an archive of lesson plans

Category: Spanish (Page 2 of 13)

Spanish Conversation Class

ES S22 INT Social Media and Technology II

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

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

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

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

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

ES F21 Int Dream House

Language Resident: Natalia Cano

Goal of the class: Conditionals

Activity 1: Vocabulary related to houses

The students brainstorm together on the board the vocabulary they know about houses.

Activity 2: My dream house

In pairs they have the draw their dream house on the board. Then, they have to present it to the rest of the class while using conditionals. 

Activity 3: My dream house

I showed them a very fancy house and they had to describe what they saw in the pictures and give their opinions about the house.

Resources used: House in Idealista and blackboard

Reflection: I would add a warm up activity with questions like ”What’s your favorite part of your house?” Where do you spend more time?” ”What would you change from your house”. I would maybe also make them talk about their actual houses after I talk about my house in Spain.

ES F21 ADV Using de Subway

Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz

Level: Advanced

Class theme/topic discussed: Travelling 

Goal of the class:

Students will be able to:

  • Give directions in a subway setting of a Chilean city.
  • Use expressions to express directions such as “Toma el metro en la estación…”, “avanza dos estaciones en dirección”, etc.
  • Determine the best way to use the subway taking into consideration some eventual difficulties

Class structure:

Warm up:

Students see images of people lost in a city and discuss whether they have been in a situation like that in the past, or have had the chance to help someone in that situation.

Activity:

Students remember words and expressions related to giving directions and giving direcions using the subway. “toma la línea _____ en la estación ___”, “avanza tres estaciones en dirección ____”, etc.

Students see a map of Metro de Santiago and practice with three different destinies:

  • From Las Rejas to Estación Central
  • From Cerrillos to San Miguel
  • From Los Dominicos to Grecia
  • “¿Cómo llegar al aeropuerto?”: Students discuss the best way to help somone to go from Trinidad station to the Airport in Pudahuel station, considering that some of the stations are closed during certain hours. (sheets of paper were printed out with the map of the metro, and some difficulties were added afterwards)

    Wrap up:

    Students talk about whether they found that easy or not, whether they would see themselves using those expressions in the future, etc.

    Resources used: Projector, imovie

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

    The class went well. I realized in the class that students did not know very much about giving directions in Spanish, so I ended up using some more time at the beginning to help them get not only the expressions that they were going to use for the main task, but also other kind of expressions that they could come across when giving directions. They seemed to appreciate the class, because they said that it was very useful if they ever went to a Spanish-speaking country; and that it is something that they are not usually taught in Spanish classes.

    ES F21 Int prepositions (por and para)

    Language Resident: Natalia Cano

    Goal of the class: Por and para

    Warm up: some examples with already know

    -Por favor

    -Por el momento

    -¿Hay un banco por aquí?

    -Este regalo es para ti

    -Trabajo para una multinacional

    -¿Algún otro ejemplo que se os ocurra?

    Activity 1: Por and para explanation chart

    Activity 2: In pairs the students think about an example of every por and para case.

    Activity 3: Map

    In pairs they tell their partner how they go from one place in the city map to another by using por and para. Ex. Yo voy de la cafetería para el banco por la avenida Hablo español.

    Activity 4: Fill the blanks with por and para

    .We did this activity in group. Each of them reads a sentence and decided if por or para was the right option.

    Resources used: Powerpoint

    Reflection:

    In this class we worked more on grammar, but I tried to make them talk to each other by putting them in pairs. They asked me a lot of questions with different examples in which they had doubts, so I think that this class was very useful for them.I would add a specific  warm up to this class, not just taking with them about how everything is going on and the couple of examples of por and para.

    ES F21 INT Food and Beverages II

    Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz

    Level: Intermediate

    Class theme/topic discussed: Food and beverages II

    Goal of the class:

    Students will be able to:

    • Describe food and use expressions to order food in a restaurant (for example: “me gustaría ordenar”, “quisiera pedir”, “¿Qué lleva el ___?”, “¿me podría traer la cuenta?”, etc)

    Class structure:

    Warm up:

    Students remember vocabulary of ingredients of food by seeing last class’ images of Chilean food and saying the ingredients that they can see.

    Activities

    -Students watch a video on “how NOT to order food in Spanish” and are asked to identify the expressions that are used to order food, as well as answering: how should the customer have said those expressions in a better way?. After that, the facilitator writes on the board relevant expressions for ordering food.

    -Students see an open-ended dialogue at a regular restaurant setting and practice the expressions filling in the blanks the information that they want to add to the situation. They practice asking about ingredients and describing plates in the process.

    Roleplay: One of the students is the waiter and the others are customers. They simulate a restaurant setting in which some difficulties happen (they take turns so that someone is not always the waiter):

    1. Their favorite plate is not available that day and they have to find something that could be enjoyable for them.
    2. While eating, they realized that there was meat on what they ordered. They are vegetarians.
    3. While eating, the restaurant is about to close, but they only started eating about 5 minutes ago.

    Wrap up:

    Adivina el plato de comida: Each students describes a plate, and the rest of the participants guess what the plate is.

    Resources used: Projector, Power point presentation, youtube video 

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

    Students participated well during the class. They had practiced describing food on the previous class, so it was easier for them to do it that class. It was surprising for me that they remembered so many things about Chilean food ( I thought that they would forget it right after the class). In general, they seemed to have fun, but I realized that, even though I still tried to model before each activity, I could have done it more; because there were a couple of situations in which students were not so sure about how to proceed, so then I would try to show them again.

    Food ordering dialog (for controlled practice stage)

    Mesero: Buenas tardes, bienvenido/a al restaurante ____________. Mi nombre es ____ y voy a ser su mesero. ¿Qué desea tomar/beber?

    Cliente: Me gustaría pedir____ / Quisiera ordenar _____ / Déme un/a _________

    Mesero: ¿Qué le gustaría de entrada/entremeses? Tengo para ofrecer ______, ______

    Cliente: ¿Qué trae la ______ ? (Nombre del plato)

    Mesero: Trae ____ , _____ , (descripción del plato)

    Cliente: Déme el / la ________ / Me gustaría ordenar el / la _____

    Mesero: ¿Qué le gustaría de plato principal / plato de fondo? 

    Cliente: ¿Tiene _______?

    ….

    (postre)

    Cliente: ¿Me trae la cuenta por favor?

    Mesero: Con mucho gusto. ¿Con qué medio va a pagar?

    (Indica el medio)

    (Se despiden)

    ES F21 INT Food and Beverages I

    Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz

    Level: Intermediate

    Class theme/topic discussed: Food and beverages I

    Goal of the class

    Students will be able to:

    • Describe different kinds of food and ingredients.
    • Use food vocabulary and expressions to indicate place (encima, al lado de, sobre, debajo de, etc.)

    Class structure:

    Warm up:

    Students see an image of different kinds of foods and answer the question: “¿what’s your favorite food/restaurant?”

    Activities:

    -Students see images of Chilean traditional food and beverages  (cazuela, humitas, empanadas, mote con huesillo, leche asada, terremoto) and mention the ingredients that they think they might have, how they think it could be prepared and whether it looks similar to a plate from another country or culture.

    -“¿Qué comida es?”: Each student gets small pieces of paper that can have either an image, name of a meal or a description on it. They go around the room and try to exchange information with their classmates in order to match each image with the name of the plate and its description. Some of them are the ones that were shown before and some others were new.

    -“Encuentra las diferencias”: Students get a sheet of paper with the image of a man in a kitchen. Some of them got the A form and others the B form. Both have a similar image on it, but many of the elements in the image are different. Without seeing their classmate’s sheet, they ask questions to them in order to find out what the differences are. (for example: “hay un trozo de queso al lado del vaso de leche?”)

    Wrap up:

    Students remember the Chilean food that they learned about and talk about which one they would eventually like to try and why.

    Resources used: Projector, laptop, pieces of paper.

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

    Students seemed to like the topic about food and asked questions about Chilean food. One of my students has Mexican relatives and we realized that there were some plates that were similar, although they differ in aspects of how they are made or the ingredients. We also spent some time talking about the vocabulary difference of some ingredients (for example “porotos” vs “frijoles” or “choclo” vs “maiz”). The activity in which they had to ask questions about the other person’s image also worked well and it gave them the chance to ask questions about prepositions and more vocabulary. 

    What was a little bit more challenging were the descriptions of food on the sheet of paper. They ended up doing it well, but it took them a while to understand everything, so they asked questions on vocabulary and expressions. Maybe a simpler version of those descriptions could have worked better, but at the same time, I think that the little challenge that they had could also have been helpful, since it wasn’t extremely hard for them.

    ES S21 ADV Indigenous Languages

    Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez 

    Class theme/topic discussed : Indigenous Languages

    Goal of the class 

    • Discuss the relationship between Spanish and indigenous languages
    • Talk about the public policies surrounding indigenous languages
    • Learn some indigenous words used in a day-to-day basis in some Spanish speaking countries.

    Class structure

    • Warm-up:  Students play 3 rounds of would you rather.  
    • Activity 1: In breakout rooms, students answer some questions related to the languages they speak. Do you speak any more languages other than English and Spanish? What are the benefits of speaking multiple languages?
    • Activity 2: We watch a short video about how some indigenous languages are dying and what kind of public policies are being ruled to help this issue. In addition, students discuss a couple of questions to check what they understood from the video: What are the advantages and disadvantages of learning an indigenous language in school? What factors contribute to the loss and death of indigenous languages? What do you think about prioritizing teaching a foreign language over an indigenous language at school? What are the consequences?
    • Activity 3: I read aloud a paragraph of colloquial Chilean Spanish and students have to identify the indigenous words and guess the meaning of the words used in the text.
    • Activity 4: After checking and discussing the meaning, students come up with a dialogue where they use at least 2-3 of the words just learnt.

    Resources used

    • PPT
    • Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyMjFoqUhfA

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

    • It was a good class. We spent most of the class on activity 2 discussing the questions and the video. Although students were engaged with that activity, I think moving on faster so that you have enough time to do the last two activities would be more fun and more dynamic.

    ES S21 INT/ADV Abortion Laws (Marea Verde)

    Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez 

    Class theme/topic discussed : Abortion Laws in Latin America

    Goal of the class 

    • Discuss “Marea Verde”, the pro-choice movement born in Argentina

    Class structure

    • Activity 1 Green/Blue Scarves: I show students pictures of people of protestors wearing green (pro-choice) and blue scarves  (pro-choice). Have you seen these pictures before? What do these people stand for?. 
    • Activity 2 Marea Verde: Students hear a short presentation to contextualise the pro-choice movement “Marea Verde”, which started in 2018 in Argentina.
    • Activity 3: What do you know about reproductive rights policies in the US?  Students discuss in pairs and then volunteers report in the main room
    • Activity 4: In small groups students choose 2 different countries (a Spanish speaking country & another one) an do a small research on reproductive rights public policy from those 2 countries. What to these countries’ policies have in common? Are there any differences? 
    • Activity 5 75 Opiniones: Students are given a list of 5 questiones used by a Peruvian Organization to gather opinions about abortion within the country. They discuss how appropriate they think these questions are to address the issue and whether they would use a different set of questions.

    Resources used

    https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/factsheet/fs-aww-lac-es.pdf

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

    • ADV: The class worked great! I was worried about how students would feel talking about more controversial topics, but they were very talkative and seemed to enjoy the class a lot. For activity 3 almost all groups chose different countries so it was very interesting comparing that many policies. 
    • INT: It was a good class too, we weren’t able to have the same dynamic, thought-provoking discussion as with the advanced group but students still enjoyed it.
    • ** I asked both classes in advanced if whether they were interested talking about this topic or not, and how did they feel about it.

    ES S21 ADV NASA

    Language Resident Name: Tamara Olivos

    Day and Date: April 20, 2017

    Language and Level : Advanced Spanish

    Class theme/topics discussed:

    Goal of the class:

    How did you structure the class?

    Reminder of cultural activities

    Warm up: pictionary. Using the whiteboard, ask students to draw something. The rest of the class has to guess what the drawing is.

    NASA activity: See attached link

    Set the mood and give context using this story.

    “Each one of you is part of the crew of a spaceship that is going to meet the ‘mother ship’ on the illuminated part of the moon. Due to some mechanical difficulties, the space ship had to land about 350km from the original meeting spot. During the landing, a big part of the space ship equipment suffered considerable damage and due to the fact that the crew’s survival depends on getting to the mother ship, you must select the most important material to take with you, and leave the least important ones behind.”

