Second-Semester Spanish
Gabriela Mistral, “Noche” : Lesson plan and student activities
Observación de tortugas: Lesson plan and student activities that engage grammar of using the subjunctive to express opinions, vocabulary related to the environment, and the culture and politics of ecotourism in Costa Rica.
Third-Semester Spanish
Mi día catastrófico: This is a task-based activity, design, and reflection with student activities to practice the use of the pluperfect tense in Spanish and review vocabulary related to daily activities.
La guía del ocio de esta semana: Technology-based activity, design, and reflection in which students use a popular Spanish arts and culture magazine to plan a weekend for a famous couple. Students access the magazine online, and must use context clues to deduce how to navigate the webpage and elicit information on recreational activities.
El bolero: Class slides, activity, and extension project in which students learn about the history of the cultural icon of the bolero and familiarize themselves with several of the most canonical songs of this genre. They look up and collect song lyrics, then work in groups to interpret the words and write a background story to the music. This emphasizes the narrative aspect of the bolero genre, as well as exposes students to poetic phrases that resonate in many Spanish expressions, both literary and colloquial.
Fourth-Semester Spanish
“Amorcito corazón”: This activity consists of a Mashup to accompany Las batallas en el desierto: Students listen to the song and read along its lyrics, which are referenced in the novel. They then record a discussion with a partner about the emotion they perceive in the song, complete a brief analysis of the rhyme scheme of the lyrics, and write their own version of a love poem. (Note this activity includes embedded videos and conversation recording components)
Las condiciones mentales y emocionales: This is the lesson plan for a class taught after students read through chapter 8 of José Emilio Pacheco’s novel, Las batallas en el desierto. They completed a group activity on the chronology of the novel up to that chapter, and discussed class slides designed to foment ideas on how society perceives people / characters considered to have mental or emotional problems. This coincides with a point in the novel in which the protagonist is taken to a psychiatrist for his “condición”. These are the materials for the class in my SPAN140 class observation, as well as the video examples of classes I have taught.
Un huevo de dinosaurio en Bilbao: This is the lesson plan and activity based on a fictional news story about a dinosaur egg found in Bilbao The activity invites students to read a short article from a Spanish newspaper and practice the present perfect. Then, they must comment the fantastic nature of the story, expressing their opinions and doubt about it using the present perfect subjunctive. This activity combines implicit and explicit grammar instruction, and ends with a game similar to “Two truths and a lie”. This game allows students to practice speaking previously prepared sentences as well as to react spontaneously to their classmates. For an observation of this class, click here to see my letter of recommendation from Dr. Ame Cividanes.
Explicit Grammar Materials