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an archive of lesson plans

Category: Advanced (Page 5 of 31)

Advanced Conversation class.

ES F20 ADV Crime

December 1, 2020 /

Spanish Conversation Class – Advanced (Credits to Katherine Pérez)

Class theme/topic discussed: Trials, alibis

Goal of the class: To practice past tense and questions.

Class structure

Activity: A crime has been committed (specify place and time). When students first get to the classroom, you talk about a crime of which they are suspects (you make up a story as to how they are all suspects).

El miércoles pasado ocurrió una tragedia inimaginable, el asesinato de Mr. Zoom. Mr. Zoom estaba en Claremont dando un paseo por Marston Quad cuando un grupo de personas lo confrontó por permitir que los zoom bombers mostraran fotos obscenas en las clases de Pomona. Algunas personas incluso insinuaron que los zoom bombers actuaban bajo el conocimiento de Mr. Zoom, que él los ayudaba incluso. Todo esto ocurrió entre las 6 y las 10 de la noche del pasado miércoles.

Los detectives encontraron pelos de los pugs de Ari, las llaves de la casa de Sam y Vivian, la chaqueta de San Francisco de Eloise, una carta muy “” de Sammy, y el libro de estudios africanos de Ella. Cualquiera de ellas pudo haberlo hecho.

Los detectives encontraron pelos de los pugs de Ari, las llaves de la casa de Sam y Vivian, la chaqueta de San Francisco de Eloise, una carta muy “ de Sammy”, y el libro de estudios africanos de Ella. Cualquiera de ellas pudo haberlo hecho.

  • ALIBI: In pairs, they have to create an alibi to free themselves from the charges. Both students have to memorize their alibi as they will later stand trials separately and both of their stories will have to match. During the trial they are also going to be judges, therefore, they have to prepare some questions for the defendants as well.
    • TRIAL: One group volunteers or gets chosen to be the first defendants (acusados). The trial starts when one of the students leaves the classroom (into a breakout room) and the judges start the interrogation. *The jury should make the same questions to both defendants while trying to find inconsistencies in their stories. If the judges happen to find some discrepancy they can’t start talking about them while the trial is ongoing
  • Follow-up/Post-task: Students decide who where the culprits while commenting on each others alibi: whether there where inconsistencies in the stories or not, which one was the funniest one, etc.

Resources used

  • Alibi table (see below)

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  •  Students loved this activity! Do this activity after you’ve learned some things about your students. A personalized story will make a difference.
  • Have a YouTube link or something for the student in the breakout room to watch. I used a music video in Spanish.

Annex

  • Alibi table
Para tu coartada:¿Dónde estabas?¿Con quién estabas?¿Qué estabas haciendo?
18:00 – 19:00   
19:00 – 20:00   
20:00 – 21:00   
21:00 – 22:00   

DE F20 INT/ADV – Christmas Escape Room

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident/Assistant Name: Eva Saunders

Day and Date: 11/24/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Intermediante/Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed: Christmas & the holidays

Goal of the class: Learning about German customs and escaping Krampus’ mine

How did you structure the class?

A) Warm-Up: With the lights off and your Zoom background set to a coal mine, tell the students they have been captured and brought to a coal mine because they opened their advent calendars too early! Impersonating Krampus for this is highly recommended & fun (I wore a Santa hat and used a flash light to make myself look frightening)

B) Give them the “escape room” game Google Sheet link and explain (as “Krampus”) how they are going to find the code word to get out (which is “Merry Christmas” in German, but backwards, see Key sheet). Stress that they are supposed to talk to each other to solve riddles together, one at a time. Then set a timer for 45-50 minutes for them to solve the questions and to guess the code word.

It’s good to remind them of the time they have left every once in a while (half time and maybe 5 minutes before, depending how they are doing on time). I plan about 5 minutes per question on average as a guideline. If they are taking longer, feel free to help them a bit by telling them if their answer is right or wrong before they type them in, to avoid detours. And giving hints or more information about a correct answer works well, too.

C) Once the game is finished, go over the answers the students provided or answer any outstanding questions about Christmas in Germany.

D) Extra activity: Watch “Cat-A-Claws”, a 2-minute Christmas themed cat movie https://vimeo.com/381605666 (this is my own production, but available publicly). Find traditions and words we talked about in the movie.

What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.): Share Screen function in Zoom, Chat, Google Sheets, Vimeo, Course Website as a resource for homework and reference

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

The students enjoyed the surprise escape room very much and solved the riddles just in time. I clarified some things during the game and helped a bit to keep it moving. It was a fun way to learn!

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I’ve tried this both with just one student and a group of three students and both took about 45-50 minutes to finish it. If the group is much larger, communication might be hard so they should probably be split up into groups of three or four and you can jump from room to room to help if necessary.

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.

Virtual Handout in target language https://courses.pomona.edu/la-german-2020/blog/2020/11/24/13-1-class-25-11-23-2020/ (Password: GERMAN)

Christmas ESCAPE ROOM – KeyDownload

Note: You can use the key document for yourself and then load the blank template tab into Google Sheets to have the students work in the same document. It’s best if one student shares their screen of it so all can see what’s asked.

JP F20 INT/ADV: Music Videos

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident/Assistant Name:  

Kozue Matsumoto 

Day and Date:  

Monday November 9, 2020   

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):  

Intermediate  / Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed:  

Goal of the class:  

  • Get to know some contemporary attempt of Japanese traditional music 
  • Describe music videos, what do you see? What do you hear?

How did you structure the class?  

  1. How are you doing? Hanging there? Good news if any??? (7 min) 
    1. We are trying to stay calm with the presidential election result being updated.
  1. Today’s plan (3 min) 
  1. Breakout room (30 min): Each group has a different music video
    1. Watch the videos 
    2. How many people are there?  
    3. What are they doing? What are the instruments? 
    4. What do they wear? 
    5. What kind of music? 
    6. What is traditional and what is not traditional? 
    7. Do you like it or not and why? 
  1. Main room (20 min) 
    1. Explain the music video and watch video 
    2. Wrap up. Stay positive, and stay calm,  

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

Class agreement, breakup rooms 

Zoom, breakout rooms, youtube videos 

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

  • Students were a little tired at the beginning with upcoming exams and all the homework they have 
  • Each breakout room had a different music video. So I told them to describe the video really in detail. 
  • They enjoyed the videos.  
  • We learned some way of describing music, terms such as “traditional,” “contemporary,” and other terms used for traditional clothing.  
  • In breakout rooms, they asked me some words that explain musical moments, things artists are wearing, or the scenery. They used these terms when shearing in the main room. 
  • I first let all the groups explain what they watched. After that is done, I shared my screen and played all three videos at once. They loved it.  
  • Students enjoyed the music, costumes, the techniques of artists, and other details.   
  • This is one of classes students chose as the best.

Advanced:

  • Students enjoyed the music, costumes, the techniques of artists, and other details. 
  • We ended up with talking a lot about Japanese arts and elements in videos. 
  • Students have a little more knowledge about Buddhism in this class, and it made some discussions very interesting. 

How could this class be improved/ modified? 

  • I noticed that students used chat a lot as we all watch the videos together. Probably I can make use of the chat function more effectively with music moment. I don’t know how yet though. Something to keep thinking for the next time.  

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. 

Videos Shared:

Vocabulary that we learned: 

袴：はかま 
ばち 
伝統的：でんとうてき：traditional 
楽器：がっき：musical instrument 
稲荷：いなり 
畳：たたみ 
和室：わしつ 
襖：ふすま 
和紙：わし 
障子：しょうじ 
きつね 
竹：たけ 
竹林：ちくりん 
帯：おび 
頭巾：ずきん 
お経：おきょう 
般若心経：はんにゃしんきょう 
袈裟：けさ 
邪道：じゃどう 

Students’ comments on chat for each video

https://youtu.be/KHna8ngTaOg
17:06:41     From Lena She-Her : This lit 
17:06:50     From Mason Cai : ^^ 
17:06:54     From Marina Aina : ^^^ 
17:07:00     From Ruby Hoffman : ^^ 
17:07:10     From Ashley Cheng : ^^^^^ 
17:07:32     From Marina Aina : The mv visuals are so nice too 😮 
17:07:48     From Alyssa Zhang : those masks damnnnnn 
17:08:06     From Mason Cai : :OOOoOOO: 

https://youtu.be/cbObLy5MjWU  
17:10:24     From Marina Aina : Ive never felt more untalented in my life LMAO they’re so good 😮 
17:10:32     From Kate McHale : this really slaps 
17:10:34     From Ashley Cheng : It really do be one of those days 

https://youtu.be/nvIGCMhjkvw?t=120  
17:12:03     From Kano Cheng : I want to be this man when I grow up 
17:12:29     From Ruby Hoffman : yes oh my god 
17:12:37     From Marina Aina : i think you can accomplish that dream :,) 
17:12:40     From Kate McHale : immaculate vibes 
17:12:42     From Ashley Cheng : I wonder if my buddhist grandma would appreciate this 
17:13:07     From Alyssa Zhang : i want to know what hes saying 

RUS F20 Adv: Happiness Checklist

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident Name:

Maria Glukhova

Day and Date:

Wednesday, 10/21/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

Russian, Advanced

Number of people:

1-2

Class theme/topics discussed:

What makes me happy in the Corona time?

Goal of the class:

To make a Happiness Checklist to understand that there are actually many things that bring you joy.

How did you structure the class?

  • Greetings, announcements, general questions.
  1. Find a nice website where you can make checklists and download them for free. For Russian, I used https://my.365done.ru/. Ask your student to make a list of things/activities that bring them joy in the Corona time (or in a normal time, depending on where you are). I asked my student to come up with 33 points because we have an expression “33 pleasures” in Russian (все 33 удовольствия). It is quite tricky, and people usually get stuck after they write 10-15. But then they start thinking and write the rest, which is simple: to light up candles, to watch a Harry Potter movie, to buy a new plant, etc. It helps people to see that there are things that they can do to feel better, even at this time. 
  2. Ask a student to share the result and then compare what you have.

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

Zoom, a Checklist Design website

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

In this class, I only had one student, and we talked a lot about what we both put in our checklists. Although it’s better to check in advance if you can download checklists for free from the website you use!

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I would leave it as it is.

DE F20 INT/ADV – Octoberfest

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident/Assistant Name: Eva Saunders

Day and Date: 10/1/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Intermediate/Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed: Oktoberfest

Goal of the class: Know how to order foods and drinks & how to give compliments/small talk

How did you structure the class?

A) Warm-Up:  Discussion about Oktoberfest – what do students know about it? Have you been? Learn important vocabulary (best with pictures, maybe let them pronounce the words/fill in translations for intermediate). (10 min)

*Optional for advanced students or students who have been to Oktoberfest: Wordsearch with words that they have to find (helps knowing how to spell words that they have just heard before)

Activity 2: Discussion: How do we order items/ask other people to bring us food? How do we give compliments? (10 min) – can be done online in small breakout groups either just talking or written with Google Sheets or in small classes with whole class (see example for ordering food/conversations with server attached)

B) Some facts and figures about Oktoberfest. Learn about 40th Oktoberfest terrorist attack anniversary. Talk about effects of Covid-19 and the alternate program in Munich via their Instagram page.

Fun Examples: – Watch “Bavarian Line Dance” https://youtu.be/BcU38jrw5ew

C) If extra time, show them attraction “Teufelsrad”, a spinning platform that people sit on and have to stay on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5oEn5y0H10

What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.): Share Screen function in Zoom, Images, Instagram, YouTube, Google Docs, Chat, Course Website as a resource for homework and reference

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

The students were engaged well. One of the students had been to Oktoberfest, so I let her knowledge and conversations lead to the topics and added some based on questions. They enjoyed ordering things and learning compliments. We zigzagged a bit in terms of topics, but I wanted to keep it organic. They very much enjoyed the videos and pictures of the alternate program to Oktoberfest this year.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

Oktoberfest is such a huge topic that it’s hard to give a true impression in one hour and have a conversation and some grammar at the same time. I assumed they had already seen the partying in tents and the atmosphere, so I focused on more practical/historical aspects of it and some special attractions that they have had in the past and are having now. I think that worked well.

For the wordsearch, you can make your own here: https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2017/01/make-word-search-puzzles-for-your-classroom

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.

Virtual Handout in target language https://courses.pomona.edu/la-german-2020/blog/2020/10/02/13-1-class-12-10-1-2020 (Password: GERMAN)

Oktoberfest-conversations

Oktoberfest-Vocabulary

Wordsearch-Oktoberfest-10_2-food_word_search

ES F20 INT/ADV Movie Genres/Storytelling

December 1, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident/Assistant Name: Tamara Olivos

Day and Date: September 9, 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Spanish intermediate

 Class theme/topics discussed: Movie Genres/Storytelling

Goal of the class: To narrate a story with a beginning, middle and end

How did you structure the class?

Ice-breaker: We play Taboo as a group. The instructor will send the “card” to a student in a private chat (see below). They will describe the word without using any of the “taboo” words. Students will take turns. You can add more words to the list or choose different words.

Warm-up: What’s your favorite movie? What is your favorite genre? Do you watch movies in Spanish?

Activity 1: Divide the class into groups. Each group will be assigned a genre (romance, horror, comedy). Add more genres if you have more students.

Step 1: each group writes the beginning of the story using the genre assigned.

Step 2: they exchange stories, and write the climax/middle using their assigned genre.

Step 3: exchange again and write the ending. The idea is that each story will have a mix of the genres.

Step 4: read the stories aloud

Create a Google Doc and share the link in the chat (make sure it’s set to everyone with the link can edit). All students will be working on the same document but on separate pages. The instructor can write lines or use colors to make it clearer (see link below). The teacher can see what students are doing in real time.

Activity 2: We choose a movie everyone has seen. In groups, students write a synopsis. The class votes on the most complete one. Then, we choose another movie and students write a synopsis with an alternative ending or changing some key details. We vote on the funniest one.

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

Google Docs https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zf9lNI54FYsa1fYQ719ItKa0453HKi5TGa0HOjo5n5E/edit?usp=sharing

Zoom

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

I didn’t anticipate the instructions to be so difficult to explain. I will try this class with the advanced group, it might go more smoothly. Once students understood the point of the google doc, they were very engaged and seemed to be having fun. Because it took a long time to explain, we didn’t finish activity 1. Next class we’ll continue on the topic and finish these activities.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

With the advanced class the first activity did go better but we still didn’t get to do activity 2 so maybe you should plan for a two classes. Encourage them to be as creative as they can to get more ridiculous stories.

 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.

Puente: NO PUEDES DECIR río atravesar colgante unir

Batería: NO PUEDES DECIR instrumento banda música tambor

Ayer: NO PUEDES DECIR mañana tiempo antes día

Noche: NO PUEDES DECIR luna estrellas oscuro día

Película: NO PUEDES DECIR cine actor director rodar

Cangrejo: NO PUEDES DECIR pinzas crustáceo caparazón caminar

Museo: NO PUEDES DECIR arte edificio pinturas cuadros

Sandia: NO PUEDES DECIR jugosa verano fruta semilla

Pijama: NO PUEDES DECIR ropa noche cama dormir

Pintar: NO PUEDES DECIR artista cuadro colores pincel

Doctor: NO PUEDES DECIR hospital anestesia operación enfermo

Flan: NO PUEDES DECIR leche molde postre huevos

Disfraz: NO PUEDES DECIR traje mascara fiesta carnaval

Vaso: NO PUEDES DECIR beber agua cristal vidrio

Aceituna: NO PUEDES DECIR negra olivo aceite verde

Hoja: NO PUEDES DECIR árbol papel cuaderno escribir

JP F20 INT/ADV: Naomi Osaka

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident/Assistant Name:  

Kozue Matsumoto 

Day and Date:  

Wednesday September 16, 2020   

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):  

Intermediate / Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed:  

  • Naomi Osaka  

Goal of the class:  

  • What Naomi Osaka did, and how the story was told.  
  • Think about racism and BLM movement, think about them in Japanese context, and express ideas in Japanese 

How did you structure the class?  

  1. Good news? (5min) *We share positive stories at the beginning of each class.
  1. Ask about some Japanese news they know (5min)　 
  1. Listen to the news (10 min)  
    1. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10012615261000/k10012615261000.html  
    2. Check the basics of the news (Who she is, what she did, her action of wearing masks etc.) 
  1. Breakout room (30 mim) 
    1. What do you think about her action of wearing masks during the US Open? 
    2. Lots of Japanese people believe that top athletes like her shouldn’t talk about any political or controversial issues. What do you think about it? 
    3. For so long time, for Japanese people, “Japanese people” mean people who look like Japanese, speak Japanese, live in japan for entire their life, and have both Japanese parents. Now things are changing. The Japanese society needs to adjust to multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-everything reality. As a person who lives in USA, what would you like to suggest, advise, or teach Japanese people about living in a diverse community? 
  1. Main room (10 min) 
    1. Share ideas regarding the last question (4.c) 

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

Class agreement, breakup rooms 

Zoom, Breakout room, chat section, news web site 

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

  • Listening to Japanese news stories (created specifically for children and non-Japanese native people) seemed to be a little difficult, but they got a basics about the story (I believe the photos helped too.) 
  • Students had so much to say about this topic.  They had thoughts and ideas. They sometimes struggled to express it in Japanese. But I felt their willingness to challenge themselves and share their thoughts in Japanese. I think this is great. 
  • I had another news story to discuss as I thought that one topic wouldn’t cover the whole hour. I was wrong. Students had a lot to think and share.
  • I tried to reflect some reality of Japanese society. Also, I tried to have them think about it in relation to their reality in the USA. I received a lot of great points about question 4.c. One said that the USA has lots of issues itself and that it is difficult to provide any advice. This is understandable, too. 
  • I wasn’t sure how students would react to this topic, but they were very serious, and I can tell that this is not a new topic for them. They have been thinking about this issue for a while.  

Advanced:

  • Even before we start first discussion about Naomi Osaka, students had a lot of questions about Japanese society, such as how Japanese people understand things like BLM, whether there is racism in Japan and if so what kind, how Japanese people think about being different, whether and how people talk about politics, about the media’s political stance, how people learn about the USA. We had a good discussion. 

How could this class be improved/ modified? 

  • Providing a basic key terms in Japanese at the beginning of the class might have helped. But at the same time, if I did it, that’s going to frame how and what they are going to think. So probably, just start free flowing, and help them when they ask about certain words.  
  • I see that the advanced class can learn and discuss a lot about Japan’s social and political issues as well as cultural things. I appreciate their curiosity.  

RUS F20 Adv: Children’s Literature

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident Name:

Maria Glukhova

Day and Date:

Wednesday, 10/14/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

Russian, Advanced

Number of people:

1 (or any)

Class theme/topics discussed:

Children’s literature

Goal of the class:

To work on translation skills and storytelling

How did you structure the class?

0. Greetings, announcements, general questions.

  1. Warm up questions:

On a scale from 1 to 10, how much did you enjoy reading as a child? Why?

What books did you like the most when you were a child?

What are the five (+) main differences between adult and children’s literature?

Do you think parents should read books aloud to their children? Why?

2. Activity: Find a short picture book that has no words, only images. Ask a student to look at it first. They should then come up with a text that describes what is happening as if it was written on these pages. Then you can do a slide show, and your student should pretend that they are narrators, and you are their child who is listening to a story. As a child, you can ask questions!

3. Activity: Find a short picture book with English text (I used “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats). If you only have one student, you can work on translating it into your target language together. If you have a group, students can work in pairs, and then you can compare different translations. Students should convince others that their translation is the best. 

4. Conclusion and a follow-up discussion.

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

Zoom, prepared picture books

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

In this class, I only had one student, and we had a great time working on translation together.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I would leave it as it is. If you have more people, for the first activity, they can do one page each. Or you can also find a couple of books.

ES F20 ADV Diet & Food labeling laws

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Class theme/topic discussed : Food Industry & Diet

Goal of the class 

  • Practice vocabulary related to diet and food industry
  • Discuss how health laws are related with health issues and the role food industries have on consumption.

Class structure

  • Warm-up questions: What’s a “diet” for you? Have your eating habits changed since you were a child? How would an average diet look like in the US? What diets have you heard of, what do they consist of?
  • Activity 1 Organic Diet: Students discuss the issues that are supposed to be solved by switching to a 100% organic diet. After introducing the possible new issues that may arise as a consequence, students discuss the short- and long-term effects an organic diet may have for the environment and agriculture. Would it be feasible for everyone?
  • Activity 2 Food labeling laws: Student watch videos about food labeling regulations in the US and in Chile. They answer some questions about them: Do they have anything in common? How are they different? What effects do you think these regulations have had on public health concerns? Do you think it changed people’s eating habits? Would it work in the US?
  • Activity 3 What’s for dinner (cred. Tamara Olivos): In groups students must create a recipe with a “secret ingredient” to make it special (doesn’t have to be food, they can be as creative as they want). Then, they present their creation to the class as if they were on TV.

Resources used

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • It was a great class. Two students who took my class the year before so we had already commented on the food labeling laws, but in a much more superficial level. They were all very interested on how different the regulations were, the effects it had had on public health and how a regulation like this would be beneficial in the US.

Annex

4.-Dietas-ADVDownload

DE F20 INT – Grocery Shopping

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident/Assistant Name: Eva Saunders

Day and Date: 9/17/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Intermediate

Class theme/topics discussed: Food & Groceries

Goal of the class: Identify food in a recipe and know how to buy it

How did you structure the class?

A) Warm-Up Discussion: Who enjoys cooking? Who does it regularly? Has it changed with the pandemic? What’s your favorite food?

B) Quick food quiz about fruit & vegetables: ask them which German fruits and veggies they already know. Then use a Google Doc with pictures and German words underneath to let them fill out the English equivalent and read them out loud for pronunciation.

C) Corona e-shopping: Look at different shopping carts I pre-loaded online and guess what food it might be for, show them photo of finished dish.
(For more advanced group or extra time: ask them how ingredients might be used.)
Then learn each of the ingredients’ words and identify structure and words of the shopping cart.

(Example dishes: Pasta w tomato sauce, Schnitzel with potato wedges, Currywurst with fries, buttered bread/pretzels)

D) Homework/Extra activity: Go over to getnow.com (German equivalent to Instacart), enter 80333 (Munich) as post code and gather ingredients of a dish you make a lot. Bring a screenshot of your shopping cart and a photo of what the dish will look like. (And you can have the students guess each other’s in next session).

What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.): Share Screen function in Zoom, Images, Google Sheets, Website getnow.com, Chat, Course Website as a resource for homework and reference

What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The students enjoyed learning the different groceries and learning to shop on their own online.

How could this class be improved/ modified?
If it’s a larger class (more than 4-5 students), it can be done in groups. For more advanced students, you can pick harder fruits/vegetables or practice plural/pronouns.

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.

Virtual Handout in target language https://courses.pomona.edu/la-german-2020/blog/2020/09/17/1-13-class-8-9-17-2020   (Password: GERMAN)

Obst-und-Gemuse-Sheet1

ES F20 INT/ADV Jeopardy Trivia

December 1, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident/Assistant Name: Tamara Olivos

Day and Date: October 21, 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Spanish Intermediate

Class theme/topics discussed: Trivia

Goal of the class: To think fast in the target language. Healthy competition

How did you structure the class?

Ice-breaker: We talk about our pets and our favorite animals. I showed them this picture to discuss dogs in particular. Students can also share funny stories with their pets or share pictures of their pets and describe them. https://www.instagram.com/p/By_fXrinn7D/

Activity 1: Share your screen and select the number of teams. You can choose to have pairs be a team. Write the name of the students where it says teams. For the buzzers, I used a website called buzzin.live. You can host a game, and share the game pin with your students. They will need to use the phone to buzz (it tells you who did it first). You also have to add/subtract the points manually using the + and – signs. You can edit this link, but if you will make major changes please create your own and copy the questions you want to keep.

https://jeopardylabs.com/play/trivia-en-espaol-10

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

Zoom, mobile phones.

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

I redid the game taking into account my Advanced class suggestions (I had created a game that was too difficult and asked for their feedback). They loved it and said the questions were neither easy or difficult.

F20 Online: Case Study

August 10, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Maria Glukhova

Day and Date:

Week 5+, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

  • All languages
  • Originally, it was for very advanced students, but the scenarios + tasks can be adapted for different levels

Class theme/topics discussed:

Case Study (https://writingcenter.ashford.edu/writing-case-study-analysis)

Goal of the class:

To talk about global issues such as Women’s Rights and Education and to work on problem-solving.

How did you structure the class?

Activity 1 – Brainstorm. What is a case study and why/how can we use it in Humanities?

Activity 2 – Students are divided into two groups. They receive two different cases with all the information about organizations they work for, the problem they try to solve, statistics, etc. Their task is to find an optimal solution, create a project, think of the recruitment, write down their goals and perspectives, etc. Then they have to present everything they have come up with to another group.  

Organization 1:

You are a non-governmental organization (NGO), and your focus is Women’s Rights. Your headquarters is located in country X. According to statistics, the majority of women (65%) in country X doesn’t work because they are not allowed to participate in activities other than taking care of their families and households. Additionally, in this country, girls are often forced to get married when they are 12-14 years old because this is a tradition. Moreover, many girls in this country don’t have access to education and often cannot read or write.

What steps can be taken to improve the situation of women in country X?

Organization 2:

You are an educational non-governmental organization. Your headquarters is located in country Y, where you work with children and teenagers (4-16 years old). According to statistics, most children (65%) from small villages and underprivileged areas of country Y have no access to education because their parents can’t afford to pay for school. Additionally, most of the schools are very small, and professional teachers are not motivated to work there. Moreover, children work hard on farms to help their parents, and they don’t have time to study. Often children cannot read or write, especially girls, because most of the schools are for boys.

What steps can be taken to improve the situation with education in country Y?

Tasks for each organization:

1. What is the name of your organization?

2. Describe the situation and the problem. Why is it important to solve them?

3. The goals and objectives of your organization.

4. Your strategy (what will be your focus? how will you act?)

5. Who will you work with? (your audience)

6. You need employees, – people who will work in your organization and help with the project. Write down what personal and professional qualities you would like them to have.

7. Your Manifesto – at least 5 points (Education comes first, etc. )

8. Come up with a project that your organization will be working on to help solve these problems. Describe the plan and program (at least 10 points, for example: building a school for girls, etc.)

9. You also need volunteers. What are their responsibilities? What kind of help do you expect from them?

The budget of your organization that you can invest in the project is $400,000

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

Zoom

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

How could this class be improved/ modified?

F2020 Online: Ice-breakers #2

August 7, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Marie Segura

Day and Date:

Week 1, second class, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Getting to know each other #2

How did you structure the class?

Warm-up

Use a very short poll to start your class, eg:

  • What’s the strangest thing you did while attending an online meeting? (Multiple choice)
    1. Ate breakfast
    2. Wore pajamas
    3. Brushed my teeth
    4. Cooked lunch/dinner
    5. Watched Netflix
    6. Other but my lips are sealed
  • What’s your best personal remote work hack? (Open text)
  • In one word, how are you feeling right now?

Activity 1 – Interviewing each other

  • Pair up participants in twos.
  • Give them a list of questions to ask each other.
  • Ask each pair to interview each other, either via email or in breakout rooms.
  • When all the participants convene together in the same virtual room, each participant will introduce the participant they interviewed.

Activity 2 – Thumbs-Up or Thumbs-Down?

  • Students should choose a view that allows the entire class to be seen at once. They can also use a voting function if one is available in the virtual tool. Students take turns stating something they like/dislike or something they’ve done. For example, “I like shrimp.” or “I’ve visited Washington, DC.” Classmates indicate their similarity or difference with the person by showing a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down (or by using the voting function).
  • To personalize the activity even more, challenge students to offer an activity or accomplishment that they think is rare or unique about themselves, and see if anyone shares it. For example, “I cleaned out my refrigerator last night.” or “I was born on February 29.”

Activity 3 – ‘One Random Object’ Virtual Training Activity

  • Ask a student to pick one random object that is in their room and not tell anyone what it is.
  • Explain that the other participants will have to guess what it is, by asking questions that require a yes or no answer.

Online tools you can use:

You could use a chat board for this, but it is not necessary. You could just run the activity by speaking and maybe use a virtual board to record the scores.

Activity 4 – ‘Take a Picture of Something’ Class Activity

  • Ask participants to take a picture of something.
  • Typically, you choose a specific theme. For example, ask participants to take a picture of their shoes, or a picture of something that is on their workstation or the view outside their window.
  • Remember to ask participants to take the picture and upload it before the training session starts, as otherwise it might take too much time out of the training session if they were to do it in real time.
  • Ask participants to share the picture on a virtual board.
  • Start a discussion. For example, you could ask why they chose that particular item on their desk, or what they like the most about the view they can see from the window etc.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, or a shared google doc.

Activity 5 – Find someone who

  • To run the activity online, create a 5 by 5 table with interesting facts, one for each box of the table. For example, you could write things such as: speaks more than two languages, has been to Argentina etc. Or, it would be a good idea to tie the facts with the topic of the class.
  • Share the file with the table with your participants, either in advance or during the session. You can share by email, through the file-sharing feature of the web conferencing system or with an online sharing tool such as a Google doc. Alternatively, you could do the activity in real-time using a tool such as Padlet.
  • Depending on the size of your class, send students into breakout rooms or do it as a whole class. Ask participants to write their name under each of the statements that apply to them.
  • Ask them to share the answers and discuss.

Activity 6 – Would you rather

  • Send students into breakout rooms in groups of 3/4.
  • Send to every room a series of “would you rather question” and ask students to discuss and defend their opinion.

Resources used:

  • Shared google doc
  • Zoom chat
  • Breakout rooms

Some comments:

There are too many activities in the class, but depending on the group, some may work better than others, I think it’s always better to have a variety of activities at hand, and some can also be used to start any other class.

Potential technical difficulties: students may not be able to take a picture, so activity 4 may have to be skipped. Having too many breakout room changes can take a lot of your class time, maximum twice in one lesson should work.

F2020 Online: Ice-breakers #1

August 7, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Marie Segura

Day and Date:

Week 1, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Getting to know each other

Goal of the class:

  • Dealing with the administrative aspects of the class
  • Assessing the students’ technical capacities
  • Introducing myself
  • Getting to know the students and their needs/interests/feelings about the class

How did you structure the class?

Setting up Zoom

  • Ask students to make sure they put the name they want to use as their username or to change it accordingly (maybe add their pronouns)
  • Brief explanation that the videos should be turned on as often as possible (except if discussed before or if impossible) because it makes conversations more natural. The mic will be off to start with/during instructions but students should feel free to interact before the class starts/after instructions/in breakout rooms. If a you have a big group, maybe ask them to raise hand or signal themselves before speaking (but it truly depends on the size of the group, it may be easier to just jump in).

Activity 1 – Where are you joining us from?

  • Depending on the size of the group, it may be useful to use a word cloud
  • Ask students where they are (city, country…)
  • Start introducing yourself by explaining where you are + where you are from, then ask students to introduce themselves: name, where they join from, where they are exactly, what their workspace looks like (if they have the video on) or what their virtual background represents for them, why they chose it etc.

Activity 2 – Introducing myself, Jeopardy Style

  • In pairs, students are asked to think of two questions they would like to ask to get to know me. Pair them up orally and ask them to come up with two questions in a private chat or use the breakout rooms.
  • Then, they are shown information about the LR on a powerpoint presentation (for instance dates, colors… that are answers to questions you may ask to get to know someone). To be allowed to ask the questions they have just prepared, students must, in pairs, try to find the question that might match the answer. 
  • Eg: on the screen, write you birth date. Students should ask you “When were you born? “, “When is your birthday?” etc. If they find the right question, they can ask you an extra one that they had prepared.

Activity 3 – Speed dating

  • Split your students into groups of 3 or more and allocate them to breakout rooms.
  • Ask each group to write down as a list on an online whiteboard or virtual sticky note all the interesting things that they all have in common (ask them to avoid obvious things, such as all being students or taking a conversation class) and something unique to each participant. They will have 5-10 minutes for this task. (online tip: set a timer for your breakout rooms + send a message 2mn before the end to warn the students that their time is almost over).
  • At the end of the 5-10 minutes, ask each group to share their list to the rest of the class via an online whiteboard.

Extra-activity 1 – New Academic Year’s Resolutions

  • Share with your students a google doc with a table showing different resolutions. 
  • (If the class is big) Students are separated into groups of 3/4 and sent in breakout rooms. In turn, they randomly pick a number (can use an online tool/Siri for that or just choose randomly) and discover their new year’s resolution. Then, they have to convince their skeptical friends that they are actually going to keep their resolution this year and to explain why it is so important to them.

Advanced: Besides explaining why it’s an important resolution, students have to explained how they plan on doing it. The others, the skeptical friends or relatives, can ask questions about the resolution.

Extra-activity 2 – 2 truths 1 lie

  • Ask one participant to write three statements about themselves: 2 true and 1 false.
  • Ask the other participants to vote on which statement is true and which is false.
  • After the first person has shared their statement and the group has decided which statement is false, the first person will reveal the truth.
  • Move on until each person in the group has shared their statements.
  • The participant with the most incorrect votes wins.

Online tools you can use:

Resources used:

  • Breakout rooms
  • Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.
  • Google doc to share with the class in the chat
  • Ppt presentation

JP S20 ADV Gadgets

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Miki Saigo

Day and Date: April 21, 2020

Language and Level: Advanced Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed:

  • Handy gadgets from Japanese dollar stores

Goal of the class:

  • Describe how to use something

How did you structure the class?

  • Warm-up: Greetings
    – Ask what students did in the weekend. Ask what they think about the P/I grading policy in Pomona.
  • Activity I: Guess how to use these gadgets
    I show pictures of handy/funny/cute gadgets from dollar stores in Japan (e.g. kitchen tools, cleaning tools, stationeries). I ask students to guess what they are for/how to use them. We watch video clips that show how to use them afterwards. I ask students if they would buy any of the gadgets we saw.
  • Activity II: Discussion
    I ask students if they know any handy gadgets from daily life. (e.g. smartphone stand, cheese grater, tiny stapler)
  • Activity III: Advertisement
    We watch a video clip from a tv shopping channel to observe how people advertise a product (with great energy!):
    https://youtu.be/KBrWprkHt6o (first 30 seconds)
    I ask students what they noticed (“They speak energetically and without pause,” “They use many onomatopoeias”). We pick one of the gadgets from Activity I and try to make sentences to advertise it like a shopping channel.

What technology, media or props did you use?

  • Google Slides
  • Youtube videos
  • Pictures from the internet

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

  • Students seemed to have had fun seeing the funny gadgets.
  • Activity III could be developed more if it’s done in a physical classroom.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

  • If I do this class in person, I would develop Activity III more: I would bring a gadget to class and have students explain how to use it and advertise it like a commercial. (I found it awkward to do it when you don’t actually have the item in your hands.)
  • It would be smoother if you ask students to bring/think about a gadget for Activity II before class.

Material: Google Slides:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Qpt32B8ED56OAuu5QjO1Q80MfTDv0OJ4m7OTdVUhk4Y/edit?usp=sharing

JP S20 INT/ADV Job Interview

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Miki Saigo

Day and Date: February 5, 2020

Language and Level: Intermediate Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed:

  • Job interview

Goal of the class:

  • Learn what job interviews in Japan are like
  • Learn what to talk about in a job interview

How did you structure the class?

  • Greetings and announcements
    – Study Break: Calligraphy Feb. 6th
    – Oldenborg Open House Feb. 13th
  • Activity I: Film Nanimono (2016)
    I first introduce the term shukatsu (‘job-hunting’). Next, I briefly explain the setting of Nanimono, a film that well-portrays the situations of job-hunting in Japan, and we watch the opening scene of the film. We watch it twice, and I ask students what they saw (e.g. black suits, interviews, resumes etc.) as I write them down on the board. We watch another scene from the film about a group interview and talk what we noticed.
  • Activity II: Job interview
    After watching what a job interview is like in Activity I, we practice how to talk in a job interview. I give students a handout that lists sample questions and ideas to build the answers. I explain the meanings of the advanced vocabulary in the handout, explain the typical structure of a good answer, and demonstrate some examples. I also show some video clips for more examples (skip to relevant scenes):
    – https://youtu.be/L9fO-xpWF18
    – https://youtu.be/U_jI1KQkmsk
    – https://youtu.be/Ayb2pWPK9ko
    Finally, in pairs, students ask each other the questions and practice how to answer. I ask some students to share their answers to the whole class.
  • Activity III: What would you do?
    Students in pairs discuss what they would do in the following situations:
    1. Your boss pronounces your name incorrectly everytime. What would you do?
    2. You go to karaoke with your boss and colleagues. Your boss is a terrible singer but asks what you think his singing is. What would you say?
    In a few minutes, I ask some students to share what they discussed.

What technology, media or props did you use?

  • PowerPoint slides
  • Handout
  • Youtube videos
  • Film (DVD from FLRC)

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

  • This class was successful. The job interview practice was challenging for the students, but they find it practical and were very engaged. Every student took notes in their handout and brought it back with them (Usually some students leave handouts in the classroom when they don’t need them after class, but not this time). Students left the class with accomplished faces!

How could this class be improved/ modified?

  • Students, especially those actually planning to apply for Japanese companies, would want more feedback. Because it was hard to correct all of their errors when they were talking at the same time, next time I would ask more students to present their answers after the practice time so that I can correct them.

Materials (Download the files for better view):

JP S20 ADV Fashion

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Miki Saigo

Day and Date: January 28, 2019

Language and Level: Advanced Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed:

  • Fashion

Goal of the class:

  • Discuss preferences and opinions on fashion

How did you structure the class?

  • Greetings and announcements
    – Study Break: Calligraphy Feb. 6th
    – Oldenborg Open House Feb. 13th
  • Activity I: Whose outfit?
    I show students pictures of various outfits. In groups of three, students discuss who/what kind of person would wear them to where and if students themselves would try wearing these outfits. After they discuss in groups, they discuss with the whole class.
  • Activity II: Discussions on fashion
    In groups of three, students discuss the following questions:
    1. What type of outfit do 5C students wear?
    2. What would you wear when you go to:
        – a family gathering for Christmas
        – a friend’s wedding
        – a job interview
    3. Do you take time to pick clothes in the morning? What do you do when you can’t decide?
    4. Do you stick to certain brands? Do you like fast fashion?
    5. Imagine you traveled to a somewhere far away… and you find people there wear completely different from you (e.g. everybody is wearing ルーズソックス!). What would you do?
  • Activity III: Idol group audition
    I mention how idols/groups wear unique fashion and do various types of activities on media (e.g. singing, dancing, cooking, comedy, acting, harvesting…). I divide the students into groups and tell each group to imagine they are going on an audition as an idol group. Using a worksheet, students first ask each other their hobbies, skills and things they want to try in the future. Students list up the keywords and then discuss what they can do as an idol group using their talents. They also decide their group name, goals and theme fashion (draw what they are going to wear on media).
    When they are done, they present their idea to the whole class.

What technology, media or props did you use?

  • PowerPoint slides
  • Pictures from the internet (for the picture cards)
  • Worksheet

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

  • Activity I was visually entertaining. It is open-ended and made students talk, too.
  • Students had fun in Activity III. They were creative and talked spontaneously to share their ideas. It was nice to have them draw their costumes.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

  • I would add a discussion on trend fashion next time. (e.g. What kind of fashion item is popular now/went popular in the past?)

Materials (Download the files for better view):

JP S20 INT Causative-Passive

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Miki Saigo

Day and Date: May 4, 2020

Language and Level: Intermediate Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed:

  • Causative and causative-passive verbs

Goal of the class:

  • Review the grammar rules of causative and causative-passive verbs
  • Use causative-passive verbs in conversation

How did you structure the class?

  • Warm-up: Greetings
    – I ask students to participate in the course evaluation (distributed via email) after class.
  • Activity I: Quarantine Bingo
    Using the bingo sheet made by the advanced class last week, we play a bingo game in teams (two students per team); if the statement in a cell applies to either of the team member, they the cell. At the end, the team with most bingos wins.
    (To do this in the online environment, I made copies of the bingo sheet on a document on Google Doc and had students mark in the synced document.)
  • Activity II: Causative
    First, we review the usage and conjugation rules of causative verbs (-せる／させる; make someone do-). Then, to drill the conjugation, I show some pictures and have students describe them with causative verbs (e.g. “I made my child study,” “I made him eat vegetables,” “I made him go to school”). I write down the sentences on the slides as students answer. Next, we play a game that uses causative verbs; it is a rock-scissors-paper game, except students have to follow the commands, “You win/lose” or “Make the opponent win/lose”.
  • Activity III: Causative-passive
    I introduce causative-passive verbs (させられる; be made to do-) by rewriting some of the sentences from the previous activity. We review when and how to use causative-passive verbs. Then, I ask students to describe the pictures from the previous activity with causative-passive verbs (e.g. “I was made to study,” “I was made to eat vegetables,” “I was made to go to school”).
    Next, we discuss the following questions, using causative-passive verbs:
    1. Were you forced to do anything as a child? (e.g. music lessons, sports, fashion etc.) As an example, I show a picture of myself wearing a kendo uniform as a child and talk about my memories back then (e.g. “I was made to learn kendo,” “I was made to wear the uncomfortable uniform”).
    2. Have you ever been forced to buy anything by your family, friends or salesclerks?
  • Closing: briefly explain what we will be doing in the next class (Final class!)

What technology, media or props did you use?

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

  • I chose this grammar rule as the topic because it is one of the hardest in the intermediate/advanced grammar. I designed this class by setting the target grammar first, and then the activities. This way, I was able to structure the class logically and with a clear goal. (I know this was the ideal way to design a class but I often failed to follow this process this semester.)
  • Because my original lesson plan turned out too short in the advanced class, I added more drilling of the conjugations in Activity II and III. This became a good guided practice, especially to intermediate students; they find the task helpful to practice the complicated conjugations.
  • They liked seeing my childhood pictures. It is nice to use personalized materials sometimes in order to catch students’ attention.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

  • It would be better with a couple more open-ended tasks. I would add some discussion questions that make students use causative verbs after Activity II.

Materials:

RUS S20 Adv/Int: Hometown (online)

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name:

MARIA GLUKHOVA

Day and Date:

Thursday, 04/09/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

Russian, Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed:

Hometown

Goal of the class:

To talk about students’ hometowns, so they could make a virtual tour for everyone.

How did you structure the class?

  1. Greetings, announcements, general questions.

2.   Activity 1: [all together] Are you in your hometown now? How does it feel going back home? Did you notice any changes in the city you grew up in, or is it you who has changed?

3.   Activity 2: [in groups of 3 in Break-Out Rooms] Write down a list of locations that people usually associate with their hometowns (for example, this is my school, this is my grandparents’ house, where I eat my favorite ice-cream, etc.). Does this list seem to be similar to everyone?

4.   Activity 3: [all together]: sharing the results + the discussion. After that: the LR opens Google Maps and shows the students her hometown. Navigating in the city, the LR gives the students a tour using as much vocabulary as possible related to location, movement, description, etc.

5.   Activity 4: [in pairs in Break-Out Rooms]: The students should do the same: to show their classmates around their hometown with a guide-like narration. 

6.   Activity 5: [all together] Some of the students present their hometowns to everyone.

7.   Conclusion and a follow-up discussion.

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

Zoom, Google Maps

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

The class worked out great! I was very happy with the results and the atmosphere of it.  

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I would leave it as it is.

RUS S20 Adv/Int: Traveling (online)

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name:

MARIA GLUKHOVA

Day and Date:

Tuesday, 04/07/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

Russian, Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed:

Where would you go after Corona?

Goal of the class:

To talk about travel plans and about different ways of traveling (moneywise, company, etc. )

How did you structure the class?

  1. Greetings, announcements, general questions.
  2. Activity 1: [all together] What is the most exotic place you have been to? Did you go there by yourself, or with other people? Why?
  3. Activity 2: [in groups of 3 in Break-Out Rooms] Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of traveling solo. Write down as many pros and cons as you can come up with.
  4. Activity 3: [all together]: sharing the results + the discussion. After that: there is a famous Ukrainian (and Russian) TV show about traveling called ‘Орёл и Решка’. It is about traveling, and there are two people in it. Why do you think the show is called that? Make predictions.
  5. Activity 4: [in pairs in Break-Out Rooms]: Watch the first 5 minutes of the TV show (Miami episode). Were you right about the main idea? Discuss the structure and key features.
  • Activity 5: [in pairs in Break-Out Rooms] After we discussed the idea of the show together, students work in pairs. They should go to https://34travel.me/post/destinations2018 and get a random country. They flip the coin, and one student has to plan the trip to this country with $100, while the second has an unlimited amount of money.
  • Activity 5: [all together] Student present their travel plans to everyone.
  • Conclusion and a follow-up discussion.

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

Zoom, YouTube

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

The class worked out well!

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I would leave it as it is.

ES S20 INT/ADV Traveling

May 10, 2020 /

Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez (Credit to Marie Segura)

Class theme/topic discussed : Travel

Goal of the class 

  • Practice vocabulary related to traveling and means of transport
  • Get to know popular touristic destinations in Spanish speaking places

Class structure

  • Warm up: Questions (Do you like traveling? What does traveling mean to you? What are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling? Do you think traveling is a form of education? What places have you been to? Would you like to travel on your own?
  • Input:  Story about one of my trips (emphasis on means of transport and activities I did there)
  • Activity 1: What type of traveller are you? Students have been given a free trip but they can’t choose where to go. In pairs, students fill in a chart explaining what type of traveller they are and rank a list of things they like to do the most when traveling.
  • Activity 2: Organize the trip. Organize a surprise trip for another pair of students using their preferences. Each pair of students receives another pair’s list of preferences. Now they have to organize a surprise trip, by first choosing a destination (4 destinations are proposed on a handout with the main activities you can do there but they can also choose another Spanish-speaking destination and look up for information online) and then deciding on different aspects of the trip: length of the trip, means of transport, housing, activities organized there. When they’re done, students pick 10 items out of a list that they would pack for this trip. They can add things if they want to. 
  • Activity 3: Presenting the trip/Receiving the Gift. Each group presents the trip they organized to the rest of the class (and especially to the group who receives it who has to react)
  • Activity 4: Customs role-play. Students are on their way to their destinations. In small groups they have to recreate getting to the airport, checking their luggage, going through customs and everything people usually have to do when in the airport.
  • Activity 5: Filling a complaint. Students come up with a complaint about something going wrong with their trip (the flight got delayed, the airline lost their luggage, the place they where staying at wasn’t clean enough, etc.) 
  • Activity 6: COVID-19. ¿How has traveling changed since the virus started spreading? What measures have been taken by airlines/airports? Do you think this is going to have a more permanent effect on traveling in the future? How are airports and airplanes going to look like after the pandemic is under control? 

Resources used

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • The class worked okay. Trying to use the handout was hard because of zoom, but after trying to make the questions in a more conversational way, it worked okay. Because only 2 students joined the class, we only did the first 3 activities.

Annex

  • Traveler’s handout
Viajero-handout.pages

ES S20 INT/ADV Literature/Idioms

May 10, 2020 /

Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Class theme/topic discussed : Literature & Idioms

Goal of the class 

  • To practice literature related vocabulary
  • To become familiar with Spanish speaking authors and popular titles
  • To recognize common idioms

Class structure

  • Warm-up: Questions about reading taste & habits (Do you like reading? How often do you read? What was the last book you read? Who is your favorite author? Which one is your favorite book? Do you have any favorite character? Do you have any reading routine?) 
  • Activity 1: I show students the book covers of 6 Spanish literature classics. After randomly reading  the back cover of the books, students have to match them to the book cover and come up with a title for the books. At the end students comment on which book seems the most interesting for them.
  • Activity 2:  Santiago en 100 palabras: I show students a Micro-stories. After reading 2 examples,  in groups, using a template provided by the organization in charge of this contest, they have to write a micro-story.  (https://www.santiagoen100palabras.cl/web/#libros)
  • Activity 3: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Students have a list of idioms commonly used in Spanish. In groups they have to guess the meaning of each idiom. I explain what the real meaning of each idiom is before jumping onto the next activity.
  • Activity 4: Using story cubes,  in groups, the class comes up with a short story where they put the idiom in context.
  • (extra) Activity 5: Childhood texts stories. I tell students a story about how this children story that marked me greatly when I was a kid. They do the same. 
  • (extra) Activity 6: Students are randomly assigned one of the idioms we have been using all along the class. They have to write the idiom for their classmates to guess, but only using emojis.
  • (extra) Activity 7: Students watch a video where you have to guess new idioms based on emoji phrases.