    “Cada uno de ustedes forma parte de la tripulación de una nave espacial que iba a reunirse con la “nave nodriza”, en la superficie iluminada de la luna. Debido a unas dificultades mecánicas que surgieron, la nave espacial tuvo que alunizar en un lugar que dista unos 350 km. del sitio donde tenía que encontrarse con la otra nave. Durante el alunizaje, gran parte del equipaje de la nave en que iban ustedes, se estropeó o sufrió daños de consideración, y puesto que la supervivencia de la tripulación, o sea de cada uno de ustedes, depende de que puedan llegar a la “nave nodriza”, tienen que seleccionar el material más importante para llevarlo, dejando lo menos importante.”

    Read the list of objects and equipment that were left unharmed after the forced landing. The participants must rank them according to importance and usefulness in order to get to the mother ship. 1 = most important, 15 = least important.

    Fist step : Each student will rank the objects individually (column labeled indv)

    Second part: Depending on your class size, you can create groups or pairs. Ask students to share their individual rankings, and then rank the again under column group.

    Third part If you used pairs in part two, you could create bigger groups and ask them do rank them again. If not, provide the official ranking made by NASA and compare with each groups’ ranking. Students share observations on the process.

    Collaboration, active listening, and flexibility are key for this class.

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

    Students were really surprised about the results. They collaborated a lot and they realized how talking to others improved their chances.

     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.

    You can find the items list in this link:

    https://jugamos.jimdo.com/juegos-cognitivos/el-juego-de-la-nasa/

    ES S20 INT/ADV Fake News

    Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez  (cred. to José Gómez & Tamara Olivos)

    Class theme/topic discussed : Fake News

    Goal of the class 

    • To exchange information in an argumentative way
    • To hypothesize about the veracity of different news
    • To understand, summarize and present a piece of news as a professional TV presenter

    Class structure

    • Activity 1 Intro questions: : Students answer some questions about different ways of keeping up with news (TV, online newspapers, etc.), the time they dedicate to it, the importance it has, etc. 
    • Activity 2 Fake News Video: I show them one video of a piece of fake news from an online newspaper (El Mundo Today) with lots of comic fake news. They answer some questions about it and, in case students do not figure out that the piece of news is fake, I reveal it and tell them about the existence of this online newspaper. 
    • Activity 3 Pieces of News: Students receive different pieces of news. Most of them will be fake, except for one. In pairs, they have to read the piece of news, understanding it to be able to summarize the main content. 
    • Activity 4 Discussion Students present their news in a very professional way, as if all the news were true and very serious. They will have to discuss afterwards about which news are fake and which one is true. 
    • Activity 5 White Lies:  Fake news are full of lies, so students talk about white lies. Are they good or can they be good sometimes? Do they lie a lot? Are they good liars? Have you ever been caught lying?
    • Activity 6 Follow-up Excuses:  Students are given a list of hypothetical situations and have to come up with excuses to avoid getting into these situations. 

    Resources used

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

    • This was a great class for both section. They talked a lot in their small breakout groups. Because using handouts on zoom is harder, having each news article on a different google doc made it easier to share with students.  
    • The intermediate class needed some extra help with the vocabulary on the articles so it is good to jump back and forth between breakout rooms for that section.

    ES S21 ADV Accents and Stereotypes

    Language Resident/Assistant Name: Tamara Olivos

    Day and Date: February 2, 2021

    Language and Level : Spanish Advanced

     Class theme/topics discussed: Accents

    Goal of the class:

    • To talk about different accents in English and Spanish.
    • To talk about how accents influence our perception of people

    How did you structure the class?

    Ice breaker: “House Treasure Hunt”. The instructor will post items on the chat (one at a time) and students must try to find the item and bring them back as soon as possible.

    • A kitchen item that starts with a “C” (cuchara, cazuela, cubeta, copa)
    • The longest book/textbook you can find
    • Something yellow
    • Scissors
    • A small box
    • A broom

    Warm up: Which accent is your favorite in Spanish and in English? Which accent is easiest/hardest to understand in Spanish? Why? Are you good at imitating accents in English?

