Category: Spanish (Page 1 of 13)
Spanish Conversation Class
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Intermediate
Class theme/topic discussed: Wild animals
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Identify and categorize vocabulary related to animals and pets.
- Use conditional and past subjunctive to talk about possible scenarios
- Discuss the benefits and risks of having a pet.
- Compare, contrast and rate animals using a given criterion (danger to humans)
Class structure:
Warm up:
Juego de la Canasta: In a circle, one of the students chooses a subcategory of the main theme (example: body parts of animals, wild animals of the sea, dangerous insects, etc.) and each one will say a work without repeating what someone else said. When someone repeats a word or says something that does not belong to that category, that person loses and start another subcategory.
Activity:
Students answer the questions in small groups: If you had been an animal in a past life, what animal would you be?
They discuss the following questions:
¿Cuál es tu animal salvaje favorito? ¿Por qué te gusta tanto?
¿Has tenido alguna experiencia cercana con un animal salvaje? ¿Cómo te sentiste?
¿Crees que las personas deberían intentar tener animales salvajes como mascotas? ¿Por qué? ¿Qué animal tendrías de mascota?
“¿Cuál te asusta más?”: Students see pictures of 6 animals that might dangerous to humans. In groups, they compare them and rate them in terms of which one would be more dangerous and which one would not be as much; creating a list. They later share it with the rest of the class and compare their rating with the other group. If their results are different from the others, they will make a little debate in order to show the others why they think it is how they are determined.
Discussion:
Students discuss the following questions about ethics on animals. After that, the class is divided two groups and they do a little debate on 2 different postures.
¿Qué tan diferentes son otros animales a los humanos?
¿Hasta qué punto es válido que no sean tratados como sujetos de derecho?
¿Qué soluciones podrían existir para evitar el maltrato a animal?
¿Qué piensas sobre los zoológicos? ¿Son buenos o malos para los animales salvajes?
¿Deberíamos dejar que los animales salvajes vivan en libertad o deberíamos mantenerlos en cautiverio para su protección?
¿Qué responsabilidad tienen los gobiernos en la protección de los animales salvajes?
Wrap up:
Students wrap up the debate and give their final thoughts on the topic
Resources used: Powerpoint presentation.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
Some students were very passionate about the topic, especially in the debate. However, there were some students that were not as engaged. But the class went well. While they were in groups, I went around helping with vocabulary and trying to ask direct questions to the students that were not participating as much.
Level: INT/ADV
Class Topic: Chilean celebrities and gossip
Students will be able to:
- Practice using colloquial language and expressions in Spanish
- Practice expressing opinions, making predictions, and giving personal information in Spanish related to Chilean celebrities and gossip.
Class structure:
Warm up:
Students talk about what the most important celebrities are in the US, and the facilitator writes down vocabulary words that they use on the board. They are asked whether they know about any celebrity from a Spanish-speaking country.
Activity:
Students watch a short clip of a Chilean celebrity (Nicole Moreno Luli). In groups, they describe the situation on the video and make assumptions on what might have happened before that video.
Jigsaw Gossip: Each group receives a different scandal from a Chilean celebrity, they learned the details, watch a short video on it, and talk about what they think about it.
After that, each person is placed in another group. That new group will have a participant from each previous group. The idea is that each participants shares the scandal with the others and they all give their opinion on them. They rank each scandal considering the celebrity that acted the worst.
Wrap up:
In groups, students perform the favorite scandals in front of the class
Resources used: Youtube, Powerpoint presentation
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
I didn’t know if students were going to be engaged, but after they saw the videos, they seemed very interested in gossip of these celebrities. They asked me a lot of questions about the details and they seemed to have fun creating possible scenarios trying to explain why that happened. In some ocassions, I had to remind them to use Spanish, because some cases needed extra vocabulary that they didn’t have, so I tried to be around and helped them as much as I could. If I did this class again, I would have extra vocabulary to provide them in order to support them while discussing.
Level: Advanced
Class Topic: Chilean memes and viral videos
Students will be able to:
- Practice using colloquial language and expressions in Spanish
- Identify popular Chilean memes and viral videos and their cultural significance
Class structure:
Warm up:
The facilitator starts by showing a picture of a popular Chilean meme and asking the students to describe what they see and what the meme means. The facilitator writes vocabulary words in the white board that are relevant to use in the class
Activity:
In groups, students are assigned list of popular Chilean memes and viral videos, such as “Papi ya bájame”, “Instinto de madre leona”, “No soy material de los weones”, etc., and ask the students to watch them and analyze the language and expressions used. They are allowed to use their phones to watch them. Then, in their groups, they will practice using the new expressions in their own sentences.
Activity: Role play
The class is divided in 3 groups to work on the cases at first.
In small groups or pairs, students choose one of the videos and perform it in front of the class. They plan and prepare for it, discussing how they want to perform it, what elements they want to change and the kind of vocabulary that they want to use
Wrap up:
Students discuss and vote on the performance that was best in the class. They consider their acting, use of vocabulary and creativity
Resources used: Cellphones, Youtube, Powerpoint presentation
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
It was a bit difficult for students to understand the vocabulary on the videos, which is why I wouldn’t do this class for the intermediate class. I tried to show them the kind of words that they would find in the videos, so they had an idea. They had fun though, and they did a great job performing the videos.
Level: Intermediate/advace
Class Topic: Crime and law
Students will be able to:
- Use vocabulary related to law, trials, crime.
- Identify and discuss differences between legal systems in the US, Chile and other Spanish-speaking countries
- Simulate a mock trial with a case taking roles as the different participants of a trial
Class structure:
Warm up:
The facilitator shows a picture of a crime scene in Chile and asks the students to describe what happened and what they think the motives were. The teacher will then introduce the topic of crime and law and ask the students what they think about it.
The facilitator writes vocabulary words in the white board that are relevant to use in the class
Activity:
Students see an image of how the judicial system in Chile works. In groups, they compare it to the system in the US. They discuss similarities, differences, as well as pros and cons of them. They answer the question, what’s the good and bad thing about having a jury?
Activity: Mock trial
The class is divided in 3 groups to work on the cases at first.
First, each group decides what the case is going to look like: what is the crime in hand? Who is the suspect? What can witneses say about it? What evidence has been found?
Second, one person in the group becomes the defendant and another person becomes the lawyer. Then, for each case, the facilitator assigns people from other groups to participate in each case: a Fiscal (prosecutor), a witness and a judge. At the end of that part, for each of the 3 cases, each students has a role, which means that for one case, a student will be the attorney, but also the witness for another case and the defendant for another case.
Third, they role-play the trial of each case. Each student has a role for all of the cases, so they can all participate.
Wrap up:
Students discuss what they learned and how the trials went. They provide feedback on what could have been different in the trials and the evidence that could have helped.
Resources used: Powerpoint presentation
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
The class was fun! At first, I was a little bit afraid that intermediate students might not be able to use legal jargon, but once we had vocabulary on the white board, they were able to access it at any time and they did a good job. Organizing the cases was a little bit messy, so I think I’d be good to show them a diagram of how cases are going to be organized, so that they know what they’re supposed to do. But it was fun to do the mock trials and students seemed to have fun doing it.
Language resident: Natalia Cano
Class theme/topic discussed: Influencers
Goal of the class: The students learn critical vocabulary, some information about Spanish influencers and practice conditional
Class structure:
Warm up:
-What do you like most about influencers?
-Do you follow any influencers? Why do you follow them?
-Do you think influencers have a social responsibility? Why?
-What do you think about the relationship between influencers and brands?
-Do you think influencers can influence the behavior of their followers?
-What do you think about influencer scams that are sometimes seen on social networks?
-Do you think the popularity of influencers affects the way people view their own lives?
-Have you ever bought something recommended by an influencer and why?
-Do you think influencers have a positive or negative impact on society?
-What do you think about the regulation of advertising and collaborations between influencers and brands?
Activity 1:
What Spanish influencers do you know?
Activity 2:
We watch this video with Georgina’s best quotes:
Activity 3: Conditional
Imagine you have have Georgina’s credit card for a day. What would you do?
Resources used:
Georgina’s video
What worked well? What did not work?
This class went well because my students are very talkative and they were willing to talk a lot.
Language resident: Natalia Cano
Class theme/topic discussed:
Goal of the class: The students learn vocabulary related to sports and Spanish athletes
Class structure:
Warm-up:
- What sports do you like to practice?
