Celebrating the Holidays and Teaching Culture Through CI

I created a lesson to talk about Christmas traditions.  The targets were communicative and also cultural;  I want my students to be able to converse in Spanish about these celebrations, and also to compare and contrast their traditions to the traditions of other countries.
I chose high frequency vocabulary to use in this activity:

1) los dejan = they leave them
2) traen regalos = they bring presents
3) los ponen = they put them

Yesterday, I began with a Power Point introducing vocabulary and having students write down in their vocabulary lists.  We decided on a gesture for each of the structures and practice them with TPR. 

Then, following the power point, we continued with conversation as I tried to personalize each of the structures.  I pointed out the different verb forms in our conversation using pop-up grammar: "Pedro, tú traes regalos para tu maestra?" What does the "s" in "traes" mean?" etc.
The power point introduced them to Los Reyes Magos, and I explained (in Spanish, using their new vocabulary) what is that tradition all about. 
After the presentation and conversation/circling of structures, recycling old vocabulary, I asked them to do a Venn Diagram comparing Santa Claus and Los Reyes Magos.  I had them do this as a Think-Pair-Share activity, and then we created a class Venn Diagram on the board. 
Today, we watched the commercial "Santa vs Los Reyes" (below) using Movie Talk.  At the end of the powerpoint, I included screen shots of the commercial, so that students could retell with partners for more practice.  They enjoyed it! Afterwards, we used individual white boards: Students are in pairs, I ask a question and they write their answer on the boards and compare/discuss with partner.  Tomorrow we will write the story as a class (students dictate, I write on white board) and then have them write on their own.  What are you doing to celebrate the holidays and teach culture through comprehensible input?

Golden Rule: Never assume!

As I stated before, this is the 2nd year that I have been teaching using CI/TPRS.  This year I have a Spanish 3 class with students that I had never met (even when I taught the traditional method.)  I assumed that they remembered Reflexive Verbs and today, as I had planned to have a quick review to prepare them for the awesome lesson plan with Movie Talk that Martina Bex created and posted in her blog found here, I stopped when I realized that they were looking at me with a blank stare.  Then I asked:  do you know what is a Reflexive Verb?  No! they responded.  I assumed they did, because last year, with my Spanish 1 and 2 classes we used them regularly, and to my content they retained it over the summer. When they looked at me scared, I told them that they would know when I showed them, because we have been applying them via CI from the start of the school year.  I listed a few on the board, and when they realized that they were familiar, they relaxed. 
Then, I proceeded to use some TPR to introduce some of the most used to describe daily routines.  After doing gestures and sounds, I used PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers) to develop conversation and have students listen to the other forms besides first person singular.  We sang and did motions for  "La Rutina Diaria" .  The "review" that I had was longer than I expected, but this experience only reinforced my belief that if we teach students a bunch of isolated vocabulary words, and teach them lots of grammar rules to memorize, they will succeed in their tests at the moment but they will not retain the material unless we personalize it and make it meaningful.  Tomorrow we will reapply all of that and expand with the activities for the Movie Talk.
What big "a-ha!" moments have you had lately?

Thanksgiving Activity

 

Celebrating Thanksgiving

 On the day before our Thanksgiving break, (when students are just counting the minutes to leave) we did some activities that gave them a mental break but at the same time continued with the plan of providing comprehensible input as much time as possible.  With the target structures being: to give (thanks) in all verb forms.

1) Individually, I asked them to think of five things that they are thankful for. 

2) Then, in teams of three they had to narrow the list down to 4. 

3) Choosing a partner from a different team, students were to reduce the list to only two. 

4) Using only Spanish, I asked the group to tell me what the results were as I was writing the on the board. 

Lastly, I wrote the words (color-coding them): "lujo" (luxury) and "necesidad" (a need), and asked my students to categorize each of the words in the list.  When they were defining them, I circled other structure: "no toda la gente tiene..." (not all the people have...) and "por eso, es importante dar gracias" (that is why it is important to give thanks).  This is more or less how the circling went:  when they categorized "casa" as a need:

"Yes, it is a need.  Defined as a "lugar para vivir" (place to live).  Clase, does everybody have a place to live?  No, not everybody has a place to live.  There are people living on the streets.  Who lives on the streets?  Do I live on the streets? Clase, are there people living on the streets?  Are there people who are cold because they don't have a place to live?  Yes, that is why it is important to give thanks because we have a place to live."

With this activity, I circle the target structures not only by saying what they give thanks for, but reflected and engaged in conversation comparing their lives with other less fortunate people.  The point of reflecting was powerful! I saw it in their facial expressions.  Lastly, I had them choose two of the things that personally they were thankful for, and wrote them in a leaf or a turkey to post on the hallway wall.  If I could do it again, I would add a power point presentation with pictures of people lacking what students are thankful for, so that the reflecting part becomes more meaningful and also to provide more points of conversation.







Getting Ready...

Hello,

It has been a long time since I posted something... unfortunately I had a very difficult year due to a herniated disc which made my life miserable during the last school year.  Now, I am recovering from surgery, and even though I still have some pain left, I am happy because I am feeling better.

 Disappointing that because of my health issues I couldn't attend NTPRS13 this year... however, I found the electronic handouts that were given:   http://ntprs.org/ntprs.org/Handouts_2013.html I am sure they will help me catch some speed!

Now I am trying to get ready to go back to school (not an easy task!) trying to get as many resources as possible to make this year the best of my life!
I am determined to make regular postings and record every step of my way to turn my classroom into a full time CI/TPRS class!

Hasta la próxima!

Marta