Immigration is a topic that is almost always present in all international curriculums. In the IB appears in Language B, in ab Initio, Standard Level and High Level. This song will help us to understand the situation we are facing worldwide regarding immigration problems. It can be used as a starter for a unit focused on this topic, as a stimulus for a class debate, etc. Consider having your students singing the songs, singing is a skill that has so many benefits for your students, if not they can always just listen to the song and do the activities. But remember that singing will be active learning while listening will be just passive. Apart from all those activities you can do in your class we propose 3 interactive activities in this post:
Guantanamera is a classic of cuban folklore. There are many versions out there but in this case we want to utilize Playing for Change version because their version will allow us to talk about Multiculturalism in class. This is a good opportunity to bring in the IB Profile, especially, open-minded and work with your students relevant concepts such as Internationalism, International mindedness, etc Try to inspire your students to sing the songs, singing in class has been proven beneficial in so many ways. First thing is listening to the song, for the first time is recommendable just to listen to it, enjoy the music, the melody, the rhythm. In a second round students can take general notes on how many verses, try to write down the chorus, you can distribute the lyrics of the song with blanks to fill in, etc After listening comes the comprehension part, try to present comprehensible input to your students, draw words in the board, give them examples, use the word in a sentence, use synonyms, opposites, etc. After all this work you are ready to do the activities below:
This song comes in pretty handy when talking about cities and neighbourhoods. The topic "Urban and rural environment" is also present in a lot of curriculums and this song can be used to introduce the topic, comparisons, etc. It also is a great help to consolidate simple descriptive sentence structures with "Hay...". If you want to know more about how to describe in Spanish click here.
Remember that listening to songs, or even better, singing songs is a great way of learning a new language. Do it in your free time, create a playlist with songs in Spanish you like and listen to it on your way home, commute to work, etc.
If you want to keep learning, do the following activities. Now, read the interview below first and answer some questions about the interview: Read the interview below and answer the questions:
Entrevista a Amparanoia
Texto: Carlos Pérez de Ziriza / 27 de marzo de 2017 Tras tres álbumes facturados a su nombre, la cantante Amparo Sánchez ha decidido retomar la marca Amparanoia para celebrar no solo los veinte años transcurridos desde el álbum que la consagró como referencia ineludible de la fusión y el mestizaje sonoro a finales de los noventa (el exitoso “El poder de Machín”, editado en 1997), sino también para reivindicar la penetración popular de un discurso que caló también entre sucesivas oleadas de músicos posteriores.
P:¿Por qué Amparanoia de nuevo, tras tantos años de funcionar simplemente como Amparo Sánchez? ¿Ha pesado más la insistencia de tu entorno o las ganas propias de recuperar esa historia ? R:La idea nace de nuestra agencia de [ ? ], a quienes los promotores llevaban tiempo consultando cuándo podrían volver a ver a Amparanoia dando [ ? ]. Son ellos también quienes caen en la cuenta de que en 2017 se cumplen los veinte años de “El poder de Machín”. Así que lo que [ ? ] como una propuesta, [ ? ] a consultarlo con mi entorno más cercano, con mi gente, [ ? ] a pensar y de pronto me [ ? ] envuelta en la preparación de un álbum y de una gira, que empezamos ya en solo un mes. Y a llenarme de [ ? ] y de emoción. Sinceramente, no [ ? ] algo que yo me hubiera planteado hacer algún día. Pero lo estoy disfrutando mucho.
P:¿Tuviste claro desde un principio quiénes iban a ser los músicos invitados en cada tema? R:No. Bueno, tenía claro quién quería que estuviera. Eso sí. Tenía una lista larguísima, y podría haber sido un disco doble o triple. Interminable, porque en mi carrera he ido colaborando con muy diferentes artistas, y me hubiera encantado que hubieran estado todos. Pero no era posible. Por tiempo, por presupuesto también, y al final la lista se quedó en quince. Yo creo que no falta nadie, aunque podrían estar muchos otros. Pero la gente más importante de mi carrera está en este álbum.