- Have you ever played basketball? How was it?
- What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Why?
Activity 1: Vocabulary check
In pairs they have to decide how to say these words in Spanish:
-soccer
-basketball
-tennis
-swimming
-cycling
-track and field
-skiing
-snowboarding
-surfing
-boxing
Activity 2: In pairs/as a group
-Do you know any famous Spanish athlete?
-What sport do they practice?
-What was the biggest prize they have won?
Activity 3:
What of these athletes do you don’t know? Find information about them and share it with the rest of the class.
-Rafael Nadal
-Pau Gasol
-Andrés Iniesta
-Mireia Belmonte
-Alberto Contador
Activity 4:
-Do you like to watch the Olympic Games?
-What Olympic sport is your favorite?
-What is the country with more Olympic Medals?
Backup:
Have you ever been to a live sport event?
How was the experience? What do you remember about that day?
Resources used:
Powerpoint, google
What worked well? What did not work?
This class worked pretty well, they shared they experiences with each other. The only problem for me was that I was expecting 4 students and only 2 arrived, so it was not as dynamic as I expected.
Language resident: Natalia Cano
Class theme/topic discussed:
Goal of the class:
Class structure:
Warm up:
-What do you think about architecture?
-Do you like it?
-Is it art?
Activity 1:
What is your favorite building? Why?
All the students show each other their favorite building
Activity 2:
The students get a lot of famous buildings around the world and they have to say if they know the building, if they know where it is, if they have been there and if they would like to go.
Activity 3:
The students have to match the building pictures with their name and a short explanation about them.
Resources used:
Powerpoint, building pictures, names and explanations on paper.
What worked well? What did not work?
The class was fantastic. My students favorite buildings were beautiful and we all had a great time.
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Class theme/topic discussed: Holidays
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Discuss the differences of celebrations among cultures in latin america and the US.
- Describe a celebration that is relevant for them using frequency adverbs such as: generalmente, a menudo, la mayoría de las veces, casi nunca, siempre.
Class structure:
Warm up:
Students are asked to think about a good/funny/interesting/bad memory they had related to a holiday and share it to the class.
Activity:
The instructor shows some images/videos related to holidays that are celebrated in Chile (fiestas patrias, La tirana, Semana santa, minga etc) and then other celebrations of Latin America (Inti raymi, fiesta de las flores, carnaval de barranquilla, etc). Students see images of celebrations of other countries in Latin America and ask questions about what happens in each celebration.
Students are asked to talk about the most common holidays in their country, the differences between those and the ones that were shown to them and their favorite celebrities. They will do that in pairs or groups of three, and then share to the rest of the class.
¿Qué celebración es?: Each students is given 3 pieces of paper: an image, the description of a celebration and the name of one. Those pieces don’t match, so they have to go around walking in the room and they talk to their classmates to negotiate and exchange them, so as to match each image with the right name of celebration and its description. The only rule is that they can’t show the images or the descriptions, but they have to describe them with their own words.
Wrap up:
Students discuss whether holidays are important and whether there is something that they would change to any of the ones that they have talked about.
Resources used: Powerpoint presentation.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
Conversations about this topic with this class were very reflexive and there was a lot to talk about. Since they come from different cultural backgrounds, there were many things that they did, others that they did differently and students were interested to know more about their classmates’ celebrations.
The matching images to celebration was a bit challenging but it helped students use their own words to describe celebration. They ended up learning a lot about traditions without being explicitly taught about them.
At the end of the class, there was a little bit of a not-planned debate on whether holidays were important, since one of the participants raised the point that even though it was nice to have them, we could still live without them. At first it was going great, but then the conversation got a little bit intense among them. It was time to go anyway, so I basically thanked them for their great opinions and finished the class.
Language resident: Natalia Cano
Class theme/topic discussed: Health
Goal of the class: The students learn the basic vocabulary to survive in a Spanish-speaking country in case they get sick and have to go to the doctor.
Class structure:
Warm-up: Brainstorm: parts of the body and diseases
The students have 3 minutes to brainstorm about this topic.
Activity 1: Useful vocabulary
Hola, quiero pedir hora para una cita.
