Resources and Links for Movie Talks Resources

For those attending the iFLT 2017 conference that were at my presentation, Movie Talk, Beyond the Basics, I have attached the link below to a document that has the links to the movies I discussed and to resources of where you can find videos for Movie Talk.

 Resource Document

French Resources for The Vampire and the Dentist

Revisiting a blog post from January 2013

PLNs are the BEST! Today Elisabeth Hayles contacted me and shared the documents that she made to use in her French classes based on the short film of the Dentist and the Vampire. (See my original blog on this video from January 2013 HERE. As you can see in the title on the right it was so long ago that I titled the post "short films" instead of what it is now referred to as "MovieTalk".) The best part is that Elisabeth is graciously permitting me to share her documents and her Quizlet activity with all of YOU! 
Thank you, Elisabeth!!!

And...before I share the links for her materials, you must, must, must check out her blog Mme Hayles and the TPRS Experiment. She's been blogging since 2009, not many world language bloggers can say that. She shares her activities for French class, her students' progress, insights on her own journey, and her takeaways from conferences that she has attended. 

Elisabeth Hayles' FRENCH shared resources:
The first link is to her embedded readings for Le Vampire et la dentiste. 

The second like is to her activity on Quizlet with the vocabulary for Le Vampire et la dentiste. 

3-STEP No PREP Extended Reading Activity!

This has to be one of the easiest, no prep extended reading activities ever. You can use it with any text to which the students have access such as:
- a novel (after reading & discussing 1 chapter or several)
- a Movie Talk with an accompanying script 
- a class story with an accompanying script

Part 1
1. Students choose a partner. Students may use the text (book) or script (Movie Talk or class story) for the first part of the activity.

2.  Students write 3 sentences.  Two are TRUE and one is FALSE using the text.  They may copy the sentences directly from the text for the two true sentences.  For the false sentences, sometimes the only thing they will need to do is change a word or two in the text to make the statement false.

3. While students are writing their 3 sentences, the teacher uses a marker and writes a letter of the alphabet on each of their papers. (I had 14 groups so I wrote the letter A on one paper, B on another, etc.)

Students stay with their partners for Parts 2&3 of the activity.

Part 2
4. After students have written their 3 sentences, they tear off the bottom part of their paper and write the letters A-N (or however many groups you have). This paper will be their answer sheet.

5. The teacher directs students in which way they are going to pass the paper with the 3 sentences. They read the paper passed to them, decide which sentence is false, and write the # of the false sentence after the corresponding letter on their answer sheet.

When students have read all of the papers and decided which sentences were false, they hand the papers with the 3 sentences to the teacher.

Part 3
6. The teacher starts with paper A and the students call out which sentence was false. (I read the letter only and I did not read the three sentences. You could read the 3 sentences before asking students which was false, but the students had already read them one time and I wanted to keep the activity moving.)

7. The teacher reads the false sentence and then asks for a volunteer to change the sentence to make it true.

I told you it was an easy, no prep extended reading activity.  The best part is the students copied the sentences AND re-read a lot of the sentences from the text, which was my original goal.

PSMLA 2015 - 1,2,3 Movie Talk Presentation

Today my colleague, Krista Kovalchick, and I went to PSMLA at Valley Forge, PA, and gave a presentation on Movie Talk.  Below are links to websites that we mentioned in our presentation.

 Additional Resources mentioned in our presentation:

Movie Talk blog posts; find videos and materials to use related to the movie talks from 2011 to present. They include: Alma, El monstruo del armario, Blind Date, Hit & run, El vampiro y la dentista, Sheep in the Island, Toilet paper/ipad commercial, La niña que recuerda, and La Dentista. 

Embedded Reading website by Laurie Clarcq

Pancho Camacho game - explained by Alina Filipescu w/ video demonstration

Movie Talk videos on Pinterest (The link will take you to my Pinterest board, but don't stop there, SEARCH Movie Talk and you'll find a lot of Pinterest boards!)

Movie Talk data base by Christy Miller
 

La Dentista script from Sr. Wooly's song

Who doesn't love the wonderful Sr. Wooly and his creative videos and ever-increasing teacher materials?  I'm positive if I had my students list their top five activities of the semester, Sr. Wooly's videos would, without fail, be top contenders.  

In 2013, I added Sr. Wooly's La Dentista video as part of our (official) curriclum for Spanish 2.  Before any of the activities below, the students and I read a children's book about going to the dentist, (Max va al dentista), read a story on A-Z reading about a vampire that goes to the dentist, complete the MovieTalk of La Dentista y el Vampiro and related activities (click HERE for those activities), create class stories using high frequency words and structures, and complete several other components in this "unit" of the curriculum. 

To prepare my students for the vocabulary in the video La Dentista, we do the following activities:

1) An activity with the phrases:  Creo que sí and Creo que no/no creo que.  Students wrote 1 sentence about themselves that was true (verdadero) and 1  that was not true but could be possible.  I read one of their sentences to the class and their classmates said Creo que sí if they thought the sentence was true, or no creo que sí, or creo que no if they didn't think it was true.

2) To pre-teach the structure, se quejó de, I created a TPRS storyline. Students contribute the following information about a fictitious character:
 - name
 - lived with mother, father, or both
 - number of siblings
 - class in school 
 - sport person played
 - instrument the person played  

Then I use the students' suggestions in a story about someone that complained throughout the day about each of the above items.  After our class story, students read a story, from a previous school year, about "Dante". 

3) I turn the volume off when we watch La Dentista the first time and I narrate the action and descriptions using vocabulary that the students know and introduce a few others. During this narration I also ask questions throughout to check for students' comprehension.  

The second time we watch the video with sound and subtitles.  We may watch it a few more times, and I pause it to ask students to describe what is happening.  The last time we watch is with the grammar pop-ups.

*4) I distribute the story script for La Dentista and I read it to the students. 

Partial script for La Dentista

When I read a word they are not sure about, they tap their foot on the floor and I translate the word to English and continue with the reading in Spanish. 

Sometimes I assign the script for homework.  Students have to read the story to their parent in English.  The purpose is for students to read the story again in the evening and if they're reading and don't know a word, I tell them to circle it and tell me the next day so I know which words are causing problems.

  Recently, Carrie Toth (@senoraCMT) posted materials on her blog (HERE) that she uses with La Dentista.  Her materials have a powerpoint with screenshots of Sr. Wooly's video and text.  I'll add that to my materials to provide more repetitions of high frequency structures. (Plus check out her materials on Billy la Bufanda, and Runaway on the same blog post!)

Because Sr. Wooly's videos easily captivate the students' attention, we use many of the videos as part of our curriculum and others for a brain break or end of class video if there are a few minutes remaining.

If you have heard about his videos but haven't subscribed yet, I strongly recommend that you do so now.  Plus, according to his recent email to current subscribers, his new and improved site will be revealed within weeks. 

*Since Carrie has a transcript available for the La Dentista story, I did not link my version on this post.  If you would like a copy of my transcript, indicate that in the comment section below (and also indicate if you prefer not to have your comment with your email published and I will send you the document without posting your comment) or contact me on twitter @sonrisadelcampo and I can send the document to you as a link from Google Drive.
  

El día de los muertos - Videos & Reading Materials

Three additional resources for El Día de los Muertos:

1. Last weekend I stumbled upon two videos called "Los Thornberrys y El Día de los Muertos". A few days later, Laurie Clarcq, @lclarcq tweeted "we watched the version today w Spanish subtitles. All looked for stereotypes vs actual practices. Blast from their past." 
Here are the links for you & your students to join in the fun too!:
Part 1: youtu.be/TyAuzVG45wg  
Part 2: youtu.be/nDv2E6AXMRU 

2. Another video related to El Día de los Muertos by Sofia Aviles is on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/54419314

3. One of the cutest animated short films related to Día de los Muertos is about a little girl that meets her mother when she visits the land of the dead. You can find this video on Vimeo HERE. 

 

After I introduce the short film using the MovieTalk method, I distribute a transcript of the short film and read it with the students. I uploaded a copy of the transcript to GoogleDocs, which you can find HERE. 


Another activity I use for additional comprehensible input is a list of statements about the short film. Students need to find the word(s) in each statement that are not part of the story, cross it out, and replace it with the correct word(s).

 

I also use a 4x5 storyboard that students use to guide them in a story retell.  (If you want a copy of the storyboard, email me or leave your email in the comments below or send me a tweet @sonrisadelcampo and I'll send it to you.)

UPDATE!!! I received an email by Susann Shultz in which she shared a slideshow that she made to use with the above video. She gave me permission to share it HERE.  THANK YOU Susann!!!

4. For an embedded reading on La Llorona, (a nice choice to follow after El Día de los Muertos) check out Laurie Clarcqs post about Bryce Hedstrom's work on her website Embedded Reading found HERE.

On Time - Short Films with Spanish 4

I am thoroughly enjoying my Spanish 4 class this semester.  First, it is a small class - 15 students, which is small compared to my other classes. It's much easier than my other classes to get several interactions from each student throughout the class period.

Secondly, the majority of the students are willing to participate in discussions in Spanish, on just about any topic.  They know the expectation is to speak in Spanish and, for the most part, they do that. (see the end of the post for reason #3)

Below is how I used the short film, "On Time" by Ted Chung to draw them into a conversation in Spanish.

1.  Discussion: We talked about being able to see the future ...
- Are there advantages and disadvantages?
- What are the advantages? Not surprising, one of them said the ability to know the answers on a test is an advantage because you can the questions before you take the test. 
- What are the disadvantages?
- What would happen if 1/4 of the students at our high school could see into the future?
- How would the 3/4 that don't have the ability to see the future feel about the 1/4 that can?
More possibilities:
- Would someone that can see the future work to prevent negative things happening in his own life?  Would that consume him?
- Are there times that you wished you could have prevented something from happening but later find out it was a good thing? 
- Is there something you can share that happened that if you had known how it was going to turn out, you would change it?

...and the possibility of questions goes on and on.

2.  We watched the video, On Time by Ted Chung without sound. With no sound as interference, I was able to narrate in Spanish about what was happening, especially about the conversation the two men had.


On Time from Ted Chung on Vimeo.

3.  Then I handed them a collage of screenshots from the short film in order as the events happened.  Most (maybe even all) of the students helped to describe and retell the story. 

As is customary for me as we discuss and retell the story, I write words on the board that some of the students may not know or need to see it written to help them recall what it means.  

4. After we retold the events together as a class, I put students in groups of 3 for additional practice.

5.  In conclusion, I asked the students to list the words from the story that they feel are most useful to them.  For example: lupa (magnifying glass) was a new word for them, but they didn't choose that for the list because it isn't a word they use often in English.  They put 9 words on the list.  I'll use those words as much as possible in future discussions and in narrating the films, and eventually include them in a quiz.

Other than the photo collages, I didn't make any fancy papers to review.  They are doing a nice job reading, rereading, and using the new words in discussions that I don't think extra paperwork is necessary. 

-------

For the third reason why I am enjoying the class...
They're great students, which explains why they are so patient with me.  I have a tendency to get distracted, easily.  But, lucky for them, it means we chat about everyday things that you would normally chat about in English, and since it is interesting to them, (at least it appears it is interesting to them), it keeps their attention, and, they are being exposed and introduced to many, many words that arise naturally in conversation.   

A French Toilet Paper commerical in Spanish Class

Last weekend I was browsing the public Spanish files on the Textivate site.  I found two ready-made and free resources to go along with the French Toilet Paper commercial found on Vimeo below.



French Toilet Paper Commercial With Tablet & Emma from Adpressive on Vimeo.

The Textivate activities include:
-  the Text of the commercial found here 
- Questions and Answers on the commercial found here  

The Textivate links above are examples of how to use Textivate with a short video or commercial.  

