Un millón como tú ….and Vida y Muerte

I first heard the song Un millón como tú by Lasso (Venezuela) and Cami (Chile, Camila Gallardo) on February, 2.  I immediately sent a message to Arianne Dowd, a fellow creator/collaborator who also likes Lasso.  She responded immediately suggesting that she might use it with the novel Vida y Muerte en la MS 13. Brilliant idea! And…..oh no!! I’m going to add MORE music to this novel!  (see these posts! and this one, too).  I can’t help myself! The novel has been a favorite with my Spanish IV for the past 5 years, consistently being cited on end of the year evaluations as one they will remember, one that impacted them, and one in which the music was loved. And now, there is this absolutely perfect song for expressing how Analía’s family and Los Salvatruchas felt about their relationship (with a little imagination).  The song has been an absolute HIT with my students, many of them singing it by heart! Combined with No hay nadie más by Sebastián Yatra, they create the perfect background for chapters  6 – 8 in the novel.

Step 1

I felt like my students needed to make some vocabulary/phrase connections. So, I targeted specific lyrics, found images to represent them and had students match the lyrics to the images as they read through the lyrics.

Step 2

A. Find lyrics from the song that will support these lines from the novel:

A veces era un poco difícil estar juntos porque teníamos que salir a escondidas.  Nadie estaba de acuerdo con nuestra relación, ni la familia de ella ni la mía, los Salvatruchas.

Sample answers: Y mis amigos me dicen que buena noticia que ya tú no estás
Dicen que ya no te llame; Todos opinan igual , Serás fácil de olvidar; y mis amigas
celebran felices que ya tú no estás

B. Find text from the novel to support this lyric from the song:

Debe ser que tú al final, si eras muy especial

(Additionally, the above text/lyric support activities actually complement English Language Arts standards for writing in grades 11 – 12!)

Step 3

Listen to the song and complete traditional cloze

Read through the lyrics in English, then sing this much of the song.  We then read through the remainder of the lyrics, where, after questioning why he/she can’t sleep, eat, etc. the opposite is declared: Tú al final sí eras muy especial and Tú al final eras el más especial.  My angst driven teens just loved it! What a connection was made when they realized the twist in this love song AND when they began to realize, or question, that something is going to happen in the next chapters just as tumultuous with our narrator and Analía.

Step 4

Create a conversation:

Elige una:

• Toma el papel (role) del narrador y escribe una conversación entre sus compañeros o Pedro. Usa letras espécificas de la canción. Usa también tu imaginación y otras palabras.
• Toma el papel (role) de Analía y escribe una conversación entre sus compañeras o abuela. Usa letras espécificas de la canción.  Usa también tu imaginación y otras palabras.

Usa tu propia papel. Por lo menos 8 líneas.

Of course, this song would be appropriate in many different situations, not just in this novel.  The video is completely appropriate, the lyrics are comprehensible, the melody is memorable, and the song is absolutely “singable”.

Today I read how Andrés Vicente Lazo Uslar, known as Lasso, did, in reality, break up with his girlfriend, of 7 years, Sheryl Rubio, in September 2018.  There has been great drama, with much of it played out on Twitter. See this article, and this one, and finally, this one. This could add another dimension to the song!

I’d love to hear from you if you use the song or create additional activities!

 

Music new to me

I know that some of you follow my Pinterest music board, and some might have my old database for music. But, today is a snow day, so I thought I’d take advantage of it and share some of my newest music interests, spanning Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile and Morocco. So, in no particular order, and just for fun, here are some current songs in rotation, or will be in rotation soon.

