6 Ways to Use Task Cards in Spanish Class

Task cards?! Have you heard of them? Chances are, if you are a secondary teacher, you may not have (or maybe I was just living under a rock!). Task cards are just like the name suggests, a set of cards containing various questions or tasks for students to complete. They are extremely popular for elementary grade levels and seem to be increasing in popularity for secondary as well. 

 Last school year I felt like I had fallen into somewhat of a "worksheet rut" for a bit. I needed a fresh, new idea to get students to practice various language skills. I discovered the idea of using task cards on Teachers Pay Teachers and set out to make a few sets to test the idea on my own students. They loved the idea! There was something about answering a question on a card as opposed to the worksheet that was really intriguing to them. They liked the hands-on aspect and that they can better visualize when an assignment will be complete (when they reach the end of the stack). To make my task cards, I added some cool digital paper to a PowerPoint slide, made a template of either 4 or 6 boxes, added numbers to each card, and began adding tasks or questions to each card. I've currently made various verb task cards, vocabulary task cards, and some sets of conversation task cards. Here is an examples of a present tense regular verbs set: 

 For this particular set, I made 36 cards and I made the tasks more difficult as the card number gets higher. Now, these may look pretty, but what do I do with them? Here are my TOP 6 USES for task cards!

1. Use as a Warm-Up Writing Activity. To do this, I have each student choose 2 or 3 cards from a basket when they walk into the classroom. In their notebooks, they write the task card number and then their answer(s) to the task given. 

2. Use as a Station Activity. To do this,divide the cards up into different areas (station) around the room and divide the students into groups. I give each student a task card response sheet. Here's a free download. It's perfectly ok to have them just write in their notebooks as well. I have them rotate stations until they have completed all of the tasks.

3. Use as a Fast Finishers Activity. You know those students who finish with assignments and need something to do? They can grab a task card set and work through some of the tasks. They are then allowed to turn in the work for extra credit.

4. Use to incorporate Listening and Speaking. I have made sets with different conversation questions. To the right is an example of my winter question cards. I may have students get with a partner and draw cards and take turns asking and answering the questions on the cards. Alternatively, I love using these when we have a extra 5 minutes of class. I'll pull out a pack and draw a card, ask the question and have students respond. I'm always on the search for more ways to get them to practice speaking.  

5. Use to Play Games! A popular task card game is called "Scoot". Trust me, even older students love this game. I place a task card on each desk. Students answer the question on the task card and then quickly "scoot" to the next desk until they have rotated all around the room. An alternative if you do not want students rotating desks is to just have the cards rotate instead.    

6. Use to differentiate! Using task cards makes it easy to assign students specific cards OR a specific number of cards.   

You can see some examples of Task Cards in my TpT store here! 

Do you use task cards? I'd love to hear your ideas!