I used Textivate in a similar way as above to reinforce chapter 12 of Robo en la Noche, a beginner level Spanish reader.  Click HERE for an explanation of how to use Textivate with novels or articles.
 

Short Films & CI: MFL Teacher Collaboration

Last summer at NTPRS12 I met Marta Yedinak, (@mryedinak on Twitter), a Spanish teacher in Wisconsin. Since then, Marta and I have been communicating through emails, phone calls, texts, twitter messages, etc. and sharing our Spanish lesson plans and activities.  Marta had an awesome lesson last week and I invited her to write about it on my blog.  Due to technical difficulties, (on my part, I'm sure), I'm writing the post in her place, but I look forward to having Marta as a guest writer on this blog in the near future!

Marta's Lesson Plan for MFL: Sheep in the Island

1.  Preteach any vocabulary that your students will need to know in order to discuss the video.  Beginning level students should already know basic words such as: corre, grita, se sube, se baja, está furiosa, tiene hambre, but you may need to preteach words such as "chocaron" (they crashed), to describe what happens with the two ships. (Use whatever level of grammar/verbs that is suitable to your class.)

2. Show the video to the students.

 

3. Story Sequence. Instead of writing a paragraph, students write a list of the events in chronological order in complete thoughts with a partner.

4. Group retell. Students take turns dictating the story as the teacher writes their sentences on the board.  This is the ideal time for pop-up grammar and circling the structures. Students WERE NOT required to copy the story into their notebooks.

5. Class Debate.  Students decide "¿Quién tiene la razón?" which is also the name of a show in Univisión.  Students had to present arguments to defend the sheep or the monster.  Marta said she wished she had videotaped the debate because it was "great" because the students were engaged and responding well.  Several students were using phrases such as "Protesto..." and they ended up having a trial!  

Marta said the next time that she does this activity she will have the students impersonate the characters so they can "interrogate them" as witnesses in a structured trial format.

6. Timed Writing.  Allow 5 minutes of class time for students to retell the story in written format.  (If the students heard a sufficient amount of repetitions of the structures throughout the lesson, this exercise will come naturally to them because it will "sound right" to them as they write.)  The Timed Writing file can be found HERE. Note on the form that the Timed Writing is not for accuracy, but rather to encourage writing.

7. Additional segments.  There are Part 2 and Part 3 segments of this video that can be used for additional activities.

Extra activities that may be added to Marta's activities as time permits:

8. Name who did the action (I have a worksheet for this available that you can find HERE.)
9. Story script (for upper levels).

10. Word Cloud. Show the word cloud to the students either before or after viewing the video.  If before, students read the word cloud and decide on possible story lines based on the words in the word cloud.  If after, students take turns saying a sentence that uses one of the words to describe an action in the video.  Another option, the teacher gives a definition in the TL and students look at the word cloud to find the word that the teacher defined. 



Update: There is no longer a free version of Textivate in which you can upload your own materials. 
 11. Textivate activities. The free version of this site allows you to upload your text and make your own vocabulary and matching activities, but you can only embed and share those activities if upgrade to a paid subscription.  However, if you paste the text below into the text box on the textivate website, you will be able to do a variety of activities with your students. Thanks to Martin Lapworth, the creator of Textivate, for making tutorial videos (found HERE) to explain how this website works!

screenshot from Textivate website

###match###
the claws of a monster==las garras de un monstruo
went to investigate==fue a investigar
she tied the foot==ató el pie
she pushed the other box==empujó la otra caja
she flew across==voló a través de
the sheep escaped==la oveja se escapó
lit a fire==encendió un fuego
she fell to the sand==se cayó a la arena
looked at a frog==miró una rana
inside the box==dentro de la caja
she closed the lid==cerró la tapa
there was lightning==hubo relámpago
she became very aggressive==se puso muy agresiva
she imagined that the monster was a chicken==imaginó que el monstruo fuera un pollo
trying to escape==tratando de escaparse
the waves pushed the box==las olas empujaron la caja
a chain==una cadena
he grabbed the fork==agarró el tenedor
he hit the box with a tree==pegó la caja con un árbol
he wanted to eat it==quería comerlo
was floating in the ocean==estaba flotando en el océano

Also, if you paste the typed text of "Sheep in the Island" from #9 above, you will be able to do additional activities in story form.

