Looking back at what motivated me as a learner when I was a child and I started learning English, brings back memories from my primary school years in a small village in the south of Spain. Back then foreign languages were introduced in Year 6 (at age 12).
Before that, I’ve had my first contact with English through music like most of us did back then, listening to Madonna, Michael Jackson and all the great singers from the 80s, (I’m showing my age now…🙃😊) musicals like Grease, etc. And of course, I loved singing their songs without having a clue about their content and mispronouncing every single word: “Wi ar de worl, wi ar de children!” or “Laik a berjen, tach for the beri ferst taim” 🤣
One day, I remember that one of my sister’s friends heard me singing and started laughing at me (not only because of my singing, but more because of the words that I was saying… Well, not that she knew any better, as she was older than me and the older generations were learning French…). I must have been around 8 or 9 years old, but I remember it really annoyed me and that day I decided that one day I would speak English really well and that I would understand every single word from my favorite singers.
Some years later, when I was about 12-13 and I was already learning English at the school, I remember that I had fallen in love with the boy band of that time “New Kids On The Block.” I used to spend hours and hours listening to their songs, rewinding my tapes (very 80s!) and writing down the lyrics that I could understand by decoding them on my own and using my Spanish/English dictionary to find out what they were singing about.
Ahhh the 80s! No Google Translate back then to help me, all manual… But you know what? There was something about that process that really helped those words and sentences stick better in my head and allow them to stay in the long-term memory and embed themselves as part of my vocabulary.
Don’t get me wrong, I am really in love with technology and all the advantages that it brings; however, I am seeing how relying too much on technology is making us all slowly less sharp… Faster for some things, but in terms of independent learning and reasoning, I think that the abuse of technology could make us lose some of our intellectual capacities gradually, so I believe that keeping a balance is very important. The key thing is to find the balance, like with everything else in life.
Music in Language Lessons
Going back to the motivation and inspiration when learning languages, I believe that Music is without a doubt a tool to be used in lessons as frequently as possible. I invite you to the section in my channel called MUSIC & ACTIVITIES IN SPANISH & ENGLISH LESSONS, where I post and recommend songs and activities related to them.
I try to choose songs that have great messages, key structures, verb tenses that need to be revised (subjuntivo, pretéritos, etc.) Also, I try to give ideas of activities that you can do in Spanish and English lessons. I hope you find them helpful and include music in your lessons to motivate and inspire students. Be on the look as I will be uploading many more soon.
It has been great to focus on one goal a month since the beginning of 2024. So many times we start school strong to find ourselves drifting as the months go bye. So far, in 2024, we have concentrated in collecting moments and doing more of what we love. So, in March, we will continue with … Make it Happen!
To me, to ‘make it happen’ is to accomplish what you dream of or desire by doing what is best for you and your students. It does not mean that it is easy or that it is a quick fix. It will probably require effort to solve problems and face different challenges. Thus, I want to encourage you to take the first step, take action, and make it happen!
It was the end of January and I remember thinking: What do I want to accomplish? How am I going to do it? Then, I learned about the #GoalsProject through social media and I signed up as soon as I got the green light from my school.
#GoalsProject – Make it Happen!
The #GoalsProject is done by students all around the world based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (I wrote about the SDGs in What Do You Do When You Learn Something New?). The UN SDGs are the solutions to world problems and a call to action to make it happen.
The #GoalsProject is a richly infused 6-week global collaboration project based on the SDGs to promote taking action in the classroom. It requires students to practice 21st century skills: learning skills, literacy skills, and life skills, which are essential for students to succeed in life. As a world language educator, this was exactly what I envisioned for my students!
The #GoalsProject also encompasses most of the principles of Powerful Learning. And what better way to provide voice and agency to my students than through taking action for the SDGs.
To introduce the project, students talked about the SDGs and learned about their importance and how crucial it is to help in achieving these goals by 2030. This year, students dug deeper into SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.
Middle school was given 3 SDGs to choose from, and SDG 12 was the one we picked for sixth grade Spanish. I chose SDG 12 because it relates directly to the work we do at school with TerraCycle ‘to recycle the unrecyclable.’
Activities and Tasks: Make it Happen!
Some of the activities we did and some tasks my 6th-graders performed in Spanish class during their participation in this program are these:
Participating in a Virtual School Assembly
Responding to Youth Ambassadors
Having a video-conference with students in the Dominican Republic
Completing a KWHLAQ graphic organizer
Listening to videos about the ‘Circular Economy’
Completing a Systems Thinking Compass
Creating a poster for Fact-ivist!
Brainstorming solutions to problems related to SDG 12
Let me share a little bit about these tasks below. There are links to the sources used as well.
Participating in a Virtual School Assembly
The Virtual School Assembly was a webinar in which my students participated with thousands of other students in the world. It showed students the scope of the project and gave purpose to what they were doing.
Responding to Youth Ambassadors
After listening to what Youth Ambassadors from all over the world did towards the SDGs and why, my students found inspiration to start their contribution to helping achieve the SDGs. Their responses in the Padlet showed how impacted students were by the Youth Ambassadors speeches/ presentations to a personal level.
Having a video conference with students in the Dominican Republic
Connecting with students their age from another country in Spanish and learning about their projects was a highlight for most of my students.
Completing a KWHLAQ graphic organizer
To show students’ thinking we used the KWHLAQ graphic organizer which is based on six questions:
K – What do we think we know about this topic?
W – What do we need to find out?
H – How will we find out the answers to our questions?
L – What are we learning and what have we learned?
A – What action will we take?
Q – What new questions do we have?
Using the KWHLAQ helped me see what students learned and what their interests were.
Listening to videos about the ‘Circular Economy’
The Ellen MaCarthur Foundation is all about the circular economy, which is key in achieving SDG12, Responsible Consumption and Production. We listened to some videos on this topic and discussed them.
Completing a Systems Thinking Compass
I loved having students complete the Systems Thinking Compass because it is a tool that helps students see the interdependence of any system.
The Systems Thinking Compass is easy to understand as it uses the four points of the regular compass but renaming them. So the N for North, becomes the N for Nature. The E for East becomes the E for Economy. The S for South becomes the S for Society, and the W for West becomes the W for Wellbeing.
For example, having the SDG 12 in the center and thinking about the impact of consumption and production from the lens of Nature, Economy, Society, and Wellbeing helped students identify the issues and then connect their commonalities. It was probably the most difficult activity we did as it required them to think in systems, make connections, and then present their ideas to the class.
Creating a poster for Fact-ivist!
Researching data related to the SDG12 in Latin America was challenging as they had to find reliable sources. Students did their research starting from a simple Google or Bing search and narrowed it down to relevant sources like the World Bank, UN.org, Paho, Agenda2030lac, IDB, etc. In the end, students were able to identify data related to the SDG 12 that was interesting to them and complete their assignment of creating a poster using data.
At the beginning, data such as the amount of food that is wasted, was surprising to them, but it made this SDG real! Then, they created a poster to represent the data found using a digital art tool like Canva. The cherry on top was publishing their poster for the world to see. You can check them out in the Fact-ivist Gallery.
