More than just Song of the Week...

Many teachers do "Canción de la Semana," and many do "Artista/Cantante de la Semana" too (click here for some older free resources), but this past year in my Spanish 1 class, I did a combined "Cuento/Canción de la Semana," and it was very successful!

All of the "stories" (some are more like descriptions) are based on popular music videos. Students acquired a lot of language, were engaged, and saw a lot of cultural products, practices, and perspectives.

Here is an example for the song "To' my love" that I am going to start with this coming year. I think it is going to be a hit! 

I have bundled 16 18 of the stories and a ton of resources to use throughout a Spanish 1, 2, or even 3 class. You can find them here on TPT.

These are the songs that are included. There are two immigration songs because we did a big immigration unit. Those two songs could be used at separate times during the semester.

Here is what I did almost every week with my Spanish 1 students:

• Monday: 
• As students enter, play the song (do this every day all week), but don't show the video yet!
• Tell students the story/description in a Story Listening fashion (or read more about it here) , meaning just have students listen. Communicate meaning by drawing, acting, and/or writing in English. By doing this quiet listening, students are learning to make meaning of sounds.
• Show the video.
• If time (and if there is a cloze activity for the song), listen to the song, do a cloze activity, and go over the translation of the song in English. I have found that students will be much more engaged with songs if they get the gist of what it is saying! 
• Tuesday:
• Listen to the song, read along, and try to sing the song. 
• Students read the text of the story/description and translate it together as a class or in partners.
• If there is a slideshow, 
• Start Textivate Sequence (due at end of the week). These are usually translations (Spanish to English) and Put the Story in Order.
• Wednesday:
• Work on Textivate Sequence (due at end of the week).
• Other activities, such as: Quizlet Live, listening and acting out the story, Agárralo (AKA The Marker Game), listen and draw, and listen and identify picture.
• Thursday:
• Work on Textivate Sequence (due at end of the week).
• Other activities, such as: Quizlet Live, listening and acting out the story, Agárralo (AKA The Marker Game), listen and draw, and listen and identify picture.
• Friday:
• Textivate Sequences are due.
• Quiz - usually cierto/falso about the story.