Walking the textbook-authentic-thematic line

This post was prompted by last Thursday's #langchat. I did not actively participate, I just lurked while I watched a show with my son. I am very fortunate to teach my Cultura y Civilzación course (Spanish 4 and Spanish 4+) and not use a textbook. I am able to use all authentic materials and have some great thematic units. But, for levels 1-3, we (a department of 3 Spanish teachers) use the Realidades textbook. We use part of the first book for Spanish 1 and use the second book for Spanish 2 and 3. I would like to get rid of the textbook and use authentic material, Zachary Jones material, and TPRS Publishing novels* (Esperanza, Desde los valles a las montañas, Robo en la noche, La hija del sastre, La guerra sucia, and Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha), but that is probably not going to happen for a variety of reasons (that I will not go into here).

So, what to do to make it more meaningful, more interesting, more authentic, and more CI? Here is what I will do in my Spanish 3 textbook driven curriculum class.

• How will I have Content Based Comprehensible Input? I will use two TPRS novels: Robo en la noche and La hija del Sastre. 
• How will I incorporate these books? Last semester I had Spanish 3 during the 90 minute lunch break, after lunch we had 30 minutes and we read during that time everyday. This semester I have two Spanish 3 classes, so my plan is to set a time on the clock and stop whatever we are doing to read. Since this is the first time they are reading anything this significant, I will start by reading aloud to them and asking lots of questions as we go along.
• Last semester I used Piratas: Triángulo de las Bermudas, but the students found it to a bit too silly after a while. It might be better for younger students (these are sophomores). I like the story of Robo en la noche and there is some culture as well. Also, I am planning a trip to Costa Rica in June 2014, so this might get them excited about going. The grammar in Robo en la noche has preterite vs. imperfect, so I will be pointing that out a lot. So, the goal will be for them to understand that concept better by the end of the novel (9ish weeks), not by the end of the first chapter (2 weeks). 
• I used La Hija del Sastre and students really enjoyed it. The novel is interesting, suspenseful and full of things to talk about. The grammatical structures and vocabulary are rich and although I am not teaching past perfect and imperfect subjunctive, this book exposes them to it.
• *The TPRS Publishing novels listed are not only excellent Comprehensible Input material, but are cultural and/or historical. Some with excellent Teacher Guides and audio as well.

• How will I incorporate more Authentic Material?
• First, let me define Authentic Material: It is a resource in the TL that was created by native speakers for native speakers. 
• Zachary Jones is my go-to for these resources. I will use a song in every unit. Hopefully, one that is thematically linked, but some will have to be gramatically linked (I don't think he has any activities with songs about fire fighters and natural disasters... yet). I am going to use Te fuiste de aquí by Reik for the first unit. Last semester's students loved this song.
• I will use websites like this one for authentic reading and listening activities. Here is a worksheet to go along with that website (might need to be updated). Here is another worksheet that uses authentic hotel websites; it is an activitiy leading up to this project. 
• I will also try to use a lot of commercials and PSAs. I had great success with that last semester, particulary in this unit in which students viewed a commercial a day for 9 days. They were our "audio activities" (instead of the book activities, which they do not like). There is so much you can do with commercials. Here are two examples for the first unit: En las noticias: Un acto heroico
• Wksht: Sumate a bomberos (de Argentina - not the voseo)

• Wksht: Anuncio de Transportes y Comunicaciones

• This is what I plan to do when I use commercials (see worksheets linked above):
• Show it to them and have them watch it.
• Salk about what they see. They do not have to be speaking in complete, grammatically correct sentences. I am happy with words to start.
• Ask for key words that they hear.
• Do a cloze activity. Listen to the commercial 3 or 4 times.
• Go over and watch again. 
• Say the commercial with a partner. Try to imitate the person who talks in the commercial. This is fun and funny! Great for pronunciation.
• Answer a few questions about the commercial.

• And, finally, how will I use the textbook? 
• Vocabulary - I will introduce it with pictures and I will teach it using Spanish definitions. I just found Quizlet and this might be helpful for the students. These are "definitions" that I created on the site.

• Thematic - Actually, the chapters in the book are not all bad: Natural disaster, accident and hospital, television, movies, food, travel and the environment. It is much better than the "themes" for Spanish 2! And there is a lot of authentic material for those themes.