Brainstorming solutions to problems related to SDG 12
Using a storyboard, students sketched their possible solutions to problems related to SDG 12, from recycling to creating innovative ways to wasting less food. They came up with such great solutions! Then, they wrote a sentence or two about their sketches.
Make it Happen!
In a fun way, students learned about the SDGs while having the opportunity to think about the world’s needs and contribute with their different perspectives to make a change. This experience was very powerful as it showed students what they can do to help the Earth and that they can do it.
I am happy to have made it happen for my students!
Decía Chaikovski (o tal vez solo dijo, o quizás nunca llegó a decir, pero eso ahora no importa) que si no fuera por la música 🎶, habría más razones para volverse loco 🤪.
No sabemos si estaríamos más locos o no, pero de lo que no hay duda es de que, sin la música, a nuestras clases de español les faltaría algo 🤔. Y no nos referimos solamente al hecho de poner canciones en el aula para que nuestros alumnos completen espacios en blanco, sino a tratar la música como un tema en sí mismo.
En este sentido, nos parece muy interesante el tratamiento que se le da en la unidad 9 del libro Etapas Plus C1📚, en la que se presentan una serie de actividades que siempre podrás adaptar a niveles inferiores (de hecho, ¡funcionan muy bien con B1 y B2!).
En ellas, se trabaja el tema de la música a partir de la idea de recuerdo, de vivencia, de experiencia. Y eso es algo que nos parece precioso 🥰 (y sobre todo, implementable* en el aula).
¿Quién no tiene una canción asociada a una determinada época de su vida? Pensemos en los tiempos de la escuela 👩🏻🏫, en aquel viaje sin los padres 🚍, en aquel primer amor ❤️, en aquel verano 🏖🏕… ¿Acaso no son momentos asociados a alguna canción?
Así pues, ¿qué te parece si promueves entre tus estudiantes ese viaje al recuerdo? Imagínate cuánto vocabulario podrán usar para hablar de sentimientos asociados a canciones 🗣. Piensa en las estructuras de las que podrán echar mano. Y además, combinando los tiempos de pasado…
Pero puedes ir más allá: haz que el español también forme parte de su recuerdo. ¿Qué canciones relacionan con las diferentes etapas y contenidos en su aprendizaje de nuestra lengua 🎶📚? Seguro que entre sus canciones favoritas hay alguna en español que les ha permitido practicar el subjuntivo o en la que han aprendido alguna palabra que ya no olvidarán nunca. ¡Hagamos que hablen también de ello!
Aquí te dejamos una infografía 👇 que podrás utilizar si finalmente te animas a llevar la música a tus clases de español. Nosotros te damos la “partitura”. ¡El ritmo lo pones tú!
* Nota: Sí, lo sabemos, implementable no está en el diccionario. Ahora bien, la RAE no la censura, por atenerse a las reglas de derivación, así que nos hemos permitido el lujo de usarla 😌. Y además, ¡nos gusta mucho esta palabra! 🥰
Teaching and celebrating international days in World Language classes helps students see the power of learning languages. The International Days in September are particularly special to me. They help me set the tone of what is important in class, they help expand students’ global views, and they help me see how (un)comfortable students are in an immersion-style class. We celebrate International Literacy Day, September 8 and International Dot Day, September 15. In this post, we will only talk about International Literacy Day.
International Literacy Day (ILD) has been recognized on September 8 since 1967, when UNESCO chose this day as a reminder of the importance of literacy as a human right. Each year, UNESCO adopts a theme and the one for this year is “Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies.” I wondered if my students would grasp this theme, and I was pleasantly surprised when they surpassed my expectations.
I presented UNESCO’s theme, an image, a poster, and a book to my students, and used thinking routines to help go deeper into comprehending the concept of “Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies.”
First, students found cognates, such as, ‘promoting’ ‘transition’ ‘foundation’ ‘sustainable’ and ‘societies’. and familiar words, within the theme for the year.
Then, students studied and described the image from the ILD concept note to go deeper in their understanding. It was developed by UNESCO and showed the relationship between literacy and the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The image I used is the following:
There are posters with the Sustainable Development Goals icons in my classroom, so my students are very familiarized with them. They observed the symbols in the image, and started making connections. Here, they ‘got’ the word ‘peaceful’.
The second visual was the poster created by UNESCO to celebrate ILD. Students worked with a peer and in small groups to describe the poster and then discussed it as a class. The poster I used is the following:
Students loved the poster! It brought the words ‘literacy’ and ‘world’ to the forefront. I had to explain with gestures the word ‘building’ as it is not a cognate or a familiar word to my students. After I helped them figure out the meaning of “building”, they got what “Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies” meant. It was one of those ‘Aha’ moments in learning.
I chose a book that showed a concrete example related to the ILD theme for 2023. I read “El violín de Ada” written by Susan Wood and translated by Shelley McConnell. It is based on the story of the “Cateura Orchestra” in Paraguay that made its instruments with recycled materials. Students immediately connected the story to ‘building sustainable and peaceful societies’. Many of my students play instruments so they made a personal connection to the story.
Moment of truth! It was time to put ideas together. I asked them to connect the theme, the book, the image, and the poster to see how much they really understood. For this, students used the Project Zero Thinking Routines “10×2” in 5th grade and Hexagonal Thinking in 6th grade.
I loved how my 5th graders stretched their thinking and completed the thinking routine using a limited number of words. They wrote words familiar to them and then they asked me if words like ‘creative’ ‘talented’ ‘curiosity’ were cognates and tried to figure them out in Spanish. Students felt so proud of their work, and I was proud too.
I gave each of my 6th graders a printed sheet of paper full of hexagons. They had to individually write a word connecting the resources in each hexagon. Afterwards, in groups of 3, they glued their cut hexagons by grouping them by themes. In the end, they had to write a phrase that described the groupings. It was my first time using hexagonal thinking and I loved how students worked individually and in small groups, and what they created. All groups concluded that education is fundamental for building strong communities. ‘Wow!’ I thought, ‘they got it.’
Have you integrated international day celebrations into your world language classes? How do you think teaching and celebrating international days in world language classes might impact your curriculum? If you have not started celebrating international days yet, start by choosing one that you want to share with your students. Then, think of one or two activities that you can include in your class. Next year you will revisit your plan and I am sure that you will be adding a spin to it. This is one way of starting integrating international days into your world language classes. International day celebrations set the tone for what is important.
Las preposiciones son “personajes” particulares a la hora de aprender un idioma. De pequeños nos aprendíamos la retahíla en orden alfabético y la recitábamos con orgullo en clase. Pero ya de mayores llega el problema de aprenderlas en otras lenguas y comienzan las dificultades 🫣: reflexionamos sobre ellas 🤔 y nos damos cuenta de que ni siquiera podríamos explicarlas en nuestro idioma 🤷♂️. Y, por si fuera poco, dependiendo de la lengua, cambian de posición y hasta de nombre 🤦🏽 (y resulta que se llaman “posposiciones” ↩️).
En suma, que al final nos resignamos a tratar de usarlas… y ya está, aplicamos alguna regla mnemotécnica o simplemente actuamos por “ensayo y error” (al fin y al cabo, como diríamos en Galicia, “malo será” …).