1.  Juanes:  La Plata ft. Lalo Ebratt  I will admit that although I have been a huge Juanes fan since 2003, I was beginning to despair (after the past 3 years with the exception of Besos en Guerra) that I would find another appropriate song (for high school) that I could share with my students with the impact or “catchiness” of A Dios le Pido, Fotografía, Segovia, Minas Piedras, La Camisa Negra, Nada Valgo sin Tu Amor, Mala Gente, Fuego, La Luz, etc. etc. etc.  At age 46, I was beginning to wonder if he would remain relevant.  This song, featuring Colombian reggaeton/trap artist Lalo Ebratt,  blends Colombian vallenato with a bit of reggaeton and makes me really anticipate the release of his newest album. It is a fun, light hearted, catchy and basically school appropriate song about getting over heartbreak. Filled with cultural images (Colombian police vehicles, spiritual folklore, Colombian flag colors, la plata, el acordeón, etc.), the video rewinds events about spending all his money on his special girl. The very catchy, repetitive chorus goes:Si yo te quiero con el alma (Alma)
   Si yo te quiero hasta los hueso’
   Mi corazón no es sólo tuyo (No es sólo-sólo)
   Pero por hoy yo te lo presto (Oye)
   Mi corazón no es sólo tuyo (¿Ah?)
   Pero por hoy yo te lo presto
2. Los Polinesios and RedOne:  Festival  I must admit I knew nothing about them, but the group Los Polinesios and the producer/writer/singer RedOne have quite the following on youtube platforms and the Latin music world. Los Polinesios are three siblings from Mexico: Rafa, Karen, Lesslie. According to Lesslie, the message of the song is “Disfruta la vida porque la vida es un festival.” RedOne was born Nadir Khayat in Morocco and has worked with Enrique Iglesias, Lady Gaga, Shakira, Jenifer Lopez, Pitbull……. With it’s English/Spanish chorus, it is one addictive rhythm:                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Baby here we go 
   Esta noche no va a terminar 
   flylight oh oh oh ueh ohh 
   que la vida es un festival                                                                                                             
3. Nacho ft. Los Mendoza:  Happy Happy Fans of the old Venezuelan duo Chino and Nacho will be happy to see Nacho ( Miguel Ignacio Mendoza Donatti) with three of his sons (Diego, Miguel and Santi known as Los Mendoza) promoting this upbeat song. Another mixture of English/Spanish, what’s not to like about lyrics referring to the Venezuelan ice cream (grape flavored, I think) bati bati that comes with chicle at the bottom?                                                                                                                     Happy happy
   Happy happy happy
   No sé qué me hiciste pero te amo de gratis 
   Yo soy el chicle de tu bati bati 
   And all I want is to make you happy

4.  LIT Killah ft. Agus Padilla:  Tan Bien  When Laura Sexton shared her post about top songs for 2019, she included one by Uruguayan Agus Padilla called Ni Tu Amiga Ni Tu Amante. I was not familiar with her music and looked her up and discovered this collaboration between her and Argentinian LIT Killah (both of them are 18 years old!) My kids did not respond well to her individual song, but they LOVED Tan Bien, and asked for it everyday last week.  A female empowerment song, she liked him when she was young and awkward but the feeling was not reciprocated.  Now grown up, he likes her but she’s not interested.  With a vintage Latin sound of trumpets and piano fused with rap style lyrics,  this is one appealing song!                                                                               Hey, ¿Qué paso?
Ahora tú eres la que me dice que no
Y en el pasado fui quien te rechazó
Pero ahora la cosa cambió y esa mujer se reveló
Me dio la espalda y me enteré que soy yo
El que se dio cuenta de lo que perdió

5. Américo feat. Silvestre Dangond: Mi Deseo  This collaboration between Chilean Américo and Colombian Silvestre Dangond features a fusion of musical styles between cumbia, vallenato and urban in a love song in which they are saying goodbye to the love of their life, wishing her happiness even with another man…..but we discover in the beginning that it is his daughter he is sending off to the man she is marrying!!! What a sweet video (and what uses of subjunctive)!

Tengo que entender, que tú te irás
que va a llegar el día y me vas a dejar 
por que tu no eres mía y tengo que aceptar 
la realidad 

Ay que seas feliz feliz feliz, aunque estés con otro 
que seas feliz feliz y yo con el corazón roto 
que seas feliz feliz feliz, pero muy feliz feliz feliz
ese es mi deseo, es lo que más deseo 

I’m stopping with five, but there are a lot more on my board.  What are you listening to?

Noche de Oro, the beginning

It’s been a long time since I last shared anything! This is year 40 for me, and in all probability, my last year teaching full time in high school. I have struggled with a myriad of emotions, ranging from “I can’t wait” to “Am I sure?” to “Do I have anything of value left to contribute?”

In Spanish III this year, I’m working with 2 new books this year: Noche de Oro by Kristy Placido and, in the spring, Vector by Carrie Toth.  The teacher’s guides are great and I will be using them extensively.  In the event that perhaps some additional material might be useful to others, I’m sharing what I’ve done so far (we are only getting ready to start chapter 2).

Day 1

I opened with the adorable video from Costa Rica about saving the Americans/Canadians. We briefly discussed what we remembered from having read Robo en la noche last year and what we learned about Costa Rica.  (Noche de Oro follows the story of Makenna and her family as well as introduces new characters and new problems.) Next, we did map work (review); some videos and accompanying “worksheet” and a gimkit that I created for the opening of Costa Rica with a very basic review of Robo en la noche by Kristy Placido.  I wanted to activate their prior knowledge!  During our pre-discussion, they were able to give me so many of the details from the Robo story AND they definitely remembered that the last two words in “Robo” were “Pura Vida!”  If you have a gimkit subscription, I’d be happy to share my link with you.  Map of Central America and videos REVISED is the opening map and video work (the videos are linked in the document). We worked with the map and the first video and talked about the animals.

