Most teachers hate the modified schedules, shortened periods and mentally drained or missing students that make up state testing season. I, on the other hand, love state testing time because it gives me the excuse to only do proficiency activities. With it being towards the end of the year, proficiency activities can be a good review of what students know and it does not matter whether classes do the same activities or not. Here is what I do with students the first year I have them and then how I modify some of these activities for subsequent years.

The First Year I Have Students:

• Scattergories: Hand out or have students get out a scrap piece of paper. Explain that you will pick a letter and for one minute students will write words that start with that letter. That is all the directions I give to start. Have students choose the letter. After the minute is up, tell students that you will go around the room and everyone will read their list of words. As the first person reads their list, write the words on the board and confirm how the word is spelled in case of homonyms. After each word, ask the class if anyone else has that word and, if yes, cross out the word on the board and tell students that anyone that has that word needs to cross it out, too. Continue this for every student. At the end, the student with the most words that aren’t crossed out wins. Repeat with other letters.
• Object Search: Divide the class into two teams. Hand out highlighters and this handout of drawn objects. On the board, write team 1 and team 2 in order to keep score, “I’ve got it” or “I found it” in the target language and a rectangle to represent the piece of paper. Explain to the students that you will say an object and the first team to find the object and say “I’ve got it” will get a point. Emphasize that saying “I’ve got it” is necessary. (It is not based on who raises their hand first.) Then, say “I see…” and an object. The first team to find the correct object mentioned and say “I’ve got it” gets a point. After verifying that the object is the correct one and giving the team a point, indicate on the rectangle in what area the object is so all students can highlight the object.
• Telephone: Have students get in groups of five to six. Then, have them sit in a circle with their backs facing the inside of the circle. Pass out cut out strips of the following telephone game asking students not to look at the paper until everyone has gotten one. (Pass out papers in order 1-6 to each group. If there are only five to a group, you would just pass out papers 1-5.) Explain that students will read the sentence on their paper and draw an image in the box below for one-two minutes. As students are drawing, walk around and make sure each student is drawing in the correct box. After the time is up, show the students that they will fold the paper so that now only the image is showing. Have students hold up their folded paper to confirm that they folded it correctly. Have students pass the paper to the right and explain that they will now look at the image and write a sentence describing the image. Again, walk around as the timer is going to make sure students are writing and not drawing. Continue this process one more time for drawing and one more time for writing, each time allowing only the previous box to be visible. Finally, have the students turn to face their group and unfold the paper. Have students read the original sentence and final sentence to see if there are any funny changes to the sentences. Have students share out, then ask if there are any sentences that stayed close to the same.
• Ten Questions: Explain to students that you will think of an object and they have ten questions to figure out what the object is. They should be asking broad questions to eliminate categories. I allow questions to be yes/no or answerable with specific answers, like “What color is it?” Keep track of how many questions have been asked on the board. After the first round, ask for student volunteers. Have the student come up to the front of the class and whisper to you what the object is and/or write it secretively. As students ask questions, help the volunteer answer the questions, if necessary.
• Password: Have students sit or stand in two lines facing a partner with one line facing the board and the other line with their back to the board. Explain that you will write three vocab words on the board and the students facing the board will describe the first word to their partner. Once their partner has guessed the word they can move on to the next word. After their partner has guessed all of the words they should raise their hands. The first team to finish will get two points and any other team that finishes before 30 seconds is up will get one point. Write three words and start the timer, then point to whichever team finishes first until 30 seconds is up. Tell students to remember how many points they have and to switch. Repeat several times, finishing with a tiebreaker, if needed.
• Sentence Generator: Pass out mini whiteboards, dry-erase markers, dry-erase marker erasers and have students get with a partner. Then, hand out the following word cloud to each pair. Explain to students that one partner will drop a pencil onto the word cloud and whatever word it points to they will write a sentence using that word. (Give some example sentences.) Then, they will show their sentence to their partner and the partner will determine if the sentence is correct or if there are any errors. If the sentence is correct, they get a point. Students will go back and forth writing sentences. (Sometimes students ask me if sentences are correct and I will point out any errors, but typically I do not intervene if a partner says the sentence is correct, but I do see errors.)
• Sentence Corrector: Have students sit in two lines facing a partner with one line facing the screen and the other line with their back to the screen.  Pass out mini whiteboards, dry-erase markers and dry-erase marker erasers. Show any document with sentences in the TL on the screen. I use this weekend chat document. Explain that for two minutes the students facing the screen will say a sentence to their partner who will write the sentence on the mini whiteboard. If the sentence is correct, they get a point and mark it on their board. If the sentence is incorrect, the partner facing the screen will help their partner write the correct sentence without giving them the answer. For example, students can erase letters, say that a different letter should be written, point to where an accent should go, indicate that a different accent should be written, etc., but they should not say “Write the letter ‘a’ here” or so forth. While the timer is going, walk back and forth down the line and help students explain what needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. After two minutes is up, ask how many points students earned and have the students switch. Repeat so that each person writes two times.
• One Word Image: (This is from Tina Hargaden’s book Year One: A Natural Approach to the Year.) If you have student jobs, have the two artists come to the front of the class. Use an easel pad and have it facing away from the students, so that the class cannot see what is being drawn. Explain that you will create an invisible character. Have students call out ideas for objects, animals, etc. Once the object has been chosen, ask the following questions about the object:

• • What is it’s name?
  • Is it small or big?
  • What color is it?
  • Is it happy or sad?
  • Is it rich or poor?
  • Is it smart or stupid?
  • Is it nice or mean?

