Upadte 11/21/17 - Click here. Update 12/6/16 - If you want to do more with la lotería de Navidad, click here for two other commercials and resources. Martina Bex is amazing! She worked so quickly to create some free resources for the new Spanish lottery short called Justino. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out below! It is really sweet and I think students will like it. With her permission, I created a slideshow using her reading. I used the most simple version that she shared, since I am teaching Spanish 1 (there is a more advanced version). When using short films, I really like to read to the students and have them look at images (rather than clips). I added some questions to ask students as I read to them (they will answer orally and on mini white boards). I am going to spend the two days before vacation with this film, so there isn't much to it, but I thought I would share in case anyone wants to use it. Elena López also made a slideshow with the story in the first person (see below). Thanks Elena!
We just finished the unit called "Perspectivas de la Inmigración" (UbD curriculm document and unit packet) in my Cultura y Civilización unit. This is the fourth time I have done this unit and it has been a little different each time, but the one thing that has stayed the same is the engagement in this unit. Most students have an opinion about immigration and undocumented immigrants in the United States, so they are interested in this unit.
By the end of the unit (hopefully), they understand how complicated immigration laws and reform really are. They will also understand a little more about the undocumented immigrant experience in the United States and (hopefully) develop some empathy for undocumented immigrants.
These are the Essential Questions for the unit:
¿Por qué emigran ilegalmente muchas personas a los Estados Unidos? ¿De dónde es la mayoría de los inmigrantes indocumentados? ¿Cómo llegan algunos? ¿Por qué vienen ilegalmente y no legalmente? ¿Cuál es el proceso de entrar legalmente en los EEUU?
¿Qué pasa ahora con la reforma migratoria en los EEUU? ¿Qué es el DREAM Act?
¿Quiénes son algunos cantantes que cantan sobre la inmigración? ¿Cuáles son sus perspectivas? ¿Cómo son diferentes y/o similares las canciones y los videos? ¿Qué opinas tú de las canciones?
En tu opinión, ¿hay una solución al problema? ¿En qué consiste?
The first Essential Question was the speaking assessment (done about halfway through the unit). In order for them to answer those questions, they had to investigate a bit. Below are some of the links they used to gather information before discussing in class and taking the "speaking test". We did not use all of them, but did use the bolded ones. Some are authentic resources and some are in English. I really liked the infografías because they are excellent differentiated readings.
Another thing we did at the beginning of the unit was watch an episode of the "reality show" 30 Days. It is English, but students answered questions (see unit packet) about it in Spanish and we discussed the different (at times extreme) perspectives of immigration in the show. Although it is a "reality show" and a little much at times, I continue to show it to students because I think they enjoy it and learn a lot from it.
After having focused on the first Essential Question, the next part of the unit was to see three different perspectives of immigration in three different songs:
Perspectiva #1 - Bandera by Aterciopelados - This song questions the idea of having borders and the immigration laws of some countries, obviously the United States being one of them. The lyrics are simple and easy to understand and the music video is excellent for discussion!
*Note*: Some students did not like this video because they felt like it was anti-American (and it might be), but I explained that this is a perspective of some people. A good question to ask then is, why do they have that perspective?
Perspectiva #2 - Pa'l Norte by Calle 13 - This song is about the journey of an undocumented immigrant as he travels North. The journey is described as being very difficult and the undocumented immigrant is glorified for his grit and persistence. The song also has some excellent cultural references and the vocabulary in this poem/song is rich. This video is also excellent for discussion. *Note*: This song contains some language and phrases that some might not want to use. I skip some parts of the song and focus on the important parts. Also, René might be drunk in the video, I ignore that part.
Perspectiva #3 - ICE El Hielo by La Santa Cecilia - This song shows the experience of undocumented immigrants in the United States. It is a beautiful song and easy for students to understand. The video is also powerful.
This perspective is particularly important because it is one sung by a band from the United States. It was also interesting for students to hear one of the band members speak here (starting at 10:55) about being an undocumented immigrant.
As with all the units, we sang all of theses songs a lot and students became very familiar with the videos as well. We also illustrated Pa'l Norte as a class and students illustrated ICE El Hielo in groups of 2-3. (I need to get some pictures of those on here!). All of the discussion questions about the songs and the videos are in the unit packet.
This is the unit test. Students did an excellent job on this assessment. I love correcting them because for many of the questions, there is not one right answer. The questions are so open that students can take many paths to answer them.
There are so many excellent authentic resources for to teach a unit about immigration! Check out Zambombazo's resources here. La Misma Luna is also an excellent movie to show students.
What are some of your favorite resources to teach about immigration? Please share!
After finishing a three week Diversidad de la Gastronomía unit, and having 5 days before vacation (one of which I was going to be out of school running the Boston Marathon), I decided to do a mini-fúbol/copa mundial unit. I have done this unit before, but usually have more songs and spend a longer time on it. I hadn't planned on doing it because I thought some of the songs might be outdated, but the familiarity of one of the songs, Waka Waka, and the style of music of the other, Grito Mundial, made it engaging for the students. It was also the perfect feel-good music that we needed this week. Although I was only there for three of the days and did not teach it the way I normally would (because of being in a complete daze the entire week because of what happened at the marathon), I thought I would share it here.
These are the essential questions for the unit (unit packet here):
¿Qué es la Copa Mundial? ¿Por qué es tan importante en Latinoamérica?
¿Quiénes son algunos cantantes que cantan del fútbol?
¿Qué son los mensajes de las dos canciones? ¿Cómo son diferentes y/o similares?
