Author: Tamara Olivos (Page 2 of 2)
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Spanish Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed: Job interviews
Goal of the class: To learn vocabulary and to learn how to act in a job interview in Spanish
How did you structure the class?
Activity 1: to introduce the vocabulary I will give some students a word and others students will have a concept. They have to match the word with its concept by talking with their classmates. (see attachment)
Activity 2: We watch a video about a job interview and comment it as a class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKsyFrHSqC0
Activity 3: We watch a second video, a less serious one, a comment it as a class as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAoWdQa1hzo
Activity 4: We try to come up with the structure of an interview, what language they use.
Activity 5: Role playing. In pairs they will get one situation. They must act out an interview and deal with the problem written on their card. After this, so they can change roles, they will act out another card.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The first video was a little dark but they enjoyed the second one. They were very into the roleplaying.
The first activity was harder than I expected, I had to help them a lot and we ended up doing it as a class instead of everyone finding the answers on their own.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Intermediate Spanish
Class theme/topics discussed: Horror movies
How did you structure the class?
Películas de terror
Warm up: Introduce the topic by asking students if they like horror movies, why or why not, which ones are their favorites.
Activity 1: Students close their eyes while the video plays (from 0:22 to 01:35). They must pay attention to the noises/sounds. After this I ask them what they heard, what they think the video is about. Write some vocabulary on the board, words they didn’t mention and words they don’t know how to say.
(Malvado, villano, chirrido, sepultar, gritar, sombrío, oscuro, solitario, agonía, espeluznante, , sangriento, miedo, cadáver, venganza)
Activity 2: In pairs they must create a horror story, write it down and the read it to the class. Each pair will be given the beginning of the story.
- Estás en la casa de tu mejor amigo cuidando a su perro porque él se fue de viaje. Estás solo y escuchas una voz que te dice “no saldrás vivo de aquí”…
- Fuiste a acampar con tu novio al bosque, ya armaron la carpa y ahora quieren comer. La batería de tu linterna muere y todo está completamente oscuro cuando escuchar un sonido extraño cerca de tu carpa…
- Estás solo en casa cuando escuchas un goteo. Revisas todas las llaves de agua y todas están cerradas. Decides seguir el sonido y te lleva hasta el sótano, el goteo no es agua, es sangre…
- Estás viendo televisión y de repente suena el timbre. Abres la puerta y hay un paquete para ti pero no hay ninguna persona. Entras a tu casa y en el paquete hay….
- Estás de vacaciones en la casa del lago de tus padres, has llegado una noche antes que tus amigos para asegurarte que todo está bien. Has escuchado muchas historias de terror, pero tú no crees en eso hasta que en la noche escuchas sonidos extraños desde el muelle del lago…
Activity 3: Watch the full video. Comment on whether or not they expected the ending.
Activity 4: Talk about urban legends, from Claremont/5c/their home towns
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Advanced Class
Class theme/topics discussed: Spanish expressions and idioms
Goal of the class: to learn common expressions used in Spain and general idioms with the verb “dar”
How did you structure the class?
Warm up: Scattegories
In a piece of paper students write a list of categories (names, countries or cities, fruits or vegetables, objects, etc). Then, someone randomly selects a letter from the alphabet and students must write one word that starts with that letter for each category. It’s a competition, the fastest student stops the game.
Activity: I selected a list of useful and very common idioms with the verb “dar” and “tener”. Separate the class in pairs and give 1 expression to each pair (it includes an example and meaning). They must come up with a dialogue and then act it out in front of the class. The rest of the students must recognize the idiom and explain its meaning. Each couple presents to the class. At the end of the activity I give everyone a full list of the expressions.
After this we watch a funny video of Spanish expressions being represented literally.
https://www.facebook.com/transferwise/videos/1024420050961526/
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
I was a bit scared for the expressions activity because I couldn’t really think of a fun way to learn vocabulary. It turned out really well and they were engaged in the activity. They were also quite positive about my little challenge of choosing one expressions and try to incorporate it into their speech during the next class or language tables.
Handout of expressions
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Advanced Spanish
Goal of the class: to practice improvisation
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up: In my suitcase I have… Students start naming things and it’s a test of their memory. Each student repeats everything the others have said plus they add something new and so on.
Activity 1 : “Hidden Sentence”.
Make cards with sentences and cards with topics. Divide the class in two groups. Two students, one from each team, come to the front of the class and pick one sentence card each, then, the LR picks one topic. The two students must start a discussion on the topic and the goal of the game is to use their hidden sentence without anyone noticing (must use the sentence as is on the card). . Each group must guess the hidden sentence of the opponent team, therefore everyone must pay close attention to the conversation.
Activity 2: “Secret topic”.
I choose two students who must agree on a topic and start discussing it without telling the others what the topic is. The rest of the class has to guess the topic, if a student thinks they know the topic, they must join the discussion (pending approval of the first two). Like this all students must join the conversation.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It was a great class, I think it was light but at the same time engaging. The last activity was the one that worked the best.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Actividad 1
“oraciones ocultas”
Está pasado de moda casarse
Pero a mi me gustan los niños
Nunca he estado en Tokio
Mi mamá solía hornear un pie todos los domingos
Lo más peligroso que puedes hacer durante la hora del tráfico es andar en bicicleta
La tarifa del bus subió otra vez
En mi opinión, el arte moderno es fascinante
Odio la espinaca
La vaca es mi animal preferido
Temas
La contaminación
La vida familiar
Viajes
Moda
Mantenerse en forma
Los 5cs
Class theme/topics discussed: Bad habits/ Addictions
Goal of the class: Discuss about their habits and learn new vocabulary
How did you structure the class?