• Grammar - I will give notes, do some practice and then expose them to it in context. 

• Assessments  - I will try to use authentic materials on my assessments. I will hopefully have a speaking assessment for each unit. I love the ideas here (from @lisamjch) and here (from @sonrisadelcampo) for assessments, and I hope to do some similar things. Also, I should probably develop these before I start the unit. I do have some good assessments already but need to make them more proficiency based.

I still have a lot more to think about and implement, but these are some ideas to transform my  textbook driven class into a more engaging, authentic, and comprehensible-input-driven class.

Thematic Unit: Los Miedos

**UPDATE** I am still using parts of this unit, but I have greatly enhanced and improved it! It is now called Miedos y Leyendas - click here to see what the unit looks like now.

This unit about fears is one that I developed after seeing a activity from Zachary Jones. I have changed the activity a bit and made a unit about Fears. This unit is the first on in my Cultura y Civilización (Spanish 4) course. The song Azul by Natalia Lafourcade is a fun, catchy, comprehensible song for a level 3 or 4 class. The video is engaging and there is a lot that students can analyze and talk about.

The other song that I will use for this unit is "Miedo a caer" by Ruido Rosa. Zachary Jones suggested this one for this unit and it will fit perfectly. I like to have two songs per unit if possible, as it can be great to compare and contrast.

The essential questions for the unit are the following:

1. ¿Qué efecto puede tener la ansiedad sobre nosotros?*
2. ¿Tienes "miedo a caer" con respecto al aprendizaje del español? ¿Qué riesgos tenemos que correr? ¿Cómo podemos superar esta ansiedad?*
3. ¿De qué se tratan las canciones “Azul” y "Miedo a Caer"? ¿Cómo son similares y diferentes?
4. ¿Quiénes son Natalia Lafourcade y Ruido Rosa?

*Questions taken from Zachary Jones worksheet.

The students in this class are CTP students with varying levels of ability. They have been in very traditional Spanish classes, and this class is a major shift in how/what they will be learning. These are the goals I hope to achieve with this unit:

• Overcome fears of speaking Spanish
• Enjoy speaking Spanish
• Enjoy listening to Spanish
• Become comfortable with authentic resources (songs, interviews, commercials, Facebook, twitter, Wikipedia)
• Gain confidence with speaking and listening abilities
• Become comfortable with being a little uncomfortable

Some of the activities that students will do are the following:

• cloze activities with the songs
• investigate and talk about the singers and answer questions about them
• sing, sing, sing
• talk about the fears that students have
• watch some commercials that Natalia Lafourcade is in and do some cloze activities
• translate the songs
• illustrate some lines from the song
• compare the fears of the singers to the students' fears
• listen to an interview with Natalia Lafourcade and discuss how she came to write Azul 
• watch and listen to an interview with Ruido Rosa and try to understand some words and/or ideas that they talk about 
• talk about the videos
• analyze the relationship between the videos and the songs (the video for Azul (in my opinion) shows the growth of someone who has overcome her fears)
• discuss the essential questions

The assessments for the unit will be:

• a spoken interpersonal discussion about what fears students have
•  a written interpretive assignment answering all of the essential questions.
• maybe some others 

Hopefully, after this class and unit, they will feel like the 4th grader after she went down the ski jump.

What do you think? Suggestions? Other ideas?

Examen Final 2012

I am going to try something different for my Spanish 4 Final Exam this year. Last semester, I gave them a choice of three things: make a video for Latinoamerica by Calle 13 (like this or this) ; take a traditional "exam" that was 50% oral and 50% written; or make a movie titled "De Donde Venimos Nosotros". The results were good and it was great to give students a choice. 

