Comparisons to Valentine's Day in Spain
Student lead discovery of how to form commands based on TPR activity from the beginning of the year based on classroom commands Conversations Hearts and SPEED DATES! Talk about a busy lesson! Today we celebrated Valentine's Day in class by doing a ton of super fun things! I started class wishing each student a Happy Valentine's day as they entered the room. I handed each of them a conversation heart. I found some Spanish conversation hearts online and printed 3 copies of each. I placed 1 copy atop the red paper I used to cover the desks facing each other like a romantic table and I handed out 2 of the hearts to students at random as they walked in the door. Students were instructed in their warm-up to find their group and sit down! As they made their way through the door, high energy Spanish music played and they knew they were in for some excitement! Immediately students were curious about the set up of the desks! I not only had them set up this way for the speed date activity, but also so I could have them quickly converse with a partner regarding what they saw in the quick 5 minute clip I showed them on Valentine's Day in Spain and so they could use their prior knowledge of commands together to come up with ways to use expressions of love in Spanish of Valentine's Day! Being able to negotiate meaning together is critical! I am not going to withhold, I teach A and B day classes. On actual Valentine's day, this lesson was incredibly difficult, the kids were crazy, students were in and out of class for practice for an upcoming concert, and middle school hormones were through the roof. I was left feeling less than happy with how the lesson turned out, because in my head and on planning paper it looked to be well thought out, well set up, and like a home run. Not so much. Between me feeling sick and the student's being crazy, it took everything I had to pull this lesson off on Tuesday 2-14. At the end of the day I thought to myself, what can I change, how can I make this flow better, and do I really want to do this again tomorrow? I made a few adjustments in terms of what activities were done first second and third and it REALLY made all the difference. I think too with the hype of Valentine's Day being over, it enabled us to link our experiences, what we got, what we did, what we gave, etc. to the quick clip in Spanish about what they give,do,get in Spain and then were were able to list similarities together with a more current theme. That really helped us focus and allowed an easy transition statement of, "What common sayings do we have for Valentine's Day on the ever-popular conversation hearts?" "Kiss me! Hug me! I love you! Be mine! Text me!" The list went on and on. At the beginning of the year I taught kids simple classroom commands using TPR. The movements paired with the repetition of the word allowed my students use pronouns with verbs in command form (without explicit grammar instruction!) I asked my students to give me a few of the commands we learned at the beginning of the year. As they shared them, I wrote the infinitives of the verbs on the board. Then in the partners they were seated in, I asked them to brainstorm how those verbs got from the infinitive to the command. Then I gave them a few words for Valentine's Day that were easily expressed in pictures. Besar and abrazar. I asked the students to figure out how they might say, "Kiss me!" "Hug me!" And sure enough the kids were so excited they were able to do it! We went on to push towards expressing feelings for others by discussing in groups what te amo and te adoro mean and how we arrive at expressing other feelings or sentiments. There are some elements of PACE here regarding grammar in context- drawing attention to the point and then having students co-construct meaning, however this is not a PACE lesson- just a bit of PACE influence. Students made conversation hearts in Spanish like the ever popular Valentine's Day candy, which helped me see which students understood the grammar point and which didn't. We then moved to speed dates so we could share out conversation hearts! As well as spend a solid 15-20 minutes in level 1 speaking to each other entirely in Spanish. I always station myself in the midst of the speed dates so students had to speak to me also so that I can gauge where they are, plus it is so fun! Prior to embarking on our speed date activity, as a class we shared what basic personal information questions we have learned and we made a list of questions. Student had to ask name, age, and origin of each person each time so that they could practice asking for and giving basic personal information, but they also had to ask 2 other questions, which I gave them a moment to make up. We laughed, we smiled, we played, we moved, and we enjoyed. But most importantly, we learned to make connections to culture and each other. Feliz día de San Valentín
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February 13, 2017
To Whom It May Concern: I believe that World Language education is the epicenter of cultural understanding and manifests its beauty in curricular connections that simply could not be made without the study of a language, its people, and their way of life. Studying a language not only empowers young minds by providing the unique opportunity to delve into countries and culture otherwise potentially unknown, but allows students to expand their knowledge of the world we live in and our ever changing, ever shrinking global society. It offers them the chance to better understand their own culture, their own friends, and their own community. The human aspect of World Language study is irreplaceable. A World Language classroom focused on the target culture in the target language allows students to take risks and communicate within the language. Students are in the primary phases of language acquisition when they begin their study and thus need immediate and consistent feedback. The absolute best way to learn a foreign language is to speak in the language and have someone speak with you. It would be an incredible disservice to students in the State of Maryland to offer an online computer coding program to equal a World Language Credit and negate the opportunity to embrace the target language and culture in a supportive and immersive environment with a World Language specialist who can provide written and oral feedback to students studying language. Computer Coding and World Language, both very valuable and important, are not the same and should not be regarded as the same. I am asking, as a highly qualified World Language educator and advocate, that you please oppose Senate Bill 458 that would enable students to take computer programing courses to satisfy their World Language requirement. We cannot allow artificial intelligence to replace the human element of language acquisition, nor can we allow coding to replace the study of language. If we want to create culturally aware students who have the ability to negotiate meaning in more than one language, we must provide opportunities for students to speak, practice, and interact in the target language on a daily basis with consistent meaningful feedback tailored to their needs as unique learners. Sincerely, Caroline Mark Washington County Public Schools, Maryland |
Author14th year Spanish teacher Archives
June 2020
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