Y es que si queremos establecer un símil con la física, podríamos pensar que las preposiciones son la parte “cuántica” de la lengua: nos da la impresión (es solo una percepción) de que se comportan de forma caprichosa, de que son difíciles de controlar… 🤪 Nos desesperamos porque los patrones que creíamos haber establecido no se cumplen 😨 y maldecimos porque la comparación con otras lenguas no solo es insuficiente, sino que genera confusión.
Puesto que las explicaciones tradicionales no son satisfactorias, debemos recurrir a otros modelos explicativos, como por ejemplo, la arqueología 🏛.
“¿La arqueología? ¿Habéis perdido la cabeza?”🤪. Bueno, lo de “arqueología” es una nueva metáfora (como puedes ver, nos gustan mucho los símiles). Esta disciplina rastrea los orígenes 🧐, y si hablamos de buscar el origen en el uso de una preposición, tenemos que hablar de gramática cognitiva 🧠, un apasionante enfoque que trata de llegar al significado primitivo de las preposiciones, para entender y explicar su uso presente (enfoque especialmente útil en el aula de ELE).
En la entrada de hoy no vamos a ofrecerte ninguna fórmula mágica para enseñar las preposiciones a tus estudiantes. Lo que vamos a hacer en las siguientes líneas es hablar de amor 👨🏻❤️👨🏽👩❤️👨👩🏻❤️👩🏽.
Ahora sí que puedes pensar que hemos perdido la cabeza de verdad 🙄. Pero todo tiene una explicación 🙏. En efecto, si nos hemos atrevido a relacionar las preposiciones con la física cuántica y con la arqueología, ¿por qué no íbamos a intentar hacer lo mismo con el amor? Y si de paso nuestros alumnos aprenden algunas colocaciones con preposición, pues mucho mejor…
En español nos enamoramos DE alguien 💞 (igual que hacen los italianos), mientras que en portugués, inglés y coreano (esta última usa posposiciones) la gente se enamora “con” otra persona. Podemos enamorarnos de muchas formas, pero una posible manera es hacerlo A primera vista 👀💘, después de una cita A ciegas 🙈❤️.
Tras un tiempo de enamoramiento, en español nos casamos CON esa persona de la que estamos enamorados, al igual que en portugués y coreano, mientras que en inglés y en italiano no se usa preposición para expresar tan bonita unión.
Pero como el amor es eterno… mientras dura, llega un momento en que se acaba, y necesitamos expresar dicho fin ❤️👋. Y para eso también tenemos las preposiciones: así, en español rompemos CON alguien o nos divorciamos DE alguien 🙍♀️🙍💔, al igual que en las lenguas anteriores (excepto en coreano, en donde nos divorciamos “con” alguien).
En fin, que las preposiciones nos acompañan en las diferentes etapas de nuestra vida. Están ahí, son necesarias y tenemos que convivir con ellas. Y lo mejor es hacerlo con humor.
There are many edtech tools and videos to help students with their Interpretive Listening skills. Sites such as EdPuzzle and Lyrics Training and other edutech resources like Forms (Google and Microsoft) are some of my go-to resources. I have also used Bilingual Cerebros, Señor Wooly, and Rockalingua, to name some, to help students expand their vocabulary and language structures.
Videos as Authentic Resources
What first comes to my mind when I hear ‘videos’ is authentic and organic ways of teaching and learning. I use a lot of music videos when teaching. Previously, I talked about using songs as Interpretive Reading tasks. Now, I’d like to share about one of the latest video I have used in class.
The video “Soy Tuya” to talk about Puerto Rico is what I used. I adapted a plan that I had created to fit my novice-mid level students. Students would discover Puerto Rico in a different way … and it worked! Before we started, I asked them what they knew about Puerto Rico and we used OneNote to record their answers. Only then I played the video “Soy Tuya”. They watched it several times, but each time, they had to focus on a particular aspect. This is what I had my student do when watching this video:
Talk about what surprises and/ or impacts you
Name the objects that you recognize
Name things related to nature or the environment
Talk about your favorite part and explain why you like it
After watching the video and completing the tasks mentioned above, I asked them to write what they knew about Puerto Rico. They were able to write a lot and were so proud about it!
Media Literacy
Once I learned what they knew about Puerto Rico, I played the video again and paused it as I needed to focus on some landmarks and important information given in the video. Students learned a little bit of history, geography, flora and fauna, etc. We also discussed the lyrics and the story told through the song (using a little bit of Spanglish for this, I confess!).
One of my questions after watching the video together was “Did you notice what is NOT in the video”? Although at first, they were a little puzzled by my question, they started to mention a few things that were missing, such as hurricanes and their devastating impact. We briefly discussed Media Literacy Q-Tips, and we especially focused on who is not represented in the video.
Vocabulary & Language Structures
The next class, students watched the video again and this time they listed the activities people do and then told me who does what. Students noticed many more activities than I had expected! It gave them the opportunity to practice conjugating with a purpose and in an organic way!
Authentic and Connected
A few days later, when we had a video conference with a Puerto Rican, a dear friend and also a language teacher…my students were ready! They recognized some of the places and faces from the video in the slides she showed them, and asked good follow up questions based on their novice-mid level.
Your Turn
I’d like to know how you use videos in your class. Please, leave a comment or email me at connect@languageteachinglab.com with questions and ideas.
Having passion for reading is something that should be instilled in our students at a very early age. Today it is not so easy. Previous generations had fewer ‘distractions.’ There were not as many channels with such a variety of programs; there was no Internet or social media and video games were more limited. Sadly, that passion for reading that previous generations had, is being lost today due to competing with all these other media.
It is our job, as parents, teachers and educators, to do something about it. Reading must be a vital part of students’ daily lives and we must find ways to promote it, motivate our students and make reading exciting again for the new generations.
In my lessons, both with my students who study Spanish as a foreign language, and with those students who are heritage Spanish speakers, reading stories is very important. Reading opens a door to imagination and creativity. In addition, it helps students reinforce grammar and spelling patterns without needing to use boring and repetitive grammar exercises. Furthermore, reading expands their vocabulary by finding synonyms and gaining vocabulary richness without even realizing it as it models language in a subtle way.
In my channel BILINGUAL CEREBROS, you can find a section in the Playlists where there are already 27 short stories and fables with morals to reflect on. Many activities can be done with them. These are some ideas on how to use the short stories, tales and fables on my channel:
1. Summarize the story using your own words.
2. In small groups, role-play the story.
3. Explain the moral of the story. Give your point of view about what is learned from this story. What value/values does it teach us?
4. Practice your verbal fluency and pronunciation by reading the story aloud.
5. Who is the main character in this story? / Who are the characters in this story?
6. Describe the characters in this story. What is their personality like?
7. Find the verbs in the past tense (Pretétito indefinido & Pretérito imperfecto) and analyze their uses.
8. Compare the English version with the Spanish version. What new words or expressions have you learned with this story/fable?
In addition, students can review these stories at home and listen to the pronunciation again since they are all published on the channel and they can access them for free.
