Language Residents

an archive of lesson plans

Category: Spanish (Page 1 of 13)

Spanish Conversation Class

ES ADV: Architecture

December 9, 2022 /

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.

ES FA22 INT/ADV Holidays

December 9, 2022 /

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.

ES INT: Health

December 9, 2022 /

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.

ES FA22 INT Animals and pets

December 9, 2022 /

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

ES FA22 INT/ADV Work and future plans

December 9, 2022 /

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

ES INT: Safari

December 9, 2022 /

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.

ES FA22 INT/ADV Movies and series

December 9, 2022 /

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. 

ES S22 ADV LGBTQ+ Issues II

May 6, 2022 /

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 

22 de abril de 1973, la primera protesta en Chile de disidencias sexuales por sus derechos | Artes y Cultura | BioBioChile
LasPortadasDeTuVida📰 Twitterissä: "1984 Agosto 23 - "Murió paciente del cáncer gay chileno" Así se retrataba entonces el SIDA en Chile. ¿Qué te parece? https://t.co/33Vze41LzX" / Twitter

ES S22 ADV Fake News

May 6, 2022 /

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.

ESINT SP2022 Money, money, money

May 6, 2022 /

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.

ESINT SP2022 Music

May 6, 2022 /

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.

ES S22 INT My hometown

May 6, 2022 /

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.

ES S22 INT Social Media and Technology II

May 6, 2022 /

Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz

Level: Intermediate

Class theme/topic discussed: Social Media and Technology II.  

Goal of the class:

Students will be able to:

  • Determine benefits and opportunities for social media and summarize them by designing a hypothetical social media app.
  • Practice verbs and actions used for social media tasks such as “dar me gusta, publicar, comentar, subir una historia, etc”.

Class structure:

Warm up:

Students are asked to remember and say social media-related vocabulary filling a chart on the board that breaks them down into actions, characteristics or things.  They are encouraged to ask if there are words that they want to say but are not sure how. Expected words are: viral, me gusta, compartir, bloquear, muro, perfil, inicio, subir, descargar, publicar, etc.

Activity:

Crea tu red social ideal: In couples, students will design a new and innovative social media app they would hypothetically become successful. They will do that through the following steps:

  1. Consider pros and cons of commonly used social media apps. Determine how to include the good things about it and solve the bad ones.
  2. Think about a target for the app, see how they would satisfy their costumer’s needs and what kind of content there will give.
  3. Determine the way it will be advertised and funded (are they going to use advertising on the app?, will they charge a subscription fee?, will they receive donations?, etc.”)
  4. Design the layout, main colors displayed, logo and slogan, using colored chalk.

Students present their social media app to the class.

Wrap up:

Students discuss whether they would really use that app if it existed and if they would ever stop using the ones that they already use and replace them with another activity.

Resources used: Projector, laptops.

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

It seems that throughout the weeks students feel more comfortable in the class and they speak more. In general they participated well and carried out the activities creatively. I went around the room helping them understand the instructions and making sure that they were doing what they were supposed to. They ended up creating fun social media platforms that they exposed to the rest of the class. It worked well for the couples, but unfortunately in one of the groups of three people, it was clear that there was a student that was not participating very much. My way to deal with that was just go around and ask them about what they were doing at the moment. It worked apparently.

ESADV SP2022 Literature and poetry

May 6, 2022 /

Language resident: Natalia Cano

Class theme/topic discussed: Literature and poetry

Goal of the class: The students learn about Spanish literature and poetry

Class structure:

Activity 1: No juzques un libro por su portada

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.

Activity 2: La Celestina

I asked them if they knew this book. I showed a draw my life video of La Celestina and they asked me questions about the plot.

Activity 3: Helicón

In pairs, create a story with this text as inspirations. Then, each pair will share their story with the rest of the class.

  • Si la memoria no me engaña y puedo considerarme aún un hombre cuerdo, con la normal capacidad para interpretar los signos del calendario y del reloj, precisaré que fue hace diez días y nueve horas exactamente cuando cometí el error.

Activity 4: Poetry

  • Who is your favorite poet? In any language.
  • What do you think it is more important when translating poetry? Keeping the rhym, the meaning or the images?

Activity 5: Your favorite poem

Which one is your favorite poem?

In pairs, they have to choose a poem in English and try to translate it to Spanish.

Activity 6:

Poetry in Spanish.I brought to class two books. One is a bilingual edition of Neruda’s poems and the other one is Lorca’s Poeta en Nueva York, so they can take a look at the poems. 

Resources used:

La Celestina:

Blackboard

Poems of Love, NerudaPoeta en Nueva York, Lorca

What worked well? What did not work?

I would add a warm up to this class, but I think the class went well. The students loved to share their opinions related to literature and poetry and they also found very challenging the translation part.

Es F21 Adv Dating

December 10, 2021 /

Language resident: Natalia Cano

Class theme: Dating

Goal of the class: dating/relationships/describing a person vocabulary and having a date in the target language

Warm up: What adjectives do you use to describe a person?

We write all of them on the board.

Activity 1: Red flags and green flags

The students write on the board what are red and green flags for them when they meet someone. After that they have to explain what they wrote down to the rest of the class.

Activity 2: Are these green or red flags?

  • They criticize your physique
  • Both are compromised with the relationship
  • They don’t like High School Musical
  • They don’t take your feelings seriously and say you are crazy.
  • Both share the same goals and lifestyle.
  • They criticize their exs.
  • They don’t value your achievements
  • They are responsible with their selves
  • They criticize you and/or your friends
  • They joke about your insecurities
  • They take your phone
  • They don’t treat their family well
  • They are still sleeping with their ex
  • What they do matches what they say.
  • They think your work is not important.
  • They cook for you when you are sick
  • They don’t know where Canada is.
  • You change your behavior when you are with them
  • You love each other
  • They don’t ask you questions. They are not interested in you.
  • You must fight to have you place in the relationship.
  • They are sincere and you trust each other.
  • They are married
  • They are cheap
  • The communication is not good
  • You empower each other
  • They manipulate situations and feelings
  • They respect your space and priorities
  • They control you on social media
  • They treat waiter/waitress respectfully
  • You both communicate your feelings and necessities in a freely.
  • You listen to them, but they don’t listen to you.
  • They like cats and they aren’t allergic.

The students have to agree if these are green or red flags form them and explain why they think so.

Activity 3: We have a dateThe students get a Tinder profile with 5-6 adjectives/characteristics, and they have to have speed dates with other students.

Resources used: Powerpoint and fake tinder profiles

Reflection: This class worked very well. The students liked to give their opinions on red and green flags. I found the speed dating activity very good because you can do more or less rounds depending on the time you have left. I also think that this class could be improved with another warmup activity in which the students work in pair, because they always share more opinions when they are talking in pairs.

Es F21 Adv Traveling

December 10, 2021 /

Language Resident: Natalia Cano

Topic: Travelling

Warmup:

Test: What type of traveler are you?


Activity 1: What do you need in a trip?

The students write in a paper 5 things they need while travelling and they give this paper to another student. The second student decides which destination is the best one to the first student. The second student also decides how much time the trip is going to last, which transportation she/he should use, where is this person staying, activities that can enjoy in the destination and things that they should pack.

Each student presents the organized trip to the rest of the class. The student who receives the surprise trip has to react using expressions proposed on the powerpoint: me encanta, está bien, lo haría, no me gusta, no lo haría, lo odio.

Activity 2: Transportation

  • Which means of transport do you know?
  • Which one do you prefer?
  • Why?

Resources used: Powerpoint

Reflection:

I think that the warmup was good, because we all have done this kind of test as some point of our lives, so they know how they work, and they also asked about vocabulary they did not know.

Planning a trip for another student was something that they really liked, they put a lot of effort on that, and each student paid a lot of attention to what the other students were saying. It was a useful activity too because they didn’t remember the names of the other students in the class, so it also helped them to get to know each other a little more. The only thing I didn’t like about this activity is that some students were faster than others and I didn’t want to have students checking their phone in class. So, I had to stop some of them is the last part of the planning, and some of them didn’t have the items that the other student had to bring to their trip. Activity number 1 took a big part of the class, but we spent the last 5-7 min talking about transportation. It was good because each student liked a different one and they gave different reasons for it, so it worked well.

ES F21 ADV LGBTIQ+ Issues

December 10, 2021 /

Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz

Level: Advanced

Class theme/topic discussed: LGBTIQ+ Issues 

Goal of the class:

Students will be able to:

  • Discuss issues that affected the LGBTIQ+ both today and in the past.
  • 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 about the fact that the Equal marriage bill passed the congress’ “cámara de diputados”, making it one step closer to become a law.  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 images of artistic interventions of Pedro Lemebel, a Chilean queer writer that made a lot of effort during the dictatorship of Pinochet to bring to light issues of the LGBT community. After the facilitator explain a little bit who Pedro Lemembel is, they try to make assumptions on the meaning and purpose of each interventions. 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…”). After that, they are provided with short written explanations on pieces of paper and are encouraged to match the image with the explanation.

–Referentes queer:  Students see two instagram videos (30 seconds each aprox.) of the influencers @unafamiliax (a Chilean lesbian couple activists who talk about current issues of the community and make visible their lives as a homoparental family with a child). Students are encouraged to ask questions about them, and then to share some role models or references in their own countries or communities that they know of, what they do, what they stand for and whatever they would like to share.

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. Some of them were closed to the topic because they have previously participated in activist groups in support of LGBTQ students in their communities. Students had a lot of questions about the situation in Chile, the progress that had been made so far and other challenges that the community faces today. 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. We were not able to fully complete all the activities of the class and we will continue on the next class and add some more activities related to the topic.

Pedro Lemebel artistic interventions:

Pedro Lemebel | ArtNexus

The Relaunch of the Yeguas del Apocalipsis | ArtNexus

Queens of the Corner: Pedro Lemebel y Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis – Mijente

The Relaunch of the Yeguas del Apocalipsis | ArtNexus

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