El Cuy - una lectura simplificada

I love the articles from Veintemundos. They write about such a wide variety of interesting cultural topics, but sometimes they are just a bit too advanced for some levels. Also, for some students, just reading an article that long can be rather difficult. So, one of my new goals is to adapt some of those articles and create some activities to go along with them so that I can use them in different levels.




My first attempt is with this article: El Cuy: Mucho más que un simple animal. In this doc, I included the following:

• two "I can" statements:
• Puedo explicar la importancia del cuy en el Perú (con vocabulario nuevo)
• Puedo comparar algunos productos, prácticas y perspectivas culturales del Perú con los de mi cultura.
• a list of important vocabulary words with Spanish to Spanish definitions/synonyms
•  a Quizlet link for Quizlet Live 
• a simplified version of the article with some English words embedded to make the reading easier
• a variety of comprehension/recap activities after each chunk, including some pre-AP cultural comparison type questions
• two videos to show what the article is talking about
• Anthony Zimmern clip related to one part of the article
• A commercial that includes El Cuy Mágico, along with Zachary Jones' worksheet to go along with it
• a couple of final writing activities to finish the lesson

I created all of this for a colleague to use with an "animals" unit. I also have included some possible Essential Questions for that unit:

• ¿Por qué son los animales importantes en nuestro mundo? (amigos, trabajo, comida, belleza, parte de las leyendas y la cultura, salud)?
• ¿Para qué sirven los animales?
• ¿Cuáles son algunas características de los animales? (animal related vocabulary)
• ¿Cuáles son unos animales importantes en otras culturas? ¿Por qué son importantes? Cómo se comparan los productos, las prácticas, y las perspectivas relacionados con estos animales con los de nuestra cultura?

I hope to do something similar with this article: Rana Dorada: El animal más venenoso del mundo. Anyone want to help out??

Also, if any of this is useful for you, please consider giving back in a Radiohead style format.

If my colleague doesn't use this, I will surely find a place to include it! Even if it is for a few days when I am at a conference... NHAWLT and ACTFL are coming up soon.

"Soy yo" for Spanish 1

If you haven't seen the video for "Soy yo" from Bomba Estéreo, check it out below. I am sure that this song and video will be one of the favorites of the semester. 

I used this song last year (but with this cool video) in Spanish 1 because it is catchy and because of all the "soy" reps. This year, I did a bit more with the song/video.  This mini unit for Spanish 1 was a big hit with students. I put a lot of time into creating these resources and I decided to sell it on TPT. 

(If you like this song, check out resources for another Bomba Estéreo song, "Internacionales" here.)

Update - 8/15/17 - I have added a "possible order" for all of the activities included in the unit.

I created a slideshow (see parts of it below) that includes:
- information about the band 
- some vocabulary slides to introduce and ask questions
- screenshots and text to "tell" the story of the video
- some slides for asking questions about the story
- a slide that has all of the screenshots (can be used for summarizing, speaking, and listening)

I created a doc for the mini unit that includes
- "I can" statements for the mini-unit (see below)
- a targeted vocabulary list
- links to Quizlet and textivate activities
- a link to a possible assessment
- a reading activity in which students have to find the Spanish words
- a reading activity in which students have to circle the correct word
- a reading activity in which students have to answer questions
- a reading activity in which students have to draw the story
- some personalized and creative questions
- an activity with cierto/falso statements

- a cloze activity of the song with the English translation

If you would like to purchase these materials, click here for Teachers Pay Teachers ($7.00).
These are my goals for this mini-unit:

• I can comprehend a story with visuals to support my comprehension.
• I can read a story and comprehend it without visuals.
• I can understand and pick out cognates.
• I can understand some words in Spanish because of the context, the visuals, or the actions of the teacher.
• I can answer questions about a story and about myself.

Here is the slideshow wit some of the slides: