Kitbull: A story of compassion, fears, stereotypes, and friendship

Have you seen Kitbull yet? If not, you should check it out!

I think students will really like it and subliminally, there are some fantastic messages about friendship, compassion, fears, and stereotypes.

I took (too many) screenshots and put them into a presentation (see below or click here) to tell the story to students. And I also wrote up a story script (click here or see below) that could be used with intermediates. Feel free to adapt for your own use and/or make improvements or additions to it. There are probably some mistakes, as I whipped this up this morning. Please make comments if you see anything that needs to be fixed. Thanks!

There are a number of ways you could tell this story to students:

• Show the presentation and read the story. Ask questions along the way.
• Project this doc and tell the story to students. Students can see the text and the pics. Ask questions along the way.
• Read the story and draw (also in doc). 
• Read the story. Do some follow up activities (like Martina Bex's Textivities).
• THEN, show the video! 

You could also use this little reading to set the stage about cats and the city of San Francisco. It is about how much people in San Francisco love cats (For the record, I made that up... I have no idea if people in San Francisco love cats!!) It is based on this article: "The Beloved Store Cats of San Francisco". I also made this Tour Builder if you want to do the reading that way... for my rural New Hampshire kids, this is a good way for them to see the city.

And a possible evaluation after: Escribe un resumen.

Click on the map below to go to the Tour Builder.

Radio Ambulante Listening Guide: Éxodo

I love the podcast Radio Ambulante! If you haven't listened to it yet, I highly recommend you check it out - it is excellent story telling from all over the Spanish speaking world!

I have used it in the past in my AP classes (here and here) and there are lots of ways to use this in class. For instance, Bethanie Drew's Listening Guide and lots from Barbara Davis.

But for my listening guide, which students will do over their February vacation (they need to be listening and reading over that break!), they will listen and read this episode: Éxodo. The episode is about Venezuelan and it is heartbreaking and informative. As students listen, they will fill in the blanks (keeps them reading and listening), answer questions (personal and comprehension), illustrate, translate, and reflect.

If you want to use the guide, click here.

Here are the AP Themes and Subthemes this episodes touches upon:

AP Temas: Los desafíos mundiales, La vida contemporánea, Las identidades personales y públicas, Las familias y las comunidades

AP Subtemas: Los temas económicos, La población y la demografía, Los estilos de vida,La enajenación y la asimilación, La estructura de la familia, La ciudadanía global, La geografía humana

Also, Martina Bex's readings about Venezuela would be an excellent thing to do before this podcast.

Un año... puede que...

I love this song! It is very comprehensible, appropriate and compelling. 

I had been wanting to write a story for it and use it for a while, but I am working on a big project and haven't had as much time to work on things like this. But, then comes Martina Bex to the rescue! See her wonderful, long, satirical post here (she is brilliant!). So, I am going to use the story that she created, along with Sr. Wooly's Una canción original. 

And then, we will go on to this song, "Un año" by Sebastián Yatra and Reik. The song uses the expression "puede que" (maybe, perhaps) a couple of times, so I decided to make up a little activity with that structure. Students will have to guess what is happening in each of the nine pictures before we watch the video. It will be a fun way to start with this song. The doc also has more screenshots to talk about after the guesses, the song lyrics, a translation, and a cloze activity.