SNOW BALL FIGHT!!

We were on a shortened schedule this week due to conferences so we had to push quickly through the reading activity today. Fortunately it was a short and easy chapter for them with not a lot of events that took place.

Goal: I can understand an authentic text that I read.

Two new characters were introduced in this chapter, but we were able to easily understand their role due to previously analyzed events that led up to this point. To begin, we discussed the new characters:
1) Coronel Antonio Cordero Negro
2) Sargento Ignacio Florido Peña
3) Operación Revelación

After a brief discussion and review of each character and the plan, students found a partner and received a piece of paper. They were given a number that corresponded to a character. With their partner, they wrote a characteristic of that person/plan. They crumpled the paper into a "snowball" and threw it to someone else, creating a snowball fight.

After a few seconds, they opened a snowball, read it, and added to the list. No duplicates were allowed. It was possible they got a paper with the same title they already had or even their same  paper back. This is where the repetitions come in, being able to see what other people wrote. The writing/fight pattern continued about five times.

On the last catch, the students opened their "snowball" and completed a minimum of 8 characteristics for the paper they had and included their names. The snowballs were tossed into a basket for me to review and a final brief discussion summed up the lesson.