If you need the bilingual version of these stories for your lessons, I can also send them to you for free in PDF or PowerPoint versions. You can email me at: bilingualcerebros@gmail.com to request your copy. Students can use these bilingual versions to compare vocabulary and structures in Spanish and English.
Here are the direct links to the 27 stories that are on the channel so far, and I will continue uploading new stories. I hope they are useful.
No, no pretendemos ponernos nostálgicos y hablar de las canciones que se escuchaban cuando éramos unos yogurines* (aunque alguna de esas habrá en esta lista) 👵💭👴💭🥺, sino de aquellas que podemos usar en clase para trabajar los tiempos de pasado y (¡oh, qué horror!) el tan temido contraste imperfecto / indefinido (ya sabes, eso de hacer avanzar y detener la historia ⏩️⏸️▶️).
𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠í𝐚 (𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐫𝐚): aunque hoy en día, al pensar en Shakira, se nos viene a la cabeza la canción que le ha dedicado a Piqué 🙍♀️🤬➡️🧔🏼♂️, la que te presentamos hoy es, “clara-mente”, mucho más útil para reforzar el indefinido 😏. Tiene ya algunos años, pero su uso en clase es atemporal: en ella, la cantante colombiana habla de cómo le cambió la vida haber encontrado el amor ❤, y en ese repaso biográfico nos regala muchos verbos en indefinido.
𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐚 𝐭𝐮 𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐨 (𝐋𝐨𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐬): maravillosa canción no solo por el continuado uso del pretérito perfecto para hablar de experiencias en el pasado sin marcadores temporales específicos, sino también por las entrañables metáforas que salieron de la pluma del fallecido Enrique Urquijo 📝😔 (recomendamos trabajar también dichas metáforas en clase 📚). Por cierto, la versión acústica que hace su hermano Álvaro es simplemente maravillosa. 🎶❤️
𝐂𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐜í (𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫é𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐨) 👩❤️👨: lo realmente interesante de esta canción es su utilidad como recurso para trabajar el contraste de pasados a partir de la estructura “Cuando” + indefinido + imperfecto 👩🏫. Recomendamos usarla después de haber explicado el pluscuamperfecto 👨🏫, ya que en ella aparecen también un par de verbos en dicho tiempo.
𝐂𝐮é𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐮𝐧 𝐜𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 (𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐬): se trata de una canción muy útil para trabajar con niveles altos, ya que da mucho juego no solo para repasar y reforzar el contraste de pasados, sino también para implementar en el aula el tema de los cuentos infantiles 🫅🧙♂️🧚🧜🧞♂️. Nuestros estudiantes pueden hablar acerca de cuentos de su infancia y al final podríamos crear una historia colaborativa… ¡siguiendo el loco modelo de la canción! 🙋🏽🙋♀️🙋🏾♀️🙋🙋🏽♂️🤪📝
En la nube de palabras que incluimos a continuación, tienes algunos de los verbos en pasado que aparecen en estas canciones.
* Respecto al significado de “yogurín” y de otras palabras para referirnos a las etapas de la vida, ya hablaremos de ello en otra entrada… 😉
PD: Recomendamos que escuche las canciones y vea si son apropiadas para sus estudiantes
THE SONGS OF THE PAST
No, we do not intend to get nostalgic and talk about the songs that were heard when we were yogurts * (although some of those will be on this list), 👵💭👴💭🥺 but those that we can use in class to work the past times and (oh, what horror!) the dreaded imperfect / indefinite contrast (you know, that of moving the story ⏩️⏸️▶️ forward and stopping).
☑️ Anthology (Shakira): although nowadays, when thinking of Shakira, the song that has dedicated to Piqué ♂️ 🙍 ♀️🤬➡️🧔🏼 comes to mind, the one we present today is, “clearly”, much more useful to reinforce the indefinite. 😏 It is already a few years old, but its use in class is timeless: in it, the Colombian singer talks about how having found love ❤ changed her life, and in that biographical review she gives us many verbs in indefinite.
☑️ Pero a tu lado (Los Secretos): wonderful song not only for the continued use of the past perfect to talk about experiences in the past without specific time markers, but also for the endearing metaphors that came from the pen of the late Enrique Urquijo 📝😔 (we also recommend working these metaphors in class 📚). By the way, the acoustic version made by his brother Álvaro is simply wonderful. 🎶❤️
☑️ When I met you (Andrés Calamaro): 👩 👨 ❤️ the really interesting thing about this song is its usefulness as a resource to work the contrast of pasts from the structure “When” + indefinite + imperfect. 👩 🏫 We recommend using it after having explained the ‘plusquamperfect’ 👨 🏫, since a couple of verbs also appear in it in that tense.
☑️ Tell me a story (Celtas Cortos): this is a very useful song to work with high levels, since it gives a lot of play not only to review and reinforce the contrast of pasts, but also to implement in the classroom the theme of children’s 🫅🧙 ♂️🧚🧜🧞 ♂️ stories. Our students can talk about stories from their childhood and in the end we could create a collaborative story… following the crazy model of the song! 🙋🏽🙋♀️🙋🏾♀️🙋🙋🏽♂️🤪📝
* Regarding the meaning of “yogurtín” and other words to refer to the stages of life, we will talk about it in another entry … 😉
PS: We recommend that you listen to the songs and decide if they are appropriate for the students you teach
Have you ever wondered why we teach what we teach? I realized that my professional and personal experiences inform my language curriculum in more ways than I have imagined.
It all started when a few years ago, in the educational and pedagogical arenas, there was a big emphasis on culturally responsive teaching. That is when I decided to revisit my curriculum. Among all the units, I started by digging deeper into the typical ‘get to know students’ one at the beginning of the school year. Yes, it is important to know what students’ preferred name is and learn about their favorites, and I do not underestimate this, but to me that was not enough. I wanted my students to learn about themselves, who they are and who they want to become as language learners.
A children’s book, a trip to a museum, and a fellowship are three examples that informed my unit on identity. I developed, tweaked, and grew this unit throughout the years.
A Professional and Personal Experience: A Children’s Book
I had the privilege of meeting Rafael Lopez in person when he received the Americas Award for illustrating Pat Mora’s Yum! MMMM! Que Rico!. Lopez made an imprint on me that day. I bought most of his titles from then onwards (all worth it!).
When I read Rafael Lopez’s, El dia en que descubres quien eres, I knew I had to introduce it to my students. This book reminds us not to forget how you feel when you are new to a place. It reminds us of the importance of making connections and sharing stories among each other. It touches upon the identifiers of race, ethnicity, gender, class, ability, origin, and age and at the same time it develops empathy. I use the Project Zero Thinking Routine CSI – Color, Symbol, and Image – to have students show understanding of the story.
A Personal Experience: A Trip to a Museum
I make a big emphasis throughout the identity unit on the importance of learning about the ‘invisible’ side of people, of others and of our own. Students discover and explore this by walking the same steps I walked many years ago when I saw ‘Braiding’ by Lin Tianmiao while visiting a Chicago museum.
Lin Tianmiao massive installation made a huge impact on me back then. I decided to add this work of art into the identity unit. It seemed the appropriate way of helping students understand how much of what we see and perceive influences what we think about others.