Doler: me duele el estómago/me duelen las rodillas
Estar: estar resfriado/a, mareado/a, enfermo/a, herido/a
Tener: tener fiebre, covid, tos.
Dermatólogo, oculista, cardiólogo
Tarjeta sanitaria, radiografía, ecografía, análisis de sangre, análisis de orina, una receta, una receta, farmacia, pastillas, jarabe, la crema
Ir en ayunas, la baja/el alta
Una operación de corazón/apendicitis
Activity 2: Situation
Juan tiene dolores abdominales desde hace unos días y tiene que ir al médico de cabecera para la revisión. Naima, su cuidadora, pide una cita y lo acompaña a la consulta.
The students have to come up with a theatrical situation with the following characters: Juan, Naima, the doctor.
The students show their theatrical piece to the rest of the students and, after that, I show the students one video with the actual situation and they ask question related to vocabulary.
Resources used:
What worked well? What did not work well?
This class went very well. The students had a lot of questions, so three activities were enough. They were very interested when I explained them cultural things as the ”tarjeta sanitaria europea” concept.
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Intermediate
Class theme/topic discussed: Animals and Pets
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Identify and categorize vocabulary related to animals and pets.
- Discuss the benefits and risks of having a pet.
- Compare, contrast and rate animals using a given criterion (danger to humans)
Class structure:
Warm up:
Juego de la Canasta: In a circle, one of the students chooses a subcategory of the main theme (example: animals of the sea, animals that have tales, activities people do with their pets, etc.) and each one will say a work without repeating what someone else said. When someone repeats a word or says something that does not belong to that category, that person loses and start another subcategory.
Students are encouraged to speak up when they think someone has said something that is not necessarily part of that category and explain the reasons for that. Whoever is alluded can either refute the other’s claim or lose and start a new subcategory
Activity:
Students talk about their current pet, a pet they had in the past or a pet that they might like to have in the future. They are encouraged to show a picture of it to the class in order to illustrate it.
In couples or groups, they discuss the benefits and risks of having a pet. They can use the chipboard to remember main points and then share with the rest of the class.
“¿Cuál te asusta más?”: Students see pictures of 6 animals that might dangerous to humans. In groups, they compare them and rate them in terms of which one would be more dangerous and which one would not be as much; creating a list. They later share it with the rest of the class and compare their rating with the other group. If their results are different from the others, they will make a little debate in order to show the others why they think it is how they are determined.
Wrap up:
Each student briefly describes an animal of their preference without saying what it is. The rest of the class asks questions to find out what that animal is.
Resources used: Powerpoint presentation.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
Animals seem to be a relatively popular topic and so students will engage with it. Activities went well with no major difficulties. They went through a lot of vocabulary at the beginning of the class so that they could use it later on in the activities. Maybe one of the challenges is that students get very excited and conversations might go off topic a little bit, which i don’t think is necessarily bad. Students seemed to have fun
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Intermediate
Class theme/topic discussed: Work and future plans.
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Describe job positions, tasks, different work settings and eventual future plans.
- Talk about hypothetical situations and things that they would like using the conditional form (for example, trabajaría, ganaría, me gustaría, etc.)
- Simulate job interviews
Class structure:
Warm up:
Word Box: students come up with vocabulary words related to the topic and the facilitator writes them on the board. There will be a chart on the board to organize them, in terms of objects, actions and characteristics.
Students discuss the following question in a small group, then share it to the class: have you ever had a job? What was it? What kind of job would you like to have in the future?
Activity:
Students watch a video of a woman talking about her job routine and tasks. They talk in a group and then share the following:
- ¿A qué se dedica?
- ¿Cuáles son sus funciones?
- ¿Cuál crees que son las ventajas y desventajas de su trabajo?
- ¿Trabajarías en algo similar?
Choose the right person for the job: Each student chooses one occupation for which they will be looking for a candidate. In two rotating circles (one inside of the other) students will interview each other simulating short job interviews. First, half the class will interview and the other will be interview. Those who interview have to describe the job position and ask questions to the other. After a couple of minutes, the circle rotates and they interview the next one. After the circle does a whole round, they switch and those who were being interviewed, take the other role.
At the end of the activity, everyone shares who they would hire for that position. The person who gets more job offers wins.
