Spanish 1 - Lesson 2: Los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud

At the beginning of the school year, I asked Spanish 1 students which sports/activities they enjoyed.  We then learned about Usman Garuba, a promising young athlete from Madrid.

Although our primary cultural focus is Spain, I decided to reinforce sports/activity vocabulary by talking about Los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud (The South American Youth Games), in which young athletes from South America compete against each other every four years.  I profiled several athletes from the 2017 games:

Note: Preview links before clicking on them to make sure they are working properly and still lead to the correct photos.  Follow links at your own risk.

Nathalie Key Matsubara Osawa
Les presento a Nathalie.  Tiene dieciséis años.  Es de Chile.

Nathalie nada.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  Nathalie es muy rápida.  En el 2017, representó a Chile en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Jhomar Aimar Garibaldi Bryant
Les presento a Jhomar.  Tiene dieciséis años.  Es de Panamá.

Jhomar juega al baloncesto.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  En el 2017, Jhomar representó a Panamá en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Yoel Augustín Vargas
Les presento a Yoel.  Tiene diecisiete años.  Es de Argentina.

Yoel practica ciclismo.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  Yoel es muy rápido.  En el 2017, Yoel representó a Argentina en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Yoel ganó la medalla de oro.

Stefany Paola López Mendoza
Les presento a Stefany.  Tiene quince años.  Es de Colombia.

Stefany corre.  Es muy rápida.  Tiene mucho talento.  En el 2017, Stefany representó a Colombia en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Stefany ganó la medalla de oro.

Alan Benítez
Les presento a Alan.  Tiene dieciocho años.  Es de Paraguay.

Alan juega al tenis.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  En el 2017, Alan representó a Paraguay en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

I copied and pasted a photo of each athlete into a Word document, then wrote a description of the athlete under each photo.  I printed this out and gave it to my students as an in-class reading.  I am not sharing this reading handout because I am not certain of the copyright restrictions on the photos, but you can make your own by following the links to each athlete's photo, copying and pasting the photos into a Word document, and copying and pasting the above descriptions.  

This is a great video to play as students are entering the classroom.  Most of the voiceover will not be comprehensible for beginning Spanish students, so I turn the sound on the video off and play it with trailer music in the background:

Trailer music:

4th Grade: Lesson 1 - ¿Dónde está España?

This year, both kindergarten and fourth grade students are learning about Spain.  In this post, I describe the first culture lesson I teach to fourth grade students.

Lesson 1: ¿Dónde está España?
I play the following video as students are entering the classroom.  It's a great introduction to some of the most iconic elements of Spanish culture:

At the end of the video, I tell my students that we are going to spend the entire school year studying Spain.  I write ¿Dónde está España? on the board.  I then open Google Maps and we do the following:

• We find our school on Google Maps.
• We zoom out on the map to see our city.
• We zoom out again to see our state.
• We zoom out again to see our country.
• I slowly move the map so we can see both our country and Spain.  

I ask my students to name the capital of Spain.  Most of my students previously studied Spain in kindergarten, so they know that the capital is Madrid.  We then use Google Maps to calculate the distance between our city and Madrid.

After this, we take a Google Streetview tour of Madrid.  Note: Preview Google Streetview before showing it to your students to make sure all of the images are appropriate for your students.  This includes the Streetview images linked from this blog, as images can change.  I usually show my students 3-4 iconic places in Madrid, such as:

La Gran Vía

La Plaza Mayor

El Palacio de Comunicaciones

After a quick brain break, I show my students a presentation about Spain.  (You can find the presentation in the linked folder on my Google Drive.)  I then give students a worksheet to review what we have learned.  I also give them a map of Europe with instructions to find Spain, color it in, and label it.  If they have extra time when they finish, they can do the following: 1) Color and label Portugal.  2) Color and label France.  3) Put a circle around the Iberian Peninsula.  4) Color the oceans around Europe blue.

We add the worksheet and the map of Europe to our Spain portfolio, which students take home at the end of the school year.

Lesson 1 - Presentation, Worksheet, and Map of Europe

Download files at your own risk.

Starting the School Year: Kindergarten

This year, my kindergarten and fourth grade students are learning about Spain.  In kindergarten, students receive a basic introduction to the country, while in fourth grade, we delve deeper into its history, culture, and traditions.

Kindergarten:
Kindergarten students are currently learning colors, family members, and the adjectives grande, mediano, and pequeño.  (We are leading up to the story of the Three Bears.)  This is perfect for teaching about flags.  I begin this lesson by sitting in a circle with my students on the rug.  I show them an American flag and a Spanish flag.

I hold up the American flag, point to each part, and ask what color it is.  We learn that the American flag has three colors: red, white, and blue.  I call on students to touch different colors on the flag.  (Touch the color red.  Touch the color blue.  Touch the color white.)  We look at some pictures of the American flag, like a photo of our school with the flag waving outside, and we identify the colors of the flag again: red, white, and blue.

