For the first part of my Cultura y Civilización (4/5/6) class, we have done units on legends in the Spanish speaking world (Leyendas Impactantes), a big unit about Chile, (currently) a unit on Día de Muertos, and on Fridays we watch Gran Hotel. For the second half of the class, students will be learning about Spain, past and present. Our curriculum is not heavy on Spain at all, so there is a lot they don't know!
Before Winter Break, we are going to do a unit around the movie "La lengua de las mariposas" (I LOVE this movie so much). Most of the resources that I will use are from Kristy Placido and Arianne Dowd, but I will be creating some more resources as well. In order to really understand and appreciate the movie, students have to understand a bit about the Spanish Civil War. So, to start the unit, students will do an Edpuzzle with the video:
After Winter Break, we will focus on current day Spain and do a lighter unit around the movie "Ocho apellidos catalanes". I love that movie too (and yes, definitely skip some parts!)
I also plan on using lots of other Dreaming Spanish videos during the last part of the class. Here are some links to Edpuzzles:
This summer I did an amazing PD experience through "Live the Osa". It was an "educator trip" to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. On the trip were 12 other teachers/educators (only three of us were language teachers) and one 13 year old. It was my sixth time to Costa Rica, but I had never been to the Osa, nor on a trip like this.
(Scroll down to the bottom or click here if you just want to see the exciting news for a PD opportunity for the summer of 2022!)
Helaine Wemple is the owner of "Live the Osa" and also a full time Spanish teacher in New Hampshire and a mom of a 13 year old boy (who traveled with us as well). Helaine has deep connections in the Puerto Jiménez (and surrounding small towns) that span over twenty years. That made the trip even better! We were in very good hands and clearly with someone who interacted with people in the community.
There were so many good things about the trip that I am still processing it all. Here is the itinerary:
Because we visited 5 schools, interacted with Costa Rican teachers and students, lived with Costa Rican families, explored the natural beauty of the Osa, and reflected on everything we did, teachers on the trip (mostly non-language teachers) increased their "intercultural competence" immensely... and possibly without even really realizing it (especially if they aren't focused on teaching this to students).
Intercultural competence is defined as: "a combination of attitudes, knowledge, understanding and skills applied through action which enables one, either singly or together with others, to:
understand and respect people who are perceived to have different cultural affiliations from oneself;
respond appropriately, effectively and respectfully when interacting and communicating with such people;
establish positive and constructive relationships with such people;
understand oneself and one’s own multiple cultural affiliations through encounters with cultural “difference.” (Huber, J., & Reynolds, C. (Eds). (2014). Developing intercultural competence through education, 2014, pp. 16–17)."
So, now the exciting news! Helaine and I will be co-leading another, similar trip this summer (2022), but this (very affordable)trip will be specifically for World Language teachers.In our itinerary, we have included six CI workshops. We are super excited about offering this PD opportunity as it encompasses so many things that WL teachers want:
Be in a Spanish speaking country, specifically the amazingly beautiful (and not very touristy) Osa Peninsula
Interact with people of Puerto Jiménez and surrounding towns
Learn from other teachers (Costa Rican and those on the trip)
Improve and reflect on your Intercultural Competence
Be with other teachers who are interested in CI techniques
Stay with a Costa Rican family for four nights
Improve your language skills and/or notice linguistic differences from Costa Rica
Update 10/12/22: There are now TWENTY episodes on the Voces platform with 6 activities per episode and Novice and Intermediate activities, that is A LOT of resources!
Update: Here is a webinar from April 2022 that goes more in depth
If you have followed my blog, you may know that I use (and love) the Netflix show Go! Vive a tu manera (see posts here). I created some pre-watching and episode 1 resources for Novices a couple of years ago and I did a webinar about how I show the series in class.
I totally admit that the show is super cheesy, but it is the type of show that students grow to love/hate. The music is annoyingly catchy and I walk around singing Go! songs on Fridays.
I show it with SPANISH subtitles and then we do input-activities AFTER watching. The comprehensible input comes from the input-activities and teacher-led discussions, NOT from the subtitles!
Many teachers can't use Netflix at school and/or many teachers don't have the time to create input-activities for the series, so I am so excited to share that Voces Digital / Nuestra Historia has licensed the first ten episodes of the series and I, along with my colleague and CI extraordinaire, created Novice AND Intermediate input-driven activities for each episode. We spent A LOT of time watching Go! this summer and we are so happy to share these activities with other teachers. Here are some of the details:
Each episode is divided into 6-7 parts.
