Thematic Questions for the IB Spanish Language B Oral Speaking Exam
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What educators are saying
Description
Over 350 questions on a wide variety of sub categories related to these five overarching themes prescribed by the International Baccalaureate program:
· Experiences
· Human ingenuity
· Identity
· Sharing the planet
· Social organizations
All questions are open-ended. Each one encourages students to reflect, give their opinion, explain their beliefs, and provide personalized examples to rationalize their point of view. These questions are intended as speaking practice, but would serve greatly as follow-up questions for the question/answer section of the International Baccalaureate speaking examination. All questions are in Spanish, using the tú/singular/masculine form. These questions would provide ample opportunity for students to speak, conduct interviews, and write essays regardless of the exam for which you are preparing (AP, IB, GCSE, IGCSE, A-levels). These questions are most appropriate for Intermediate/Advanced learners of Spanish. They are not intended (but could be adapted) for ab intio or beginning levels.
How can you use them for distance learning?
1. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask your students to write a composition with specific criteria that you are working on (subjunctive, relative pronouns, if clauses, etc.).
2. Give a question from the category of your choice, and tell students to have an online chat for a specific amount of time. Afterwards, they must save the chat text and email it to you. You can require the students to include certain criteria, such as follow-up questions, reactions, exclamations, etc.
3. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to write a blog post about the topic. Don’t forget to include specific grammatical criteria that must be targeted.
4. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to record a reaction/response within an amount of time that you determine. This can count as oral work.
4a. This can then be forwarded to another student who must give a verbal reaction to the response, perhaps giving an opposing point of view.
5. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to write an argumentative essay that includes opposing points fo view. Students should be encouraged to use transition words to guide their essays (regarding, despite this, nevertheless, furthermore).
6. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to write a fictitious journal entry in which they address the question through the use of personal anecdotes or opinions.
7. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to work on a google doc in which they write out an interview (starting with the proposed question).
8. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to brainstorm a list of 20 words (at least 10 should be new to them) that would be useful in answering the question. Then trade the word lists with another student who must incorporate the vocabulary in a cohesive written response.
9. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to write 10-20 sentences that address the question, but each answer must use a specific grammar point that you give them, for example, a particular tense, structure, etc. So if the question asks, “How have cellphones changed your life?” and the structure is if clauses, the students write, “If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t…”, “If technology weren’t so advance, we…” or “If my telephone broke, I would…”
10. Give a question from the category of your choice and ask the students to create a PowerPoint with voice-over recording. The PowerPoint can provide visuals that accompany their answers. These can be traded with their peers who must then create a listening comprehension quiz based on the presentation, and then a their student takes the quiz. In all, students will create one presentation, and listen to two others.
Here are links to three different question booklets:
