Spanish B Unit: Hambruna y pobreza

I am going to start this post with a quote from a really inspiring person: George Bernard Shaw.

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea an we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

I really agree with this thought. We need to be able to open our classes and our minds to others, especially among teachers, so we can all move up together. Open doors can make a difference in our lives. Nobody is perfect and no-one should expect that from others.

In this post you will find all resources you need to do this unit with your IB Spanish SL class. If you think something can be improved, you have materials/resources than can be used along with this unit and/or you are missing something on this list, please let me know.


Unit's resources:

• Essential questions
• Unit planner [coming soon]
• Vocabulary [Quizlet]
• Texto A: Erradicar la pobreza [pdf]
• Texto B: Producción colectiva para salir de la pobreza [pdf]
• Texto C: Índice de pobreza multidimensional [pdf]
• Texto D: Conexión entre calentamiento global y hambruna [pdf]
• Crossword: Hambruna y pobreza [pdf]
• Formative assessment on Texto A [google form]
• Formative assessment on unit's vocabulary [google form]
• Summative assessment on Reading comprehension (Paper 1) [google form]

Let's your students practice what they've learned playing this crossword with key vocabulary related to the unit:

Lunaprofe 11/09/2014  2 comments

Language games (I)

Just a simple idea: games are fun and can be educative. 
Not because our students are playing games are necessarily learning. There are some controversial opinions out there about this educational approach.
I, personally, prefer "real" games, like "old" games as word-games, or some sort of game that involves hands-on, logic... because we can work through more angles and bring different skills to our class.

Also, timing is crucial for implementing games in our classes. The person that knows better your class is you. So, make some time to think about when this activity fits better within your class time. 
A few tips to take into consideration:
- games are great to be used as "transitions" if they are quick and students understand clearly the directions [you might want to spend some time practicing with your students before letting them rule the game]
- games work just beautiful at the end of class
- a good idea can be to give your students a grade [extra-points can be considered for this] for the game. This always motivates some students.

Today I want to share with you this simple but very effective language game. 

El padre de Ana tiene cinco hijas, que son: Nana, Nene, Nini, Nono. 

¿Cómo se llama la quinta hija? 

Through this simple sentence we are lighting up our students imagination, their capacity to develop critical thinking, logical thinking, curiosity...
We are encouraging them to think about the language itself (metacognition) and taking ownership of their discoveries. In the end, they have fun doing these easy brainteasers. To develop their prediction capacity, their guessing ability will help them a lot in their future real life situations.

Another classic language game is make students say or write a word starting for the same letter than the previous one ends. 
You organize your students in a circle, the first student says a word in the target language and the next has to come up with a word beginning with the last letter of the previous word.
Example: estudiar-risa-árbol-leer-ratón-nadar-...

Want more games? Check this fabulous website with 47 language games for learning a foreign language.

Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.

George Washington Carver

Sources:

Squire, K.D. (2002). Rethinking the role of games in Education. Game Studies, 2(1)

Squire, K. (2003). Video games in education. International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming (2) 1.

Do Your Players Know Their Role? - What Games Are, August, 2011

Lunaprofe 11/06/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish with movies: El hijo de la novia

Why movies?

1. Movies are something our students like. At least, they like the format. They are familiarized with them. They probably go to the movies on the weekends with their friends. 
2. The movies are primary sources for the language. The language our students are exposed through the movies is a native language, produced for/to native speakers.
3. The language in the movies is real. We will find a lot of authentic registers [poor people talking slang, rich people using a very sophisticated speech...] to work with.
4. With the right activities (pre-comprehension, ...) movies are not a passive activity but a really "active" activity in our class.
5. Movies are visual. It is a visual format we (pretty much all) are familiarized with it.
6. Movies are a huge "exposition" of the target culture. It depends on the movie but lots of them can help us bring up to the table interesting debates/discussions about cultural topics.
7. Movies stimulate creativity.
8. Movies develop our students capacity of analysis from different points of view.

A possible sequence to consider for planning purpose:

- Before the movie:

• Glossary
• Pre-comprehension activities [Anticipation]

-During the movie:

• notes
• comments
• answers
• quotes
• words lists

- After the movie:

• level-targeted tasks

Sequence based on Martha Florez

In this case, I propose a movie about rethinking our paths through life. The movie also expose us to a good dose of reality. Read the full review in IMDB or in BBC Reviews

It is interesting how many different types of text we can work with our students through movies. We can practice producing a review, a summary, descriptions of characters, dialogues/conversations, informal letter, email, interview, article... 

