The songs that anchor my units

  I have written so many times about music and my teaching.  I literally have been using music in my classes for the past 37 years!  Yes, I know, I’m ancient. What doesn’t ever get ancient is the music.  This post is going to be a bit different.  I’m trying to consolidate; instead of writing a post about a specific unit I am going to simply list all of my units and the music that anchors each of them.  There is NOT ONE unit that doesn’t begin with music, not one. Music is always part of my “hook”.  It may not be the only hook, but it always is one of the hooks and the music “plays” on throughout the entire unit.

Spanish III

1. Esperanza, the novel, written by Carol Gaab

• Ave que emigra, Gaby Moreno 
• Respira, Luis Fonsi
• Por Amor, Los Tigres del Norte

2. La comida (Puerto Rico), story and unit developed by Sharon Birch

• Vivir mi vida, Marc Anthony
• Te amo, Nota
• El Crisis del restaurantito, Chico Che

3. La ropa, story and unit developed by Sharon Birch and Megan Matthews

• Que me pongo, Mango Punch
• Billy la bufanda, Sr. Wooly
• The Heart wants what it wants (Spanish version of the Selena Gomez song), Kevin, Karla y la Banda  My story ended with this expression and song.

4. Robo en la noche, the novel, written by Kristy Placido

• Pura Vida, Percance and Percance, alternate version
• Save the Americans, Costa Rican Animals for the Overworked, Visit Costa Rica Videos
• El Pollito Pio, Pulcino Pio
• Pura Vida, Don Omar

5. Colombia, Juanes y Los Colores de la Montaña, stories and unit developed by Sharon Birch

• A Dios le pido, Juanes
• La Historia de Juan, Juanes
• Segovia, Juanes
• Minas Piedras, Juanes
• Sueño Libertad, Juanes
• Bandera de Manos, Juanes
• Odio por amor, Juanes
• La Tierra, Juanes
• No queremos minas, Yerson y Stuard
• Los Caminos de la vida, Los Diabolitos

6. Bianca Nieves y los siete toritos, the novel, written by Carrie Toth

•  Bulería, David Bisbal
• Bamboleo, Gipsy Kings
• Dame Vida, Huecco

Spanish IV

1. La Llorona, the novel, written by Katie Baker

• Me equivoqué, CD9
• Me Voy, me voy, Vazquez Sound
• Ay Mazatlán, mi Mazatlán,   Mike Laure
• Buenos días, Vazquez Sound
• assorted soccer songs/anthems

2. El Arte (Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Picasso,Dalí), stories and unit developed by Sharon Birch     I hope to add the novel, Frida, written by Kristy Placido

• La Llorona,Tributo a Frida, Chavela Vargas
•  Más que amor, Il Volo
• Esa noche, Cafe Tacuba
• Salvador Dalí, Mecano

3. La Comida de México y Perú, stories and unit developed by Sharon Birch, original ideas from Kara C. Jacobs  and Cristina Zimmerman

• Lupita’s Taco Shop, MC Luka
• La Cumbia del mole, Lila Downs
• Llorando se fue, Cuarteto Continental
• El Cuy mágico, commercial from BCP
• Assorted videos/songs from Inca Kola
• Assorted videos/songs from Ñam Ñam Boys

4. Las Metas y los Sueños, stories and unit developed by Sharon Birch

• Creo en mi, Natalia Jiménez
• Vivir mi vida, Marc Anthony
• Celebra la vida, Axel y Busamante
• No creo en el jamás, Juanes
• No me doy por vencido, Luis Fonsi
• La vida es un viaje, Carreyo
• Siempre Brillarás, Tini (this is new, I will add next year)

5. La Guerra Civil en El Salvador y Voces Inocentes, stories and unit developed by Sharon Birch, original ideas from Kara C. Jacobs

• Casas de cartón, various versions but my favorite is Los Guaraguao; Marco Antonio Solis
• Mi Tierra, Crooked Stilo
• Razones, Bebe
• Mi País, Los Hermanos Flores

6. Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha 13, the novel, anonymous

• Gangsta, Kat Dahlia
• Así Crecí, Farruko
• Nada Valgo sin tu amor, Juanes
• Adentro, Calle 13
• Tu cárcel, Enanitos Verdes
• Nuestro Amor, RBD
• Soy Raka, Los Rakas