Students use the simple (but powerful) Project Zero Thinking Routine “I see, I think, I wonder” to describe the installation. As a first entry to the art, I only show students the face in the artwork. Once students share what they have written about what they see, think, and wonder, I show them the complete piece of art. In their own words they express what I intended them to understand.
I want to show students that we cannot stop at the visible part of human beings to learn about others. Introducing them to Caja de Memoria Viva II: Constancia Colón Clemente by Adrián Viajero Román seemed the way to go. The following materials are based on the collections developed when Marcela and I participated in the Smithsonian Fellowship.
Students use personal memories to recall what songs or sounds, what smells, what artifacts, and what tastes we associate with home or a special place for us. Only then we analyze the art.
Students observe and analyze the three dimensional work of art first. Then they describe both its exterior and interior. I usually start by showing students some photographs of the visible cube representing the head of a person. The installation is of a black Puerto Rican woman who migrated to the United States in the 1940s.
After they observe the photos from the outside, I have them observe photos of the inside of the piece of art. Students see lots of different objects hanging in the inside walls of the cube.
We continue by using the Project Zero Thinking Routine ‘Layers.’ This routine provides learners with a structure for looking analytically at creative works through its narrative, aesthetic, mechanical, dynamic, and connections.
Example questions for using ‘Layers’
-Who do you think is this person?
-How old do you think she is?
-Where do you think she lives?
-How does this installation make you feel?
-What do you see?
-What is unique in this piece?
-How does it connect with your personal experiences?
The installation helps students concretely see the connection between the ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ sides of a person. One important aspect about this art piece is the fact that you can hear the voice of Constancia Colon Clemente when you are under the installation. It feels you really are in her head!
Future Professional and Personal Experiences
The examples mentioned above – a children’s book, a trip to a museum, and a fellowship – informed my unit on identity. I will surely keep on developing and tweaking this unit in the years to come.
Though usually unexpectedly, my professional and personal experiences will keep on influencing my language curriculum. Therefore, I wonder where my next inspiration will come from.
Teach about Summer in your language class. It can be fun!
It is so near the end of the school year that Summer is in the air!
As teachers, there is so much you can do on the topic of summer that a blog would not be enough. Here are a few resources to help you dive into summer! My favorite is Papa Topo’s song. Which is yours?
Check other resources according to seasons: Spring, Winter, and Fall.
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Presenting global views connects language students to the experiences of others. It engages their minds, hearts, and hands. There are wonderful resources that help language students broaden their perspective of the world, not necessarily limited to the people in the countries that speak the language they are learning. Why wait until they are at an intermediate level? You may start with novice learners. It all depends on what you show them and what you do with it, i.e. how you use the resource, as well as why you are using that specific resource.
Why global views?
I part with the idea that we live in one world and the more that we learn from each other, the better. As a Spanish teacher myself, I moved from showing only things related to the Spanish-speaking world to showing my students the whole world. Of course, a big part of what we do in class is related to the Spanish world, but I intersect resources that go beyond that. Learning about others helps break down stereotypes, expands our worldviews, and helps us become aware of our interconnectedness and common humanity. In sum, it is about helping my students become globally competent.
How do we use photographs as global views ?
To successfully reach the minds, hearts, and hands of language learners, it is necessary to think through how we introduce, develop, and conclude each lesson. It is also important to think about what background knowledge students need in order to understand the topic and what prior knowledge they bring to class. Using resources thoughtfully is key.
Many times I choose to use photographs to do this type of work because they are potent visuals. They tell stories and we can all relate to stories. Photographers have a unique eye as their lens captures a precious moment in time. It is up to us to show these global views and choose how to do it.
The following are some ways in which I have presented global views to my students.
When I taught elementary school, my students particularly enjoyed when I showed them photographs of classrooms around the world and they had to compare and contrast those with their own classroom. As an added benefit, I learned about students’ prior experiences and their families’ history.
My students love when they can choose. When presenting them with several photographs, I let them choose one that talks to them and ask them to do different activities, from simply describing the photograph to creating a story to only asking and answering questions. Other times, I present them with two photographs and we compare them to find similarities and differences. These types of activities propel great conversations.
The National Portrait Gallery has many classroom resources to use when describing portraiture, and some of them can be applied to analyzing photographs successfully. I especially enjoy:
There is no doubt that using the Project Zero Thinking Routines makes perfect sense when analyzing photographs. For this type of work, I would go with the Global Thinking Routines ones.
The Library of Congress has a special tool when it comes to analyze photographs that differs from the tools used to analyze other media. It is a wonderful way to start a conversation about photographs. Check it out!
There are so many ways to go when it comes to introducing global views to students. Of course, the images per se are key in making it a powerful experience.
What resources can we use to engage learners with global views ?
The following are some resources based on photographs. Some of these photographs include the topics of school, food, identity, and landscapes and I have used some of them with my novice students. What is important is to choose what to show and how to present it to students.
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Each time I present global views to students, their engagement is palpable as global views engage language learners’ minds, hearts, and hands. If you haven’t already, give it a try and let me know how it goes in your classes.
April is National Poetry Month. Here are some ideas I have used and I always come back to when teaching poetry in my world language class.
Acknowledgement and Credits
I love professional development and I have attended many amazing workshops all throughout the years. I got inspired and felt refreshed after each one of these experiences. Although many of the workshops were not specifically geared to world language teaching, I borrowed ideas to use in my classes. Unfortunately, I cannot tell exactly from which workshop I adapted each idea. I can say that the ideas come from workshops I attended at the National Gallery of Art, the Portrait Gallery, the Phillips Collections, the Kennedy Center, and other Smithsonian museums.
How I teach poetry in a world language class
I love words and poetry highlights each word and makes words come alive.
Let’s briefly talk about a few examples on how I teach with poems in Spanish class,
– I read poems aloud to my students,
– I have them recite poems from memory, and
– I invite them to write their own poems.
The ideas below can be easily transferred to other languages.
Read aloud poems
Some poems are fun to read, some are long, and some others say so much in a few words. The following two poems are great examples for making interdisciplinary connections.
The book Yum! MMMM! Que Rico! Los brotes de las Américas by Pat Mora and illustrated by Rafael López is a collection of haiku and a springboard for teaching a combination of poetry, science, and geography. Get to know the origin of some of your favorite fruits while enjoying illustrations that are sublime! This book is a wonderful way of introducing students to the art of haiku to appreciate words to the fullest. It never ceases to amaze me how a few words can say so much!
Los zapaticos de rosa by José Martí and illustrated by Lulu Delacre creates the perfect ambience to teach about plot in language arts. This poem also includes other topics to explore such as, social justice, empathy, and kindness. The illustrations are as beautiful as the words in the poem.
Reciting poems
Through Poetry off the Page based on Glenis Redmond‘s workshop at the Kennedy Center, students learn how to best recite poems using their whole body through
-positioning themselves to recite by planting their feet on the ground
-projecting their voice to be heard
-personalizing a poem (make it theirs through movement and gestures), and
I wrote about the collaboration with another school in Barcelona, España as part of #SingleVoicesGlobalChoices to write blackout poetry both in the post Empowering Language Learners with Powerful Learning and in the article Connect, Adapt, Try New Things in Best Practices of Online Learning in COVID-19. Basically, blackout poems can be created using the pages of old books or articles. Students, as poets. isolate and then put together single words or short phrases from these texts to create something totally new.