Ficha técnica de la película:

Título: El hijo de la novia

Dirección: Juan José Campanella

País: Argentina

Año: 2001

Fecha de estreno: 23/11/2001

Duración: 123 minutos

Género: Drama, Comedia.

Reparto: Ricardo Darín, Héctor Alterio, Norma Aleandro, Eduardo Blanco, Natalia Verbeke, Gimena Nóbile, David Masajnik, Claudia Fontán, Atilio Pozzobon, Salo Pasik

Productora: Patagonik Film Group, Tornasol Films, JEMPSA, Pol-Ka Producciones

Possible activities are listed below with worksheets and print outs. Enjoy!

Sources and resources:

• El cine, un recurso didáctico. El hijo de la novia. [Celia Carracedo Manzanera]
• El cine en la clase de ELE: El hijo de la novia [Josefa Álvarez Valadés & María Luisa Gómez Sacristán]
• Estrategias para desarrollar diferentes tipos de textos a través de las películas [Martha Flórez]

“Accordingly, globalization is not only something that will

concern and threaten us in the future, but something

that is taking place in the present and to which we must

first open our eyes.”

Ulrich Beck (German Sociologist; b. 1944)

Lunaprofe 10/27/2014  No comment

Visual orthography: la coma

This visual can be used for teaching just the ortography or we can also show our students a couple of things about the multicultural world we are living in.
My students always love how different is the perspective of using the comma with numbers in Spanish and Engish. 

After reviewing this graphic, challenge yourself doing this on-line activity [Google form] where you have to rewrite some paragraphs using commas:

Learn when to write a "coma" 

Remember: Smiling has a lot of benefits.

  A study of the European Journal of Social Psychology found that smiling actually makes you more attractive to those you smile at, you are more personable, easy going and empathetic when you smile.

Source for online-activity: 

• Orlando Cáceres Ramírez [Perfil en About.com]
• www.about.com

Lunaprofe 6/09/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish online: Mi vida loca

Bored during summer vacation?
Don't know what to do with your life?
You want to improve on your Spanish level?
This article might help you answering all previous questions. 
Mi vida loca is an interactive TV show (or internet show to be more accurate) to learn Spanish independently. It's interesting from the point of view that the student will have to interact with the show saying phrases and sentences aloud (with the possibility of checking pronunciation) to make the show going, making the activity very close to Real Life Situations. 
One of the situations you will face in the first chapter: you are in a taxi and you have to give directions to the taxi driver, then you will have to choose among euro notes the exact and correct amount to pay your bill. 
Another interesting available tool is "The Learning section", which is a learning supplement with video explanations of vocabulary and grammar, plus extra activities.
You have also available a syllabus and multiple printouts divided by "Grammar notes" and "vocabulary lists" for each chapter and focusing in specific language functions. For instance, the first chapter will focus on learning these specific "language situations": dealing with simple social situations, saying yes, no & saying I don't understand.
You can also take a look beforehand to the transcript to anticipate the content, improving your understanding of dialogues.
Take ownership of your learning, become your own teacher. Take the risk and you'll see how much you learn. Take a look to the teachers' tips and practice a role play or make a comment on "culture" section, tell us something about tapas.
One thing to take into account is that this TV show is produced by BBC with the assistance from people from the north of Spain. Therefore, they speak Castilian Spanish. 

Remember! There is NO Standard Spanish, all Spanish are standards and all are great, there is no one better than other. Each one has their own characteristics and particularities. For example in Castilian Spanish [used just in northern and central Spain] they pronounce the c as the English th- sound, while other varieties [Andalusian, Canarian, American varieties] pronounce the c like the s. Rather than being reluctant to learn different accents, I encourage you to learn from them all. Look at their culture particularities and compare them with the variety you are learning and get to understand and accept the differences. 
Great questions your teacher should be happy to answer: 
Why do they pronounce the c as th- in English in Castilian Spanish?
Why do they use "vosotros" in Castilian Spanish?
Why are so many varieties of Spanish in the world?

A green tip:

Do not print out any resources, save the needed files in your computer and work with them from your computer instead. You can make a difference. Remember that we need 15 trees to make 1 ton of paper. Want to know more about benefits of trees? Click here. Spread the word!

