, use children’s books to introduce the written
word. Use the appropriate target language versions of classics such as:
 Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do
You See? by Eric Carle and Bill
Martin [Henry Holt and Co., 2007]
 The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric
Carle [HarperTrophy, 1988]
 Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo
Lionni [HarperTrophy, 1995]
 Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
[Voyager Books, 1995]
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Puppets for Warm up:
Bring out a mascot-puppet to greet
each student. This trick encourages
even the most timid to speak.
Inflatable Globe or Ball:
Gently roll or toss an inflatable
globe to each student as you ask
questions or greet them.
Chant:
Create a chant or a song to keep
the responses rolling along in
rhythm.
Word Jumble:
Underline the first letter for
those kids who struggle with
jumbled words (no matter what
the language).
Clothes Line & Clothespins:
Word hung in wrong order for
students to put in order. Or
verb conjugations to put in the
right place with the right subject.
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Announcements:
Students take turns giving announcements, (CLV style standing
on chairs, in rhyme, giving a greeting to wish the clas well…)
Word Search:
Students go around the room
looking for certain items listed by
teacher, then they describe the
items, what they are called, what
they are for, why they are in the
classroom, etc.