One of my favorite presentational writing assessments to *correct*

Quick post to share a presentational writing assignment that I LOVE to correct!


If you use stories, you might already do this, but I thought I would share anyways. This can be done at the end of a unit or at the end of a course.


The rubric that I use is a School Wide Rubric, but you could adapt it to be more proficiency oriented. I also think that Tina Hargaden has a good rubric for something like this... I need to re-visit A Natural Approach to the Year!



And on that note, I also LOVE creating OWIs with my students and they love it too! Here are two (they are enemies):  Ximena la galleta and Pepe el pastelito. In addition to those, we have been working on this mini unit: El Cactus, this story/song of the week, and Billy y las botas nuggets (and some have made progress through Billy y las botas 2 too).

Here is the assignment:

I love correcting these stories because my students get a chance to show off their language and be creative. AND they are proud of their products! I even heard one student say to another, "Hey, want to hear what my story is about?" Love it!

Currently, I am correcting these and it is the third time that my Spanish 2 students have done this and they are so funny to correct!

Next step in class on Monday... have students read some of the best stories and illustrate them! #NewClassroomDecorations

Below are a few student examples (there were a lot of Billy la bufanda in these stories!). Note: the underlined parts are good things.

• Álvaro Soler y Billy la bufanda
• Billy la bufanda, Pepe el pastelito, y Ximena la galleta
• Billy la bufanda (acting like Álvaro Soler), Pepe el pastelito, y Ximena la galleta
• El cactus, Billy la bufanda, y Ximena la galleta

"We teach languages" podcast and resource links

I had a great, somewhat rambling, conversation with Maris Hawkins, for the podcast We teach languages. So, I wanted to share a bit about what I talked about on the podcast. And I also wanted to share a whole bunch of links to good resources in one place. <------ Here is the preview and here is the link to the podcast.


As I said on the podcast, I love comprehensifying an extending authentic resources. And I LOVE using stories as the anchor of units. I can't imagine teaching without stories.


The stories that I use come in many forms: movies, music videos, novels, and/or other resources. My favorite stories are ones that are from authentic resources because I can extract tons of cultural products, practices, and perspectives. And with authentic resources, there is automatic differentiation. And students get to see a ton of cultural and linguistic diversity with authentic resources... but as I said on the podcast, authentic resources aren't always accessible to our students, but we can (and should) make them accesible and enjoyable too!



Below are some of my favorite movie resources. I have used all of these with great success and engagement! Some of these I created, some I created with Arianne Dowd or Elena López, and some Arianne created. I think Bethanie Drew may have been in the mix on some of these too. They are all excellent and will let you extend that "movie unit" over a long period of time with lots of input! #GoBeyondComprehensionQuestions

• Spanish 1+: Canela (free)
• Spanish 1+: La Misma Luna and Inmigración for Spanish 1
• Spanish 1+: Living on one dollar (free - shared and created by Eric Herman)
• Spanish 3+: Coco (and here)
• Spanish 3+: En el tiempo de las mariposas (free slideshow here)
• Spanish 3+: Ocho apellidos catalanes  (free)
• Spanish 3+: Ladrón que roba a ladrón (free slideshow here and more info here)
• Spanish 3+: El libro de la vida (free slideshow here)
• Spanish 3+:Diamantes Negros (free)
• Spanish 3+: 3 Bellezas
• Spanish 3+: También la lluvia (free slideshow here and AP unit packet here)
• Spanish 3+: The Devil's Miner (free slideshow here)
• I haven't use Arianne's resources for this yet, but I plan to this semester! Spanish 3+: La Lengua de las mariposas  (free slideshow here)
• Spanish 3+: Blancanieves (created by Kristy Placido)

Some of my other favorite stories and/or units basted on comprehensified and extended authentic resources are the following:

• Spanish 1+: Soy yo
• Spanish 1+: Vendo pan (free)
• Spanish 1+: #Idiota (free)
• Spanish 1+: Ella por Álvaro Soler
• Spanish 1+: Un besito más and Spanish 3+ (free)
• Late Spanish 1+: Álvaro tiene un problema 
• Spanish 2+: Ferdinando el toro (free)
• Spanish 2+: El Mismo Sol (free)
• Spanish 2+: Corazón de un Lio
• Spanish 3+: No soy cómo tu crees  (free)
• Spanish 3+: Robarte un beso
• Spanish 3+: La Bicicleta (free slideshow here)
• Spanish 3+: La lotería navideña
• Spanish 3+: Vaina Loca (free)
• Spanish 3+: Si tú la ves (free)
• Spanish 3+: Tres Leyendas Ecuatorianas: El Nacimiento del Río Amazonas (free), El Kuychi (free), Las Guacamayas
• Spanish 3+: Pescaíto
• Spanish 3+: Carlos explora Lima, Perú (free)
• Anything that Arianne Dowd creates!
• Anything that Elena López creates!

Vaina loca: Some surprises and imperfect subjunctive!