Poetry from Art
I remember vividly the day that docents at the National Gallery of Art walked a group of teachers through different ways of creating poetry based on an art piece. I even wrote one myself! And in English! After brainstorming using a web organizer, I created a poem based on an art piece that is still meaningful to me. I am sharing it below.
After this experience, I learned more about the connection between art and poetry. It is fascinating! The following three books keep on being great inspirations to me:
The Tree is Older than You Are – a bilingual gathering of poems and stories from Mexico with paintings by Mexican artists – selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Side by Side – New Poems Inspired by Art from Around the World – Edited by Jan Greenberg
Poema sensorial
In the PD session, I learned that the following activity is based on “Walk into a Picture” from a booklet provided by Carol F. Peck. In sum, it is about using your senses to express what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste when confronted with an art piece.
Follow these steps all while enjoying the process:
Look at the art and based on it, answer each question with words or phrases
Line 1. What do you hear?
Line 2. What do you smell?
Line 3. What do you see?
Line 4. What does it taste like?
Line 5. What do you feel on your skin? and
Line 6. How do you feel inside?
Once you have answered each question with words and phrases, circle only one word or phrase from each line
Choose only ONE of the circled words and copy it out on an index card
If the word that you chose belongs to the first line, place it where the teacher tells you
Once all students have placed the words from the first line, proceed to follow the same procedure for second, the third, etc. until you reach the last line
When all the lines are complete, students read the poem together.
If students like the poem, great! If students do not like how the poem sounds, students can move a few words or phrases around
Students read the poem again in silence and if everybody likes it, students read it all together again
(optional) Students can record themselves reading aloud the poem
It seems like a long process, but once you do it, it makes total sense. Trust me!
See an example done by my 5th grade class based on an illustration from the book Gathering the Sunby Alma Flor Ada and illustrated by Simon Silva.
I had so much fun creating poems using the ‘poema corto’ technique during a PD workshop some time ago. Then, I loved seeing my students’ faces when they created theirs and read them aloud to their friends.
Creating the ‘poema corto,’ which literally means ‘short poem’ is quite a long process, but it is totally worth it! Try it yourself or with your students and let me know in the comments how it went.
This is the graphic organizer in Spanish that I provided my students to make it easier to follow the steps of writing their ‘poema corto’
Abstracto (no lo puedes ver) Interno
Colores
Concreto (lo puedes ver) Externo
Verbos (lo que ___ puede hacer)
1. 2. 3.
1. 2. 3.
1. 2. 3.
1. 2. 3.
Steps to follow:
Write three abstract words, three colors and three concrete word
Write three verbs that describe each of the concrete words
Circle one of the abstract words
Circle the color that best describes it
Circle the concrete word that best describes the abstract word
Below the graphic organizer write the abstract word followed by the verb that best describes it
Continue writing the sentence by adding a comparison (a metaphor or a simile) using the three words that you had chosen. Complete your idea
Once you choose a word, you may not use it again. You may not need to use colors
Create two more sentences following the same process
Read the sentences aloud to a friend and choose one to share with the class
(optional) illustrate the sentence and record yourself reading aloud using Flipgrid, for example
Below are some examples written by my 5th grade Spanish students as a second language. As I teach Spanish, the poems were written and later recited, in Spanish. I was so proud of my students’ work. Enjoy!
El odio corre
como un lobo enojado.
Las emociones van y vuelven
como un jaguar enjaulado.
Los pensamientos viven
en una casa
porque los pensamientos viven en mi cabeza.
Los pensamientos leen
en mi cabeza
como yo leo libros.
Los sueños abrazan como un oso de peluche rosado.
Los sentimientos dan vueltas como un globo en el espacio.
Los sentimientos se divierten como un parque de muchos colores.
Los sentimientos comunican como palabras.
Sharing poems and poetry resources
If you know of other Professional Development opportunities for learning other ways to get students excited to learn poetry or other poetry resources, please share about them in the comments.
Other resources by Pat Mora and Rafael López
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by Gabriela Barbieri – Marcela Velikovsky – Vicky Masson
Spring is in the air! or we wish it were… Continuing our tradition of bringing classroom resources for language teaching, we want to share with you a list of resources that we hope will inspire you in your teaching during the months of Spring. Enjoy!
“Interdisciplinary Connections” is a column of Language Teaching Lab to show specific examples of connections between world language teaching and other subjects at school
What is the AATSP Poster Contest?
The AATSP Poster Contest is an art contest sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. It is open to K-12 Spanish and Portuguese students whose teachers are current AATSP members.
https://www.aatsp.org/page/postercontest
I already participate in AATSP Sociedad Hispánica de Amistad. SHA is a society for Pre-K through 8th grade students of Spanish or Portuguese and it encourages young students to study languages as well as promoting ambassadorship, service to community, and service to school. I was excited to also participate in the AATSP Poster Contest 2022.
AATSP Poster Contest 2022 Theme
The theme for this year’s poster contest struck me the moment I read it. It is “Valorando nuestras raíces y construyendo nuestro futuro” (Valuing our roots and building our future). Maybe what struck me the most was the present implication in the balance between past and future, moreover in the uncertain times that we live in.
Why did I choose to do it this year?
Apart from loving the theme for the year “Valuing our roots and building our future”, 2022 is a big anniversary for the AATSP Poster Contest – it’s its 50th anniversary!
I chose to have my students participate this year because the poster contest:
Encourages cross-curriculum collaboration (social studies, art, Spanish, and technology)
Verbalizes appreciation for other languages and cultures
Promotes creative thinking
AATSP website suggests some other reasons to have our students participate in the contest.
The message aligns with the message to the school community from the head of school where I work. He constantly talks about creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and perseverance as essential skills to develop in education. I think that all these skills are present when creating the poster and when preparing for the presentational speaking and writing about it we do in class.
Another reason why I chose to have my students participate in the AATSP Poster Contest was to help achieve my goal of including #Powerful Learning principles in my teaching. This project includes the principles of personal and accessible to all students as each student brought their own experiences and abilities to the table. It is authentic and challenging as it is a contest where students of all the United States could participate. It motivates my students “to persist in overcoming learning challenges.”
This project is also collaborative as in many instances, students have to share their progress with each other in my class. Many students reported that listening to others’ ideas prompted new insights into their own learning and for their own project. Students also reflect on their learning at the end of the project as well.
As part of the #ReinventTheClassroom and HP Teaching Fellowship, I created my 2022 Vicky’s Vision Board. Having my students participate in the AATSP Poster Contest aligns with my vision.
How did I do it?
My students knew from day one that the art teachers at school would help with the selection of the three posters from 5th grade, for the 4th and 5th grade category, and the three from 6th grade, for the 6th to 8th grade category. They knew that I would assess their ability to describe their posters orally and in writing.
Students would draw their pictures at home and we would describe them at school. For two weeks they were to draw 10 minutes each night and document their journey with a few photos that they would insert in ClassNote, part of our Learning Management System.