As you are asking each question, write down the information on a piece of paper, then say the artists’ names and repeat the information in a complete sentence indicating that they can go ahead and start drawing what you told them. After you’ve asked the questions above, go back through each question, starting with “Is it happy or sad?” and whatever answer the students gave, ask why the character is happy/sad, rich/poor, smart/stupid or nice/mean. Write these answers down, and repeat the information to the artists. Once everything has been decided, go through the story with the class again to give the artists a little more time to draw. When the artists say they’re finished, go through each piece of information with them, having them confirm that yes, they’ve drawn that. Once everything has been confirmed, take the easel pad and put it away without showing the class. (They will be very upset that they don’t get to see it, but this will help create excitement to see it the next day and give you the time to type up the story.) The next day, after you’ve typed up the information, show the story to the class, reveal the image and read the story while pointing to the information depicted in the drawing. Afterwards, have the class applaud the artists and have them hang up the drawing in your “Art Gallery” and write their signatures. Then, I tape the story near the image, too, so students in other classes can read it, if they want to.

Subsequent Years:

For classes that I have had previously, I add some activities and modify some of the activities that I had them do the year before. However, while for the first year I pick and choose what activity I feel like doing in the moment, for these classes, I give them the choice to pick what activity they want to do. I still like to leave an element of mystery, though, by writing the following in the TL:

1. Listening
2. Writing
3. Reading
4. Speaking
5. Speaking / Listening
6. Listening / Drawing
7. Writing / Speaking

Then, we vote on which activity to do, which are:

• French Television Episode: Pull up YouTube and watch a lengthy episode in the TL. (I pull up “Lou” typically. Note: I do not put on subtitles for French or English nor do I ask questions during the video or do any sort of follow-up activity. We watch it for the enjoyment of watching it.)
• Text Messages: Have students get in groups of four. Then, have them sit in a circle with their backs facing the inside of the circle. Hand out the following text messages template and have students write their name and the name of the person to their right at the top. Explain to students that they will start a conversation with their partner, but they are only allowed to write. If any misunderstanding occurs, students must write out clarifying questions instead of talking. Students will pass the papers back and forth, meaning they will have two conversations going at one time. (I do not use a timer for this, so if a student finishes their text, but the partner to their right is still finishing a text with their other partner, then they can put the paper on the ground in front of the partner to their right and wait for the partner on their left to give them their second paper.)
• Boukili: Go to the Boukili website (after creating an account), which is a French Canadian website with free illustrated children’s books where kids can read leveled books and track what they read. Tell students that they can read a book at level 1-6. Read through a few titles of the level they choose and have students vote on a book to read. Choose the narration method to have the book read aloud, then answer the comprehension questions at the end together. 
• Presentation & Follow-Up Questions: Have students get in groups of four and decide in what order they will speak. Explain that the first person will talk for two minutes while the others will take notes on mini whiteboards. Give some example sentences about things that the speaker can talk about. When the two minutes are finished, each person will ask the speaker questions about something the person didn’t talk about.
• Object Search: This is the same as the activity above; however, instead of being in two teams and doing it as a class, now students will be in groups. Hand out highlighters and the handout of drawn objects. Write “I see…” and  “I’ve got it” or “I found it” in the target language on the board. Tell students that they can keep track of their points on the paper. 
• Story Illustrations: Have students get in groups. I normally do two groups, but if you have more easel pads, you could have more than two. Give each group an easel pad and put markers out for students to access. Explain to students that you will tell a story fairly quickly and they are to draw the story including each element you say. Each person should be helping draw and/or remember information; it is not just one person who will be drawing. Then, make up a story with as much detail as you can while writing what you say on a piece of paper. I do not repeat myself unless students ask me to. Then, after you have given enough information for students to draw a detailed image, have the students turn the easel pads so you can see it and have them designate one person to point out the details for you to check them. Read through each element that you said and check what the student points to to see if it is accurate. Mark down how many times each group has something inaccurate. The group with the fewest inaccuracies wins. Have students hang up the drawings in your “Art Gallery.”
• Scattergories: This is the same as the activity above; however, students are now in groups. Have groups time themselves and work at their own pace.