Input activities to learn about la yerba mate

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: 

• Edpuzzle the video above (made by someone else) 
• Textivate Sequence (with this text based on the video)
• Quizlet Live with questions and answers
• Then an evaluación that includes more input (a dictation or other listening or reading activity) and a cultural comparison

Here are the activities/resources:

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Input activities to learn about Las Fiestas de San Fermín

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 Pamplona by 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.

Then, students will do another input activity with questions and answers. This will be done with either Quizlet Live, Blooket or Gimkit. 

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. 

Here is what students will do when we are reading the book. It is similar to an Álbum de Recortes that some teachers to do novels, but a little scaled back.

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:

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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.