7. La Inmigración, unit developed by Sharon Birch

• Wake me up, Aloe Blacc
• Ellis Island: The Dream of America, Peter Boyle
• America, Los Tigres del Norte
• ICE, La Santa Cecilia
• Bandera, Aterciopelados
• La Bamba Rebelde, Las Cafeteras
• Pobre Juan, Maná
• Welcome to America, Lecrae
• Pa’l Norte, Calle 13
• American Oxygen, Rihanna
• El Inmigrante, Calibre 50
• Nunca más, La Santa Cecilia
• Tu enemigo, Pablo Lopez y Juanes

8. La Narcoviolencia, unit developed by Sharon Birch, original ideas from Kara C. Jacobs, Cristina Zimmerman and Zachary Jones

• Lágrimas, Camila
• La Patria Madrina, Lila Downs y Juanes
• México, Instituto Mexicano del Sonido
• Bang Bang, Rocca, Tres Coronas
• 43  Lágrimas La Llorona, Subatómicos
• La Señora De Acero, Los Tucanes de Tijuana
• Have you heard, Ceci Bastida

9. Bianca Nieves y los siete toritos, the novel, written by Carrie Toth     I taught this in Spanish III and IV this year due to some extenuating circumstances (having to pick up a 6th class in March, no more funding for a new book, etc.)  Next year I hope to have the novel Felipe Alou, Carol Gaab, here.

• Bulería, David Bisbal
• Bamboleo, Gipsy Kings
• Granada, Los Tres Tenors
• Quizás, Enrique Iglesias  (subjunctive)
• Mi Princesa, Victor Muñoz (subjunctive)

 

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Music without the cloze……..

Yesterday, one of my Twitter colleagues remarked how much she enjoys using music in her Spanish classroom.  She continued by asking what else could she do with a song other than have students complete a cloze activity.  It’s very hard to give an answer to that question within the 140 character limit. Therefore I am going to share some of the ways that I have used a song recently. My Spanish III classes have just begun a Colombia/Juanes/Social Awareness unit and my Spanish IV classes have just finished the novel Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha.

An oldie, but a goodie…..La Historia de Juan (Juanes).  Everyone has heard this song and knows that it is filled with preterite verbs.  There are several activities that I do with this song, but one of the newest is this document La Historia de Juan que representan las fotos (see the pictures below).  After we have worked with the song, I will have the students first identify what the pictures mean in relationship to the song; next I will have them attempt to recreate a line from the song; finally, they will have to attempt to put the pictures in some order, with lyrics, that will make sense.  It may not necessarily be the same order as the song.

For another old song, A Dios le Pido, BEFORE my students had any exposure to it, I gave them 12 strips for the first part of the song.  Working with a partner, they read through the lyrics, in whatever order they got them, and tried to understand as much as possible.  We shared this in class and then made guesses as to what the song might be about. 

Their guesses ran basically along these lines:  someone is in love, someone is sick, someone has Alzheimers, etc.  Without watching the video while we listenend, they next tried to put the 12 strips in order.  I recommend having the students derive some meaning before ordering, otherwise trying to order an unfamiliar song can be a bit daunting.  It took two times listening, and they had the order.  Then we watched that part of the video.  It didn’t take much discussion to determine that the song was about more than they had originally thought.  The second day with the song I did a type of go/stop activity (similar to MovieTalk) with the video as we identified what it was that we were seeing.  We then listened again, identifying, by circling, which word was in the song (despertar, despiertan, despierten; recuerde, recuerda, recordar) . A Dios le pido day 2 Next, I had them,without looking, attempt to write down 5 things that Juanes had asked for in the song.  They shared with a partner, and together, as a class, we listed as many as we could.  We looked at the lyrics again and I asked them if they noticed anything different about the verbs that we had circled (brief foray into the world of present subjunctive, and I do mean brief: they have “opposite endings” and there is a “que” before them). Finally, the students determined what three things they might ask for.

Enrique Iglesias and Nicky Jam released the official video for “El Perdon” last Wednesday.  It was a song that had been on my radar for about a month, as I waited to see what the video would be like to determine if I was going to use it.  The video is mostly decent, there are a few things that might be inappropriate depending on your school situation and level. I played it for my students as the opening music last Thursday, and predictably, they really liked it.  Sara Elizabeth Cottrell posted some wonderful ideas for this song on her blog Musicuentos and I strongly encourage you to explore her blog!  I did something else with the song. First, we identified every word that they knew after only listening once.  We listened again, and added to the list. It was great because we have certainly been working with “estaba buscando, gritando, matando, tomando etc.”  They really felt good about what they understood after just those two times. Then, I had them listen to the way Enrique and Nicky pronounced words, asking if they were the same.  Of course, they are not.  This led to a good discussion about the difference in Spanish from Spain and Spanish from the United States (Nicky Jam was born in Boston) when your parents are from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Their listening was intense as the picked up on the “decir” of Enrique Iglesias; the e’taba bu’cando of Nicky Jam, etc.

Finally, one of the songs that I used with the book Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha (from TPRSPublishing, was Tu Carcel. I had read about the song in another blog, and I’m really sorry that I can’t remember where (if you know, please tell me and I will credit that source).  In the book, the anonymous author will eventually go to jail, but even before that happens, he is imprisoned in a jail that is of his own making/or of the gang.  While the song is technically a love song, it was really easy to reinterpret the lyrics so that they applied to the narrator, the disappearance of his father, the death of his mother, etc.  And that is exactly what we did with those lyrics.

So, there you have it, 4 different activities that are not cloze activities, that I have used in the past 2-3 weeks.

Whoops…updating…..

Spanish IV started the Immigration unit three days ago.  I introduced it with the very popular song, Wake Me Up, from last year.  It was done originally by Aloe Blacc and Avicci.  Aloe Blacc (whose parents are from Panama), made an acoustic version of the song with Immigration as the video context.  It was an immediate hook for my students because it was a song in ENGLISH that they already knew quite well…..but, they had never seen it from the perspective of immigration.  The lyrics are the same as the original version, but they take on a completely different meaning in the context of the song.

We also work very early in the unit with the Statue of Liberty. I adapted an English article to Spanish Inmigracion Estatua de Libertad 2015, added the poem by Emma Lazarus, and finished our brief survey with this music:

Luis Fonsi! No me doy por vencido AND Corazón en la maleta

My Spanish IV students are almost done with our Metas y Sueños unit, and this week we were really focusing on the Luis Fonsi song: No me doy por vencido.  It was the perfect song to continue our work with goals, challenges, obstacles, and not giving up! Additionally, since reflexive verbs are part of the curriculum at this point in time, it also neatly helped in that regard, too! Initially, most of them didn’t think that they liked it very much, but after several days working with it, they had changed their minds and were singing enthusiastically:  Yo, yo no me doy por vencido….. yo quiero un mundo contigo…..”

I did not use the video with them until the third day.  We listened to it, did a cloze activity, practiced reading it, did some whole sentence direct translation to assist with the next step: partner work to determine meaning, identified reflexives, etc. Metas no me doy por vencido   On the third day, when the lyrics were very familiar for them, and immediate comprehension was possible, I allowed them to watch the video.  After watching, in small groups they discussed what they thought the video meant, what the three “stories” were in the video, etc.  We continued using it all week (playing as they were working on other things, singing it when entering class, etc.). This song is also one of their five choices for their performance based task to create a visual representation of how the lyrics fit into the Metas y Sueños unit.

No me doy por vencido was such a success that I was thrilled to see (via Twitter @luisfonsi) that Luis Fonsi was releasing a new song.

My Spanish III classes have been in a travel unit.  The new song that Luis Fonsi released is called Corazón en la maleta and has many of the vocabulary words/phrases that we have been targeting, such as:

• quedarse
• en avión
• por tren
• por mar
• maleta
• firmar
• sube/baja
• recordar
• cambiar

And, it has lots of present indicative and preterite verbs!  Perfect for my Spanish III classes.  (Additionally, it has lots of reflexives, and I’m going to use it with the Spanish IV classes this coming week!  I’ve already been playing it in class, so they will recognize it.)

I had played the video for two days as students were entering the classroom, therefore, when I began to seriously work with it, the music was familiar for them.  I used this worksheet for two days with them: Corazon en la maleta Luis Fonsi

The first activity was for them to read the boxes in the first half of the paper and to then identify as many of them as possible, with a partner.  I told them that some of the words were in the song that we were going to listen to, and I asked them to check the ones that they heard or that they saw in the video.  I did not tell them that EVERY box was in the video, but every box is.  After a first listen, I asked them to share a few that they heard.  We then listened again, and shared some more.  Based on what they had checked on their papers, what they heard and what they saw, I asked them to make some guesses about what the song was about.  The next day, I had them review the boxes with a partner, and then they worked through the 8 true/false statements for meaning only.  We watched the video again, and they marked the true/false and tried to come up with the transportation words.  There are only three in the song, but I included lo que sea because it is a phrase I want them to begin understanding/using, and it was used in context with “whatever transportation means necessary”.  Individually, they completed the verb section of the paper.  We did not have time to finish the synonym/ antonym section, but I will pick it back up briefly on Monday.

