In the Fall 2005 semester, I observed several instructors teaching Lab: both independent Lab instructors and integrated Lab-class instructors. Here are some of the great ideas I saw:

☼Use newspapers for real-life vocab combined with structures and vocab being learned. One of our ASL instructors projected an online newspaper (ie the Washington Post online) on the projection screen for students to read. Then the instructor signed what the article said, also signing comprehension questions and having students sign back as they went through the articles.

☼ When teaching the future tense, one teacher dressed as a fortune teller. Students had to ask her questions about their future (will I be famous, will I get married, etc) and the fortune teller answered, all in the future tense. Continuing with the future, students had to tell the futures of famous people such as Oprah, George W. Bush, Michael Jackson, etc.

☼ Pair work in Lab: When practicing the verb “to go,” the instructor gave everyone a piece of paper with a place written on it (Bermuda Triangle, the countryside, the mountains, the Grand Canyon, etc). Students had to use their imagination, vocab, and structures to write down answers to where they are going, why they are going there, what they are going to do there, and whom they are going with.. They then shared this information with their partner and the partner reported back to the class what they found out.

☼ One teacher did a People Bingo game: Write questions on a Bingo grid: Did you wake up late this morning? Have you lived in Maryland for 5 years? Do you want to go skiing in February? Students have to ask each other the questions, and when they find someone who answers “yes’ to the question, they can fill in that block with the person’s name. Continue until someone calls Bingo

☼ Listening comprehension, dictation, and skits: A teacher read dialogues to students. At the end of the dialogue, she read out some of the unfamiliar or new vocab words. A volunteer student write the words on the board as a dictation. After listing to several dialogues, students had to create their own dialogue and present it the following week.

☼ Listening comprehension: One instructor read out definitions of new vocab words in the target language (for example, this is a white, grainy food many people eat in China. Answer: Rice). Students had to come up with the correct vocab word: a game or competition can be created with this kind of exercise

☼Video preparation: When using videos, it is a good idea to do a pre-listening activity that focuses students on the context and ideas they will hear. In one class, the video segment students were going to watch was an interview about family life. The teacher first asked the students about their own families, then they watched the video and answered questions on the video, comparing the video character’s answers with their own.

☼ One teacher had invited a guest speaker in for the class period. The students had to introduce themselves to the guest speaker, then the speaker introduced himself and spoke in the target language about the time he spent abroad in the target culture.

-☼ Sentence Creation: In a smaller class, working with a certain group of verbs, the teacher would put a verb on the board and each student would have to think of a sentence to say with that verb. He also had the students correct each other - is the sentence correct? What needs to change?

☼ Use manipulatives: When working with prepositions, one teacher had students take out a pen and a piece of paper that they crumpled up into a ball. She then said things out loud such as: the pen is to the left of the paper, the paper is on top of the pen, the pen is behind the paper, etc. Students had to place the objects as they heard them and often were checking each other and correcting and helping each other.