This personalization activity can be used after a lot of personalized information has been gathered in a TPRS classroom through PQA or Student Interest Inventories. First, have each student write his or her name on the back on an index card and collect them. I recommend focusing on one class at a time or keeping the cards for each class separate and color coded. When information about a student comes up in class, write it on the back of the index card on the same side as the student’s name. When there is information about all students, on the flip side, write a sentence about the student using that information in the target language. Who am I? “I have a dog named Buster. I like to skateboard. I have two sisters. I’m really good at math.” “I speak Russian. I am from Kansas. I play basketball and am in the band.” “I taught Justin Beiber Spanish so that he could sing Despacito. I told him it was a kind of tortilla chip.” Tape the index cards to the wall in the hallway with the sentence showing and the name and notes on the back. Number each card. Make one clue about yourself. Be absolutely positive you haven’t forgotten anyone, but have an extra card ready just in case. Students number a piece of paper 1-36 (or the number of people in the class including you). As they walk around the hallway reading the clues they write the name of the student that corresponds with the clues. It IS permissible for them to talk to each other in the target language if they cannot figure one out. For example…. Was your dog’s name Fido or Barkley? (but in the target language.) This is an input activity that is followed up by me gathering all of the cards and reading each clue to the class as they shout out who the clue is about and correct their answers. At the end I ask who got who got 20-30 right, 30-36 right, all of them right, etc. Videos and photos of this activity are on the Fluency Fast Facebook page.
