Spanish Teacher Resource: TikTak Draw

If you are not aware of the YouTube channel, TikTak Draw, and you teach Spanish, especially the upper levels, it is time to check it out.

There are hundreds of videos (well over 400 videos) in Spanish! There are videos about famous people, holidays, popular cartoons, food, mythical characters (dragons & unicorns), mirrors (yes, on mirrors), animals, scene  heroes, legends, shoes, ninjas, Big Ben ... on pretty much ANYTHING! 

Check it out - but, be forewarned, you may end up spending a lot of time on the site so set an alarm to monitor your time - LOL. 

Sub Plans that keep the CI Flowing

One of my least favorite tasks as a teacher is to write substitute plans. I can take the easy way out and have the students watch a movie. Movies have a variety of value: there are movies in the target language that students don't understand, movies in the target language with English subtitles, and movies that are in English but are culturally rich. 

What other options are available? What will keep the CI flowing even when the substitute doesn't speak the language you teach? 

Why not have a Spanish teacher in another part of the United States be your sub? Wait...What? Thanks to teachers that are recording themselves telling stories in the target language and making a concerted effort to keep the information comprehensible, language teachers now have another option for substitute plans. Use the videos of other language teachers telling stories that are on YouTube and Vimeo videos, and voila, that teacher can be your substitute for the day!

As more teachers are sharing their recordings online, I have been replacing old substitute plans with the new ones. Below are a few examples of how to write substitute lesson plans that will keep the CI flowing during your absence. The examples are of Spanish, but you can use the ideas for any language as long as you can find videos in your language.

1. Mike Peto!  @mike_peto on Twitter
Have you seen Mike Peto's videos on Vimeo?  If not, click HERE for his Vimeo account page for a list of his videos. In the videos he tells fables or stories that he wrote using high frequency words. He uses any tense that is needed to tell the story, but no worries - he is a genius at making it comprehensible and he uses his /or actions in the story.  At times, he writes the Spanish word and its English translation on the board.  Some of his videos he recorded during the actual lesson with students, so you can observe his comprehension checks with the students. There are other videos that Mike made without any students in class because he made them specifically for an absence this month.

The story I chose for my substitute plans on Monday (I will be attending my daughter's graduation to see her get her doctorate in physical therapy - yeah! - proud mom here) is "El cuervo tonto".   

First, my sub will hand out a paper with questions (see page 1 of 2 below) so students can read the questions to give them a heads up on the specifics they need to listen for. 

Then my sub will play the video and pause it when Mike instructs the students to sketch each part of the video. Students will answer the short questions during the story and complete the English translations as Mike explains them.

I need to add that I don't always have questions for the students to answer. Two weeks ago I was out and my students watched Mike's video "la señora" and their only task was to listen to the story because we were going to discuss it the following day. When I returned the next day, I drew the same sketches as Mike did and paused throughout to ask students questions about the characters and what happened. So...questions are not necessary, but for some students it helps to keep them focused on the story.

Click HERE if you would like to download the pdf of the questions for the "El cuervo tonto" story - 2 pages of questions/area to sketch and the answer sheets.

2. Pablo Román, @langdreamer on Twitter
Pablo is cranking out videos about Spanish festivals and holidays,  legends, and most recently, interviews with other Spanish speakers at the rate of almost one a day. Click HERE for his YouTube channel and check out his blog, Dreaming Languages. 

In the videos, Pablo is in the bottom corner and the rest of the screen he uses to sketch while he speaks to the listener. At times he inserts video clips to show a few seconds of an event that he is describing.

Below is a sample of how to add reading after viewing a video. This is based on his video "St. Jordi". I used this video on a day when I was NOT absent, but with the paper attached below, you could leave it as a sub plan.

1. Watch the video. I paused the video at the end where you can see all of the sketches, and the students and I discussed and retold the story. If this is your sub plan, skip the retell until the day you return.

2. Distribute the paper and students will match the sentences to the screenshots of the sketches.

3. Distribute the script below for the students to read.

The documents for this lesson are HERE. 
(To be clear, these lessons were NOT planned in collaboration with anyone, but rather I saw the videos online and then created lessons from the online videos that I can use in class.)

3. Cameron Taylor @Profe_Taylor

Cameron is a Spanish teacher in Japan. His YouTube channel is HERE and his most recent (I think) video is "Habla demasiado". His technique is very similar to Mike Peto's, in that he tells a story and makes it comprehensible due to the vocabulary he chooses and the sketches. Please note that Cameron's purpose of making the videos was to share with others HOW he does "storytelling" with his students. It is was not shared with the intent to have other teachers use it for sub plans, but I quickly saw the possibilities in providing CI for a substitute plan with this, and other of his, videos.