    Activity 1: We watch a video about the different accents in English. What did you think? Did she do a good job? Did you like her accent? Where is she from? Because the video is pretty long, the instructor can pause after each accent and discuss the questions above.

    Alternative: Watch this video instead about Spanish accents, although it’s in English.

    Activity 2:  We watch a series of videos by HBO Latino where they discuss stereotypes and their lives in the US. We discuss the videos. What is the stereotype? What is the situation in their states?  How can we change this? What’s the main reason for the rejection of people different from us? Has anyone made fun of your accent, in English or Spanish?

    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?

    I skipped the accents video because my previous class didn’t enjoy it very much. I added an alternative because it may be easier for students to talk about Spanish accents. This class loved all the HBO videos though and had lots of comments. Because we skipped the first one, we had a lot of time to spend on the HBO videos.

    ES S21 INT/ADV Lifestyle – Minimalism

    Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez 

    Class theme/topic discussed : Lifestyles & Minimalism

    Goal of the class 

    • To understand information different lifestyles and their relation with culture and language.
    • To reflect and contrast on the long-term effects and consequences of specific lifestyles

    Class structure

    • Warm-up:  Students read the word minimalism on the slide and have a couple of minutes to think about what comes to their minds when they see the word. They look up a picture that represents their interpretation of minimalism and share it in breakout rooms. 
    • Activity 1: Students watch a couple of videos on minimalism to check if their idea of minimalism is correct 
    • Activity 2: Students see a small survey on minimalist lifestyle and as a class we choose three main questions: Are you a minimalist person? Do you know anyone who lives a minimalist life? Would you be able to live such kind of life?
    • Activity 3: Minimalist challenge. Students have 5 minutes to think about 15 items in their room/house that they could throw away within the next 5 minutes. Students also make a top 5 list of things they could never get rid of. In small breakout rooms they share their lists and compare.
    • Activity 4: Students decide to change their lifestyle. Taking into account different lifestyles, minimalist included, students discuss the benefits of some of them. They have to find a lifestyle that suits them the best and come up with a plan as to how they will implement that on their daily life from now on.
    • Extra activity: On a google slides presentation, students see pictures of 11 different households and their fridges. These people are from all over the world so students have to discuss 1) Where do they think they are from, 2) What kind of lifestyle they think they have by looking at their fridges. 

    Resources used

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

    • The class worked great for both levels. For the intermediate class the first video was slightly faster but, because it was one of the first activities, it worked well anyways. We did the extra activity as well in both classes, students enjoyed working with the pictures a lot more than the discussion-based activities this time, so it would have been nicer to have spent more time on it.

    ES S21 INT Change.org Petitions

    Language Resident/Assistant Name: Tamara Olivos

    Day and Date: February 10, 2021

    Language and Level : Spanish Intermediate

    Class theme/topics discussed: Change.org petitions

    Goal of the class: To write a change.org petition

    How did you structure the class?

    Ice-breaker: Taboo. The class is divided in groups. The instructor gives one person a word in a private chat (the word includes taboo words). Students must describe the word without mentioning the taboo words.

    Activity 1: Students read a headline about funding being pulled from Erasmus students. As a class we discuss what is Erasmus and if there is something similar in the US (Fulbright pulled funding during the pandemic, for example)

    Activity 2: Instructor asks students to define change.org. What is it? What is it for? Is it effective? Have you signed or created a petition? Encourage sharing as much as possible.

    Activity 2: We read a short letter that a student sent to the Department of Education in Spain. Some verbs are in bold to call attention to the verb tense (presente del subjuntivo)

    Activity 3: In a google Doc, students read some Facebook comments regarding the headline from activity 1. In groups, students must add a comment stating their opinion.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jp-0RkaEi2Lvjozr8qj1So9zyR65xSFePUAzZsb9Wq8/edit?usp=sharing

    Activity 4: Students write their own petition. In groups of 2, students think about a topic that is relevant to them. Who is it addressed to? Some verb suggestions are given, and model structures. This could be a silly activity or a serious one. It will depend on your students.