Short Films & CI - El Vampiro y la Dentista

http://youtu.be/dN8VbHEC12s

On the fourth day of Spanish 2, I introduced the following set of focus words: olía mal, comía ajo, tenía miedo

For each new set of vocabulary, I had a skeleton story, and the students helped to fill in the details..  My skeleton story for the above words (day 4 of the new semester) there was a guy that ate garlic all the time & everywhere because he was afraid of vampires. Then we worked on how to solve the person's bad breath problem.  (click HERE for the students' story & my story) In one class, a boy said, "He went to the dentist".  That comment reminded me of a short film that I saw several months ago but had never used in class.   
     The following day I chose new vocabulary that was used in the video. (era = he was, quería ayudar = she wanted to help, and no sabía que = he didn't know that.  Instead of telling another story, I used the new vocabulary as I narrated the film, pausing throughout the video to ask students questions. 
     Below is the list of activities that I used in conjunction with the video:

1. The students watched THIS VIDEO (found on YouTube, "Vampire's Crown" by HM3DAnimation) and I asked many, many questions about it.

2.  The second day we watched the video the second time, but without sound, and I asked questions again.

3.  I used three embedded readings to ease the students into reading the full version.  (see Laurie Clarcq's site for an explanation of Embedded Readings)  
Click HERE to download a copy of the embedded readings.
Version A - I read version A in Spanish and after each sentence the students verbally translated the sentence to English. 
Version B - Students worked in groups of 2 or 3 to read the story. They had to stand (no sitting!) with their partner somewhere in the room to read.
Version C - Before I gave them the last version, I instructed them to move with their partner to make a large circle around the circumference of the room.  Then one person in each group had to move counterclockwise to the next group.  (This provided them an opportunity to work with someone they may have not otherwise chosen.)  They read the story in English with their new partner.  I was in the middle of the room so I could easily help anyone with a word they did not know.

Inserted new message from March 2017 - I share these materials without cost to my readers. When you download my work and it is labeled "CC" that means you are free to use them but you must keep my name on the documents. I googled the script today and found PDFs that teachers made of the script and NO credit was properly given. I even found a Prezi by a teacher that put my story on different slides, as well as the follow activities. So please, show your appreciation by leaving my name on the materials that I have created that you use in your classrooms and ESPECIALLY when you use my materials in a presentation.

 
4. Collage - I said a sentence from the story and the students said which number matched the sentence, or if it happened before (antes de) or after (después de) the photo.  (Download the collage HERE.).


5. Notebook activity (available through email only) w/ the Epson Smart Projector.  Students put the pictures in order.  After placing each one, the student or someone the student chose, had to say a sentence in Spanish that matched the picture. Students were permitted to look at their Embedded Readings if they didn't know what to say.

6.  I gave students in groups of 3 a copy of the Collage used in #4.  A member of the group pointed to one of the 9 photos and the other two students said a sentence in Spanish.

7. Antes de/Después de worksheet.  (to download)

 
8. Group writing activity.  (click on link for explanation - scroll to #3 at that post) 


9. Freeze frame activity - as per Carol Gaab's session at ACTFL.  (click on link for explanation of how I used this activity in the previous semester.)

10. CLOZE activity  (found HERE or use Laura Avila's version below)

11.  At the end of the week I will give the students a 5 minute timed writing in which they can choose to write about this video.

As a follow up, I may decide to show the Señor Wooley's "La Dentista" video.  There is a lot of vocabulary in that video that my students don't know yet and haven't been exposed to, but I think the music, animation, and story will grab their attention.  It will be a nice reward for sticking with me for all the above activities!  

Update: Elisabeth Hayles shares her FRENCH resources for this video:
Embedded Readings HERE
Quizlet activity HERE 

Update: For information and materials on an interactive reading of the story that I used to prepare for this video (in Fall 2015), check the blog post HERE. 