I do not have a specific document created for the story "Habla demasiado", but my students will read the story script after watching the story.

Two variation on the story scripts (the written text)
a. Omit a few details of the story in the script on a document you create and replace it with lines. Then together as a class, you can fill in the missing information and write it on the lines on the document.

b. Ten Errors (or however many you choose). When you write the script, make 10 minor changes to the details. After the students have watched the video and after you have discussed it or acted it out, distribute the document with the 10 errors. The students' task is to find the erroneous information and replace it with the correct information. (i.e. - if the story said he had two dogs, change it to 3 dogs or to 2 cats.)

4. BookBox
BookBox is a website with children's stories in the target language with subtitles. It has many books for Spanish, as well as a few stories for other languages such as French, Italian, Urdu, and more. This website also provides PDFs for you to download. 

I made a very basic story listening document with questions for my students to complete while listening and watching the story online.  (The screenshot does not show the entire document. If you would like the document, click HERE.)

 
OPTION: Instead of having students answer questions, the students could listen to the story one time. As they listen/watch it the second time, have them sketch the story that you can use as a retell using a document camera later in the class or on another day.

These generous teachers, and the Bookbox website, are my new go-to lesson plans for substitute teachers.  Feel free to download any of the documents that may be useful to you. They are available at no cost. HOWEVER, what I would like to ask in return, is if you like these options and create something to be used with a video similar to the story videos above, please share it with me.   :-)

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.

Summertime Personalized PD at Home

If your schedule or finances don't permit you to attend the great summertime  conferences (such as iFLT and NTPRS) or the new workshop formats such as Camp Musicuentos, don't despair.  There is no reason to abandon hopes of summertime professional development because there are plenty of opportunities to learn from online resources!   Try thinking of it as a summer of PERSONALIZED professional development at home.
Teachers that are searching for training and resources on providing Comprehensible Input to their students are in luck because there are a growing number of teachers that are posting videos to YouTube in which they demonstrate techniques of using the TL language in a comprehensible way with their students.  As you view the videos below, take note on how each teacher connects with the students by keeping the language comprehensible and by interacting with their students. 

1. Leslie Davison's - ¿Quién llegó? lesson


Leslie used the target word, llegó, 76 times in 12 minutes!  She successfully kept it interesting and the students engaged with/by:
- Student actors
- Props
- Comprehension checks: either/or questions; "What does ___ mean?"
- Restating the students' answers to provide more repetition of the target word
- Comparisons and parallel examples/situations
- Her energy, constant movement throughout the classroom, matched the students' energy 
(WOW!)

My take-aways: Don't short-change students, even high school students, on the number of repetitions of new vocabulary and structures; involve students as much as possible throughout the lesson 
My summer task: Plan a trip to the dollar store or the local thrift store for props. 

Another video example of introducing vocabulary by Martina Bex can be found HERE.

2. Alina Filipescu's MovieTalk of Oktapodi   Click HERE to see the video.

Alina takes full advantage of the students' interest in the video to provide solid Comprehensible Input with the following techniques:
- Comprehension checks: What does ____ mean?  What did I just say? Who remembers (word)?  What did I just ask you?
- Grammar "pop-ups" (short explanations of grammar)  Examples: ser vs. estar; "What is the original verb before it is changed?"; lo que
- Restates students' answers to provide more repetitions in context
- Plays short clips of video and discuss the action
- Reviews past words with motions
- Refers to vocabulary words on the posted list

My take-aways: I don't need to narrate every single action in the video. Post the list of vocabulary to refer to when it appears in the video.
My summer task: Choose target structures from short films on my Pinterest board and add them to my lesson plans for the fall.

3. Michael Coxon's video of Blaine Ray's "la besadora" lesson

 

From what I've read, Blaine is a guest for the day and he dives right in with the "la besadora" lesson.  Blaine is THE master of TPRS and a master storyteller because he:
- is prepared with a skeleton story with target structures  
- engages students by asking them for details in the story
- asks "Why?" to develop background information; adds interest
- provides input on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular (I, you, s/he) by turning to the actress and asking her to verify the details
- goes slowly, finds where students break down on understanding and works on that structure before moving on to the next detail in the story

An extra bonus to this video is that Michael added notes on the screen, detailing what skills Blaine uses in the lesson.