Wrap up:
Students talk about what their ideal job would be, describing hypothetical work settings, talks, routines and so on.
Resources used: Powerpoint, projector, youtube video https://youtu.be/3AgAj069znc
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
Students seemed excited to go back to class after finishing the project. They seemed to have fun with job interviews and choosing the right candidate, since they ended up acting as real hr agents and being critical about the candidate’s background. It might have been a bit repetitive but it seems that it helped them by being exposed to certain questions that they could be potentially ask one day if they ever have a job interview in Spanish
Language resident: Natalia Cano
Class theme/topic discussed:
Travel, animals and future tense
Goal of the class:
The students revise animals vocabulary, travel and present and future tense
Class structure:
Activity 1:
We go on a safari. The students have to decide in pairs a safari trip for the Language residents. They have to decide where to go, who many days, find the flights, accommodation and things to do.Once they found all the information, they have to present it to the class.
Activity 2:
What animals would we see on a safari?The students brainstorm about all the animals they know and I give them the vocabulary they do not know.
Activity 3:
What is your animal spirit?The students take a test in Spanish to discover their animal spirit. Then, they share it with the rest of the class. The LR also takes the test, so their information can also be shared.
Activity 4:
Animal stories.
I give each student cards with 4 random animals. They have to come up with a story for kids where those three animals are characters.
Backup activity: animals taboo
The students play taboo with the cards previously used in the activity 4.
Resources used:
Animal spirit test:
https://www.arealme.com/spirit-animal-quiz/es/
What worked well? What did not work?
I would add a warm up as: what is your favorite way of traveling. However, I did not do it because the previous class to this one was about traveling. The class went very well and the students were very talkative. They made me play a Taylor Swift video about a safari. I was not very happy about showing a song in English in the class, but the video had a very interesting plot, so I made them explain what happened in the video in Spanish once the video was done. We did not have enough time to do the backup activity.
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Advanced
Class theme/topic discussed: Películas y series
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Express interests using expressions such as “me gusta, me encanta, me fascina, prefiero, detesto”.
- Describe movies considering elements such as plot, characters, genre and setting.
- Use the present subjunctive in adjective clauses using expressions such as “buscamos a alguien que…” “necesitamos un ____ que…”
Class structure:
Warm up:
Juego de la Canasta: In a circle, one of the students chooses a subcategory of the main theme (example: horror movies that start with A, comedy movies of the 80’s, etc.) and each one says a movie or series without repeating what someone else said. When someone repeats a word or says something that does not belong to that category, that person loses and starts another subcategory. They have to use titles in Spanish only.
Activity:
Students talk about their interests in movies using expressions such as: me gusta, me encanta, me fascina, prefiero, detesto”, etc. The following prompts will be displayed on the screen as well as examples of how to respond. After that, they share it with the whole class.
- Películas/series que encuentras interesantes
- Películas/series que consideras raras
- Tus placeres culpables
- Películas animadas que te gustan
- Películas /series que te decepcionaron
- Películas/series que son aburridas
- Películas/ series que nunca verías
Movie producers: In groups, students are the producers of a new movie that’s going to be released. They discuss what kind of movie they want to make, how they want it to go, what kind of director they need; using expressions such as: “buscamos a alguien que…” “necesitamos un ____ que…” . They will focus on the following aspects:
- Genre
- Plot
- Setting
- Director
- Actors
- Budget
They will present their idea to the rest of the class
Wrap up:
Adivina la película: They play in groups. In turns, each student gets a random movie genre and picks a card, where there will be the name of a movie. That student describes the movie and his group has to say the name of the movie in order to get a point. The group that has more points wins.
Each card will not only have the name of a movie, but also 3 words that are related to that movie. Students are supposed to describe it without saying any of those words. If they do, they lose their point.
Resources used: Powerpoint presentation. Printed out pieces of paper.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
The topic seemed to be engaging to students. First activities were easy to follow, and for the “movie producers” it was a bit more challenging. They had been practicing the uses of the subjunctive in previous classes so I went around giving them some extra support and asking questions. They ended up doing a great job and they laughed a lot. The activity that probably worked the most was the Adivina la película. The restriction of words that they could use made them have to find other ways to use the language to explain something, and they managed to do it eventually.