Premio Lo Nuestro aired on Thursday night, so I shared the live performance/premiere of Corazón en la maleta. It also served as a beginning discussion about that awards show, and the situation in Venezuela that many of the artists referred to.

I hope this gives you some new ideas for ways to incorporate music into your lessons.  As always, I would really be interested in activities that you may be using with music.

Las Metas y Los Sueños…..part 2

In the last post I included the activities for the first 4 days of the unit.  This post includes the plans for Days 5, 6 and 7 (my class periods are just 45 – 50 minutes long).

Day 5

Neil Jones has a great blog with wonderful resources and ideas for Spanish teachers.  In 2012 he posted an activity:  El sueño y el orgullo, that will fit nicely in this unit.  It has many of the vocabulary words that I am targeting, reflexive verbs and subjunctive.  It is a good cloze listening activity that I will expand into conversation and reading.

Day 6

I wish I remembered where I read the following idea, but I don’t…if you recognize the idea, please let me know and I will credit the source!  Five to seven students will volunteer (depending on class size, my largest has 26, the smallest 20) to stand in front of their peers.  I will give each of those students 2 pictures that the rest of the class will not see.  The class will receive a grid with potential jobs listed.  Their task is to ask questions to their classmates standing in front of them, trying to determine who has which job.  The students standing in front with the pictures may only answer yes/no.  Every student must ask a question, with the “winning student” being the first student to match his classmate with the job correctly. This may have to be adjusted!  Following this whole class speaking/listening activity, I will give a picture to each student in the class and have them respond to this prompt:

Eres la persona en la foto. ¿Cómo llegaste allí? ¿Cuáles eran tus sueños/metas? ¿Cuáles eran tus retos o desafíos? ¿Cómo lograste tus sueños? ¿Cómo conseguiste tus metas? ¿Siempre creías/pensabas que tenías éxito? ¿Tenías miedo o duda alguna vez? ¿Cómo puedes usar tu posición para el bueno, para cambiar algo en el mundo? ¿Cómo vas a alcanzar nuevas metas?

Here are the pictures and the student grid: Metas Tus Trabajos del Futuro

Day 7

The Axel song, Celebra tu vida, which has been playing several days as students enter the classroom, will be the focus of today.  Students will complete a cloze activity of the first part of the song, which we will then discuss (vocabulary) and will take a brief glance at the subjunctive being used.  I will then place the students in small groups, 3-4 students to a group, and I will assign each group one of the remaining verses.  Their task will be to illustrate their part of the song and share it with the class. Next, we will look at several tweets from Axel that use several of our targeted vocabulary words about goals, dreams, reaching the goal/dream, etc.  The last tweet that we will examine is about an unlikely duo that auditioned for the X-Factor in England, which will lead us to viewing that audition and responding, first with conversation and then in writing.  The resources for today are here: Metas Celebra tu vida Axel

Additional note:  I will be speaking individually with several students over the span of several days, working toward the first evaluation in which they are to describe their own dreams and goals to me.

Thoughts and comments, suggestions, etc. are always welcome!!!

And the curriculum guide says………

Our curriculum for Spanish IV says that we are in a chapter that focuses on aspirations (tough vocabulary, abstract ideas) and,…..tons of grammar (preterite of stative verbs, grammatical reflexives, preterite versus imperfect, subjunctive with adverbial conjunctions). So, am I tied to this textbook that we have been given? No!  With this post I hope to encourage those of you who have a textbook that may not be the most relevant….meaning that it simply doesn’t have the authentic resources that will tie it to comprehensible input……to take part/some of what the curriculum dictates and create something that does use authentic resources.

For the past three years I have been modifying this chapter, trying to add interest, trying to make it relevant and not so overwhelmingly dry and so heavy, grammatically. Even so, I have not looked forward to tackling this chapter again this year. To some extent, I have had success, but not enough for me to be content with what we’ve done.  Therefore, I decided to undertake a complete overhaul of this unit.  I’ve created a master plan (backwards design) and have modeled the “look” of the plan on one that I started using after admiring/implementing the work of Kara Jacobs. The name of the unit is now Las metas y los sueños, and it does include many of the elements of the original chapter. Here is the ” BIG PICTURE.”

Preguntas Esenciales

1. ¿Qué es tu rutina diaria? ¿Cómo te escapas la rutina?                                                    2. ¿Cuáles son tus metas, tus sueños? ¿A qué quieres dedicarte? ¿Cómo han cambiado tus metas /sueños desde tu niñez? ¿Cómo vas a lograr tus sueños? ¿Cómo te enfrentas a los retos, los obstáculos?                                                                                                   3. ¿Quién es una persona que ha superado mucho? ¿Cuáles son las características y/o las acciones de la persona que ha superado mucho?  ¿Quién es una persona que admiras?¿Porqué?                                                                                                                                        4. ¿Cómo presentan los sueños y las metas las canciones y/o las películas populares?                                                                                                                                5. ¿Cuál fue la banda sonora de tu infancia? ¿Cuál fue la banda sonora de sus años de escuela secundaria? ¿Qué crees que va a ser la banda sonora de tu futuro?

Evaluaciones

1. Examen Oral (25 puntos): describe tus metas y tus sueños y cómo han cambiado (6 febrero)                                                                                                                                   2. Examen escrito (25 puntos): describe a una persona que admiras (11 febrero)                                                                                                                                   3. Examencito oral (20 puntos): Contesta preguntas sobre tu rutina diaria (14 febrero)                                                                                                                                    4. Presentación (con compañero, 30 puntos) : Escoge una de las canciones/películas y haz un video/ppt, etc. que refleja el significado (26 febrero)                                                  5. Presentación: La Banda Sonora de tu vida con audio/explicación escrita (25 puntos) y presentación oral de 2 minutos SIN APUNTES (20 puntos) (5 marzo)

I am going to try to post the various materials being used as I use them.  As with so many of my Twitter colleagues (so many, but to name a few: Kara Jacobs, Sarah E Cottrell, Cristina Zimmerman, Kristy Placido, Mike Peto, Bethanie Drew, Cynthia Hitz, Carrie Toth, Amy Lenord) the emphasis for providing comprehensible input will come from authentic resources. However, I will say that with the constant weather interruptions, it has been impossible to gather momentum yet!

I introduced the unit with an unusual video:  Elvis Presley, singing If I Can Dream in English, with Spanish subtitles.

This was followed by some discussion of his dream and dreams in general.  I had pre-targeted some vocabulary, which was on the word wall in Spanish only: metas, intentar, realizar, soñar con, retos/desafíos, and I kept trying to insert the words into our conversation as I pointed to them on the wall.  Next I had them work with a partner with a “Twitter” page (modeled after Twiccionario by Zachary Jones).  To create your own Twitter page is relatively simple by using the #hashtag with the word(s) desired.  In this case I wanted authentic tweets about #metas.  Metas day 1 beginning

Day 2 began with several posters from the site desmotivaciones that focused on dreams, goals, challenges, etc. Working with different partners, they worked their way through the 8 posters, trying to derive meaning while adding to their vocabulary.  After about 7 minutes, I had them choose two that they either understood well, spoke to them, or were giving them trouble.  They then shared with the class. Here are the Metas carteles, and here is a link to them on my wiki (so they could see them in color). Following this, students worked in small groups (3-4) creating definitions for los sueños y las metas and discussing whether a dream is the same thing as a goal.  After that, they worked individually to focus on their own dreams and goals in three categories: education, family/love, and profession/future plans. They also began to write briefly about how they would reach these goals/dreams and the challenges they might face. Metas personales

Both days I have had Celebra tu vida by Axel playing as they come to class.  I intend to use it extensively this coming week. The plan for Monday is based on a lesson that has gone well for the past 5 years, and one that came from Zachary Jones‘ older site, Actualidades.  It includes a lectura, video, and a free write about Kseniya Simonova, an artist from the Ukraine who won the Ukrainian version of America’s Got Talent in 2009. Metas Kseniya Simonova If you have not heard of her, or seen the video, it really is worth watching.  Each year my students have been amazed, and very moved.  It has led to some rich discussion and some interesting free writes.