Then I hold up the Spanish flag, point to each part, and ask what color it is.  Note: The official colors of the Spanish flag are el rojo and el gualda, but in kindergarten, I use el rojo and el amarillo because amarillo is a much higher-frequency word than gualda.

After going over the colors, I review grande, mediana, and pequeña with flags of different sizes.  First I hold up flags of two different sizes and having students point to the size I say.  Then I call on students to touch flags of different sizes.  (Heidi, touch the large flag of Spain.  Jamal, touch the small flag of the United States.)  After this, I hold up one flag at a time and ask my students which size it is: grande, mediana, or pequeña. (Credit to Janice Holter Kittock, who does a similar lesson with the Swedish flag.)

After this, I give students a coloring sheet with the Spanish flag.  There are two options for coloring the Spanish flag:
1) Give students a blank flag with just the stripes.  Students color the stripes red and yellow.  Give students the coat of arms on a different sheet of paper.  Students color the coat of arms, cut it out, and paste it on the flag.  (Credit to Gisela Schramm-Nagel, who does this with her students.)
2) Give students a flag with the stripes and the coat of arms.  Students color the flag.

Option 1 is perfect if you want to make the flag during class.  Option 2 is perfect if you want students to color the flag at home. 

Below is a link to a Google drive folder with three files: 1) a blank flag, 2) a coat of arms to glue onto the flag, and 3) a flag with a coat of arms. 

Spanish Flag Files
Download files at your own risk.

Starting the School Year: Spanish 1

One of my favorite ways to start the school year is Card Talk, also known as Circling with Balls.  Ben Slavic, who created this activity, provides an excellent description here:
https://www.benslavic.com/circling-with-balls.html

Card Talk works across a wide range of ages; I used it this year with 4th grade students and with Upper School Spanish 1 students.  I began by handing out a piece of card stock to each student.  The students folded the card stock in half.  On one side of the folded card stock, they wrote their name in large letters and drew a sport or activity they enjoyed.  Then they set the folded card stock on the table in front of them, standing it up like a tent so I could see their name and the picture they had drawn.  Looking around the room, I chose a sport that sounded similar in Spanish and in English.  I wrote the sport on the board in both languages.  Example:

juega al béisbol - he/she plays baseball

Then I began asking questions about the student who played that sport.  (Note: All of the students in this blog post are fictitious.)

Teacher: Edward juega al béisbol.  ¿Juega Edward al béisbol?

Class: Yes.

Teacher: Sí, Edward juega al béisbol.  ¿Juega Edward al fútbol?

Class: No.

Teacher: No, Edward no juega al fútbol.  Edward juega al béisbol.  ¿Juega Edward al béisbol o al fútbol?

Class: Baseball.

Teacher: Sí, Edward juega al béisbol.  Edward NO juega al fútbol.  Edward juega al béisbol.

At this point, I wrote the following on the board:

juega al fútbol - he/she plays soccer

Looking around the room, I chose a student who played soccer.  I asked similar questions about that student, comparing/contrasting them with Edward.

On the second day of class, I continued Card Talk to learn about about the different sports/activities students enjoyed.  However, I also wanted to bring in some culture about Spain.  I decided to talk about Usman Garuba, a 16-year-old basketball player who was recently named one of the 10 most promising athletes in Spain.

I projected a picture of Usman Garuba on the board.  Next to the picture, I wrote:

Éste es un chico.  

Teacher: Éste es un chico.  ¿Es un chico?

Class: Sí.

Teacher: Sí, es un chico.  ¿Es una chica?

Class: No.

Teacher: No, no es una chica.  Es un chico.

Then I wrote:

El chico se llama Usman Garuba.

Teacher: El chico se llama Usman Garuba.  ¿Cómo se llama el chico?

Class: Usman Garuba.

Teacher: Sí, el chico se llama Usman Garuba.  ¿Es Usman Garuba un chico?

Class: Sí.

Teacher: Sí, Usman Garuba es un chico.  ¿Es Usman Garuba una chica?

Class: No.

Teacher: No, Usman Garuba no es una chica.  Usman Garuba es un chico.  No es una chica.  Es un chico.

Then I wrote:

Usman Garuba es de España.

At the beginning of class, students had written down the following structures:

es de ____           he/she is from
¿De dónde es?    Where is he/she from?

Teacher: ¿De dónde es Usman Garuba?

Since this was a new structure, I paused and let students think about this question.  Then I wrote it on the board:

¿De dónde es Usman Garuba?

Teacher: How do we say this in English?  You can look back at your notes if you need to.

Student: Where is Usman Garuba from?

Teacher: Muy bien.  ¿De dónde es Usman Garuba?  Es de Canadá?

Class: No.

