Intercultural Competence + Milena Wharton + Diffit

I used to create a ton of resources and share here (mostly for free)...

I posted and shared resources 176 times from 2017-2020! 

but post-covid I was just spent. However, with a change of school and location, I am happy to back at it - and excited about creating resources and sharing them here.

While I love "teaching Spanish", I think what I really actually love is "teaching about the Spanish speaking world in Spanish"... and then seeing two things:

1. Students learning how to communicate in the three modes of communication in Spanish 
2. Students increasing their Intercultural Competence

In case you need a refresher, 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).

And here are the ACTFL descriptors:

So, with all that in mind, my third term of Spanish 3 is going to revolve around Peru. Students will learn about a wide variety of Cultural Products, Practices and Perspectives. We are going to watch the movie Pachamama (and use Arianne Dowd’s resources) and then listen to some Duolingo podcasts to learn about: Heroes del Clima in Peru (2 episodes), Andean music, a Peruvian dog’s experience in Maine, and el Rio Hirviente.

But FIRST, we are going to delve into some Milena Wharton music! 

I compiled Spanish 3 the Milena Wharton (for free) here. It includes three of her songs, basic information about Peru, three possible assessments (one still being created) and two readings + activities created by Diffit. If you haven't tried Diffit, I highly recommend it! 

I used Diffit to adapt an excerpt of text form this article and this entire article. Check out pages 6-8 and pages 11-13. It is an enormous time saver! 

We will start the unit with some estructuras importantes and then students will get a basic overview of Peru (text created by ChatGPT) with this slideshow and this Quizlet Live review:

Then, we will dive into the music videos and the articles (see here)! Possible assessments (with rubrics) are also in the unit packet.