Language and Section: Spanish 13-01

Date: January 31, 2013

Class theme/topics discussed: Restrictions for guns in the US

Goal of the class: talk about this current topic with US students

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below)

We started the class with a little warm-up game: the pictionary. After I handed them an article about the restrictions of having guns in the US. This article appeared in the Spanish newspaper called “El Pais”. I also gave them a vocabulary sheet. In the same groups as for the pictionary, they had to each read a paragraph (it was perfect because the article had 11 paragraphs and there were 11 students!) and then explain the paragraph they read to their group. After that we talked about the article and I asked them questions. Then, again working in groups, I asked them to think of advantages and disadvantages of having guns. I erased the title of the article so they had to come up with a title that they though would fit best.

What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)

What worked well in this class? What did not work?

I worked well, but they were not very talkative.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I wanted to show them a couple of news videos in Spanish about this topic but we ran out of time. I will probably show it next class. It is always good to practice by listening to the Spanish news, even if it can be a little bit challenging. Maybe, in order to make it easier for them to talk, I should have given them a guideline with some questions/bullet points that they had to talk about in their own groups. I could have pointed a moderator who would make sure they go through every point.

Here are the links from the news that could have been very useful:

Protesta a favor de las armas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS5B69FpyjA
Plan Barack Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu16LhKJwZI
Sube la compra de armas (1.15′): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62TK08_iuw
”          ”          ”          ” (1.37′): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYgfUe0T2Do