Have you seen Ozuna and Manuel Turizo's video for Vaina loca yet? 

It has a few surprises in it and the song is really catchy! 

I wrote up a story for upper levels that focuses on the structure quería que + imperfect subjunctive. 

You can see it in the slideshow below or click here to make a copy for yourself.  And here is a cloze activity for the song, along with the translation of it.

One reason I like this video is that it has a gay couple in it. Almost all of the relationships that students see in my class, and probably school, (in books, movies, music videos, etc.) are hetero relationships. I often think about gay students (out or not) and how that must feel to almost never see any gay relationships represented in school, so this is one example of how to show that in class. 

Intermediate Perú unit... with a Carlos Vives hook!

I love Carlos Vives! He has a new video out and it is a promotional video for tourism in Perú. I love the song and the video! So, I wrote up a story (more of a video description) about the video and highlighted some of the cultural aspects of it. You can see it below (or click here to make a copy for yourself!)

Then, I went down a rabbit hole of related resources (including three articles, videos, tourism websites, a Chifa Express commercial, and a menu)  and created an entire unit for Intermediates. You can find the unit packet here (for free). If you find this (or anything else that you have found here) consider supporting my work on Patreon or consider having me for a workshop.

Here are some of the cultural products, people, and/or places in this unit:

• Historical and contemporary figures: José de San Martín, Atuahualpa, and Natalia Málaga
• Comida: La Comida Chifa, Lomo saltado, Pachamanca, cebiche, causa, café del Perú, Superfoods Perú, Frutas, Súper granos
• Monuments and places in Lima, Perú:  la playa de Miraflores, MALI, el Parque de las Aguas, el faro de Miraflores, el malecón de Miraflores, Astrid y Gastón, Huaca Huallamarca

If you would like a past tense version, click here and make a copy.

And, of course, Arianne Dowd, is also helping me out with this one! She has created a reading about Atahualpa (including a glyph!) and an AP-style simulated conversation between Carlos Vives and his wife.

You can see the Essential Questions, "I can" statements, and Evaluaciones in the unit packet here (for free). This unit is best for Intermediates with lots of AP preparation-type tasks and focus on authentic resources.

Also, if you just want the story and the song lyrics, click here and make a copy. 

And here is the YouTube playlist for the unit:

Vídeo: Gastón Acurio: conoce al ícono de la cocina peruana 
en un dibujo de 1 minuto

Cuento/Canción de la semana: Bajo el mismo sol

This song is three years old, but I am brining it back to my Spanish 2 students. They loved
"Ella" by Álvaro Soler and the story, "Un hombre un poco obsesionado", that went along with it, so I figured another song by him will be a hit as well.

We have been doing not only song of the week, but story of the week, so I wrote up a story to go along with El mismo sol. I also created a list of the vocabulario importante (and on Quizlet too) and a link to review the story on Textivate.

If you are interested in trying out story/song of the week, here is what I suggest -----> story script, vocabulario importante, cloze activity, and song translation can be found here:

• Day 1 - Play a quick game of Quizlet Live to introduce some of the vocabulario importante. Do a listen and draw activity and then watch the video.
• Day 2 - Do the cloze activity with the song. Go over the translation of the song. Review the story with student drawings. Start the Textivate sequence (could be homework).
• Day 3 - Try to sing the song. Continue the Textivate sequence (could be homework).
• Day 4 - Try to sing the song. Continue and finish the Textivate sequence (could be homework).
• Day 5 - Try to sing the song. Do a cierto/falso quiz about the story.

OR if you want to do extend the song for more than a week (these would take 5-15 minutes of each class):

• Day 1 - Play a quick game of Quizlet Live to introduce some of the vocabulario importante. Do a listen and draw activity and then watch the video.
• Day 2 - Do the cloze activity with the song. Go over the translation of the song. Review the story with student drawings. 
• Day 3 - Try to sing the song. With partners or as a class, read the story together and translate it. Start the Textivate sequence (could be homework). 
• Day 4 - Try to sing the song. Play the marker game with the cierto/falso statements (below). Continue the Textivate sequence (could be homework).
• Day 5 - Sing the song. Play around the world with song lyrics or sentences from the story (say a Spanish chunk and students have to translate) Continue and finish the Textivate sequence (could be homework).
• Day 6 - Sing the song. Play Quizlet Live with the sentences. 
• Day 7 - Sing the song. Divide students into groups of 2-4. Give them sentences from the story. They need to act out the sentence(s) and take a "Freeze Frame" picture. Have students send all pictures to you.
• Day 8 - Sing the song. Use the pictures from the previous day to retell the story.
• Day 9 - Sing the song. Share favorite lines of the song. Play this Kahoot Jumble.
• Day 10 - Sing the song. Do a cierto/falso quiz (see two options below) about the story.

I am looking forward to presenting about story/song of the week this fall at TCI Maine, MaFLA, and NHAWLT!

And if you found this (or anything else that I have shared here) helpful and/or useful, consider supporting my work on Patreon.