But, this semester, I have decided to something a little different (see below for detailed description). Basically, students will choose a song/video from these, and they will learn a variety of things with the song being the focus point. They will share what they have learned on a blog post, share with the class, and create an activity for their classmates to do. Zachary Jones has made excellent worksheets for all of the songs/videos. I would do entire units with all of these songs if I had the time! :) 

I am excited about this final exam for several reasons:

• Students will choose from some great songs/videos with lots of culture and/or a great social message.
• Students will explore and be exposed to lots of authentic material:
• a song
• a video
• an article
• an interview
• images
• a variety of websites
• Tweets from the singer/band (if they have a Twitter account)
• The "exam" includes all of the ACTFL 21st Century Skills:
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• Creativity & Innovation
• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• Technology Literacy
• Flexibility & Adaptability
• Initiative & Self-Direction
• Social & Cross-Cultural Skills
• Productivity & Accountability
• Leadership & Responsibility
• The language classroom will look like the language classroom of "today" as described on page four of the ACTFL 21st Century Skills Map.
• Here is the detailed description (presented to students in a Google Doc):

Cultura y Civilización

Final Exam

(To be presented the week of 6/18):

Since this entire course has been based on songs, your final exam project will be based on one of the songs/videos found here. After you choose your song, you will sing it, analyze it, translate it, watch the video, describe it, analyze it, learn about the band/singer, learn about the city/country/region the singer/band is from, share what you learn with the class on your blog, and create an activity for the class to do on the day that your present. You will have two weeks of class time to work on this and during finals week, everyone will share what they have learned.

Your blog post should include the following:

• evidence of completion of all of the “TASKS” below
• video
• text
• pictures
• audio of you talking (iMovie, Photo Peach, of some other web 2.0 tool)
• important links (including links to all of your resources)
• a link to the activity for your classmates to do
• a link to the self assessment

TASKS:

1. ___________  Read this entire list and make a plan for the next two weeks. Perhaps, you could put a day next to each line.
2. ___________ Watch the videos on the FINAL EXAM page of our class website and choose the song/video that you are going to focus on.
3. ___________ Watch the video several times (at least once a day during the time you have to work on this final project)
4. ___________ Sing the song at least two times a day.
5. ___________ Do the Zambombazo worksheet for the song (linked above videos).
6. ___________ Translate the song.
7. ___________ Keep a list of the vocabulary words that your learn on your blog. But, instead of an English definition, you must provide a Spanish definition/synonym and/or a picture.
8. ___________  Investigate the singer/band. Answer the usual questions that we have answered about all the previous singers/bands.
9. ___________  Find an interview (video or article) with the singer/band. Summarize what you read/hear.
10. ___________  Follow the singer/band on Twitter and/or Facebook.
11. ___________ Investigate the country where he/she is from.
12. ___________ Find pictures (images and maybe a map) of the place the singer/band is from.
13. ___________ Describe how the song connects to place that the singer/band is from.
14. ___________ Choose your 3 favorite lines from the song. Illustrate them and say them.
15. ___________ Describe and analyze the song and the video (where, when, who, what), and write a summary of its meaning (this is an opinion, so it cannot be wrong).
16. ___________ Create an activity for your classmates to do.
17. ___________ At the end of the project, use the rubric to give yourself a grade and write a short reflection.

	44 o menos	45- 54 puntos	55-60 puntos
Use of Spanish	Your control of the language (grammar) is inadequate for the level you are in.	Your control of the language (grammar) is good for the level you are in.	Your control of the language (grammar) is excellent for the level you are in. To look up words, you used this site. You did not use Google Translate.
	6 o menos puntos	7-8 puntos	9-10 puntos
Competion of Task	You did not complete many of the tasks and/or did not post evidence of completion.	You completed most of the tasks and posted evidence of completion.	You completed all of the tasks and posted evidence of completion.
Use of Technology and Problem Solving	If you encountered a problem with technology, you became frustrated, immediately asked for help and/or gave up.	If you encountered a problem with technology, you asked for help before trying to find a solution on your own.	If you encountered a problem with technology, you tried to solve it before asking for help. You may have helped others solve problems and/or offered assistance to others.
Use of class time	You were frequently off task. You did not make a schedule and just decided on a new task everyday.	You were on task most of the time. You made a schedule, but did not really use it.	You were on task at all times. You made a schedule for yourself and adjusted when necessary.
Blog Design	Your blog is not very organized. You do not include many of the things mentioned in the excellent category.	Your blog is somewhat organized and interesting. You include most of the things mentioned in the excellent category.	Your blog is well organized and interesting. You include: video, text. pictures, audio of you talking, important links. a link to the activity for your classmates to do, and a link to the self assessment.

Suggestions or comments??