The Yellow Brick Road: Getting Students Talking

Friends, if you’ve ever asked your class a discussion question and gotten crickets back, this one is for you. The Yellow Brick Road is one of my favorite ways to get every student talking in the target language, and it works whether you teach ASL, Spanish, French, or anything in between.

Here’s the idea in one sentence: I put prompts on yellow paper “bricks” and lay them out around my room in a path, and students follow the road with a partner, stopping at each brick to discuss the prompt.

It’s an easy activity that takes a little bit of prep on the teacher’s part. However, once it is created, you can recycle and reuse it year after year.

How It Works in My Classroom

I print each prompt on yellow paper (cardstock if I want to reuse them) and lay the “bricks” around the room on the floor. Sometimes they go on the floor in a winding path, sometimes on the walls, desks, or cabinets. Wherever they land, the bricks are numbered so students know the route. However, the road does not need to be followed in numeric order in most setups.

Here’s the flow:

1. Students pair up (or work in groups of three).
2. Each pair starts at a different brick so nobody is crowded around brick #1.
3. At each brick, partners discuss the prompt fully in the target language. One asks, one answers, then they switch.
4. When I give the signal (I flash the lights), everyone moves to the next brick.
5. We keep going until each pair has traveled the whole road, or until time runs out.

My one non-negotiable: this is a conversation, not a worksheet. I’m walking the road too, listening in, joining a pair, and asking follow-up questions. That’s where I hear who really has it and who needs a little more support before the test.

Setting Up Your Road

The setup changes a little depending on what language you teach, but the bones are the same: one prompt per brick, numbered, placed around the room. Pick the version (or mix) that fits your students.

For ASL Teachers: QR Codes

ASL is a visual language, so I don’t want my prompts sitting on the page as English. Instead, I sign each question on video and turn it into a QR code.

• Record each prompt as a short video (I keep them under 15 – 20 seconds).
• Upload to Google Drive, YouTube (unlisted), or whatever platform your school allows, and set the link so students can view it.
• Make a QR code for each video link and put it on a yellow brick with the brick number.
• Students scan with a phone or school device, watch the question, and discuss it in ASL with their partner.

Bonus: students get extra receptive practice just by watching me sign the prompts, and they can replay them as many times as they need. No English crutch, and nobody can “read ahead.”

For Everyone: Image Option

Pictures work in every language classroom and are perfect for novice learners. Put one image on each brick and let students describe, ask, and answer.

• A photo of a family dinner: Who is there? What are they eating? What do you eat with your family?
• A scene from a story we read: What happened here? What happened next?
• A vocabulary image: Describe it. Do you have one? Do you like it?

Images keep the target language front and center because there’s no English for students to lean on.

For Spoken Languages: Target-Language Writing

If you teach Spanish, French, German, or another written language, write the prompt right on the brick in the target language. Keep it level-appropriate:

• Novice: short questions with familiar vocabulary (¿Qué te gusta hacer los fines de semana?)
• Intermediate: questions that ask for opinions, comparisons, or a reason why
• Advanced: “What would you do if…” scenarios and debatable statements to agree or disagree with

Quick Setup Checklist

• Write 10–15 prompts (enough for each pair to start at a different brick)
• Print on yellow paper or cardstock and number each brick
• Make QR codes (ASL) or add images or written prompts
• Lay the bricks around the room in a path
• Pick your “move to the next brick” signal (flashing lights, timer, bell)
• Plan a quick wrap-up or exit ticket

My Go-To for Test and Final Exam Review

This is where the Yellow Brick Road really shines for me. Instead of a review packet that half the class copies from the other half, students spend the whole period actually using the language from the unit.

Before a unit test, I build the bricks straight from the unit’s vocabulary and grammar. Each brick is a question. For example, in a family unit:

• Who is in your family? Describe one person.
• How many brothers and sisters do you have? How old are they?
• What traditions and holidays are celebrated by your family?

Before a final exam, I mix prompts from every unit we covered that semester. Each brick becomes a little checkpoint: greetings, school, food, family, hobbies, all on one road. Students tell me it’s the first time they noticed how much they can actually say. I have students do 2 things:

1. Work with a partner to translate the question into English to make sure they understand.
2. Practice interpersonal communication by answering the question with a partner (or group of 3).

A few things I do on review days:

• I listen for patterns. If three pairs stall on the same brick, that’s what I reteach before the test.
• I add a “challenge brick.” It asks students to combine two units, like describing a family member’s favorite food.
• I end with a quick reflection. Which brick was easiest? Which one do you still need to practice? That tells me (and them) where to focus their studying.

Storytelling and Retelling on the Road

The road is a natural fit for stories, because stories already have a path: beginning, middle, end.

After we’ve watched or read a story together, I put one moment of the story on each brick, in order. For ASL, that’s a QR code to a short clip or a picture from the story. For other languages, it’s a picture or a short sentence in the target language. As partners walk the road, they retell the story one scene at a time.

Some prompts I like to use along the way:

• Who are the characters? Describe them.
• What happened here? What happened right before this?
• How does the character feel? Why?
• What do you think happens next?
• How would you change the ending?

By the last brick, students have retold the whole story together without even realizing how much language they produced. For my ASL students, this is also great practice with role shifting, classifiers, and showing a character’s emotion, because they’re signing the scenes, not just summarizing them.

Want to level it up? Mix up the bricks so they’re out of order, and have pairs figure out the correct sequence as they go.

More Ways to Use the Road

Once your bricks are made, you’ll find yourself using them all year. A few more ideas:

• Interpersonal discussion questions. Use open-ended “would you rather,” opinion, or “tell me about a time” questions to get real back-and-forth conversation going.
• Culture discussions. Put a culture question, fact, or image on each brick. In my ASL classes, these are Deaf culture topics students discuss and react to.
• Getting-to-know-you road. Perfect for the first week of school or after a long break.
• Holiday or theme roads. Swap in seasonal vocabulary and questions.
• Get-to-the-goal road. End the road at an “Emerald City” brick with a bigger task, like a short presentation or a written summary.

Tips From My Classroom

• Keep each stop to 2–3 minutes. Long enough to talk, short enough to keep the energy up.
• Have a “stuck” plan: students can skip a brick and come back, or ask a nearby pair for help (in the target language!).
• Laminate your bricks or use cardstock so you can reuse them every year.
• Walk the road yourself. Students rise to the occasion when they know you might stop by.

Follow the Road

The Yellow Brick Road gets students up, moving, and talking to each other, which is exactly what interpersonal communication should look like. It’s low prep, works in any language, and fits test review, final exams, storytelling, and just about any unit you teach.

Give it a try this semester and let me know how it goes! I’d love to hear what prompts you put on your bricks.

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