Free Unit: La Importancia de la Educación para todos en Ecuador

~ Ecuador EF Tours 2018 ~ Culture and Service in Ecuador

Through EF Tours and SNHU, I am taking a self-directed course. I decided to focus on Intercultural Communicative Competence and combine it with learning more about Intercultural Bilingual Education in Ecuador, also known as MOSEIB, click here to learn more. I have read a lot during the last few weeks (see my annotated bibliography here)!

As part of the class, I had to come up with a unit plan. Click here to see it. Feel free to make a copy and adapt any of it. It is for a late Spanish 2 class, but could certainly be used at any level above 2. I think I will use it with my Cultura y Civilización course. There are some excellent pre-AP activities in this unit, including a final Comparación Cultural final assessment.

In the unit, students will do the following:

• Read some basic information about Ecuador and MOSEIB.
• Watch four Ecuadorian school-related videos and do a variety of activities with them.
• Video #1 (thanks Zachary Jones!) shows that in Ecuador, some school related cultural products, practices, and perspectives are very similar to those in the U.S.

• Video #2 is a UNICEF video, made for kids (= more comprehensible and simple), that shows the long distances that some Ecuadorian students have to travel to get to school everyday. 

• Video #3 is another UNICEF video that shows the importance of school supplies. There is also an interview with an Ecuadorian teacher.

• Video #4 is another UNICEF video that shows a bilingual school in Ecuador. The video shows a bilingual student and her town.

Essential Questions:

• What are some cultural products, practices, and perspectives related to school in Ecuador?
• How are some cultural products, practices, and perspectives related to school in Ecuador similar and/or different to mine?

Enduring Understandings:

• There are many rural schools. Many students have to travel long distances to get to school. This shows the importance of getting an education.
• Not all schools are rural. There is a variety of types of schools, including private and public.
• School supplies are extremely important for school, but not always easily bought for some students. 
• The Ecuadorian government, after a grassroots movement, has made a commitment to preserving and honoring indigenous languages and cultures by having many Bilingual Intercultural schools in Ecuador. Many of these bilingual schools are in rural zones where Spanish is the second language spoken.
• Many of the school supplies in Ecuador are the same in the U.S. Marketing (commercials) for those products are also similar.

"I can" statements

• Interpretive (Intermediate Low) What can I understand, interpret or analyze in authentic informational texts?
• I can identify the topic and related information from simple sentences in short informational texts.
• I can identify the topic and related information from simple sentences in short informational audio, specifically four authentic videos.
• Presentational (Intermediate Low) How can I present information to inform, describe, or explain?
• I can present (write and speak) information about school in Ecuador and my school, using simple sentences.
• Interpersonal (Intermediate Low) How can I exchange information and ideas in conversations? 
• I can request and provide information in conversations about school by creating simple sentences and asking appropriate follow-up questions.
• Intercultural - Investigate 
• In my own and other cultures I can identify and compare products related to school. 
• In my own and other cultures I can identify and compare practices related to school.
• I am hoping to include this with some contact with someone from Ecuador - Intercultural - Interact (Intermediate)
• I can converse with peers from the target culture in familiar situations at school, work, or play, and show interest in basic cultural similarities and differences.
• I can recognize that significant differences in behaviors exist among cultures, use appropriate learned behaviors and avoid major social blunders.

Assessments (see unit packet):

• Interpretive Reading (pages 5-7): Read an informational text about Ecuador and answer comprehension questions in English.
• Interpretive Listening and Presentational Writing (page 13): Watch and listen to a video and write five follow up questions.
• Interpretive Listening (page 14): Watch and listen to a video and answer questions. 
• Presentational Writing and Speaking (pages 15-16): Write a presentation that compares and contrasts the school related products, practices, and perspectives in all the videos with those in the United States. On Flipgrid, say the presentation. 
• Interpretive Listening and Interpersonal Speaking (pages 15-16): Listen to classmates comparisons on Flipgrid and comment and/or ask questions about what they say. 

Me and two of my favorite travelers in Ecuador - my husband and my son!