Three Activities for a TV unit

In my Spanish 3 class, we just finished a unit titled "¿Viste el partido en la televisión?" If you use the Realidades level 2 textbook, you might know it as chapter 6A :) The chapter vocabulary focuses on sporting events, contests, and verbs of emotion. I am tied to the textboo, but trying to incorporate authentic resources, so I developed three tasks/assessments related to the chapter, two of which incorporate authentic resources.

The first was a presentational task/assessment (full description and rubric here). Students had to write a description of their favorite television show, record themselves and make a video with images illustrating what they said. After they made the video, they put it on their blog and then viewed 2-3 other students' videos and answered the following questions:

1. ¿Qué es su programa favorito?
2. ¿De qué se trata? ¿Cómo es?
3. ¿Qué pasó en un episodio recién?
4. ¿Cómo es similar y/o diferente de tu programa favorito?

I will share some examples here when I get permission :)

The second task was an interpretive task/assessment. Students watched this segment of an episode of¿Qué dice la gente? (la versión de Uruguay, love the way she says "toalla" - great to point out that accent to students). They had to watch it 2-3 times and did this worksheet. First they had to watch and fill in a form with10-15 words that they heard. Then, with a partner, they read aloud the clues, so that they knew what they would be hearing. They listened to it on individual computers with headphones, so they were able to rewind and listen as many times as they needed in order to fill in the worksheet. This program is excellent because there is so much repetition and their answers are also shown on the board so students can read it too. I was absent the day students did this, but the results were good. (Here is another worksheet for another episode of ¿Qué dice la gente?)

The third task was another interpretive task/assessment. This one involved using a very engaging authentic resource - the Univisión website. Students worked on this for an hour in class and they were very engaged. I like this activity (and so did the students) because it is scaffolded and there is lots of comprehensible input. Each student had a computer and some had headphones, and here is what students had to do:

1. Look for cognates (there are many) and write down 10 of them. This gives them a way to ease into the authentic resource without being intimidated. By doing this, they will learn new words and make connections.
2. Look for people and things and write down 5 that they see. This is also easy, and they will be able to see lots of similarities to what they would see on an English speaking television website.
3. Click on any link, look, read, listen and write a short description of what they is there. This is a great thing to do because students might click on more than one thing and usually they are looking at things that they areinterested in = engagement.
4. Explore the shows (in bar at the top all the way to the write), click on 3-4 different shows, watch some clips, read some captions, read the description  do the following for each show:
1. write the name of the program
2. write what type of program it is
3. write a short description of what is on the program
4. write three adjectives that describe it
5. write if it interests you, fascinates you, bores you or if you love it.
6. write if it is similar to a program in English.
5. And finally, (I didn't actually have them do this this time, but will next time), students can compare and contrast the Univisión website to a similar one in English.

This third activity was excellent. Students were watching shows, listening to Spanish, reading and making connections. They were also able to explore what was interesting to them since they were working individually.

These three activities were fairly simple (and nothing revolutionary), but they were very successful. Student effort and engagement were high and they Spanish that they produced was very good!

And, just as a reminder of the standards, these are the ones that these activities touched upon

Communication

• Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversation, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions and exchange opinions
• Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics

Cultures

• Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied
• Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied

Connections

• Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures

Comparisons

• Standard 4.1: Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own
• Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own

Communities

• Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.
• Standard 5.2: Students who evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment