Inspiring blackboard quotes!

"Success is liking yourself, 

liking what you do, 

and  how you do it."

Maya Angelou  

You have just read the quote on the right corner.

How did you like it? Where did it take you?

This post is about these very special sentences that usually appear in the beginning of texts, posts, and movies to either guide us to specific thoughts or make us enter certain moods. Malu Sciamarelli recently wrote a lovely post about stories, which she opened with the beautiful quote below:

I wrote Malu thanking her for the touching post and also sharing that I love using quotes in my classes. I realized then that I should write about the power of quotes to make sense of my practice and also to share this secret trick with the world.

Why do I enjoy blackboard quotes so much? Well, I feel that's because they are a refined way of greeting and reaching students in the different moments and emotional states they live throughout a course.  Quotes can deliver very precise messages at the right time with a surprise and caring touch. But their usefulness does not end there as they come handy for vocabulary, language use, and grammar. Whether you want to welcome, entertain, support, or inspire, quotes can do a great job!

I particularly like writing inspirational quotes on the right corner of the blackboard, as a way of receiving students when they come into the classroom and leaving it to them to do their own thinking.  So far, I have never manipulate quotes or discussed them in any specific activities as I like the magic of just leaving them there. Sometimes  students copy or reading them aloud, many times I even forget I wrote them. I use quotes as nutritional seeds with the hope that they will energize and bring some wisdom to students. Below I share a sequence of favorite quotes and some moments in which they can be used.  

                   We can start by giving meaning to learning a foreign language: 

Quotes can be used to show a process:

We can  students who are suffering and struggling in their learning: 

Expected social behavior can be presented and reinforced:

 We can play with meaning by changing the order of words:

Single words can also be used with the same function. Check this word play! 

What about these quotes for a day students are finishing a project or taking a test?

I believe there are endless ways to use quotes in class. Some that come to my mind now are matching, discussing, classifying, ranking, guessing, completing with their own words, guessing/ matching who said them, and inviting students to bring their favorite ones. Even so, I still prefer leaving their silent magic in the air.

Here I invite you to check out my 500+ quotes Affective Quotes Pinterest board. 

Well, shouldn't we end with a quote? Here it is!

Have you ever used quotes in your classes?
Do you have a special favorite one?
I'd love to hear from you!

Send you a big frog-hug,

Juan

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