This is just a repost mainly to help me remember to do this at the end of class each day. I don’t care if it’s output – it’s fun!
Paul has a great way of ending his French classes. Each day, he asks in the target language, “Do you have any homework tonite?” while putting his left hand up and looking expectantly at the class as they gather their stuff to leave. He may put up just a thumb, which is code for the kids to say in L2, “Never!” loudly in chorus as they exit the room. The thumb and first finger is their cue to say, “No thank you, sir, I am busy tonite!”. Three fingers might mean, “I’m going out with friends tonite!” Four might be their cue to say, “We never have homework, sir!”. All five fingers could be their cue to say, “We detest homework, sir. You should know that!” I am definitely putting this in for next year. And then, when it all sounds good after a month or two, I add in one new expression every now and then as the year rolls along. It’s a cool way to get some artificial output going and to get a lot of reps on those expressions so that the kids recognize them without effort when they hear related content.