My take-aways: Verify details with the actors!  (I've read/heard of this technique but rarely use it. The day after I saw this video on YouTube last week I employed it in class and it worked remarkably well, even though my students were not accustomed to the technique.)
My summer task: Make a poster to hang in my room to remind me next year to verify details. 

4. 'Kindergarten Day' with Carrie Toth (click HERE for video)
This is another way to teach with comprehensible input.  Carrie describes it HERE and Crystal Barragan describes her experience with it HERE. 

In Carrie's Kindergarten Day video:
- It may seem very basic and not "rigorous" enough for a high school class, BUT I assure you the students' minds are constantly negotiating meaning as they hear the children's story told/"read" in another language.  
- She goes beyond the printed story, and engages the students by asking them to suggest names, state what the characters are doing, etc.
- She utilizes comprehension checks throughout the story.
- Carrie makes it an enjoyable experience for the students by permitting them to relax on the floor.

My take-aways: Include more Kindergarten Days in my lessons! I wrote a post mid-year stating that I wanted to include this every 2 or 3 weeks in my classes, but it didn't realize that goal. 
My summer task: Choose a minimum of 3 books per each Spanish level I teach and determine the best place in the curriculum to "read" them to my students. 
 


This is only the "tip of the iceberg"!  There are many, many videos available on YouTube.  I suggest that when you watch, you mentally take note of what the teacher is doing that makes the lesson successful; then make an action plan to implement those techniques and strategies in your classroom in the next school year.

Meanwhile, in July I'll be constantly checking my Twitter account to read the tweets from the lucky teachers attending the summer conferences.  If that's you, please tweet, tweet, and tweet some more. Note: tweets with photos will be especially appreciated.  Thanks. :-) 

ACTFL Presentation: Increasing TL Communication w/ Film Shorts & Comprehensible Input

Last Saturday, at the ACTFL 2013 convention in Orlando, FL,  I presented a session entitled "Increasing TL Communication w/ Film Shorts & Comprehensible Input".  A copy of the handout is available to view or for download below.  It's not as visually attractive as the powerpoint with embedded videos, but the information is the same.

Thank you to those that supported me by attending the session.  It was reassuring to see members of my PLN from #langchat in my session that I met for the first time at ACTFL.  It was my first time presenting and their support meant the world to me. 

  

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.
 

Listing action verbs in a Film Short

Several weeks ago (maybe months), my colleague Krista told me that she used one of the Simon's cat short films with her French class. I knew about the videos but never added the films into my lesson plans.  Finally, I added Simon's cat, "Fly Guy" to my Spanish 2 class to mix things up since we've been busy reading a mini-novel.

Instead of narrating the video as it played, I promised the students I would be quiet for the entire video. They watched it 2 times: 1st time, they jotted down (in Spanish of course) the actions of the cat, the man, and even the fly; 2nd time, they added to their individual lists of actions PLUS wrote action words in English from the video that they didn't know. 



After the second time the students told me the verbs they wrote and I listed them on the board.  Most of them were in the preterit tense, but there were a few that were descriptions (the imperfect tense).  I was pleasantly surprised at how huge the list was! Some of the words were ones that that they only heard from stories I read for "Kindergarten Day" or from the stories from the A-Z Reading website.

After the verbs were listed on the board, I told students they had 5 minutes to write what happened in the video. The list of boards was their "cheat sheet".

I hadn't planned to use the video in my Spanish 4b class but one of the students in that class is my Service Learner student and he was in the classroom earlier in the day to see the activity.  He asked if we could do a similar activity, so I made a last minute change and they watched the video, then worked in groups of 3 to list the verbs. They listed verbs that described every (mili)second of action in that video, using every possible way to describe it, PLUS they eventually looked up (& were exposed to, but not necessarily learned from such short exposure) a few words such as "pounce". (Not high frequency but they wanted to know how to say it.)

Using Videos in the MFL Classroom

I enjoy short films and advertisements in class. The Slideshare below was created for ESL teachers, but it may give you ideas on how to use videos in a classroom in ways other than MovieTalk.  

HERE is the link to more information on a webinar this week given by David Deubelbeiss.

Video in the classroom from David Deubelbeiss

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.

7 Ideas for Teaching Reflexive Verbs

Following is a collection of lessons and activities that deals with Reflexive Verbs.  I listed them below to share them with you and also to have a place for me to refer.  Some of the activities are based on resources only provided through paid subscriptions, and others are based on resources that are free.

Please note, that I do NOT recommend teaching a "unit" on reflexive verbs, as I used to do in my pre-CI/preTPRS days.  However now, with CI/TPRS, I make sure to add a few reflexive verbs as focus words in stories (*see below) from the early days of Spanish 1 and continue doing so throughout the semester and the following year in Spanish 2 , to students start becoming familiar with seeing reflexive pronouns before the verbs.  My suggestion is to sprinkle these activities among others so it doesn't feel like a "unit".