    This activity was taken from:

    http://www.rutaele.es/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/R2_COMECOCOS_Subjuntivo_Changeorg_MMAP_B1B2.pdf

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

    Zoom, google docs, PPT

     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

    ES S21 INT/ADV Slogans

    Language Resident Name: Tamara Olivos

    Day and Date: April 28, 2021

    Language and Level : Intermediate/Advanced Spanish

    Class theme/topics discussed: Advertising

    Goal of the class: to create a slogan for a product

    How did you structure the class?

    Warm up: Introduce the topic by asking the students which is their favorite TV commercial. Do you remember a specific commercial from your childhood? What is the goal of advertising a product? What makes a good ad?

    Video 1: Introduce some vocabulary necessary for the video (trenzas). Talk about meeting the parents of the person you are dating. Then watch this Argentine ad “a todos nos puede gustar lo mismo”.

    Alternative: ask students what they would want to ask the boyfriend/girlfriend of their kid. Write down the questions in the chat.

    Mention the differences between Spanish from Argentina with other accents.

    Activity for video 1: In pairs, students will have to create and ad for a beverage, creating a new slogan and drawing the TV commercial as a comic. Students will draw using Zoom whiteboard or paint.

    Each group will share their work with the rest of the class. We vote on the best product and slogan. Would you buy this?

    Video 2: The teacher will give the students a handout with the written ad with some missing words. They must fill in the blanks with the video. Play video twice.

    Review their answers by asking each student to read one sentence. Explain the words they do not know.

    Alternative: Assign a part of the video to small groups or have small groups fill out the whole handout. They can help each other fill out the handout because the video is pretty fast.

    Alternative: compare to the 2020 version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcO7xfik1Xw&ab_channel=MarketingDirecto

    Activity for video 2: We will watch the video a third time so the students can focus on watching the video only. After this they will answer some questions about the ad in groups of 2. They will share the answers to the class.

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

    Handouts, Zoom and YouTube

     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.

    Para los gordos, para los …….…….., para los altos, para los bajos, para los que ríen, para los ………………..….., para los que lloran, para los optimistas, para los …………………, para los que lo tienen todo, para los que no tienen nada, para los …………..…., para los que juegan, para los cerrados, para las familias, para los …………….…, para los reyes, para los …………….., para los ……………, para los náufragos, para los rockeros, para los que van, para los que van en tren, para los ………………, para los que sufren, para los motociclistas, para los de allá, para los que trabajan, para los de acá, para los ……….…….., para los que te quieren, para los que no te quieren, para los que te quieren mucho, para los que te quieren poco, para los ……………..……, para los nudistas, para los supersticiosos, para los originales, para los …………….………, para los calculadores, para los pelados, para los ………., para los que leen, para los que escriben, para los ……………….………, para los gemelos, para los distintos, para los …………………., para los que viven solos, para los que viven …………………, para los guiteros, para los que …………………, para los primeros, para los últimos, para los hombres, para los……………………, para ella, para los músicos, para los transparentes, para los fuertes, para los que…………..………, para los que participan, para los que suman, para los que no se callan, para nosotros.

    1.  Explica el eslogan del anuncio
    2.  Público al que se dirige
    3.  Características del producto
    4.  La voz en “off”: ¿tiene siempre el mismo tono? ¿Por qué?
    5.  Cuál es la imagen principal. Señala ejemplos en los que aparece fija la imagen, otros en que el plano se mueve y otros en que la imagen aparece y desaparece.
    6.  ¿Por qué al final al decir PARA TODOS sólo aparece una botella?
    7.  ¿Cómo es el ritmo del anuncio?

    ES F20 ADV Jobs & School dropouts

    Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

    Class theme/topic discussed : Jobs & School dropouts

    Goal of the class 

    • To exchange information about job experience
    • To discuss the current job & student dropout rates situation in Spanish speaking countries