UPDATE: In August 2013, Laura Avila contacted me to say she had also made two readings (which can be used for level 3) based on the reading I created for my Spanish 2 students.  She has generously offered to share her work on my blog so others can benefit from her efforts.  THANK YOU Laura!!!
Below are the two readings. 

Hit and Run - Video and Discussion

Yesterday was technically my first day back to teach my Spanish 5 class after they were taught for three weeks by my student teacher. But yesterday was all about making Cascarones, one tidbit of culture that the students always enjoy that I can't bring myself to take out of the curriculum, so really, today was my first day to teach again.

I was definitely ready to teach using one of my favorite methods - a discussion that leads into a video. The students were so ready to have a group discussion that we ran short on time and could have used at least another 30 minutes.

Our discussion was on small, fender-bender type car accidents. Here is an outline of the steps in the lesson. Unfortunately, we did not get through all of them and today. Since it was the last day before Easter break, I probably won't go back to this next Tuesday, our first day back. Next time I'll have to plan this as a 2-day activity because I hate, hate, hate, to cut discussions short.

1.Start the discussion about accidents, women and men drivers, etc. with questions in the target language (below is the English version for those that don't teach Spanish).
2. Students describe photos at this website to their classmates. (directions how I did this are on download).
3. Put students in groups of 3 & they discuss the pictures on my Notebook activity (see download) and decide what they think is the correct order of events.
4. Students share their predicted order with class. (see download for link to use with interactive boards or interactive projectors). Two weeks ago I was the happy recipient of a new interactive projector so that makes this activity possible.) OR...There are many activities, verbal or written, that you can include at this stage, depending on your time and how comfortable and willing your students are with verbal activities. Maybe your students could write the dialogue in the video.
5. Watch the video. (Yes, unfortunately there is dialogue in English.)
6. Discuss, retell, write...your choice.

The full lesson can be found below:
If you have any ideas for other activities on this theme or with this video, please feel free to share them with me!

Using Videos with TPRS - 3

My Spanish 5 students have been working on a short story by Miguel Unamuno, Spanish modismos, and a global collaborative project. After a week of those types of activities, I knew it was time to include another opportunity to learn through the use of videos.

I've had the following commercials clips on file waiting for the right moment and that was on Thursday. First, the video clips...








Here are several ideas of how to encourage conversation... the main reason I use videos.
In my opinion, the best way to work with these 3 short clips is to hit pause right before the twist is revealed, then...
- Describe the setting
- Identify objects
- Teacher asks sts true/false or short answer questions
- Decide as a class additional bits of information that have led up to the event or develop the characters:

What is the person's occupation?

What is the romantic dinner celebrating? What dinner is he preparing?

Where does he/she live?

Why is the man in the hospital? Was he in an accident? Did he have a surgery?

Is the man walking the dog single or married?

Does he have children? Why didn't the children walk the dog?

How old is the girl at the park?
- and, the obvious, ask the sts to guess what will happen next. By now, my students know that if I'm showing them a video it's most likely because there is a surprise ending. I tell them to be creative in their answers, and I repeated "sean creativos" enough times on Thursday that the students guessed some of the endings.

I'm sure there are some other activities that my students and I could do with these advertisements, so please feel free to share your thoughts with me if you have been inspired.

This video actually has five different clips. I used the website: http://www.embedplus.com/ to crop the video to contain only 3 segments.

Videos & CI (Comprehensible Input)

I don't like when students are absent from class, but if we have a class discussion about a short film on a day when a student is absent, I have a sure-fire way to add more repetitions with the day's vocabulary the next day. When the student returns, I put the class in charge of explaining the video, using Spanish only, to the absent student. The absent student is the only one that is permitted to speak in English. I stress to the class that if the absent student doesn't understand, it's not the student's problem, but rather it is the problem of the entire class. The responsibility lies on their shoulders to make sure they are understood.

Yesterday, as an introduction to our unit on Love and Relationships, I showed the short film, "Blind Date".

