El Mole: una canción para una comparación cultural

The first unit of my Cultura y Civilización unit this semester is called "La Diversidad de la Gastronomía." Every time I do this unit, I change it and try to add new resources. Thanks to Bethanie Drew, I have added an episode Master Chef Jr. Spain. And thanks to Elena López (and myself) I have added the movie Canela, which has been a fabulous way to ease back into Spanish (after a year off for many of these Spanish 4/5 students). I recently used the movie to end the semester in Spanish 1 and I have been adapting it a bit for Cultura y Civilización, but mostly we are using it to talk a lot of Spanish.

And thanks to Jean Rueckert and @palomajulian, I have added the song "El Mole" by Virulo. The song is sung by Virulo, a Cuban singer/humorist, who describes what el mole is. The first video below has him talking about las papilas gustativas (taste buds) of the Cubans and the first time he tried el mole. What a fantastic cultural comparison!

The first part of the activity that I did with students has a partial (edited) transcription of what he says. We did it as a reading activity and then listened to him. Another fantastic cultural comparison was his accent! Students at this level can hear the difference and actually got a kick out of how he dropped many syllables, especially the "s" at the end of words.

Then he goes on to sing the song, which basically lists all the ingredients of el mole. Students listened and filled in the words that they heard. And we have been singing it all week. The chorus "Mete, mete, mételo todo en el molcajete" is super pegajosa. And El Molcajete is the name of the restaurant in the movie Canela, so that is a nice tie in.

Students will have to do a cultural comparison (in the AP style) at the end of this unit and I think many of them will use el mole as the cultural product from a Spanish speaking country.

In the past, I have used another song about el mole, "La Cumbia del Mole," by Lila Downs, but this current song is more of a hit with students.

                     

Canela: Familia, Casa, Comida

Update 2/20/18 - You can buy it on YouTube ($9.99) and watch with English Subtitles! And on Amazon too! Yay!

Update 8/5/17 - You can find the movie online here Pantaya (you will have to pay) and watch with Spanish subtitles.

Click here to see ACTFL Presentation

Update - 5/25/16 - Elena López is creating more resources to the unit and posting links here.

My Spanish 1 classes are nearing the end of the semester and it has been wonderful for so many reasons! I have been using mostly TPRS and CI (and no textbook) - big, enormous thanks to Elena López and Amy Zimmer, they not only shared tons of resources with me, but also gave me lots of advice and encouragement. 

So, I was hoping to read a TPRS novel at the end, but instead I have decided to do a unit wrapped around the movie Canela. We have done a lot of short films as "stories" in class and this unit will almost be like that, but with a much longer "story." Elena López has helped tremendously with this unit and I am looking forward to teaching it. I shared a guide for the movie in another post, but that is a little too advanced for my Spanish 1 students. The new unit packet is geared towards students at the end of Spanish 1 (we have block scheduling). Below are some of the other "pieces" of the unit, including a slideshow (with 134 slides - thanks Elena!) that will be la lectura before we watch the movie in segments. We will review with the same lectura in the unit packet. Feel free to use anything and let me know if you have any suggestions and/or ideas!

Also, here is a doc that has some other resources, including links to textivate activities, a couple of zaption activities and some memrise vocabulary sets.

**Note** In the unit packet, there are some vocabulary lists because I am "departmentally tied" to a textbook and have to cover/teach certain things.

Preguntas Esenciales:

• ¿Por qué es la comida tradicional importante en un país? ¿Cómo es una comida tradicional mexicana similar y/o diferente de una comida tradicional de mi país?
• ¿Por qué es la familia muy importante en la vida de una persona?
• ¿Cómo es mi familia?

Metas (Goals) de la unidad:

• I can describe my family.
• I can identify the rooms of a house.
• I can list foods that I eat for different meals of the day.
• I can show that I understand the movie Canela in a variety of ways.
• I can describe a traditional food from Mexico.

Evaluaciones:

• Quiz: Vocabulario - la casa, la familia, y la comida
• Quiz: In class work with the movie Canela
• Test:
• Listening Section: Listen to sentences about the movie Canela and write cierto or falso.
• Speaking Section: Describe a family member.
• Reading Section: Read about el mole and then answer questions. (includes cultural comparison)
• Writing Section: Write a summary of the movie Canela.
• Gramática: conjugations, el/la/los/las, un/una/unos/unas, some irregular verbs, adjective noun agreement

El plan:

• Listen, read and look at slide show for part of the movie.
• Watch that part of the movie and listen to the Spanish (you will also be reading the English or Spanish subtitles). Write 3-5 phrases/words in Spanish that you hear; they should be things you know or things you want to know.
• Read aloud with partner and circle the correct word.
• Answer questions or cierto/falso sentences below certain passages.
• Repeat for another section of the movie.

If any of this is useful for you, please consider giving back in a Radiohead style format.

Kiva con español 1

Before I explain what we did with Kiva in Spanish 1, I have to say that I got this idea from Kristy Placido and Carrie Toth, who did this with their Spanish 3 and 4 classes. I went to Carrie's presentation at CSCTFL and had been wanting to do something similar for a while.

If you don't know what Kiva is, it is a micro-financing site that gives micro-loans to people, mostly in the developing world, who cannot get a loan at a traditional bank. Kiva works with community organizations to distribute the loans.

After doing a story called Irene (as part of our "school unit") with the video below (resources and idea from Elena López), students were a bit sad and probably a bit more appreciative of what they have and where they go to school. Before they saw the twist at the end many were asking, "Why is she so happy to be going to school?"

So, with that idea in their heads, I decided this was a good opportunity to do something. So we watched "Living on One Dollar" (available on YouTube and Netflix). Here is the trailer:

After we watched the documentary, I shared the slideshow below to explain (in Spanish) what Kiva is  and then I explained what we were going to do to help someone like Irene. Instead of making a video about a person (like Kristy and Carrie's students did), students had to make a simple slide describing who the person is, what he/she looks like, how old he/she is, and why he/she needs the loan. We had $200 from one class and $100 for the other class (I donated $100, my mom donated $100, a paraprofessional donated $50 and a couple of students donated money as well). The next day we looked at the slides and decided who to loan the money to.

The slideshow explains what Kiva is and what we were going to do. Also, within the slideshow below is a story (different background) created by Dustin Williamson that was very helpful to explain what Kiva is and does.
                      
After seeing the slideshow, most students were very engaged and interested in exploring the Kiva site. 

**Important Note** I investigated a bit and there are some conflicting reports about Kiva, micro-financing and how much good it actually does. Also, I would look carefully at the lending institution in the country (the "middle man").  I decided that is still worth doing with a Spanish 1 class in rural New Hampshire, for the following reasons: 

• They learn about global poverty.
• They expand their view of the world.
• They learn about an option of loaning and not just giving.
• They see the power of technology.
• They see people trying to do good with technology.
• They learn to appreciate what they have.
• They feel good about helping people and might do it again in the future.

Here are the two slideshows from my classes. As is typical with Spanish 1 (in my school), about a third of them did not complete the assignment for homework.