Tag: culture

Hispanic Heritage Month

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

I created a slideshow last year, but I have made it even better this year with more facts and ideas on how you could use it!

You can get the full version HERE in my TpT store.

Each country has these two pages! HERE is a version with just a couple of countries if you want to try it out!

Hope this makes incorporating culture a little easier. The entire presentation comes free as part of the Sra. K. Spanish Squads. You can go HERE and learn more about the squads and join today!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources! Become a Patron on Patreon!

Gimme 5 – Dame 5 (Mini-Project)

This is a go-to mini-project I use all year long when I need a day or two or the kids need a break between topics/units.

First, decide what you want the students to share. It can be an interesting person, place, celebration, festival or custom in any country that speaks the language you are teaching. You can also use this to review parts of a unit you just did. This can be done individually, in partners or small groups.

Next, let students decide what they want their “Gimme 5” presentation to be about. Remind them that they will need to have 5 facts about each of their top 5 things to know about the topic. You might want to incorporate a graphic organizer before giving them the Google Presentation Template to fill in. My students need scaffolding, so I always give them a “Planning Page” first. You can just have them make a bulleted list to give you or you can make a page they have to fill in.

After you approve their topic and top 5 things they are going to research and/or talk about, you can give them THIS presentation to fill in. Of course, if you want to make this last a few more days, you can let them customize this.

Next, it is time for presentations! Since having to go virtual a couple years ago, I have really started to like using Screencastify or Loom or even just the recorder on their computer to have students record the presentation ahead of time. I have found this gives them a chance to re-record if needed and practice. This really does cut the anxiety a lot of students have associated with live presentations in front of their peers. You can certainly go the old-fashioned route and have them just quickly present in front of the class. The presentation part allows me to get a speaking grade if I have them do the presentation in the language of the class. Of course, that is not really possible for lower level students, so use this as a differentiation for Heritage Learners or advanced students.

Hope this inspires you to get them talking and working together! I will have this and other review materials up for sale on my TpT store, but I really appreciate you taking the time to visit the blog, so I wanted you to have this template to use now. I also would LOVE and APPRECIATE TONS if you wouldn’t mind following this blog, my TpT store and my new Instagram (@sra.k.spanish) I started to showcase the fun things I am creating.

The key is to sail on into the summer with low stress and high engagement!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

End of the Year – Cultural Video Ideas

I know we are all looking for some things to fill these last few days that are educational, but not time intensive for the teacher! Well… I sure am!

So, I went in search of some things I thought would be interesting for students, but also provided a lot of cultural context for them as well. I found two series that are engaging and interesting to 8th graders. I am not sure how much you all know about 8th graders, but end of the year in 8th grade is way worse than 5th or 12th… believe me! I have taught at all levels, and the end of year with this group definitely takes the cake. Add in the pandemic teaching for the past 3 school years, and they are primed and ready for chaos! LOL. Iykyk….

So, first is Bizarre Foods. This one is interesting because they delve into a lot of interesting food choices, but the real gem (for the teacher anyway) is the cultural facts that are thrown into the mix. There is a LOT to be explored! Some of the episodes can be found free on Youtube, but there are others you can purchase. I have several sets of questions for those of you who need to keep them accountable in my TpT store.

The other series I found is a free documentary series called, “Most Dangerous Ways to School.” It highlights different groups of people all over the world and how their children have to get to school. I was AMAZED by all these kids could accomplish on their own, without an adult at all to help them for miles and miles, sometimes in treacherous conditions. It was a great way to make those connections with students comparing all they have here (even if they think it isn’t great) with what children in other parts of the world have to endure just to get to school. I also have question and answer sets in my TpT store for a couple. The link to the Bolivia episode is HERE. The link to the Mexico episode is HERE.

I hope you all are able to use some of these great documentaries that are not boring with students to help teach them about cultural differences and still stay somewhat (I am realistic) engaged during these last few days of the school year.

As always, I hope this idea helps you have an easy day or inspires you to create something simple like it that keeps students engaged and you able to make it to the end of the year!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

An Easy Way to Use Authentic Resources to Celebrate Culture

Happy Tuesday! I am super excited to share this with everyone! I am not sure about your teaching context, but it seems lately I am being encouraged to use more “authentic resources.” Now, I won’t get into a big pedagogical debate here (I do have thoughts about this for novice learners), but I work in a district that really pushes the use of almost exclusively authentic resources. So, I needed to work on some way to deliver authentic material, yet still offer opportunities for scaffolding. I had been to some workshops that taught different strategies that I loved, and I use the Stepping Stones Curricular Framework, but I teach three levels, so I needed something I could easily level up or level down.

I knew there had to be a way to do this and still teach cultural materials. In the Stepping Stones Curricular Framework, these fit perfectly into Cycle 2! So, I started working on a series of materials using authentic resources. I am calling them Cultura Impactante (mainly because the title uses cognates–so, it might change….) The types of resources I have compiled so far include Gente impactante (Impactful People), Lugares impactantes(Impactful Places), Celebraciones impactantes (Impactful Celebrations), Historia impactante (Impactful History) and Jóvenes impactantes (Impactful Young People).

So, how does it work? Well, honestly, use it however you think would function best in your teaching context. I will, of course, talk about how I use these.

First, I Picture Talk a series of screenshots from a short video I have found. I teach Spanish, so I looked for videos in Spanish, but this same in any language.

Next, I show them the video (like a Movie Talk as discussed in Foundations, the book by Tina Hargaden). For lower levels, I use subtitles IN SPANISH to help them understand. I do try to play it once at a normal speed and then I play it again at a .75 speed. You can do this simply by using the cog on a Youtube video.

Then, I take the same pictures I used at the beginning and write some captions that use a writing level just above that of the students. I try to hit key vocabulary, if there is any.

Finally, we end with a Write and Discuss time together.

So, here is the first one:

I hope this is helpful to you! I would love to hear any feedback you might have about this series as well! I am a firm believer that two heads are always better than one, and I know there are amazing teachers who may read this and have some ideas about how we could polish it! Let me know in the comments!