Day 2

FVR (free reading); Baila Viernes.  We then listened (they did NOT have the books) to the Prologue on the Audio CD.  I strongly recommend purchasing the audio CD as it gives students another voice to listen to.  I stopped frequently, assessing their understanding.  We then spent about 20 minutes doing various textivate (example activity here ) activities based on part of the text of the Prologue.  (I used the text from the Prologue because it is readily available from fluencymatters as a sample download.)

Day 3

Fin de semana (writing this week).  We then did page 2 of the packet from day 1,working with the animal video and the final video.  I also had a large SMART presentation (lots of pictures, infographics, etc) that we used periodically on the opening three days.  Following this, we played the game SEIS! (document: SEIS) You probably are familiar with it, I think that it was created by a Latin teacher a few years ago but I don’t remember the name 😦

• small groups of 4-5 students, each with their own paper but only ONE pencil for the entire group;
• each group has one die which is constantly being rolled
• when someone rolls SEIS!, they yell SEIS! and grab the pencil and begin to fill in as much information as they can on their sheet of paper
• when the next person rolls a six, they grab the pencil from the former student and they begin writing
• game can be done with a time limit, or you can let each team try to get one person to complete their paper.  I prefer the time limit so that they don’t get bored.

Days 4 and 5, into day 6

We played quizlet with the vocabulary from chapter 1 and then read chapter 1.  I had a SMART presentation that pulled various sentences from the text that used subjunctive or conditional and they had to find the corresponding text with a partner.  We have been listening to music from two Costa Rican groups: Percance and Los Ajenos.  We did a cloze activity for Pura Vida! and of course sang the chorus multiple times! Pura Vida Percance   I made another gimkit for chapter 1 vocabulary and questions.  Again, if you have a subscription, I can share it with you.  We also did the following activities:

• Picasso Plates (original idea from Kristy Placido or Cynthia Hitz?) Chap 1 Picasso Plates
• The Marker Game.  I like to play with everyone standing up, partners facing each other with a marker between them.  I read a statement, if it is true they grab the marker; if it is false, they shouldn’t touch it. I keep track of the score by “inner circle” and “outer circle”.  I have them rotate partners after several questions. Chap 1 Marker Game
• Slam it! Partner activity.  Each person has his own paper and pencil. I project a statement on the board and they quickly write the answer, slamming the paper down when done.  If the first “slammer” has the correct answer, he scores a point.  If he is incorrect, the partner gets the point.  SLAM it!

If you are interested in following our progress through the novel, my brief outline of activities with videos, etc. can be found at elmundodebirch.com  My pinterest board for Noche de Oro. My youtube playlist for Noche de Oro is here. 

 

 

Name That Tune!

It’s the end of the year.  We’re still in school! The days seem endless and the students are not very motivated.  What to do? Fall back on the one thing that has connected us from the very beginning:  music! When I start thinking about how much music my Spanish IV students (who have had me for 2 years) have been exposed to, it’s a bit overwhelming.  They LOVE music.  There is no other way to put it.  Even the most hardened, most resistant, most determined to not like anything student has connected with some song.  I really don’t know how many of my students maintain Spanish playlists that they listen to on their own time, but it is a lot! They love being able to rush to me on Mondays and ask me if I have heard the latest from…. Sometimes they discover new songs before I do! So, I decided that I would try a version of a game that I loved a long time ago:  Name That Tune! Of course, I have modified it for my purposes and it probably doesn’t resemble the original very much.  Additionally, if I had more time (and more motivation), I could have made it a lot better and added categories for specific items (sports, individual artists, individual countries, individual genres, etc.).  However, I didn’t (and don’t), so I’m going to give this format a try. If you’d like to try it, I’d love to hear from you.  If you have the time/initiative and you add to it, please let me know.

Step 1

I created a master list of songs that my students should/may know.  I put them in three different categories: easily recognized, a little more difficult, and difficult.  It looks like this:

Step 2

I decided that there would be four rounds.  I will have the students form teams (3 -4 students).  Each team will have a white board, markers and an eraser. (For my students, I have opted not to use paper, but that certainly could be done).  With the white board, I can instantly assess which teams are correct. Each round will be different. All of my information is on a SMART presentation.