Teacher: No, Usman Garuba no es de Canadá.  ¿De dónde es Usman Garuba?

Class: España.

Teacher: Sí, Usman Garuba es de España.

I went around the room and asked the class where each student was from.  I asked all of the questions in the third person to practice "¿de dónde es?", so I addressed the class rather than the individual student.  It was fun to see if my students knew where their classmates were from.  When I had gone around the entire classroom, I returned to the board and asked: "¿De dónde es Usman Garuba?"  I then compared/contrasted him with a few students.

After this, I wrote:

Usman Garuba juega al baloncesto.

Teacher: Usman Garuba juega al baloncesto.  ¿Juega al fútbol?

Class: No.

Teacher: No, Usman Garuba no juega al fútbol.  Juega al baloncesto.  ¿Juega al béisbol?

Class: No.

Teacher: No, no juega al béisbol.  Juega al baloncesto.  Usman Garuba NO juega al fútbol.  NO juega al béisbol.  Juega al baloncesto.

After this, I returned to Card Talk.  For the first week of school, I had my students keep the card stock papers in front of them so I could see their names and their favorite sport/activity.  I used this information to compare/contrast several students with Usman Garuba.

Example: Usman Garuba plays basketball.  In this class, who plays basketball?  Theo plays basketball!  Usman Garuba plays basketball and Theo plays basketball!  Anna plays basketball!  Usman Garuba plays basketball and Anna plays basketball!  Does Usman Garuba play soccer?  No, he does not play soccer.  Who plays soccer? George plays soccer!  Usman Garuba does not play soccer.  George plays soccer.  Who plays soccer, Usman Garuba or George?  George plays soccer.  Usman Garuba does not play soccer.

I then wrote:

Usman Garuba tiene mucho talento.  Usman Garuba es famoso.

I checked for understanding by asking my students to translate these sentences into English.  Then I asked if any of my students were famous.  (I reminded my students that in Spanish class, they can be anything they want to be, as long as they answer in Spanish.)  A few students responded that they were famous.  I wrote their names on the board and we made a little story about them:

Example 1:

Éste es un chico.  El chico se llama Vincent.  Vincent es de Wisconsin.

Vincent juega al fútbol americano.  Vincent tiene mucho talento.  Vincent es famoso.

Example 1:

Ésta es un chica.  La chica se llama Susannah.  Susannah es de Minnesota.

Vincent juega al hockey.  Susannah tiene mucho talento.  Susannah es famosa.

The next day in class, I introduced how to ask and tell someone's age.  I went around the classroom and asked each student his/her age.  Then we returned to the story of Usman Garuba, with the additional information that he is sixteen years old.

I then handed out a reading with true/false questions.  If you are interested in using the reading, you can find it at this Google drive link:
Usman Garuba Reading + Answer Key
Download files at your own risk.

It was so much fun to teach about an athlete from Spain, almost completely in Spanish, on the second day of Spanish 1!

Introduction

"How can I effectively teach culture in the target language?"  As a Spanish teacher working with novice-level language students, I have often asked myself this question.  When I began teaching, I set aside time every few weeks for "culture lessons", in which my students and I discussed aspects of the target culture in English.  While these lessons were a lot of fun, they were far from best practice, as they took crucial time away from acquiring Spanish.  I wondered: Is it possible to teach culture without compromising language acquisition?  

I began working to develop culture lessons that were comprehensible, engaging, and 95% or more in the target language.  Each lesson required hours of planning time, but the results were more than worth it.  My students responded enthusiastically to culture lessons in the target language -- in fact, many of them began telling me that culture lessons were their favorite part of Spanish!

I currently teach Lower School Spanish and one section of Upper School Spanish 1.  In Lower School, we study one country per grade level.  Kindergarten students spend the entire year learning about Spain, first grade students learn about Puerto Rico, second grade students learn about Argentina, third grade students learn about Peru, and fourth grade students return to Spain for a more in-depth study of history and culture.  The advantage to spending an entire year studying one country is that students are able to view that country through multiple lenses.  One of my favorite Ted Talks is "The Danger of a Single Story," by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  If you haven't watched it, the link is available here:

When we focus on one country, we give our students the opportunity to learn more than a "single story" about its people, history, culture, and traditions.  We are able to delve beyond the superficial and stereotypical and develop a more nuanced curriculum.

This year, my kindergarten and fourth grade students are learning about Spain.  I had never been to Spain, so I applied for a grant to travel and study there.  I am extremely grateful to the Faculty Advisory Committee at my school for approving my grant and giving me the opportunity to spend five weeks in Spain this summer. 

The purpose of this blog is to share what I learned on my summer grant trip.  Throughout the school year, I will post lesson plans, readings, YouTube videos, songs, teaching suggestions, and other resources.  I am excited to explore the history and culture of Spain with my students this year, and I am also excited to share our culture curriculum on this blog!  I hope you will find it useful.