Voces diferentes

In Spanish 1, as a presentational assessment, my students have to retell a shortened version of the stories that we do in each unit. They have pictures to help them and they practice a lot in class, mostly for 5-7 minute chunks. They can work alone (quietly whispering to themselves) or with a partner. And that has worked wonderfully, but today we tried something new called "Voces Diferentes." 

I got this idea at from Anne Matava at TCI Maine. This is what we did in class:

• I used the slideshow below to describe the activity.
• I chose 3 personas and said part of the story in that persona.
• Volunteers chose a persona (see below) out of bag. I let them pick a few times until they found a persona that they wanted to do. A few of them went out in the hall to discuss how they would act.
• The volunteers said part of the story in the voice of that persona. I had another student point to the pictures (projected) as the speaker narrated the story.
• After the volunteer finished saying the part of the story, the class guessed who the person is supposed to be talking as or talking to.
• This was a fun way to practice presentational speaking. One student's persona was me and he was very good at imitating me!                  

                         

Here are the possible personas (click here to see full doc):

TALKING AS...
You are a toddler having a tantrum.	You are teenage girl with an attitude problem.	You are a calm and patient teacher trying to explain something to the class.	You are a mean teacher who is yelling at the class.
You are sick and about to throw up.	You are a really happy person.	You are a really dull, boring person.	You are Mrs. Jacobs.
You are very addicted to your phone and cannot stop looking at it.	You are one of the ñus.	You just ate a really spicy pepper and you need some water.	You are VERY tired.
You are very dramatically telling your best friend some gossip.	You are a zombie.	You have to go to the bathroom really badly.	You are a politician.
You are a really nice kindergarten teacher.	You are a drill sergeant.
TALKING TO...
You are talking to someone who is very hard of hearing.	You are talking to someone who you have a crush on.	You are talking to someone who you are afraid of.	You are talking to a group of angry people and you are trying to calm them down.
You are talking to your arch enemy.	You are talking to someone who you are about to fire.	You are talking to an audience of people that you want to impress.	You are talking to someone who you want to listen very carefully.
You are talking to a baby.	You are talking to someone that you want to listen very carefully.

Our current story is "Los ñus" (idea and resources courtesy of Elena López). We have done a wide variety of activities with this story and the related vocabulary.

Below is the shortened version of the story that students will be retelling. We did a dictation activity with the sentences and students drew a picture to go along with each sentence. They will be able to use those pictures to help during the assessment.

• Hay dos ñus en la orilla del lago.
• Hay un objeto en el agua.
• El primer ñu dice, “Es un cocodrilo, ¡No lo toques!”
• El segundo ñu dice,  “No es un cocodrilo, es un tronco.”
• El primer ñu agarra una roca y la tira al objeto.
• Los dos ñus ven el objeto y no ocurre nada.
• El primer ñu agarra una rama y toca el objeto dos veces.
• El primer ñu está frustrado y tira agua al objeto.
• El primer ñu se sube arriba del objeto.
• El cocodrilo abre la boca y come el ñu.
• El primer ñu desaparece debajo del agua.
• Un tercer ñu llega. / Llega un tercer ñu.
• El segundo ñu dice, “Es un cocodrilo, ¡No lo toques!”
• El tercer ñu dice, “No es un cocodrilo, es un tronco.”

This is the rubric that I will use to grade them (for the assessment, not the activity):

	7-8	5-6	4 or less
Content	- You include all of the necessary components. - You may even include extra details.	- You are missing some of the components.	- You are missing many components.
Pronunciation	- Your pronunciation is excellent for the level you are in. - It is evident that you frequently repeat after the teacher to practice your pronunciation.	- Your pronunciation is good for the level you are in. - You don’t always repeat after the teacher to practice your pronunciation.	- Your pronunciation impedes comprehensibility. - Start repeating after the teacher!
Accuracy	- Your grammar is excellent for the level you are in.	- Your grammar is good for the level you are in. - Some errors may impede comprehensibility.	- You make many grammatical mistakes. - Your mistakes impede comprehensibility.
Fluidity	- You speak with very few pauses. - You are very prepared.	- You pause sometimes to think about what you are saying.	- You frequently pause and/or cannot remember words.