We also will be looking at parts of the famous speech by Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream, using the Spanish text. (This idea came from something that Zachary Jones posted on MLK Day, what an incredible resource he is for Spanish teachers!!!!) We will watch small parts of this video 

  We will use this lectura based on the speech.   Metas MLK

Both the work with Kseniya and Martin Luther King are activities designed to support the oral assessment of dreams and goals as well as the written assessment on a person that they admire.  Since this is a work in progress, I would really appreciate any ideas, suggestions, comments that you might have.

“Demanding” the Subjunctive!!! Or…additional ways to use a song to enhance a grammar concept

Songs continue to be one of my favorite authentic resources to introduce, reinforce or enhance a grammatical concept.  While this post is about a song that I used for work with the present subjunctive, the actual activities are applicable across the spectrum.

My three Spanish IV classes are about 8 days into intense work with the present indicative and present subjunctive.  We have used many songs:  Quizas( Enrique Iglesias), De Todo el Mundo (Enrique Bunbury), Azul (Natalia Lafourcade), La llave de mi corazon (Juan Lulis Guerra), Mi Princesa (Victor Cruz), and Inevitable (Samo).  We have used authentic “clippings” from current events, exercises of rote practice, lots of picture prompts of incredible, bizarre or interesting situations, and even more speaking/listening prompts.  Up next: another song, this time, Exigimos (We demand) by Doctor Krapula (from Colombia).

Exigimos was the song that was playing in class on Tuesday when the students were entering.  I had also used it as “background” music while working on other activities last week.  After the bell rang, we took a preliminary look at the lyrics for Exigimos and then quickly moved to something else. On Wednesday, I placed the students in groups of two and gave each group sentence strips (in vibrant colors) for the first verse of the song.  They listened one time to the verse, putting the strips in the correct order.  Next, they quickly discussed the meanings of the lyrics, identified the subjunctive verbs and the reason for the subjunctive verbs, and also the infinitive for each verb.

Exigimos parte 1 verse one in order

I then gave them verse two with 12 verbs on separate pieces of paper.  The first thing that they did was divide the verbs into two columns: present indicative and present subjunctive.  Again they quickly determined the meaning of the verbs.  I then had them orally change the subjunctive to indicative and vice versa.  I then played the second verse of the song (two times) and they placed the verbs in the correct places on the paper. Once again, they determined what the second verse was singing and the reasons for the subjunctive verbs.

Exigimos parte 2 subjunctive verb in blank

As a class, we had a discussion about why the group would be singing about “demands” for Colombia.  I taught about two thirds of these students in Spanish III, so they had a good background for discussion based on a big unit we did on Colombia in Spanish III.

The third part of working with this song involved the spoken part of Exigimos.  The students definitely struggled with the first two lines in this part, so I had them determine for everything else first. As a class, we then worked with those first two lines.  Individually, they completed the four questions based on this section.  The last part of this marathon with the song was a Free Write that was completed as the song was playing again.  Prior to beginning the Free Write, I told them that I expected to see subjunctive in their writing…that they could “bullet” items if they wanted to do that, but that subjunctive had to play a role in their writing.  When the song was finished, they exchanged papers and had a peer read it, with the option of circling the subjunctive verbs they saw.  I gave them an additional moment to correct or add anything.  Finally, they completed a shorter Free Write (about 3 minutes) on the reverse side.  This dealt with applying cultural knowledge to the song.  I collected the paper and scored it for content (15 points) as well as subjunctive use (5 points).  As a whole, almost every student scored well with the content assessment, and I was pleased with what they knew and were able to say.  The use of the subjunctive was more uneven, with students who did really well, and others who did not. Below are some of their responses.

Exigimos parte 3 la parte hablada y Free Write

There will be another part of this lesson tomorrow as I will ask students (in small groups) to come up with a list of “demands” that they could create as students in our school.  I will then ask them individually to write seven demands:  Exigo que…..

