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This was a reply I posted just a little while ago on Latinteach. Thought it might be worth posting here.
***
With regard to sponge activities, for me it's about WHEN I need them.
In a crunch, I always have my vocab flashcards, which I regularly use as part of the early segment of class. But sometimes I will use those at the end. I also have some games that can soak up that tiny bit of time.
BUT I have to admit that at the end of last year, my favorite sponge activity was turning on my projector which is connected to my computer, and reading a Tar Heel Reader or two with my students. With the lights off and often amusing or delightful pictures on the big screen, students stayed relatively calm and in their seats--and engaged in Latin.
I know that a bunch more Tar Heel readers have been added this summer, which I haven't yet had a chance to look at, so there are PLENTY to have ready in a pinch.
ALSO, at Rusticatio, Nancy "Annula" Llewellyn had some great little flyswatter grids of large numbers, like 80, 88, 808, 18 (just four at a time), and then she'd say the number in Latin. Great way to develop more careful listening skills and to work those numbers that rarely come up in the textbook, but which are more useful orally. I made up a few of these grids for PowerPoints, also with the idea that I might put them up in a flash. No reason why you can't review your favorite mottoes that way, either.
Oral games like Simon Dicit can be used in a flash, building vocabulary for body parts and such as well as reviewing imperatives.
Having a few interesting pictures ready to put up on a transparency or a PowerPoint that you can ask Latin questions about are always useful. (quid vides/videtis? est mons, ningit, multi populi sunt in pictura, etc) Better than any old picture, keep handy images from, say, the Ara Pacis. Nancy used a picture from that to discuss in Latin not only the imperial family but who was primus vir, secundus vir, prima femina, secunda filia, tertius filius, etc. One other nice thing about having such pictures (note to self: make a folder with easy access to such pictures to project!) is that you can have them projected for the person who finishes the quiz/test first and ask students to write down as many things in Latin as you can about the picture--or, in fact, as many questions as you can. If a student doesn't know who or what is in the picture, why not write "quis est? cur est in turba? quot liberi sunt in pictura? quot viri? quot femina?" etc.
One thing that is ALWAYS important to make clear in class is that YOUR class is not for doing OTHER homework in. There is not a race to get done with the Latin assignment so that algebra can be done. Finished with the Latin assignment? Great. Look at this picture and tell me what you see.....
Remember to learn to think beyond your textbook. Consider what students want to learn too, and fit those things into sponge activities. Academic Rigor isn't about how much homework you pile on; it's about how much you challenge a student to think and grow in his/her higher level thinking. Sponge activities can be simple low level knowledge stuff, like vocab flashcards or mottoes, but it can be more. It is also one of those places where you can differentiate instruction, challenging the more advanced students to write in complete sentences using relative clauses or something. For other students it will be enough to formulate what they see in Latin.
***
With regard to sponge activities, for me it's about WHEN I need them.
In a crunch, I always have my vocab flashcards, which I regularly use as part of the early segment of class. But sometimes I will use those at the end. I also have some games that can soak up that tiny bit of time.
BUT I have to admit that at the end of last year, my favorite sponge activity was turning on my projector which is connected to my computer, and reading a Tar Heel Reader or two with my students. With the lights off and often amusing or delightful pictures on the big screen, students stayed relatively calm and in their seats--and engaged in Latin.
I know that a bunch more Tar Heel readers have been added this summer, which I haven't yet had a chance to look at, so there are PLENTY to have ready in a pinch.
ALSO, at Rusticatio, Nancy "Annula" Llewellyn had some great little flyswatter grids of large numbers, like 80, 88, 808, 18 (just four at a time), and then she'd say the number in Latin. Great way to develop more careful listening skills and to work those numbers that rarely come up in the textbook, but which are more useful orally. I made up a few of these grids for PowerPoints, also with the idea that I might put them up in a flash. No reason why you can't review your favorite mottoes that way, either.
Oral games like Simon Dicit can be used in a flash, building vocabulary for body parts and such as well as reviewing imperatives.
Having a few interesting pictures ready to put up on a transparency or a PowerPoint that you can ask Latin questions about are always useful. (quid vides/videtis? est mons, ningit, multi populi sunt in pictura, etc) Better than any old picture, keep handy images from, say, the Ara Pacis. Nancy used a picture from that to discuss in Latin not only the imperial family but who was primus vir, secundus vir, prima femina, secunda filia, tertius filius, etc. One other nice thing about having such pictures (note to self: make a folder with easy access to such pictures to project!) is that you can have them projected for the person who finishes the quiz/test first and ask students to write down as many things in Latin as you can about the picture--or, in fact, as many questions as you can. If a student doesn't know who or what is in the picture, why not write "quis est? cur est in turba? quot liberi sunt in pictura? quot viri? quot femina?" etc.
One thing that is ALWAYS important to make clear in class is that YOUR class is not for doing OTHER homework in. There is not a race to get done with the Latin assignment so that algebra can be done. Finished with the Latin assignment? Great. Look at this picture and tell me what you see.....
Remember to learn to think beyond your textbook. Consider what students want to learn too, and fit those things into sponge activities. Academic Rigor isn't about how much homework you pile on; it's about how much you challenge a student to think and grow in his/her higher level thinking. Sponge activities can be simple low level knowledge stuff, like vocab flashcards or mottoes, but it can be more. It is also one of those places where you can differentiate instruction, challenging the more advanced students to write in complete sentences using relative clauses or something. For other students it will be enough to formulate what they see in Latin.