    Class structure

    • Warm-up:  In one minute and in pairs, the students had to think of as many professions they could think of.
    • Activity 1(cred. Blanca Barranco): In pairs or small groups students answer some questions about their own job experiences: type of job, working conditions, best and worst things about the job, etc. They will have some extra vocabulary hints on the screen about payments, contract and job terms, which will also help with the comprehension of the following activity. 
    • Activity 2: Student watch a video on school dropouts and why some students in Latin America and the Caribean have to choose between going to college or working. They comment on it
    • Activity 3: Each student choose Spanish speaking country (the US included so we can compare). They have to search info about that country’s dropout rate, unemployment rate, and labor laws (working hours). After commenting on their findings, students discuss the following questions: What country’s situation surprised you the most? What do you think is the cause for these rates/laws? What could be done to have a better situation?
    • Activity 4: Students do a role-play simulating a job interview. They will receive a handout with possible questions, but they will also be encouraged to use their own questions.
    • Activity 6 (extra): Having discussed younger people’s situation, we watch a short movie that talks about how hard it is for people over 35-40 to find jobs. Have this happened to anyone around you? Do you think it is a good strategy for hiring people? If you were in a hiring committee, what would you take into account to hire a candidate?
    • Activity (extra2): The teacher shares some personal experiences regarding job interviews. For example, questions of the current position interview for Pomona: Would it be a problem for you to live in a small place such as Claremont?
    •  

    Resources used

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

    • I had issues logging into zoom again, so we started the class at about 4:20 pm instead, on google meet.  Other than that, the class worked really well, students liked the topic. I have noticed that this group enjoys doing “research” activities (like act. 3) a lot more than previous groups, so I will keep using that method .
    • Ended up just doing the first 3 activities

    Annex

    ES F20 INT/ADV Climate Change

    Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

    Class theme/topic discussed : Climate Change

    Goal of the class 

    • Talk about environment and climate change issues

    Class structure

    • Warm-up Focused Free Writing (cred. Tilman Viëtor): I give students 5 sentences/words related with climate change (eating habits, waste, habits change, economic system, tourism, 3 Rs). After choosing one, they have 3-5 min to write about how that word/sentence is related to environment & climate change.
    • Activity 2 Intro questions: What do you know about climate change? What climate change related issues do you know about? Is there anything you do to help the environment? Do you think tourism has anything to do with the environment? What do you think about recycling?
    • Activity 3 UN Discussion: I show students key words related to what UN recommends people to do to for a greener world post-pandemic. They have to discuss why they think this term is there and how it is related to environment/climate change. (Key words: Nature, essential goods and services, energy, eating systems, cities, public funds)
    • Activity 4 What about my town?: In groups, students look up environment issues their cities/states are struggling, and how people (individuals & government) are dealing with it (measures being adopted).
    • Extra activity: Students have to choose one of the many issues discusses in class and choose a measure, that they could implement in their lives, aimed at solving this issue (You can ask how did that go a few weeks afterwards 🙂
    • Extra activity 2: Discuss the consequences social distancing and quarantine has had on environment (Less contamination, wild animals on the street, etc.)

    Resources used

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

    • It was a fun class. I was worried students would not be willing to talk much about the topic because it tends to be repetitive, but having activity 4 helped because they brought the topic into their own lives. We did not have enough time to do extra activities.
    • Having questions related to each key word on activity 3, in case students are a bit lost as to how to address the topic can be useful. I did not need them with the advanced class, but I used a few of them with the intermediate class.

    Annex

    • Questions for activity 3:
    • Naturaleza: ¿Crees que dependemos demasiado del petróleo? ¿Se te ocurren otras alternativas?
    • Servicios esenciales: ¿Cómo debería controlarse el gasto de agua? ¿De qué manera se puede proteger lugares con escasez hídrica?
    • Energía: ¿Crees que malgastamos mucha energía? ¿Cómo? ¿Piensas que deberíamos dar prioridad a las energías renovables? ¿Si pudieras elegir una energía renovable cuál sería? ¿Qué problemas crees que tienen las energías renovables? ¿Crees que deberíamos usar la energía nuclear?
    • Sistemas alimentarios: ¿Crees que hay sistemas alimentarios más perjudiciales que otros? ¿Cómo afectan las diferencias alimentarias de distintas culturas los espacios físicos?
    • Ciudades: ¿Piensas que el tráfico en las ciudades debería ser controlado de alguna manera?¿Crees que el turismo tiene algo que ver con el medioambiente?
    • Dinero público: Crees que se puede compatibilizar el Desarrollo economico con el deterioro medioambiental? Crees que los gobiernos estan lo suficientemente comprometidos con el cuidado del medio ambiente?

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