One of my favorite anticipatory sets was introducing airplane travel vocabulary to my Spanish level 2 students. In Spanish, I tell them the story of when I was studying abroad and we had quite the encounter at the airport in Santander on our way to Rome. Essentially, there was a terrorist threat to the airport and we had to be evacuated - although we had no idea what was happening until we saw ourselves on the evening news in Spain! I also have the newspaper with our experience on the front cover, in which you can see my friend’s hot pink umbrella. Since these students were considered Novice High/Intermediate Low (some Mid), I acted out much of my story as I was telling it.
The effectiveness was thanks in part to the truth of the experience coupled with my over-expression and enthusiasm while telling it. If I were to go back to improve upon it, I would have projected some of the new vocabulary words that I was using, which would become the same words the students would learn. I could have also pointed to these words as I said them and included a visual (ex: la puerta = picture of a terminal gate).
The effectiveness was thanks in part to the truth of the experience coupled with my over-expression and enthusiasm while telling it. If I were to go back to improve upon it, I would have projected some of the new vocabulary words that I was using, which would become the same words the students would learn. I could have also pointed to these words as I said them and included a visual (ex: la puerta = picture of a terminal gate).