(Free) Stories based on songs/music videos to start the year

I am starting at a new school this year and I am very excited! 

I am thinking a lot about how to start the year off with my new students in a new setting that is pretty different from the one I have been at for the last 18 years. 

These are some of my goals for the first few weeks (and beyond really):

• 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!

So, in addition to Card Talk and Write and Discuss for the first couple of weeks, I think I am going to teach a story based on a music video/song. I will be teaching Spanish 1 and Spanish 3, so I started sifting through my song/story resources and thought, "Geez! I have created and shared A LOT over the years!" (see "Archivo del blog" to the right). I am not sure which stories/songs I am going to use, but I thought I would share some FREE resources for others to use for the same reasons that I stated above. Some of these I sell on TPT, but I am kinda done with that, so I am just sharing them for free here.

If you feel like buying me a coffee, click here.

These could all be used with Novices:

• Atrévete
• Yo no sé (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• La estudiante diferente
• El padre estricto
• ¿Qué tiene?
• To' my love
• Animal
• Ella 
• El mismo sol
• Héroe Favorito
• Aventurera
• Soy yo (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Vendo pan
• Azul
• No soy como tú crees
• La Cintura (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Juan y Clara/#Idiota (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Shakira Dis track (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)

These are a bit more advanced and could be used with Intermediates:

• Tan bien
• Bailo la pena  (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Mañana  (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Puebla  (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Cásate conmigo (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Sigo buscándote
• Internacionales (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)
• Quisiera
• Usted
• Quisiera alejarme
• Vaina loca
• Pescaíto (just use the story/song or do the entire unit)

Héroes del Clima: A unit revolving around Duolingo podcasts

 

I am presenting at the NHAWLT conference (New Hampshire) this Friday and I am presenting two sessions. One (two hour) session is about the los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de la ONU (the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals) and the Project Zero Thinking Routines. I am very excited to share that presentation and will probably write about after I present. 

I have written about using the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals in the past in this post: A Board Game in Spanish from the UN?!? and attendees will be playing that game during my session. 

As I have been preparing and learning, I have also been dreaming of a few things: focusing on more of the ODS in all levels and, a bigger dream, having an entire course that focuses on the ODS. (And, yes, I am aware of Carrie Toth's Huellas curriculum that focuses on many of these and I have used some of her units.)

In the meantime, I have created an Intermediate unit that revolves around el Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible #13: Acción por el clima and the Duolingo Podcast Series: Climate Heroes. While Acción por el clima is the most obvious objetivo, these podcasts hit MANY of the others.

If you haven't listened to these 8 episodes, I highly recommend them! 

• Saving Food in Uruguay

• Building Reservoirs in Peru

• Biking in Spain

• Harnessing Solar Energy in Puerto Rico

• Preserving the Forest in Peru

• Harvesting Rain in Mexico

• Marching for Change in Argentina

• Protecting Bears in Bolivia

You can see the unit below, but here is a basic outline:

• Students will first learn about the ODS by doing some interpretive listening activities.
• Students will learn a little bit more about ODS #13 Acción por el clima.
• Students will be divided into groups of 3-4.
• Each group will be assigned TWO Duolingo podcasts.
• Each student in the group will listen to the two podcasts and write about what they heard and learned (see pages 5-6).
• After students have listened to the podcasts, they will get together as a group, discuss what they learned and thought and choose one of the podcasts to focus on.
• The group will investigate more about the information, people, places and organizations mentioned in the podcasts.
• The group will write an email or Whastapp message and try to contact someone related to the podcast.
• Each member of the group will present to other classmates in a jigsaw style. 
• Students will fill out a table as they learn about what they learn from their classmates.
• Finally, there will be an assessment about what they learned and hopefully they will make connections to their own communities!

Disney+ Series: Students choose, but first some good input activities!

I LOVE having a series ongoing in my classes. We watch on Fridays and do a variety of "input-driven" activities before and/or after watching segmentes. 

I love using Go! Vive a tu manera in class. It is a staple in our Spanish 3 classes and, usually, our 4/5/6 classes. However, for a variety of reasons (some related to some of my current students associating it with the pandemic and a hybrid schedule), I am not using it with my Spanish 4/5/6 class. 

So, what to use?! I used Gran Hotel last year with half of the students in the class and that was successful, but I can't use that because some haven't seen it and some have seen 4 episodes.

So, I decided to let students choose between three (appropriate!) options on Disney+. 

I love what they are doing before we get ready to watch an episode of each show next week (Winter Carnival week and the week before our February vacation).  

Here is what we did for Siempre fui yo and Tierra Incógnita. I got this idea from Anne Marie Chase and adapted it a bit. I took the drawings from each group (5 grupos of 3-4 students) and students had two votes for the nomination round and then we had voted for the two with the most votes. It was so fun and silly and... they were re-reading the sinopsis and understanding what the series was about.

Next, students will read sentences from both trailers and will guess which trailer each sentence might be in:

Then, I will tell them the answers and they will fill in the Bingo boards to play "Trailer Bingo":

I was originally only going to let studnets choose between these two shows, but the Carlos Vives series El Club de los Graves comes out Tuesday! So, I had to add that into the mix. Stuents will do the same activities with the sinopsis, but then for the trailer activity, they will do this:

Then, we will watch one episode of each show and probably do "Write and Discuss" or (if I have time) some other input-driven activity for each episode, perhpas: cierto/falso, quién lo dijo, and/or quién lo hizo.

After that, I am going to ask all students write up an opinion piece about what show they think we should watch and why. Then, after vacation, every Friday we will watch that show.

Here is the doc that has all of the activities (so far).