Resources used

  • PPT
  • Youtube
  • Story cubes
  • “Santiago en 100 palabras” handout

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • The class worked well. Even though we didn’t go pass activity 3, they seemed quite engaged when reading and commenting on the books’ blurb.

Annex

Santiago en 100 palabras handout

S100p-¿Y-cómo-es-el-cuento

S100p-Periodista-por-un-día

ES S20 INT/ADV End of Term Report

May 10, 2020 /

Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Class theme/topic discussed: End of term report

Goal of the class:

  • To look back on the year and prepare some goals for the upcoming year.
  • To practice past tenses, conditional
  • To  exchange information about the future to be able to hypothesize 

Class structure

  • Warm-up: Students discuss  whether they know or the meaning of the following words: Goals, balance, accomplishments, to achieve a goal, to be thankful.
  • Activity 1: Students discuss the following questions: What goals people usually propose for themselves? Can you think of 2 or 3 goals related to these areas of life? (Health, work, money, family, couples, studies, friendship.
  • Activity 2:  Year’s balance/ recap: in pairs students complete each other’s chart of memorable things that happened to them during whatever period of time you are talking about. Then they share. (In case the conversation his going to slowly, use the questions in the annex) 
  • Activity 3: (cred. Marie Segura & Mikiko Saigo) New Year’s Resolutions: (This activity takes place during a family dinner/dinner with friends) Students are separated in groups. In turn, they roll the dice and discover their new year’s resolution. Then, they have to convince skeptical friends/family that they are actually going to keep their resolution this year and to explain why it is so important to them and how are you going to do it.
  • Activity 4: Students become fortune tellers and predict each other’s future with the help of the story cubes and some images. They will make predictions about health, success in work and education, and love. 

Resources used

  • Resolutions sheet
  • PPT

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • As the last class of the semester, it worked pretty well. For activity 2, if it’s an online class, it’s better to have the questions in hand.

Annex

  • Activity 1 Table: 
SaludTrabajoDineroFamiliaParejasEstudiosAmistades
Ej.: comer más sano





  • Activity 2 Chart: 

Cosas divertidas que hice: …
Algo nuevo que aprendí: …
Gente interesante que conocí: …
Lugares que visité: …
Algo que nunca olvidaré: …
Algo de lo que estoy orgulloso/a: …

  • Extra questions for Activity 2: 

¿Cuáles han sido los momentos más destacados?

¿Qué cosas nuevas has probado durante este año?

¿Cuáles han sido tus momentos más felices?

¿Qué has aprendido durante este año?

¿Cuál ha sido tu mayor éxito personal? ¿Y cuál tu mayor éxito profesional?

¿Cuál ha sido el mayor aprendizaje sobre ti mismo?

¿Qué harías de forma diferente?

¿Qué quieres mantener durante el próximo año? ¿Qué te gustaría cambiar en el año nuevo?

  • Resolutions sheet

ES S20 INT/ADV Music

May 9, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Class theme/topic discussed: Music taste and music genres

Goal of the class 

  • To work on music related vocabulary
  • Learn about music culture in Spanish speaking countries

Class’ structure

  • Warm-up: Introductory questions about music taste and word cloud on music instruments. 
  • Input: Small presentation on Cueca. It includes instruments usually used to play that music, exponents and dance (how is it and how the costumes look like).
  • Activity 1: Students choose between different Spanish speaking countries music styles. They have to make a small a presentation and include the same information as in the presentation the teacher gave (cumbia, ranchera, flamenco, rumba, timba, tango, salsa, merengue) 
  • Activity 2: Students describe a picture in which writing and music is related and discuss whether music should also be considered poetry. Students receive fragments of different reggaeton songs and poems and have to distinguish which are which. They listen to all of them, read as if they were poems and share their results
  • Activity 3: Each group of students works with one of the fragments which corresponded to reggaeton songs and have to invent a new fragment. We listen to the songs and I pause them right before their fragment comes, so that they sing it. 
  • Extra Activity 1: Discussing the content of some reggaeton songs and their cultural significance: Yo perreo sola – Bad Bunny
  • Extra activity 2: I play different songs linked with the styles they talked about in their presentations. Students have to guess the music genre. 

Resources used

  • Youtube: 
  • PPT

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • Students enjoyed the discussions at the very beginning, but doing the zoom presentation was a bit hard. When talking about online classes, it’s better to avoid those “group research projects” because some students may just be on their phones or have a harder time doing group research.
  • As an extra activity we created a playlist in Spotify and I’ve heard students commenting on the songs, which is fun and engaging for them.

Annex

CN S20 ADV Travel (Zoom Class)

May 8, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name: Ruirui Zhang

Day and Date: Thursday, April 23,2020

Language and Level : Advanced Class

 Class theme/topics discussed :Travel to China(make a plan to travel to China)

Goal of the class:

Students are able to use China’s travelling website to book a airplane ticket ,hotel and tickets of tourist attractions.

 How did you structure the class? 

 1.Warm up: Review words related to travelling by playing a game: each student got two flashcards and need to describe the words while others guess the words.

2.Activity: Google search “Tóngchéng”（同程旅游）and try to book a airplane ticket/hotel/ticket of tourist attraction referring to the handout.

Teacher briefly introduces the website and  students need to book a airplane ticket/hotel/tickets of tourist attractions on this website. Then students pair up and finish the task together.

During the activity, the teacher walks around and makes sure students are on the right track (I found some students talk about tourist attractions in English instead of doing the activity). They need to show and talk to teacher about their booking. Meanwhile, reminder students to look through comments which other users leave before booking.

3.Close lesson: Share your trip with each other. These includes:

State the hotel’s name you booked and reasons why you booked this hotel.

State the tourist attraction and what it is like. 

What technology, media or props did you use?  

 PowerPoint

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

 Students had fun planning a trip with using actual website. And It’s very useful to let students do such a activity since nowadays people tend to book tickets online.      

Planning a trip was a little bit difficult for the Intermediate Class. It need to be simplified or more supports need to be provided.    

Could this class be improved/ modified?

 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.

 去中国旅游

Google搜索“http://ghotel.ly.com”：

1.订一张机票：

出发城市：                    到达城市：

出发日期：                     返回日期：

2.订一家酒店

酒店/宾馆名字：________________________________

选择这家酒店的原因:

___________________________________________________________________________

3.选择1-2个旅游景点

景点一:____________________________________________________

景点二:____________________________________________________

10月1日-去中国旅行

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