Each part has an input-driven activities, such as:
Read a summary and fill in blanks
Match the question to the answer
Cierto/falso,
Who said it?/Who did it?
Who would say it/Who would do it?
Match the picture to the descriptions.
Subtitles are ONLY in Spanish. (See note above.)
There are Novice AND Intermediate activities.
The video/audio can be slowed down for easier comprehension (good for upper levels, who will comprehend some of the authentic audio).
You can get a teacher subscription for $100/year. That would allow you to show it in class and print all of the activities.
You can also pay more to get student accounts. That would allow you to show it in class and print all of the activities AND/OR have students do the activities on their own. Great for upper level students and Tarea Semanal!
If you already have Nuestra Historia / Voces Digital, you have all of this in your account as of today!
I am starting to watch Go! Vive a tu manera with my Spanish 4 class this week. Now that we are back "full in", I am really looking forward to dedicating every Friday to watching (and talking and reading about!) the show. It is such a nice way to end the week.
This time around, I want to incorporate some more culture as we watch. So, I am starting with learning about a staple of Argentinian culture: el mate! This video gives a simple, comprehensible explanation:
So, with that as the starting point, students will do this sequence of input activities:
I am back to school "full in" (with three feet social distancing, masks, and teachers vaccinated). It is has been two weeks and oh my goodness, what a difference! It is so much easier than hybrid!
I have been so happy to have Voces: Nuestra Historia this year for my AP Class and for my Spanish 4 class. One thing in particular that I love is that I have novels to choose from because they are embedded in the digital textbook (so much bang for your buck!): El último viaje (in level 3), Los sobrevivientes (in level 3), Secretos (in level 4), and El carterista de Pamplona (in level 4). In level 4, we just finished El último viaje and it went very well.
After spring break (in a week for me), in Spanish 4, we are going to start El carterista de Pamplonaby Bryan Kandel. I am really looking forward to this one! It reads kinda like a "heist series" and it is very engaging. There are lots of cultural products, practices, and perspectives to be explored and I am looking forward to developing this unit. I also love that the audio of each chapter is embedded in Voces: Nuestra Historia 4 and there are some activities for each chapter.
The book is set during Las Fiestas de San Fermín (or Las Sanfermines), so that is the first thing that students will learn about. And of course, I want to give them input, so the first thing they will do is an Edpuzzle with this Dreaming Spanish video:
After watching the video and hearing about the festival, students will do a Textivate Sequence (see examples below) with the a text that summarizes what Pablo said in his video.
These activities will be over a few days and will happen as we are starting the book. To start, we will also do a "Map Talk" to give students a basic overview of Spain, the autonomous communities, the geography and the cultural differences that exist within Spanish.
I will give an assessment (more input!) about this information, probably in the form of a cierto/falso dictation at the end of the week.
Note: In case you are wondering, yes, we will be talking about protestas antitaurinas (it comes up in chapter 10) and how bullfighting is banned in many places.
Textivate Examples:
Click below to access the activity. (Opens in a new window on touch devices.)
Click here to open the above activity in a new window.
Click below to access the activity. (Opens in a new window on touch devices.)
Click here to open the above activity in a new window.
I have taught this unit before, but without the book Minerva. The book has been the perfect, comprehensible addition! And the Teacher's Guide has a lot of extra readings and activities. Those + e-activities = TONS of comprehensible, engaging input.
I am using Canvas this year (nd loving it!) and I am teaching in a hybrid schedule with two days each week that are totally asynchronous, so I have been Canvas-ifying lots of things. Some I can't share because they are from either Arianne's film guide or the Fluency Matters Teacher's Guide, but I am going to share a few things here.
First, I made a basic "intro the República Dominicana" activity with this video. Students have to watch, write down what they hear and then do a matching activity. Here is the Canvas quiz.
I also took the text from Arianne's slideshow and created three Canvas quizzes (autograded!). Here is a video to show what they look like:
I also created two Canvas quizzes for two songs. One is for the song "Tú me dejaste de querer" (it combines bachata and flamenco). It is just a good song and doesn't really necessarily relate to the book. Here is a link to that in the Commons.
