Canción/Cuento de la semana: Melancólicos Anónimos

It’s been a while since I have felt inspired to create anything and post here, but when I saw this song and heard this video, I thought “well, this song and video are perfect for a story script!” I will use this with my upper level classes (4/5 & AP) to start second semester. 

My upper level students have really been wanting some grammar explanations. They want to better understand the patterns that they are noticing. So, to start students will do a quick grammar activity. My hope is that they will notice the patterns. This is the activity:

Those past perfect verbs are structures that they will see in the story that they will read. 

After doing that quick grammar activity, we will read the story together. The story includes lines from the song and adaptations of lines from the song. As we read, we will either act out sections of the story, translate some sections or I will ask questions after reading sections. Then, students will do this:

And finally, after that, they will answer these questions:

Here is the doc with the activities and the story.  Feel free to use and adapt, but please share back anything else that you create!

Some resources for teaching about Spain

For the first part of my Cultura y Civilización (4/5/6) class, we have done units on legends in the Spanish speaking world (Leyendas Impactantes), a big unit about Chile, (currently) a unit on Día de Muertos, and on Fridays we watch Gran Hotel. For the second half of the class, students will be learning about Spain, past and present. Our curriculum is not heavy on Spain at all, so there is a lot they don't know! 

Before Winter Break, we are going to do a unit around the movie "La lengua de las mariposas" (I LOVE this movie so much). Most of the resources that I will use are from Kristy Placido and Arianne Dowd, but I will be creating some more resources as well. In order to really understand and appreciate the movie, students have to understand a bit about the Spanish Civil War. So, to start the unit, students will do an Edpuzzle with the video: 

I have also written up the text and will create a Textivate Sequence.

After Winter Break, we will focus on current day Spain and do a lighter unit around the movie "Ocho apellidos catalanes". I love that movie too (and yes, definitely skip some parts!)

I also plan on using lots of other Dreaming Spanish videos during the last part of the class. Here are some links to Edpuzzles:

• Picasso y Guernica

• Tapas

• My 5 favorite Spanish dishes

• Christmas in Spain (LOTS of videos)

• Paella

• Leo Messi

• Rosalía

• Álvaro Soler

• The Canary Islands

PD for Summer 2022!

 

This summer I did an amazing PD experience through "Live the Osa". It was an "educator trip" to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. On the trip were 12 other teachers/educators (only three of us were language teachers) and one 13 year old. It was my sixth time to Costa Rica, but I had never been to the Osa, nor on a trip like this. 

(Scroll down  to the bottom or click here if you just want to see the exciting news for a PD opportunity for the summer of 2022!)

Helaine Wemple is the owner of "Live the Osa" and also a full time Spanish teacher in New Hampshire and a mom of a 13 year old boy (who traveled with us as well). Helaine has deep connections in the Puerto Jiménez (and surrounding small towns) that span over twenty years. That made the trip even better! We were in very good hands and clearly with someone who interacted with people in the community. 

There were so many good things about the trip that I am still processing it all. Here is the itinerary:

Because we visited 5 schools, interacted with Costa Rican teachers and students, lived with Costa Rican families, explored the natural beauty of the Osa, and reflected on everything we did, teachers on the trip (mostly non-language teachers) increased their "intercultural competence" immensely...  and possibly without even really realizing it (especially if they aren't focused on teaching this to students).

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)."

So, now the exciting news! Helaine and I will be co-leading another, similar trip this summer (2022), but this (very affordable) trip will be specifically for World Language teachers. In our itinerary, we have included six CI workshops. We are super excited about offering this PD opportunity as it encompasses so many things that WL teachers want:

• Be in a Spanish speaking country, specifically the amazingly beautiful (and not very touristy) Osa Peninsula 
• Interact with people of Puerto Jiménez and surrounding towns
• Learn from other teachers (Costa Rican and those on the trip)
• Improve and reflect on your Intercultural Competence
• Be with other teachers who are interested in CI techniques
• Stay with a Costa Rican family for four nights
• Improve your language skills and/or notice linguistic differences from Costa Rica