P:Habías trabajado ya con Manu Chao, con Fermín Muguruza, con Dani Macaco, con Marina de Ojos de Brujo… pero no sé si con gente más joven, como La Pegatina o Esne Beltza, habías tenido ocasión de colaborar…
R:Son grupos que se han fijado mucho en Amparanoia, y con los que he tenido la ocasión de coincidir en la carretera. La primera gira de La Pegatina, por ejemplo, cuando eran muy jóvenes, coincidió con la primera de Amparanoia. Esne Beltza también han crecido oyendo mi música en fiestas populares, y habíamos coincidido, y hay una gran admiración. Se puede decir que los más jóvenes están ahí en representación de todo lo que aprendieron o tomaron de Amparanoia.
Singing songs is a phenomenal way of learning another language. In here you'll find interactive activities to learn Spanish with this fabulous song, Flaca by Andrés Calamaro. If you have any suggestions on this, please let me know ;)
Singing songs is a great way of learning/improving languages. We do it in my class, every single day. The students have fun and that on itself can be enough to take this activity into my class but there are more important things while having fun implied in singing songs. In order to help my students to develop independency, autonomy, we always talk in class about the strategies, activities we do and we reason them out. This continuous practice allows them to take ownership of what they do and help them realize they are in control of their education and that being an active agent of it is crucial for them to become a better student and person. How do I do this with my students: We start singing songs without any explanations or comments, we just sing. After that I ask my students to write down their thoughts on Why do you think we sing songs in class? [you will be surprised by how accurate their responses are sometimes] To conclude this activity I ask them to read this post and we do a debate the following class to put everything together. Let's try to summarize what I think in bullet points [they don't come numbered because the order is not related to importance]:
Some benefits of singing songs:
It's a fun way of learning vocabulary and pronunciation
Through singing you are training your "ear" for Spanish
It helps you comprehend Spanish better because you get used to native speakers of the language in a natural context. Singing is authentic.
When you listen songs from different singers from different places you are being exposed to different native accents
It is a new and enthusiastic way of learning for many students
When you are singing and learning you are being emotionally involved, therefore that learning that takes place is going directly to your long-term memory
A song gives you the opportunity of dramatizing the lyrics
When you are singing you acquire the information you need naturally
Songs present the language as parts and wholes
Singing songs will help you score highly in reading, spelling, reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, numerical operations and listening tasks
Music training will give you a major boost in terms of spatial-temporal memory
It benefits your oral communication skills
Songs are the perfect fit for many activities [language related]
If you are new to the language and you are struggling, singing songs will let you join the joy of learning at the very same level as the rest of the class
Songs are a snapshot of the culture, so singing songs you are gaining not just language knowledge but cultural one too
A song will make you learn language without even realizing it because it keeps the stress bar low while you are just enjoying singing with your friends
While listening to Mozart will not make you smarter, music instruction will help you score significantly higher on measuring spatial-temporal cognition, hand-eye coordination and arithmetic
Music improves your verbal skills and sensorimotor integration [musicians are better drivers]
Your neurocognitive skills will get better
Singing will help you achieve that fluency you have been struggling with in a natural and authentic manner
Back with music to learn Spanish, a former student (gracias Tina) passed me this youtube channels with Spanish versions of pop hits. We, teachers, are always talking about adapting the content to our students motivations... This is a great opportunity for that. Also, the bands are very talented and not just singing but editing the videos as well. These channels are, definitely, worth a try.
You can do any activitiy song-related with these, although take into account that all are high level language songs. We can try these channels with our Spanish B classes, ab Initio students could just listen for fun if they like the songs and make it optional. Make them compulsory for your class could bring down the moral of your students.
Ideas:
- One of these songs can be the perfect fit for one of your three Interactive Oral activities [10% of your final score] that you have to do in your Spanish B as part of your Internal Assessment. After listening to it, you can do a: - group discussion/debate about the topic of the song [remember this assessment is based on the core] - role-play based on the topic distributing your students in pairs.