Warm up: students make three sentences about themselves and the class guesses which one is false.
Activity 1: we brainstorm about the bad habits the already know and discuss which ones they have.
Activity 2: I show them a ppt with different bad habits, we learn how to say them in Spanish. They have to remember this for the final activity.
Activity 3: We watch a short video about internet addiction by a Chilean vloger. (0:30 – 2:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njUVwCcEmWU
Activity 4: In pairs they complete a questionnaire that will determine how addicted they are to the internet. We share the results with the entire class.
Activity 5: In groups they do a brief debate about whether it is ok to smoke outside or inside.
Activity 6: We play tic tac toe. To be able to play the must name the bad habit from the ppt correctly.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
The topic of the debate could have been different. Nobody smoked so it was really hard to come up with arguments.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Class theme/topics discussed: Dating
Goal of the class: to learn vocabulary about dating
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up: True or false. Each student must say something they’ve done in their life, it can be true or false. The class has to guess if they are true or false by asking questions.
Activity 1: Speed dating. Each student has a profile and they have to talk to the others to find their match.
Activity 2: discussion about pick up lines. Can they explain the ones in English in Spanish? Do they work in their Spanish translation?
Activity 3: In groups they create their own pick up lines.
Activity 4: we watch a campaign against street harassment in Peru and we discuss the thin line between a nice compliment and harassment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3cPZRVG3A4
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
They engaged so much in the speed dating activity!
They were embarrassed to talk about pick up lines so we didn’t really do the activity about creating their own. I told them to think about some ideas for next class (in English) so we’ll finish then.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Class theme/topics discussed: The future and superstitions
Goal of the class: to practice future tense and predictions
How did you structure the class?
How was their Halloween? What did they wear?
Open discussions: do they believe in any superstitions or anything without scientific proof? Can you really predict your future? Horoscopes?
Can they name some supersitions?
Activity 1: In pairs one person is the fortuneteller and the other one wants to have their cards read. I give each group some pictures (that represent love, money, luck etc). The “client” chooses three cards, one is the past, the other the present and the last one is the future. The fortuneteller has to interpret these cards and come up with a story. After this they change roles and do the same.
Students share the results of their visit to the fortuneteller
Activity 2: I ask students to tell me their zodiac signs; they pair up with people of the same sign. I give each group the “personality profile” of their sign and they have to discuss how accurate it is. We comment as a class. After this each group has to change the profile to fit their personalities, change what wasn’t accurate and we share the new profiles with the class and we discuss if they actually describe the people or not.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
They really liked the activity of predicting the future; they came up with funny stories. They were also very open to sharing superstitions.
For the horoscope activity there weren’t enough students to make pairs so I handed each of them their sign and we discussed what characteristics they share and what was totally off. Since there were some Asian students they also shared their horoscope.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Perhaps next time I could print some superstitions from around the world so we can comment on those instead of relying on their own experience.
Class theme/topics discussed: telenovelas
Goal of the class: to learn specific vocabulary about the topic
How did you structure the class?
To introduce the topic we brainstorm about the key characteristics of a telenovela. What are the common topics etc.
Activity 1: In pairs, while one student is facing the TV and the other faces the opposite wall, they must describe what is happening in the video (the video will be silent)
After this, I play the video again so everyone can see it (still silent)
Activity 2: In the same pairs they must come up with a dialogue for the scenes. They share their ideas with the class. For this activity I give them a handout with useful typical phrases of a telenovela.
When all the groups have shared their work I show them the video with dialogue and explain some vocabulary if necessary.
Activity 3: In groups, they pretend to be the producers of the next big telenovela. The need to pitch the idea and create the story and characters.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
They loved it so much! I chose a very ridiculous seen of a well known Mexican telenovela, a classic. They laughed and everyone participated a lot, even the shiest students.
Class theme/topics discussed: Misheard lyrics
Goal of the class: To understand more about the culture in Hispanic countries
How did you structure the class?
Activity 1: I show them a video about misheard songs in English. How Spanish speaking people change the lyrics of English songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIs93QLc9bQ
Activity 2: In groups, they choose one song and then change the lyrics to Spanish but make it fit the English pronunciation.
Activity 3: Present the new song to the class
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
They loved the video, it was really funny. The activity was difficult but they enjoyed the challenge.
Goal of the class: to practice improvisation
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up: In my suitcase I have… Students start naming things and it’s a test of their memory. They must repeat every item that has been said and then add a new one.
Activity 1 : “Hidden Sentence”. I make cards with sentences and cards with topics. I divide the class in two groups. Two students, one from each team, come to the front of the class and pick one sentence card each, then, I pick one topic. The two students must start a discussion on the topic and the goal of the game is to use their hidden sentence without anyone noticing. The rest of the class must pay attention and must guess the opponents hidden sentence.
Activity 2: “Secret topic”. I choose two students who must agree on a topic and start discussing it without telling the others what the topic is. The rest of the class has to guess the topic, if a student thinks they know the topic, they must join the discussion (pending approval of the first two). Like this all students must join the conversation.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It was a great class, I think it was light but at the same time engaging. The last activity was the one that worked the best.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Actividad 1 oraciones
Está pasado de moda casarse
Pero a mi me gustan los niños
Nunca he estado en Tokio
Mi mamá solía hornear un pie todos los domingos
Lo más peligroso que puedes hacer durante la hora del tráfico es andar en bicicleta
La tarifa del bus subió otra vez
En mi opinión, el arte moderno es fascinante
Odio la espinaca
La vaca es mi animal preferido
Temas:
La contaminación, la vida familiar, viajes, moda, mantenerse en forma, los 5cs
