Practice Giving Directions in Your Classroom Using a Huge GPS simulator!

If you've ever tried to teach students to give directions in a foreign language, you know it can be difficult to get them to speak in front of you and the class in ways that are motivating and stimulating to them. This file attempts to address this by mimicking a tablet application that you can use on your overhead LCD projector. Interactive and visual, it responds to the teacher’s clicks, imitating a GPS!

Students begin on one side of the map (see the preview), and give commands (usually oral) for you to assess. Each time students provide directions, you the teacher click the map to light up the path that they are instructing you to follow. When their directions are accurate ("Go three blocks, then turn right", in the target language, for example) you then click the map, and the path changes color on it, much like a GPS in your car. This process continues until you arrive at one of six destinations. When students arrive at one of these, the teacher can reward the students with a sound effect like applause or cheering.

Streets names and places in the city can be customized to fit the target language and culture(s). Once the product is activated, the scenario can be recycled with a variety of assessments and activities, several of which are explained in the full download. If you like this product and wish to have a version customized for your individual use (a neighborhood in Beijing, the metro system in Paris, or the streets of Lisbon, for example) please contact me for more information on how we might collaborate to do that. As a Spanish teacher, I would appreciate you showing my “Mexico City” version of this activity or any of my other products to your innovative Spanish-teacher friends. Just browse “PicantePractices” at TeachersPayTeachers.com to see all my listings. Thanks very much!


CobbSpanishTeacher(at)gmail.com

Thanks!