- anything that involves oral interaction is valid - You can use edpuzzle.com and personalize your activity [believe me, if you don't know this site, it's amazing]
Teenagers love music. Teachers love learning. Make a cocktail and you obtain Lyrics training. You can use your Facebook account to sing up and get a free account in this site. Once you have made your students sign up they will have to choose their level: - beginner - intermediate - advanced - expert and two modes: - write: they will be typing the words [this can be interesting to set up a Spanish keyboard in your computer and get some practice] - choice: they'll get to choose from one out of four options. Apart from this, the site offers two more activities to do along with the song: - karaoke - new exercise [just for teachers] what you can basically do is just change the words and select write or choice mode. So far, I have been using it with my students for out-of-class practice. If they like Enrique Iglesias they can spend a full evening listening to the song in Spanish. If your students like music, this is a great way to go, they will improve their listening/comprehension skills, pronunciation, memorize phrases... A short selection of similar sites to learn languages with music: - http://www.lyrics.com/ - http://tubeoke.com/ Interested in music for a language class? Check this out!
If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.
This is one of the hits in my class. This tune usually makes my students crazy. I, actually, start my Spanish I classes with this song because the results are incredible. I rewrote this song (mostly of it, I believe) but the music remains as the original, which is really a sticky song. It is one of these melodies it get stuck in your head. I use it for talking about multiculturalism/interculturalism in my class. The topic is we are different but at the same time there is a lot of similarities among us.
Another important topic you can work on is rhymes (very simple ones) and get your students to know the basics of it and start recognizing these sounds in Spanish. Talking specifically about language, the worksheet in the back is centered in:
Descriptive phrases
Nationalities
Continents
Reading Comprehension
Conjugation of an irregular verb: PODER
Which is perfect for a beginners course. We always work Reading Comprehension with the songs too. So, this is always the first question of the worksheets: What is the main idea of the song? In this specific song we work a specific irregular Spanish verb which is very important for our students first steps in Spanish: PODER (to can). The last interest thing I want to highlight from this song is that gives you the opportunity to talk about cultural differences through a specific topic: continents. Almost every time I have had this talk with my students they are really surprised about this difference, and it's really interesting for their critical-thinking skills to see how they get to know such differences based just on culture and how both interpretations are justified. You always get interesting debates and discussions when you bring up this topic to your class. Somos Distintosomosigualessong by Antonio Luna Did you like this song? Get more in my scribd
“Words make you think. Music makes you feel. A song makes you feel a thought.”
One day a friend of mine told me: "Hey, Antonio! You are always happy, always humming or singing a song with a smile on your face. I want to thank you because your happiness is contagious" Sometime later I remembered this conversation when I was planning on starting to incorporate songs in my classes and gave me the last push I needed to make it happen (thanks Jose) This is one really important point in incorporating songs in our classes. They are contagious, they just stick in our minds for days and make us sign or hum them without even noticing it. A mother told me one day, "I knew my kid was learning Spanish because he was humming My way for weeks when he got home" I was shocked! Not just me, but more people experience this feeling with music! Definitely, this is an insuperable tool for learning languages and in addition to that it gives us more things like being happy (not to be discarded). What else can we learn from a song? Oh, yes! Culture! This particular song "Se me olvidó que te olvidé" was written originally by a Mexican popular singer and songwriter Lolita de la Colina which bring up to the table Spanish speaking countries, their culture, their literature, their music, folklore... but also, this jazz-flamenco version by Bebo & Cigala gives us the opportunity to talk about cultural contacts and exchanges through music and the consequences in real-life. Following the inter-disciplinary approach possibilities are endless.
"Interdisciplinary knowledge: don't blame Nature on our Universities and schools syllabus."
Jorge Wagensberg.
With this particular song, we worked also vocabulary, reflective verbs and time basically through a worksheet in the back of the lyrics.
Remember! If you don't play the guitar you can always play the song in your computer, CD-player or any type of player you use!
Immigration is a topic that is almost always present in all international curriculums. In the IB appears in Language B, in ab Initio, Standard Level and High Level.
