El maestro que prometió el mar

I am teaching AP Spanish this year and I have a super strong, wonderful class of curious, worldly, thoughtful learners. I am enjoying them a lot! 

So far, we have done two units: one that revolves around Frida Kahlo and the other that revolves around Encanto. 

I have a pretty solid AP curriculum and really enjoy teaching it. However, when I was in Spain in March, I saw the movie "El maestro que prometió el mar" and I decided that I was going to use it. It is very similar to "La lengua de las mariposas", but has a connection to modern day. Here is the trailer (and here is the movie with auto generated subtitles):

If you are interested in resources for the movie, here is my (FREE) unit packet and here is a slideshow (also below) that walks through most of the unit. The Preguntas Esenciales (which help me and students think about what the BIG TAKEAWAYS are) are:

Preguntas Esenciales:

• ¿Cómo impacta la historia de un país en la vida actual?
• ¿Por qué es una buena educación importante? ¿Cómo impacta la educación de los niños a un país?
• ¿Por qué es importante reconocer lo bueno y lo malo de la historia de un país?

And the Assessments are:

• Una Discusión sobre la película "El maestro que prometió el mar".
• Una Comparación Cultural: Compara algo cultural de la película "El maestro que prometió el mar" con algo de tu cultura. 
• Un video sobre la dictadura de Franco: Contesta preguntas sobre el video.

Starting the year with a catchy tune and some solid input!

 I LOVE teaching with music videos (you can find some of my faves here). I find it an excellent way to start the year because these are the things I want to do at the beginning of the year:

• I want my students to LIKE and ENJOY Spanish class.
• I want to ENGAGE students.
• I want to give students LOTS of INPUT.
• I want students to feel SUCCESSFUL.
• I want students to ACQUIRE some language.
• I want to have JOY in the classroom.
• I want to create COMMUNITY.
• I want students to understand that the GOAL of the class is to improve their COMMUNICATION skills in another language and to develop INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE. 
• I want my students to see and hear some people/voices from the Spanish speaking world #authres!

At my new (2nd year here) school, we rotate curriculum in every level, so I couldn't use what I used last year. So, here is what I am using for Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. 

It isn't the best "story", but rather a description of the music video, but I still think it will be engaging and it has lots of good input activities! I am sharing in case anyone can use. 

Everything is based on this Álvaro Soler video (an oldie, but goodie):

Here is the text for each level:

Spanish 1

Spanish 2

Hay un hombre. El hombre tiene veintisiete años.  El hombre se llama Álvaro Soler.  Él es de España, pero ahora vive en Cuba.  Al hombre le gusta cantar. Canta mucho. Hay una mujer. La mujer tiene veintiocho años. La mujer es muy fuerte.  La mujer es de Cuba y vive en Cuba.   La mujer se llama Julieta.  A la mujer le gusta correr. Corre mucho. El hombre y la mujer son novios. El hombre admira mucho a la mujer.  El hombre escribe una canción para la mujer.  La canción se llama "Animal".

Hay un hombre. El hombre tiene barba. El hombre se llama Álvaro Soler. El hombre tiene veintisiete años.  Él es de España, pero ahora está en Cuba. Está en un apartamento con su novia.  A Álvaro le gusta cantar. Álvaro admira mucho a su novia. Hay una mujer. La mujer tiene veintiocho años. La mujer es muy fuerte.  La mujer es de Cuba.  Es cubana. La mujer se llama Julieta.  La mujer se despierta a las siete de la mañana. La mujer corre por las calles de Cuba. La mujer corre un poco y estira. La mujer corre más. La mujer corre rápidamente.  La mujer ve a muchas personas.  Las personas le dicen, "¡Ánimo Julieta!"  Todas las personas conocen a Julieta porque ella corre por las calles todos los días.  La mujer choca los cinco con muchas personas cuando corre.  Ella corre muchísimo porque entrena para un maratón. Julieta entrena para el maratón de Boston.  El novio de la mujer admira mucho a ella.  Él le dice, "Tú luchas como un animal."

Creating songs to connect to units with AI - Suno

 Have you seen Suno.com yet? It is pretty wild. It is an AI site that will create short songs for you. Currently, my Spanish 3 classes are doing a unit around the movie Pachamama (thank you Arianne Dowd and Amanda Benavidez-Williams for your ideas and resources). So I put in this prompt, which includes vocabulary from the unit, the name of our school and the name of the town that the school is in.

A rap song about Pachamama and a small school in the village (vocabulary word in the movie) of Andover. The school called Proctor. Use the words aldea, cultiva, cuida, huaca  (vocabulary words in the movie) . Write it in very simple Spanish.

And it came up with two versions: one and two. These are the lyrics:

Students entered class and did this cloze and translation activity. Their reactions were: surprise and confusion. 

In Spanish 1, we are reading the book Tucán, so I entered this prompt:

Make a simple rap about a tucán from named Panchito with an injured beak. Oscar and Ana find him in a park. Oscar cries. Oscar's dad brings him to the animal rescue center. Put the song in Spanish.

And it came up with two versions: one and two. These are the lyrics:

My Spanish 1 students were equally surprised and confused. They did a similar cloze and translation activity. 

I highly recommend this site. It is a fantastic site to create short songs to accompany any unit!