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Advanced
Class theme/topic discussed: LGBTIQ+ Issues II
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Discuss issues that affected the LGBTIQ+ both today and in the past.
- Compare struggles among the communities in the US, Chile or their own countries.
- Make hypothetical assumptions using the conditional form “ría” (i.e debería, podría, etc.) and negative ones using the subjunctive (i.e no creo que sea, es poco probable que intente, etc.)
Class structure:
Warm up:
Students see an image of a piece of news of a recent piece of news in Chile that equal marriage is now officially legal since March 1st. Since there are students that took the class the previous semester, they compare the situation about that bill that they learned about the previous semester. They answer the questions “what do you think about this piece of news? what are the struggles that the LGBTIQ+ faces in your countries/states?”.
Activity:
Students see the extract of a videio in which discrimination situation occured in the middle of an interview. https://youtu.be/qh7WNAG117w
In small groups they discuss the questions: ¨Do you know about any similar situation in the US or in your own country? What do you think about it?¨
Students see headlines of Chilean old news about different situations that involved the LGBT community. They discuss the way language was used and the normalization of instults to reffer to someone gay. They are encouraged to use the conditional form for affirmative assumptions (i.e “podría estar intentando mostrar…”) and the subjunctive for negative statements (i.e “no creo que esté diciendo…”).
Lenguaje Inclusivo: The facilitator briefly explains the general rules to use inclusive Spanish in order to refer to a neutral gender or groups. In small groups, they create a story – each person ads a sentence to continue the story– using inclusive Spanish.
Wrap up:
As a group they exchange ideas on what would be some good ideas to make visible the realities and issues that the LGBTQ community faces today and how to support those who are struggling.
Resources used: Projector, Powerpoint.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
Students were very engaged with this topic. Students had a lot of questions about the situation in Chile and it was interesting for students who took the class last semester to see the progress that has been made over the last year. They practiced using inclusive Spanish and it was a bit challenging but they were able to do it. There was a lot of vocabulary that they asked to know, and we spent some time talking about words or expressions –and some words to avoid that might be offensive– related to the topic. In general people seemed engaged.
Appendix: Newspapers’ headlines
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Advanced
Class theme/topic discussed: Fake News
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Discuss the concept of Fake News, the ways it happens both in the US and in Chile
- Identify good ways to be informed about the news.
Class structure:
Warm up:
Think-pair-share: Students answer the questions: how do you usually get informed? How much time do you spend on that? Why do you think it’s relevant?
Activity:
-Students discuss in groups whether there is fake news in the US, how it usually happens and whether they want to share one in particular. They do that in groups and then they share to the class.
-Students see images of news papers/ social media posts of fake news that had an impact on Chile. Some of them were true and others were false. They discuss which ones are true and which ones were false, choosing some criteria to affirm that.
-Mentiras blancas: In groups, students discuss the following questions about white lies:
- ¿Son buenas? ¿Pueden ser buenas a veces?
- ¿Mienten mucho?
- ¿Son buenos mentirosos?
- ¿Te han descubierto alguna vez mintiendo?
-In couples, students select one piece of news that is real and they make up a fake one. They can use their phones to do that. After that, they tell both of them to the class and they have to decide which one is correct and which one is fake news.
Wrap up:
Students vote on which one was the most convincing of all.
Resources used: Projector.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
The topic seemed engaging for students. They followed the activities and the discussion prompts well in their groups. Students got the chance to talk a lot in the groups and couples. It was fun to hear their make up news and some of them were very convincing. Maybe what didn’t work so well was that, since there were a lot of couples, it took longer for the whole class to share their news, but students would make comments on them, so it wasn’t like they weren’t participating while the groups shared. They seemed to have fun with it.
Language resident: Natalia Cano
Class theme/topic discussed: Conditionals and money
Goal of the class: The students revise the conditionals, subjunctive and vocabulary related to luxury/material things
Class structure:
Activity 1:
Revision: conditionals and subjunctive
Activity 2:
The students had to tell me conditional situations they would think about, and we would translate it to Spanish and/or correct it.
Activity 3:
What would you do if you had 3 millon dollars?We make a list of all the things they would go. It was great to revise vocabulary.
Resources used: Lounge TV and powerpoint
What worked well? What did not work?
