Jumping on the Kitipun bandwagon!

You may have seen and/or heard about the song Kitipun by Juan Luis Guerra. I read about it on the Creative Language Classroom blog and then on Carrie Toth's blog... and now, I have finally jumped on the Kitipun bandwagon! Watch and listen here:

There are 39 objects listed in this song and most of them are pretty basic words. And the song and video are sweet and appropriate - yay!

Here is what I did yesterday with one of my classes:

• Reviewed the list of objects mentioned in the song (see slide 2 below) to make sure they knew what all the words meant. All students had a copy of the list.
• I cut up the sheet with all the objects and put little slips of paper in a bowl.
• The class was divided into two teams. The teams alternated turns with a timer of thirty seconds. One team member had to do the following:
• Choose a slip of paper at random.
• Describe the object with words only to the team. There was no acting, since this is an advanced class, but it could be done with charades for lower level classes.
• Another option for lower level classes would be for the teacher to write out and/or say definitions and have the students guess the words.
• Choose another slip of paper and repeat as many times as possible for thirty seconds.
• The number of objects guessed correctly = the number of points.
• After that game, I showed slides 3-5 to review the objects again. This could be done in a variety of ways: ¿Qué es esto?, this or that?, cierto/falso, matamoscas, preguntas, etc.
• We did a cloze activity with the lyrics.
• Then we watched the video - which is so cool because after the variety of input, they can understand so much of it and make the connection between hearing the objects and seeing the objects!
• Then we watched some of the videos about the Kitipun Challenge.
• And, because this class is a wonderful, fun group of students, we danced!
• We will sing the song for the rest of the week and enjoy the video too!

Here are some links, in case you want to adapt for your own use:

• Here is a link to a doc with the objects mentioned in the song and screenshots of many of the objects.
• Here is a link to an easy cloze activity with the song lyrics.
• Here is a link to the slideshow to make a copy.

Thinking about summer PD already?!?

What are your summer PD plans? 

I love doing PD in the summer - why!?! Because you actually have time to process it and think about it, instead of rushing back to school, figuring out what students did or didn't do with the sub, and catching up!

I am presenting my one-day (possible two, if there is interest) workshop "Transitioning from Traditional with CI Stories" on July 31st, in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. This workshop is limited to 25 people. Last summer, there was a waiting list of 10 people, so if you are interested, sign up soon! Click here or on the pic below to see the details and to sign up.

4/6/19 ---> Update, I have added a second day, on August 1st. Click here for details and registration. 

I am so excited to be attending and presenting at Comprehensible Cascadia in Portland, Oregon. I am also am going to attend Tina Hargaden and Mike Peto's pre-conference workshop. If you have the opportunity to see either of them, I highly recommend it.

Last summer, I went to the iFLT and it was EXCELLENT! I highly recommend it. This year it will be in Jacksonville, FL. 

The previous summer, I went to the Express Fluency week in Vermont. That was also excellent, and kinda like a mini-iFLT.

I highly recommend conferences like Comprehensible Cascadia, iFLT, and Express Fluency because you can WATCH expert CI teachers teach REAL classes --- it is especially powerful if you it is a language that you DON'T speak!

There are so many amazing opportunities this summer and Mike Peto created this map of CI Workshops this summer.

3 Bellezas... con un recurso MUY especial

In the past, I have blogged about using the movie 3 Bellezas in AP Spanish in the past and shared these free resources:

• unit packet (updated this year with an article related to la crisis) 
• slideshow with CI readings to do as we watch 

...but I am writing about it again because the coolest thing happened!! And I have permission to share it here for other teachers and students.

But first, a little about the movie. I LOVE the movie period. I also LOVE for the theme of "La belleza y la estética". It is a dark comedy and definitely not for everyone. I would only use it with older students and you definitely have to skip some parts!  However, if you frame the movie as a dark comedy and learn about the context of the movie (by reading authentic articles about concursos de belleza in Venezuela - in unit packet), students will like the movie too... but you definitely have to prepare them ---> it does not have a Hollywood ending.

Like I have in the past, we did a Seminario Socrático to discuss the movie and it went very well. I am so proud of my students and their ability to think deeply and communicate their ideas. One student, who had done a Seminario Socrático in the past, said that she thought 3 Bellezas was excellent for the Seminario Socrático because there was a lot to talk about.

So, here is the cool thing that happened... I reached out to Carlos Caridad, the director/writer of the movie, and he responded and answered my students' questions! You can see more in this slideshow. He has given me permission to share this with other teachers. It will be a perfect addition at the end of the unit!

We watched four of the videos today and will continue to watch them tomorrow and into next week. Some parts were a bit challenging for my students, but I also saw bright, sudden smiles when they realized they could understand big portions of his answers!

Feel free to make a copy here. The questions are more like notes for me, so you might want to adapt them.