The focus of this unit was on these two songs:
Waka Waka por Shakira
El Grito Mundial por Daddy Yankee
Before delving in to the songs, students investigated the World Cup, answered questions about sports related songs in our culture (comparisons!), and looked up information about Shakira and Daddy Yankee (see unit packet p. 2-4 & 16 ). We discussed all of this information in class as well. Then, students did a cloze activity and we talked about the videos. We also did some analysis of the song lyrics and the videos. (see unit packet for questions, some from a Zambombazo/Zachary Jones wksht.). (Students translated the songs too (gasp), but I think I am finally going to move away from doing that!)
The songs have a lot of similarities and differences. They are both related the la Copa Mundial and the videos both feature soccer players. Both focus on the unity that is created by la Copa Mundial. Waka waka is directed mostly at the players, while El Grito Mundial is directed at the fans and the world. There are many others as well.
And, although I didn't use La Vida Tombola by Manu Chao this year, I have used it in the past (see other unit packet p. 18-25). The students have not really liked the song, but I use it because it is a good one to compare and contrast with the other two songs. And I am fascinated with Diego Maradona and love Manu Chao! These are some of the other things that students can learn when using this song:
Manu Chao is a multilingual singer, who is from France. His parents were Spanish and left Spain because his grandfather was persecuted during the time of the Franco regime.
Diego Maradona is a very important figure in Argentina, partly because he helped unite the country in 1986 by helping the team win the World Cup after a devastating time period in Argentina.
This is an exam that I used last year for this unit. I would revise it a bit, but thought I would share it.
There are so many other fútbol related songs! Here are a couple other resources to check out to find some of them:
Do you have a favorite song about fútbol that you use in class? Have you taught about la Copa Mundial? If so, please share! I am really looking forward to having some more material as we get closer to La Copa Mundial 2014 en Brasil!
Another good song to maybe add (Thanks to @spanishplans for suggestion!):
A couple of fantastic commercials to use with this unit, perhaps to introduce and start the unit??
Gol Televisión: Sin gol, no hay fútobl (transcript)
Update 2/15/16 - I have changed this unit a bit by omitting the commercials and adding a movie and a few other songs. Click here to see the resources and a link to the new unit packet. After having just finished a pretty heavy, somewhat depressing unit about La Narcoviolencia in México. I decided that I need to do something uplifting, light and fun. So, I took Cristina Zimmerman's lead and decided to do a unit about La Diversidad de la Gastronomíawith a focus on Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Spain. (unit packet here) We spent about 3 weeks on the unit. These are the essential questions for the unit:
¿Cómo se varían / comparan los ingredientes usados en la comida típica de los siguientes países: México, la Argentina, el Perú, y España?
¿Qué impacto tiene la ubicación geográfica en la comida de una cultura/un país?
¿Cuál es la percepción de la comida hispana aquí en los Estados Unidos? ¿Es una percepción correcto o incorrecta?
¿Hay maneras diferentes para promocionar la comida en la televisión de cada país?
The first day we did the Zambombazo activity called Vine Vi Venci: Abecedario de comidas. There is so much culture in those videos! It was a great way to start the unit. Since the units in my Cultura y Civilización class all have music in them, I decided to use two Lila Downs songs to start the unit. We focused on México to start and used these two songs with the amazing music videos --- lots of culture just in these videos! From the songs and music videos, students explored and learned about a variety of things including: mole, la importancia del maíz, mezcal, Oaxaca, Montealban, los Zapotecas, chocolate, geografía, y una variedad de comidas.
Before watching the video for La Cumbia del Mole, students watched this video: Mole Michoacano con el Chile Mayor for homework and tried to write down as many ingredients of mole as they could. The video is short, so they had to watch it 3-5 times.
Some of the other authentic resources related to Mexican food that students saw were the following:
This was the first (basic) assessment of the unit. After spending six days on Mexico. We switched gears and starting looking at Peruvian food. We started by looking at this infografía: La riqueza de la gastronomía peruana en cifras. Students made a list of the top 5 foods and the top 3 drinks and then made Google Presentations describing the foods. The next day they viewed other classmates' presentations, read the descriptions aloud and said what food it was. Here is an example of one of the presentations:
Next, we spent a couple of days talking about Inca Kola using this article and these commercials, and the song in the third one (Lejos de ti):
Inca Kola: Amor de verano 2013 - ¡Beto y Anita! (larga versión)
Inca Kola: Amor de verano 2013 - ¡Beto y Anita!
Lejos de ti - el comercial de Inca Kola
Some other authentic resources related to Peru that students saw were these two infografías:
After Perú, we used this funny commercial to transition from Peru to Argentina. It was a great way to talk about accents and cultural perceptions of different countries.
"El Argentino" McDonalds
Students investigated Argentine food and this is what this slideshow helped guide them after: Next, we watched these commercials and did this worksheet and this one (from Zambombazo). (along with a few speaking activities related to the commercials).
Students then investigated Spanish food and this is what this slideshow helped guide them after:
We are finishing the unit tomorrow and we will use this commercial and worksheet.
Anuncio de España: Coca-Cola contra el sedentarismo ¿Y si nos levantamos?
Another thing we did during the unit was EAT and DRINK. Students had yerba mate, inca kola, jamón, arroz con frijoles, dulce de leche, olivas, and chocolate con chile. This is the final assessment for this unit. This was a successful, engaging unit and I think it could be broken up in to 2 or 3 units, particularly the Mexico section!
What are your favorite authentic resources for a food unit? Please share