A versatile song for verb tenses

For a couple of years I have used the song Todo Cambió by Camila when working with the preterite and imperfect.  Each year, the song has been well received, but this year, the Spanish III students absolutely loved it.  Spanish IV students have also enjoyed Llorar by Jesse y Joy and Mario Domm (from Camila).  For many of them, they would list Jesse y Joy, Camila and Juanes as their favorite Spanish artists.  Unfortunately (or so I thought), both Mario Domm and Samo from Camila have left the group to pursue separate careers. About two months ago I ran across the song Inevitable by Samo (after listening to what was then his new release,Sin Ti). I thought it was interesting,made a note to use it, but forgot about it.  Thanks to the ever creative, resourceful Zachary Jones, I was reminded of the song again this past week when he used it as a Clozeline activity, and knew immediately that I had to use it with my Spanish III students as we continue to focus on present indicative and past tenses with authentic resources.  Little did I know how much my classes were going to like this song!!

Using the idea from Zachary Jones, I decided to focus on the present indicative verbs as well as the preterite verbs in the song Inevitable.  I always have music playing between the change of classes, as students are entering my room.  On Thursday, the song playing was Inevitable by Samo. Sometimes students merely glance at my SMARTboard to see the video when they enter, other times they really watch.  This was definitely the latter.  I started class focusing on vocabulary activities for our current unit, telling them that we would be working with the song later in the class.  I then passed out SAMO pres pret imp.  Working with a partner, I gave the students about 30 seconds to identify what was in the two boxes.  I then gave them about a minute to work through the verbs orally to identify them. Prior to listening to the song, we talked about the word, inevitable, in English, and I had them predict what they thought was going to happen in the song.  I then played the song (without letting them see the video) and had them complete the cloze.  The first time, I stopped after the first 7 lines to verify that they were clearly hearing the lyrics and that they just couldn’t write fast enough to complete it all.  I then started the song again, and almost all of them successfully finished the song.  We confirmed the verbs and then they worked their way through what they thought the lyrics were saying.  Next, we watched the video.  To say that they liked it is putting it very mildly. They asked to sing it in Spanish, which we did….twice….and the next day, too!

Because Spanish IV is working with the present subjunctive, I decided to use the song for them, also.  The focus for them was present indicative, preterite and present subjunctive.  I had them, with a partner, identify the three boxes as well as the meaning of the verbs (Samo pres pret subj).  I then had them look at the lyrics in the first seven lines and tentatively guess what verbs they thought would complete each line.  In all three classes, they chose almost all of the correct verbs prior to listening.  Next, they listened and completed the cloze.  I then had them focus on where the subjunctive was being used and, with their partner, they determined why it was being used.  Finally, I asked them to try to say the lyrics in ENGLISH as the Spanish was playing: Bedlam! They practically begged to sing it in Spanish. Many of the students asked if they could download the song on their phones immediately!  Of course I had to say yes!

The next day, Friday, I used the much slower Samo song, Tú fuiste quien.  This time, the focus was on past tense.  I did not expect the Spanish III classes to enjoy this song as much as Inevitable, and they didn’t.  However, they did like it.  We will work with it again on Monday……at their request!  

10 years of teaching social awareness through music….

I finished my 10th year of teaching social awareness through music with my Spanish III classes this week.  And, as has happened every year since I created this unit, it got longer and more involved, and the kids were terrific!  When I started 10 years ago, I used 3 songs (two from Juanes and one from Juan Luis Guerra).  This year, I used 15 songs (Juanes, Juan Luis Guerra, Carlos Baute and Yerson and Stuard).  I spent about 6 weeks in the unit full time, but I actually started the music as we were finishing a unit about travel.  Within the teaching of this unit, I also incorporated preterite and imperfect, present subjunctive, geography of the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia and South America in general, history of the three focal countries and background information with authentic readings of all of the artists except for Yerson and Stuard.  I plan to post the entire unit here this summer, when school is done; however, you can see the bulk of the work here.

This year, as I have done for the past 6 years, the students all chose one song as their focus, and created their own interpretation of it.  This was the assignment: PBT La Música 2013.

With this unit, I give the only “test” of the year, which is essentially identifying the geographical and historical points for the 3 countries studied in depth, identifying positive and negative vocabulary, choosing their own vocabulary to show me what they have learned, writing what they know about Juanes, and using the lyrics of the songs to support the themes of the unit.  The last part of the “test” is to let me know what they may have gotten from this unit.  Here are some of their responses.

Additionally, I had some students create extra things, and I had one class, my smallest, ask to create their own Bandera de Manos.  I’m posting some of the projects below as well as pictures of the Bandera de Manos and some shirts that students created.