Resources:

• Watch Mi vida loca (chapter 1)
• Transcript
• Grammar notes
• Teachers' tips

Lunaprofe 6/02/2014  No comment

Visual orthography: Sino/Si no

Another poster 

• for a quick review 
• to post it in your class blog
• to make a poster and display it in your class
• to have a new idea with it
• ...

A possible activity:
I make my students to write a journal for my Spanish class. I like simple ideas: one class, one entry. For each entry I make them use a specific cohesive device / connector.
I use this poster to do a quick review during that class and then I project it on the board while they write their entry [I give them 5 minutes to write their daily entry at the end of each class].

Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.

Marie Curie

Lunaprofe 5/19/2014  No comment

Visual orthography: Punctuation [dos puntos]

I use these visual stimuli in my classes all the time, every day. 
It doesn't have to be something you really spend a lot of time on it. 
It works great to 

• warm up your class before you get into longer/more complicated things 
• use it like quick daily reminders
• use it as flashcards to review if you print them out and make a booklet with them
• use as posters to decorate and inspire your class
• .....

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

Albert Einstein

Lunaprofe 5/14/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish with songs: Somos distintos, somos iguales

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.”

Yip Harburg

Image source: http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/

Lunaprofe 5/12/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish online: Ver-taal

En esta página se pueden encontrar muchos tipos de ejercicios para practicar español. Por ejemplo, ejercicios de vocabulario que están distribuidos por temas y contienen imágenes, lo que ayuda al aprendizaje de las palabras pues se ofrece la imagen con la palabra. También puedes encontrar ejercicios de palabras parecidas, el juego del ahorcado, crucigramas y refranes. En esta web se ha hecho un trabajo muy amplio y serio, tienen una gran variedad de ejercicios para cada juego que ofrecen.
Tiene ejercicios de comprensión auditiva. Hay trailers de películas, anuncios, reportajes de telediario y vídeos culturales. Después de la escucha hay ejercicios relacionados con la comprensión de la audición. Este tipo de ejercicios varían y pueden ser de preguntas abiertas, ordenar la información escuchada, ejercicios de verdadero o falso, etc. Esta parte puede ser muy útil para alumnos que quieran trabajar la comprensión en casa porque necesitan un poco más de confianza y consistencia en su comprensión de la lengua.

Página muy recomendable para trabajo independiente en casa.

Fuente: http://www.ver-taal.com/ 

Lunaprofe 5/09/2014  No comment

Sound like a native

Yes, it's have been proven that interaction is essential for learning foreign languages. 
Yes, if your teacher is a native speaker can be your best option for interacting.
But, what happens when your teacher is not there or is not a native speaker?
You might want to use other tools like this one below to keep improving on your pronunciation (also calls phonetics for some people)

One of the main points of this site is that you have available a native speaker 24 hours a day just for you and it also comes with pictures and explanations (in Spanish) to help you out with tongue's position.

It can look too technical but it really comes in handy to grasp difficult sounds.

One of the best things is that this great tool is at no charge, thanks to Iowa University.

Activity:
Just as an informal practice or for a formative activity you can try something like this:
- choose a sound you are having difficulties with [ll, y, ñ...]
- practice that sound for an evening using this tool, choose 4 words to practice
- present 4 words containing that sound to your classmates and then to your teacher (ask him/her for feedback)

Remember, practice makes perfect!


Source: 

• http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/index.html#spanish

Lunaprofe 4/16/2014  No comment

QuizUp: Learning while having fun

One of my very best students (Thanks Valentina;) told me a few days ago that there is available a great new App for learning Spanish [is not new, they just included Spanish] QuizUp.

It's a Trivia game but with some interesting features:

1. If you are fluent in English or a native speaker and want to learn some Spanish playing Trivia is a perfect fit.
2. If nor English neither Spanish are your native languages but you are learning them this App is great because it provides interesting categories like grammar, finish the sayings, Thesaurus... all in English and up to 457 topics.
3. You can sign up or connect QuizUp to your facebook and play with your friends, challenge them or just take a sneak peek to their rankings...
4. Using this App for learning some Spanish you might get impress by the amount and the variety of people speaking or learning Spanish in the world. [just playing with random players in 5 minutes I got people from Turkey, US, Rumania and Germany]
5. If you don't want to be find out by your friends you can also use it on Privacy Mode [Go to settings]

If you want to learn some Spanish through QuizUp, first select Educational and then Spanish, as simple as that!

Click here to get it from Google Play

Remember this: "If you like something it becomes easier"

Lunaprofe 4/09/2014  No comment