READING:

1. Froggy Se Viste. I'm fortunate in that my community library has a huge Spanish section.  I regularly search through the books for ones that I can use in class.  Each semester I use Froggy se Viste" to teach "se quitó", "se puso", and "se durmió" (awoke, took off, put on, and fell asleep). 

For a novel way to present this book, use a flannel board and flannel pieces of clothing and a frog. I found this blog on which Katie used a flannel board.  Do they still use flannel boards in elementary school? Either way, the students will enjoy listening to the story when presented in a less common way.

Check your community or neighboring counties, for libraries with Spanish sections. Lots of resouces at NO COST!

2. A-Z Reading. This is a website with children's books.  It costs under $100 a year, but that will give you access to hundreds of books.  You can project the books onto your board, many with the "wordless" option.  The site has other tools so you type your own words for the story, highlight words, make word banks with pull-down arrows to appear or disappear when you don't want them available.  There is also an option to print small version of any of the books.  The books are in English, Spanish, and French.

I use the books "Getting Ready for School" and Hora de Ir a la cama".

VIDEOS:

http://youtu.be/IacjiYGj9l4

3. Mr Bean!  How can you not enjoy a video by Mr. Bean?  Two videos that have a lot of reflexive verbs are "Mr. Getting Up Late for the Dentist" and "Mr. Bean goes to Bed".  I pause the video throughout the entire video, and we talk about different things that are happening, how the characters feel, and other. Then I took screenshots of different scenes of the story and we talk about those.

4. Mis Cositas - My Daily Routine. A young child talks about his daily routine.   

5. "No Voy a Levantarme" by Sr. Wooly.  To gain access to Sr. Wooly's site, you'll need a one-year subscription that costs $25.  Don't hesitate to pay it! There are several great videos along with the option to print the lyrics, print Cloze exercises, and other ideas.  

Sr. Wooly redid the audio for this video and put it on his blog on 2/20/13.  My students LOVED this video.  First I had the students watch the video.  The second and third time they filled out a cloze activity provided on the website as they listened to it. Later, we translated the lyrics (everyone stands; after a student translated a section to English, they were permitted to sit down).  Today we talked about the video for most of the class period. (¿Cómo se llamaba el chico? ¿Dónde estaba él? ¿Qué hora era? ¿Se despertó as las siete? ¿Se despertó a las cinco o a las seis? ¿Cuándo se despertó? ¿Se despertó a las seis de la mañana o a las seis de la tarde? ¿Oyó a su madre? ¿Oyó su perro? ¿Qué oyó Justin? ¿Se levantó a las seis? etc)  Then I asked the students, "what didn't he do at 6:00 in the morning?  All the students stood and they each told me a sentence with the verb in the past tense - no repeating verbs.  We also then talked about twins - what didn't THEY do?

http://youtu.be/wEKLEeY_WeQ

6.  Destiny.  I haven't actually used this video yet in class, but I have plenty of ideas for it. The character relives his morning several times so there it is easy to give needed repetitions on reflexive and other verbs.   

If handled correctly, this video could be used in many other ways in the MFL.  I'm still working on developing a lesson using this video for something other than reflexive verbs, but I decided to add it here because of the repetition on getting awake, getting up, and getting reading for work.
        
7. *Video - Last month I used this video and used CI to narrate the events in the video in Spanish. I used "se levantó" and "se sentó" (he stood up and he sat down) throughout the narration.  We have used those words before, so this was a nice reinforcement. (see this post for more information)

ACTING:

8. TPR. To teach a larger amount of verbs during one class, teach the verbs with gestures.  After you add a new gesture, practice the previous ones, adding new words and gestures.  If you make the gestures huge (which is what I usually do) and you, yourself, have fun doing the gestures, your enthusiasm and energy will be contagious, and the students will have fun too.  

9.  Reflection in the Mirror.  I got this idea from another MFL teacher but I cannot remember whom.  After the students have been introduced to the reflexive verbs that relate to someone's morning routine, have them act out the actions. The twist is that one person does the actions and the 2nd student has to be the 1st student's reflection.  I narrate what the person does from the time they get up until when they go to school.  A variation would be to have two sets of students doing this activity at the same time and then ask the students which group is more insync.  

4/23/13 Update: For additional ideas and resources for teaching reflexive verbs click HERE to go to SpanishPlans blog. 

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.