In class, students brainstormed words and phrases for the theme. They also explained what the words and phrases represented. For ‘valuing’ they mentioned words such as, life, family, culture, sports, graduation, and other things that were important to them. They mentioned trees, soil, nature, as well as flags, culture, music, food, religion to represent ‘our roots.’ It was harder for them to come up with symbols for the word ‘building’ that did not include cranes, puzzles, and bricks.
The words ‘our future’ prompted tons of futuristic ideas and topics. They included space, planets, flying cars, UFOs, spaceships. Students also included portals and doors. The greatest challenge for them was to think from a hispanic/latino point of view and consider that lens in their drawings. The project helped them grow in their understanding of ACTFL Standards of Communication, Comparison, Connections, Communities and Culture as well as the Investigate Proficiency Benchmark on Intercultural Communications.
After unpacking the meaning of the theme and ways in which they could represent it through drawing, students immersed themselves into how to describe the drawing in Spanish, orally and in writing. That is where language structures and vocabulary emerged. The need to express ideas helped pinpoint important and necessary sentence starters such as,
The drawing is about…
There is/ are … in the poster
The … is + color because
To the right / To the left / In the background / On the front
The… represents…
Students also used beginning sentences that they had learnt in previous units, such as,
I like / I love
In my opinion / To me
My drawing has
… person … has / is / wants to / prefers …
This project gave me the opportunity to introduce students to topic and conclusion sentences. We brainstormed them as a class and we came up with a few examples of each. Students could possibly memorize and use them in their presentational assessments. Many students included at least a short and brief statement at the beginning and at the end of their speaking and writing. I am proud of students’ progress and language development that occurred during this project.
The collaborative piece in their daily interactions helped them become more confident in their language skills. They would describe orally their poster to a friend or they would read what they had written in small groups. Students knew, though, from the start that they would only be able to use their drawings in their presentational speaking and in their presentational writing. When it came the time they had to speak and write about their drawing without any other support than the drawing, for the most part, they were ready. The project would not have been complete without reflecting about it.
Students’ Reflection Questions and Answers
Students had to answer a few questions in English about their experience. I inserted some of their answers to the questions provided below.
What are you proud of? What went well for you?
I am proud of my presentational writing because it went well for me.
I learnt that I am capable of writing paragraphs in Spanish.
I am proud that after hours of working hard, I finally pulled off a very good drawing for the contest. I think something that went well for me was how I had some good ideas from the beginning, and I expanded it into one good drawing.
I think the Poster Contest was a fun assignment because I got to learn more about Spanish while I had fun drawing the poster and making creative ways to represent the themes in my poster.
I think that I am proud of the work that I put into this project and that all though I am not necessarily the best artist I like how my poster turned out.
I’m proud of my word choices, I took risks with words and overall I think I did well. I think I was good at describing my thinking.
I think that the poster contest went well, because I could write/speak about my poster with some amount of fluency.
I am proud of how I made my poster and how I could explain it with a basic level of fluency.
I think that what went well for me was being able to apply the theme to what I was drawing on my poster.
What was challenging? Making of the poster? Describing your poster in speaking? Describing your poster in writing?
Describing my poster in writing was really hard and challenging because sometimes you didn’t know how to say something and you had to improvise.
It was challenging thinking of an idea and how to add onto it.
What was challenging for me was making the poster because some of the little details were hard
I think it was hard speaking all about the drawing, but it got easier as I did it more.
Overall, I think I did a good job on my writing. I think I could have improved on my speaking, but I tried my best.
I think that one thing challenging was how we had to draw based off of a theme, and I had to think for some time on what I was going to draw.
It was challenging making an idea for the drawing/design of the poster related to the title.
What did you learn about yourself?
I learned something spiritual I’m not sure how, but I felt different when I was drawing
I learned that I had a lot of fun with drawing projects and want to do some in the future.
I think one thing I learned about myself is that even if you are a bad drawer, with some effort you can have an amazing drawing.
I learned that if I study enough, I can talk and write about something I drew.
I think I need to trust myself more because I make the right decision more often than not.
I learned about myself that if I rest after writing and then reread [my writing] it will help
I think I can explain my ideas better
Has this project in any way transformed the way you see the world? How?
This project showed me that there are many ways to make a difference no matter your race, no matter your gender, no matter how other people look at you.
I see all the roots and future that Americans and Spanish have.
Yes, this project has transformed I see the world because now I see how the roots and future of Spanish and Portuguese can come together.
This project made me realize how the world can change in many ways.
It has changed my perspective on other people’s posters getting inspired and seeing new ideas
This project did transform the way I see the world. I used to not really think about my roots or my future, but now I realize that they’re more important than they sound. The future is still unknown, but it’s still important to think about it.
I think this project has transformed how I see the world because looking at my picture I see the Spanish culture and the lively and happy future ahead.
It helps me see the world in the past and then in the future.
It has by when looking at buildings I can see my future and when I look at a tree, I can see my family’s roots.
This project has made me proud of where I come from and made me value my family more.
Because I know that every [person] must work together to construct our future
I am happy to have asked my students to participate in the AATSP Poster Contest. As an added benefit, it helped me get to know my students better.
by Marcela Velikovsky, Gabriela Barbieri & Vicky Masson
Interdisciplinary Connections is a column of Language Teaching Lab to show specific examples of connections between world language teaching and other subjects at school
Back by popular demand! After publishing our blog “How do you celebrate El Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead?” in October, readers’ interest grew on having other lists of classroom tested resources. Marcela, Gaby, and I decided to start gathering what we use for Winter and December Holidays. Though not exhaustive, this list reflects some of our go-to resources. Enjoy!
Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead or Halloween? October starts and there is this buzz in the classrooms about what to wear for Halloween. When we get near to the date, the conversation about chocolate, candy, and costumes is constant. Our minds, however, revolves around Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead, its significance on the one hand, and the different ways that is celebrated in Spanish-speaking communities around the world.
Depending on the age group we teach any given year, we use different resources gathered along the way. Therefore, if somebody asks us, ‘How do you celebrate El Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead?’ the answer will vary as we gear our choice of resources to the students we teach, what is going on in the world, and other circumstances. Sometimes we choose to teach resources about Halloween to have students compare the two celebrations.
Resources
Below you will find a list of some resources that Gaby, Marcela, and myself have used related to The Day of the Dead/Halloween in our years of teaching. Enjoy!
What resources do you use to teach El Día de los Muertos / the Day of the Dead? Share them with us!
by Gabriela Barbieri, Marcela Velikovsky, and Vicky Masson –
Interdisciplinary Connections is a column of Language Teaching Lab to show specific examples of connections between world language teaching and other subjects at school
“Interdisciplinary Connections” is a column of Language Teaching Lab to show specific examples of connections between world language teaching and other subjects at school
by Vicky Masson
Interdisciplinary connections
Long-lasting learning happens when students’ minds and hearts are involved and invested in their own growth, when what is being taught sparks their curiosity, and when they make connections. The more senses involved, the better. Interdisciplinary connections are powerful experiences for student learning.
