Scaffolding and Support for a Comparación Cultural w/ Stories

If you read my blog, you know that I love using stories based on music videos. But some might say:

• "Yeah, that is fun and engaging, but what about the ACTFL Standards and the three modes of communication!?!"
• "Yeah, that is fun and engaging, but I teach AP... how will this prepare for my students for AP!?!"

This is the first in what I hope to be a series of posts addressing those two questions.

With stories based on authentic resources (such as songs and music videos), it is easy to hit those standards and do pre-AP assessments. 

The cultural comparison of the AP test is one example of what you can do with stories based on songs/music videos. That cultural comparison is challenging. Students have to speak for two minutes and compare their own culture with something of the Spanish speaking world. They need to start preparing for this in lower levels. And, also, with the cultural comparison we are hitting these Standards (so it isn't just to "get ready for the AP test"):

And, of course (as always) we are hitting the Communication Standard with Presentational Writing and/or Speaking.

So, how to do this with stories based on songs/music videos?!

In my level 3 class, this is a presentational writing assessment, not presentational speaking, as it is on the AP test. Writing is easier and eventually, they will be saying their cultural comparisons... but not to start! #Scaffolding #Support

Students don't know what culture is, so it is important to explain that culture = products, practices, and perspectives. They also (in my experience) have a hard time defining and identifying their own culture. So, how do we get them there?

First, this essential question should be a focus of the story/unit:

• ¿Cómo son los productos, las prácticas, y las perspectivas culturales en la canción y el video de ___(fill in the blank)___ similares y/o diferentes de los tuyos? 

Share this question with students at the beginning of the story/unit. Tell them, they will be writing a cultural comparison essay that answers that question. In order to write a 4-5 paragraph essay, they will need lots of guidance and support.

Then, spend some time with the story, the video and screenshots of the video. They will see and hear lots of cultural products, practices, and perspectives!

For the first cultural comparison (in Spanish 3), as a class, we made lists of all of the cultural products, practices, and perspectives from the video "Bailo la pena" (unit here on TPT).

After that, with the help of our lists of cultural Ps, students worked together and filled out this grid:

They could use this grid when they wrote their cultural comparison.

But, I knew they still needed more support. This is the first two weeks of Spanish 3 after having 9-12 months away from Spanish. So, I gave them this big support:

The final results were excellent! The next time they write a cultural comparison, I will give them less support. The goal at the end of the semester is to do a spoken cultural comparison. 

This week, I am going to have them do a cultural comparison about Sigo buscándote.

Here is the template to do a 

cultural comparison 

 for any music video/song.

Stay tuned for a post about interpersonal speaking and the simulated conversation... that too can be focus and end goal when using stories based on songs/music videos.