First I had the students work in groups and they tried to match my answers to questions such as:
- What is something you can drink?
- What is something you put on?
- What is an action you do when preparing food?
We discussed their answers, did some light PQA, and moved onto the video. I stopped the video at 2:30 for students to retell the story thus far, using the vocabulary that they just learned in the previous action. I also asked them to predict what happened next. We then watched the remaining part of the video and practiced re-tells in a large group and then in small groups.

The retell was "on" the next day when two students returned to class. This group is getting quicker at the retells.

What would you do with this video? I'm looking for any creative ideas you may have.

I found this video on another teacher's blog, but I can't remember which one. I'll do my best to find it so I can give him/her the credit.

Using Videos with TPRS - 2

My Spanish 1 students and I have been working on the Cuentos de Ensalada script (and enjoying it) but I decided that we needed something totally different for a few days to change things up a little. I pulled out a another video that I had also used with the Honors Spanish 4 class in the fall. The title of the video is "El Monstruo del Armario". I wanted to save it for Spanish 4, but once again I realized that since I'm using TPRS with my Spanish 1 students, they knew almost all of the vocabulary necessary to understand the initial telling of the story (by me) and for their retelling. In fact, I had to search for words that I could add into the story to increase their vocabulary.

The 3 vocabulary words I chose were: el pasillo, una pesadilla (which I never did work into the story), and enciende. Now that the lesson is finished, I wish I would have taken an extra day to also work with the following vocabulary: se acuesta, se acerca, and una cuerda.

Here is an outline of my lesson. I have 70-minute class periods and I started the lesson during the 2nd half of the period one day and continued it into the following day for 2/3 of the class. (If you haven't watched the video yet, then I suggest that you do so I don't ruin the ending for you in my description of the lesson. It's less than 3 minutes; suitable for secondary students.)

1. Write focus words on the board, translate them, PQA: el pasillo, una pesadilla, enciende. This was a perfect chance to include a lot of conversation when we talked about the different pesadillas that the students had when they were younger.

2. I told the story, reviewing after each new statement, and asking for their input but I "guided" them to give the answer I was looking for. Review the story with class retell and partner retells.

3. Show the video until 2:33, which is when the dad opens the wardrobe doors. Ask students to guess what he sees in the wardrobe. I had some great guesses - even "Eduardo, el elefante" that always seems to pop up in stories from time to time was one of the guesses. NOBODY guessed the right answer even though I kept telling them that it is a Spanish word that they know.

4. Then I continued the video until 2:37, stopping it as soon as the students saw the boy in the closet but before they see what is happening behind the dad.

5. I distributed the paper that is embedded below. Students worked in groups of 2 to write 11 sentences on the part of the video that they saw. It seemed the only problem with writing that the students had was that I didn't provide enough lines - they were able to saw more than 11 sentences!

Then after the 2nd photo on the paper, they had to write 4 sentences to describe what they thought happened next.


6. Students read their last 4 sentences aloud and other students translated them to English.

7. Finally, I showed them the last few seconds of the video.

8. For the last activity, I used a collage of the shots from the video, but this time instead of me saying a sentence and the students naming the number to which it pertains, the students said the sentences and then their classmates said which picture frame was described.



Or, here is a link of the same photo collage but only photos 1-9 so you can review the events up to the boy in the closet without the students seeing the last several photos.

***UPDATE***
Click HERE for @kplacido (Kristy Placido) script for the Monstruo del Armario reading



This morning I looked over the sentences that the students wrote on the worksheet and with just a few days until the end of the semester, I can clearly see the benefits of TPRS in their writing skills. Obviously with this story there isn't much need to use the verbs in anything other than the 3rd person singular, but the students' overall writing impressed me. It gives me assurance that they're adequately prepared to move onto Spanish 2 (but oh how I'd love to keep them for another few weeks or month!)

I may make some Cloze activities for them to do on Monday or make an audio recording with Quicktime for a listening exercise or, maybe I should just move on to the next chapter of Cuentos de Ensalada.