What is Olivia y el violin
Olivia y el violín by Silvina Rocha and illustrated by Vanessa Zorn is a picture book in Spanish about a girl named Olivia who is in search of creating beautiful melodies using her violin. She experiments with different sounds and tries new ways of playing music with her violin. At times she is frustrated, at times she is sad, and at times she wants to give up. However, Olivia persists. She persists till she succeeds in creating music.
When I read the book, I absolutely loved it! At that time I was teaching Spanish in elementary and middle school. The music teacher also taught strings in elementary to second and third graders, and to middle school students. It sparked an idea in me. We got together and looked at the book illustrations. Then, we talked about the content of the book and how it would be a novel way of introducing her second and third graders to violin lessons, so we gave it a try.
Impromptu performance to students starting with violin lessons
We arranged a time that would work with our schedules and off we went! I started reading the book in Spanish and she started playing the violin following what I was reading. The second and third graders’ Spanish proficiency was limited and the book had what we would consider ‘big’ words.
I used all possible body language to make it comprehensible to the students and to the music teacher. She was creating music, sounds, and melodies with her violin at the words’ rhythm.
There is a part in the book that says that violins can jump, scream, mumble, complain, sing in whispers, and stomp on the floor. Well, the music teacher made the violin perform all those actions full of emotion, as if the violin were sort of speaking. The students broke into a loud applause and cheered us wholeheartedly. We were both humbled by our students’ reaction to the experience.
Book becomes part of my classroom Spanish library
The next class, the students asked me to read the story again. I added the book to our classroom library and each time we had independent reading, students reread Olivia y el violin and recalled the experience.
What are some interdisciplinary connections experiences that you have to share?
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“Museums Alive” is a column of Language Teaching Lab that aims to connect the authentic resources of museums, art galleries, and other collections to the teaching and learning of World Languages.
Why authentic resources
Authentic resources in World Language such as art and artifacts help explain and understand the people that created and used them, its history, and its culture. They tell stories, are springboards for deeper learning, and leave memorable impressions to those who come in contact with them. Also, they open our minds to new perspectives and make it easier to relate to different points of view.
What is the Smithsonian Learning Lab
The Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL) is a platform that connects the millions of objects that belong to the Smithsonian institution to anyone in any part of the world who has internet access. The SLL helps you find digital resources, create content using online tools, and share them with the world.
Why use the Smithsonian Learning Lab in a World Language Class
What a better way of learning a language than using the authentic resources from the SLL! The platform has millions of authentic resources at our disposal. The SLL collection that my colleague and I created, “Using Authentic Resources,” can give you ideas on what type of art and artifacts to choose and how to include them in the World Language class.
The artwork included in this collection helps students understand how art reflects culture by exploring and learning about cultural topics. It increases their language proficiency and develop global competence and 21st century skills.
How we Teach with the SLL: PZ Thinking Routines, SDGs, and EdTech Tools
Creating a collection with the SLL allows you to have all that you need accessible in one place. Most importantly for teachers to consider is how you present the unit for student learning. All while, they use EdTech tools for a purpose: from Flipgrid to EdPuzzle to Teams or Google Docs. The SLL allows you to create collections with interdisciplinary connections.
People, Place & Time: How Art Reflects Culture
The collection “People, Place, & Time was presented at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language Conference 2019.” It explores how integrating museum resources, Global Thinking Routines, and the Sustainable Development Goals can help students understand who the people are, when and where they live, and what they do. In the collection teachers will find guiding questions to help with lesson planning, presentation slides, museum resources, examples of student work, and links to the three case-study collections.
Using the SLL is quite simple. In the following GWATFL TIPS video, “Introduction to the Smithsonian Learning Lab,” Tess Porter, Digital Content Producer at the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access, explains how to use the SLL. Follow her tips and in no time you will have your own collection to use with your students.
In short, using authentic resources helps develop global competence and prepares students to communicate and interact in the world. It helps our students move beyond their inner circle and familiar contexts to understand people from different cultures with different points of view.
Using the SLL digital resources combined with Project Zero Thinking Routines and relating what we teach to the Sustainable Development Goals connect students with real-world global issues, all while raising empathy and curiosity.
How do you teach for Global Competence with Authentic Resources? How would you use the Smithsonian Learning Lab in your teaching?
“Interdisciplinary Connections” is a column of Language Teaching Lab to show specific examples of connections between world language teaching and other subjects at school
Why it is important to make Interdisciplinary Connections
My motto: “Connecting Spanish with other subjects and working side by side with Homeroom teachers and other specialists is a great way children see the value of language as a means of communication and not as a subject that they have to study for”.
This reflection makes me go back in time to when I started teaching in Lower School. The kids were hungry to express themselves in Spanish and would ask me… “Sra Barbieri..how do you say this and that?” The words and expressions were the ones they were using in their English class when reading books that definitely could be related to Spanish culture.
Definitely, the way the brain makes connections is amazing, and it is more significant in kids’ brains. It is easy for students to discover the connections between languages and I do not need to tell them to relate concepts when presenting a theme they are learning in the English language.
What is important in this matter is that those connections endure for a long time, if not forever, in the students’ brain. When I meet with students the following year, they recall those expressions, words, ideas like they were studying them on that day. I have to admit that everything we do in class is significant for them, and they love to recognize and find meaning in every way they acquire those words, expressions, ideas, and concepts.
For these reasons, I believe that to learn anything new, and for it to last and to be available to use, it needs to be meaningful and connected in the human brain.
How I do it
Once, when third, fourth and fifth graders were reading The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry in English class, I found that this book was also written in Spanish, its name is El Gran Capoquero (translated by Alma Flor Ada), soI decided to create a unit with the message of this book for each grade. I ran my interest in reading this book in Spanish by the Homeroom teachers while they were reading it in their English classes. The first step was to read the story aloud in Spanish and show the beautiful pictures of the Amazon rainforest. The exciting part for the kids was to see that the book they were reading in English had the same pictures! Then, students, through the pictures as a medium for understanding, found the meaning of the words in Spanish. Since they had a lot of INSIGHTS while I read, I did not need to translate any words into English.
We talked about the people from the Amazon rainforest, their language and culture in the three grades. The activities in class were different but always connected. Students loved to learn and research about the animals in the rainforest, the people who live there, and the geography.
Students recognized cognates in both languages, enriching their vocabulary base, and helping them to use more specific language when communicating.
Third and fourth grades focused on describing the animals and shared other interesting facts they found. The students loved to describe the appearance and behavior of the animals living in the Amazon rainforest.
Fifth graders described the four layers of the amazon rainforest, labeled and explained the habitat and environment of the animals. Through whole class discussions, small groups, and pair work, they realized that a rainforest is more than just a forest of trees. It provides shelter, food, and oxygen to all kinds of living creatures. They also researched and brainstormed about the reasons for deforestation and the consequences of deforestation. They found ways to help preserve the environment by linking the themes to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
In connection to the story, students learned about Chico Mendez, an environmental activist who gave his life in order to preserve the rainforest through Mana’s song Cuando los angeles lloran.
Interdisciplinary Connections Value
This experience made students’ learning meaningful, memorable, and long-lasting. Interdisciplinary teaching allows students to learn about a topic through language and use language to learn more about a topic.