I would add a warmup to this class. This was not a easy class for them because we revised grammar. However I think it was helpful for them.
Language resident: Natalia Cano
Class theme/topic discussed: Music
Goal of the class: The students get to know the music their classmates like and they discover new songs in Spanish. They also (if they didn’t know before) get to know who Rosalia is.
Class structure:
Warm up: Interview your partner
- When do you listen to music?
- What type of music do you like?
- Do you always listen to the same type of music?
- Do you play an instrument? Which one? Which one would you like to play?
- If you had a band, what type of music would you play?
- What characteristics of an artist do you like?
- Do you think music represents a country’s society?
- Do you like artists that do social criticism?
- Do you know Spanish speaker artists?
Activity 1:
They students write down in the blackboard some information about the Spanish speaker artists they like.
- Name
- Nationality
- Music genre
- Favorite song
Activity 2: La voz
First I showed them a video of La voz Spain and then they have to be the new judges. Students are asked to turn around from the projector. I play some songs and they write down their new ‘’playlists’’ on the blackboard.
Activity 3: Rosalia and cultural appropriation
- Who is Rosalia?
- Look her up on Instagram?
- What do you think about her when you see her photos?
We played the video of Malamente and they identify all the typical Spanish cultural things in the video.
Resources used:
We played a little bit of this video because I wanted them to know who are the coaches in La Voz Spain:
This songs in YouTube:
- Paquita la del barrio – rata de dos patas
- Canelita: Juanito Juan
- Manuel Carrasco: no dejes de soñar
- Rels B: Reina de Pikas
- Natos, Waor, Recycled J: sudores frios
- Bad Bunny y Sech: Ignorantes
- C.Tangana: Paris
- Manolo Garcia: pajaros de barro
- Maná: rayando el sol
- La Oreja de Van Gogh – Muñeca De Trapo
- Juanes: A Dios le pido
- El sueño de Morfeo: esta soy yo
Rosalia: Malamente
What worked well? What did not work?
I think this class went well. The students enjoyed discovering new songs in Spanish and they also had the opportunity to talk about the kind of music they like and share this information with their classmates. I also think it was a good idea to do this class after the Spanish traditions one, so they already were able to identify the cultural examples in Malamente’s video.
Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Advanced
Class theme/topic discussed: My hometown (Online)
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Describe their home city/town and express what they like/ do not like about it. “Lo que me gusta de mi ciudad es que / lo que no me gusta es que” “Lo que más me gusta/ lo que menos me gusta”
Use comparatives and superlatives to express similarities and differences among cities “Sao Paulo es más grande que Valparaíso” “Santiago es la ciudad más grande de Chile”
- Express desires for the future and explain the reasons for that. Example: “me gustaría vivir en Nueva York, porque hay muchos restaurantes allí”
Class structure:
Warm up:
Mi lugar favorito: Students will show us a picture of their favorite place in their hometown and explain why do the like that so much.
Activities:
- -The facilitator describes his hometown (Valparaiso) and shows pictures using a powerpoint presentation. Students are encouraged to ask questions about it if they want to know something else about it.
- -Students are divided in pairs or groups of three using breakout rooms. Each one in their corresponding groups describes their hometown and talk about what they like/do not like about it. After that, some students share with the rest of the class what they like the most and the least about their hometowns, while the facilitator shows pictures about their hometowns using the projector and Google Images.
- -In groups or couples, students talk about the city where they would like to live, and explain why. Then they share it with the rest of the class.
- -Students see 4 images of cities around the world (Santiago, Chile; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Morelia, Mexico; Singapur, Singapur). In breakout rooms, they discuss the following questions: what city do you think it is? Which one of them do you think is more quiet? which one is it closer? which one is more similar to your hometown? They share with the rest of the class after that.
Wrap up:
Using Jamboard, students design how the perfect city would look like and they give it a name. Then they share to the class.
Resources used: Powerpoint presentation, Google Images, Jamboard.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
Students participated well. They seemed engaged trying to figure out what cities they were and comparing them to where they came from. It seemed like students had fun with the last activity and laughed. What didn’t work that well was the fact that in one of the breakout rooms, students were not talking at all. I asked them about the questions and they started speaking, but maybe they were too shy to start speaking, or they had already talked about them quickly.