Minas Piedras 2

Present Subjunctive, Disney Princesses and the Ideal Partner

As Spanish teachers, we all recognize that the teaching of the subjunctive is an ongoing process….certainly not one that you start and, at some point in time,  declare finished.  We have been working on the subjunctive for several months, and I’m always looking for different approaches to help my students.  A while ago, we had added the WEIRDO approach, which I believe was first promoted by Dr. Lemon.  We’ve done several different writing assignments using it.  We’ve also utilized several of the listening/writing exercises from Fluency Prof, such as Familia y vacaciones.  After several discussions (over a few days) about family, wishes and wants of individual family members, we moved on to childhood memories and fairy tales.  We talked about our favorite Disney movies from childhood, and what each of the heroes/heroines want.  The next step was to use the song Mi Princesa by Victor Munoz, and a worksheet from the always fabulous Zachary Jones.

The students really liked the song, and we spent considerable time identifying the subjunctive, the triggers, etc.  They also thoroughly enjoyed finding the Disney references in the lyrics.  The following day, we continued talking about Disney princesses, their stories, and their “wants and desires.”  I transitioned into a discussion about what they thought their ideal partner in the future might be like. After that, I provided each student with this paper: Tu pareja ideal subjunctive conv starter The purpose was to force them to use the subjunctive structures correctly, repeatedly, with the hope that such repetition might help to ingrain that structure in their memories.  I used this exercise as a type of human bingo activity, where the students were up out of their seats asking their classmates the questions, while trying to get a full card or a bingo (from affirmative answers).  After a designated time period (about 7 minutes), we sat down and discussed the results (there were some sentences that should have been difficult to answer affirmatively).  This speaking activity then transitioned into a writing activity.  Using the WEIRDO structure as our basis for a minimum 6 sentences and a C grade, I had the students decide how many sentences should be a B (8 sentences) and how many for an A (10 sentences).  They took the writing part very seriously and were invested in what they were writing about.  I’d like to say that their resulting paragraphs were almost error free, but they weren’t.  Nonetheless, I believe that this was an effective exercise, one that was relevant for them, and one that certainly reinforced the use of the present subjunctive. The final step of this pursuit of the subjunctive was a small group activity in which they shared their final paragraphs.

I think I’m back!

After many months of absence due to my mothers’ illness and passing, I think I am ready to re-enter the blog and twitter world!  It will be my goal to update at least twice each month, but I’m also teaching full time while being an accelerated master’s degree candidate in TESOL (meaning I’m taking 18 credits in the span of 8 months), so that might be a bit optimistic until school is finished for the year!

In several of my earlier blog entries, I alluded to a unit that I do on “social awareness”. I wrote three different entries on Somos el mundo, Ojalá que llueva café and Minas Piedras.  I always meant to go back and do an entry on the entire unit.  That hasn’t happened yet, but since I have gotten questions about it recently, I thought that I could at least post an entry about the unit in progress.  So, if you are interested, you can visit my wikispace ( elmundodebirch.wikispaces.com ) that I use to post my lessons each day for myself and my students: La Música 2012 .  So far we have covered La República Dominicana with Juan Luis Guerra and the songs El Costo de la Vida and Ojalá que llueva café, Somos el mundo and a little bit of Aventura and Prince Royce.  We have just begun looking at Colombia and Juanes with La Historia de Juan and  La Camisa Negra.  We had already worked with A Dios le pido as we began the study of the present subjunctive, but we revisit it in this unit because the lyrics will now have additional meaning.  If you visit the wikispace, you can see the progression of the lessons each day.  It is a work in progress, and I’m usually only posting the lessons a day or so ahead of the actual date.  The current week is always at the top of the page, with the oldest material at the bottom of the page.  Therefore, if you start at the bottom of the page and scroll up, you will see the unit in chronological order! Today we reviewed what we know, and moved forward with the song Sueño (Juanes).  When you see references to photostory (an awesome program!), it refers to photostories that I have made for specific topics and songs. This week we will also be examining Minas Piedras and hopefully Bandera de Manos and Odio por amor.

If you are wondering how I do this unit (which lasts about a month) and still cover the “grammar”, it’s relatively easy.  Spanish III focuses on preterite and imperfect and present subjunctive with a bit of present perfect.  The students get constant re-inforcement on the structures through examining the lyrics, various writing assignments and some rote practice related to the songs.  You will see some of those activities listed on the wikispace.  If you have questions or suggestions….especially suggestions!  🙂  I welcome them!