I have placed each round on a separate page on my wikispace (Yes, I know, wikispaces are going away forever, but I still have this month before I figure out how I’m going to switch!!!).  In rounds one and two, the songs start near the beginning with the opening words.  In round three, the songs begin mid song. In round four, they start all over the place! The songs that I selected alternate between songs that were tremendously popular with almost everyone, songs that were popular with specific groups of students, songs that were “anchors” for our units and songs that will be recognized but they will need to really think.  Each round is progressively more difficult ( or so I think).  The students will NOT see the wikispace page as I play their selections.

Links to the page for each round:

Round ONE    Round TWO    Round THREE    Round FOUR

First round:  In this round, each team will have the opportunity to select 2 different songs (depending on how many teams are playing).  The selecting team has the opportunity to score more points than the other teams if their answer is correct.  All teams with correct answers will score 2- 3 points.  The selecting team may score an additional 7 points if they answered correctly in 1 second.  I will check their answer separately after the selected number of seconds.  If they are not correct, they will be able to listen to the remainder of the available seconds with the other teams to still be able to score 2 – 3 points. 

The red X has been cloned on my SMART board, so that I can easily mark each song as it is chosen.

Second round:  In this round, each team will have the opportunity to select 2 different songs (depending on how many teams are playing).  The selecting team has the opportunity to score more points than the other teams if their answer is correct. Any other team may “challenge” saying that they can name that tune in fewer seconds.  All teams with correct answers will score 2- 3 points.  The selecting team, or winning challenging team,  may score an additional 10 points if they answered correctly in 1 second.  I will check their answer separately after the selected number of seconds.  If they are not correct, they will be able to listen to the remainder of the available seconds with the other teams to still be able to score 2 – 3 points.  Wrong answers carry a two point penalty deduction.

Third Round:  In this round, each team will be able to select two songs (depending on number of teams).  If the team that selected the song is correct, they are the only team to receive points.  If they are not correct, the other teams may receive the points.  In this round, there is a three point penalty deduction for incorrect answers.

Round 4:  Final Round ALL IN    All teams have the same amount of time to listen to each song. All teams may score points in this round.

Even more music for Vida/Muerte

I have blogged about the superb novel, Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha 13 from @fluencymatters four other times with the most recent post just from last month.  So how, you might ask, would I still have even more music to add to the novel?  Blame it on Sebastián Yatra…..

With his new song “No hay nadie más“, released on January 25, 2018 and already with 1 billion views, we have the perfect song for the relationship between our narrador and Analía.  When I heard it for the first time, three weeks ago, I literally said, out loud, “Oh my gosh! This song is incredible!” and I knew that I absolutely had to use it despite the fact that we already have SO much focus music with this unit (Casas de Cartón, Gangsta, Los Rakas, Así Crecí, Adentro, Nada Valgo sin tu amor and Princesa).

My only other decision came down to timing, and I admit I was a bit torn. Should I introduce the song after we have read about what happens to Analía or do I introduce it before, incorporating some foreshadowing?  I chose the latter.  Consider the opening verses of the song:

Recuerdo aquel día   ( I remember that day)  (the day he went to collect the payment from the viejita at the fruit stand)
Como si fuera hoy     (As if it were today)
No hay nada como ella  (There’s nothing like her)
Ni siquiera me encontró   ([she] didn’t even try to find me) (Analía arrived, strongly defending her grandmother and, unknowingly, opening the closed heart of the narrator)

Recuerdo todavía   (I still remember)
La vez que la besé    (the time I kissed her)  (their hidden dates, the trip to the beach, the intense, revealing conversation they had)
Fue mi primer amor   (It/she was my first love)
Y ahora escribo su canción   (And now I write her song)

Once we had read Chapter 6 “Mi Trabajo”, without telling my students that we were working with a new song, we started some prework.  I went through the lyrics and selected what I thought were, a) key phrases and, b) words that might interfere with comprehension.  We started with the key phrases first, making sure everyone had 100% comprehension of them.  I gave them about 10 minutes to incorporate as many as they could into a poem, in the shape of a heart: the document Chap 6 and Chap 7 No hay nadie mas, 

El narrador tiene 16 años y asiste a un colegio. También tiene trabajo. Pero, más importante, hay una muchacha. ??

Escribe frases, en forma de poema, usando las palabras en el banco de palabras.  Puede cambiar la forma de las palabras si quieres.

 

Recuerdo               Primer amor                La besé                 Inexplicable                 Cuidarte

Mil razones         Te voy a extrañar              Soledad                 Terminar                 Nadie más

Surprisingly, all of the students in all three classes plunged right into the writing.  After 10 minutes, they shared with their pod groups (the groups of 4 in the room), and then volunteered with the whole class.  We listened, did some “pop up” grammar, and basically, really enjoyed what they had written.  There were serious poems, funny poems, love poems, and more.  They really wanted to keep going, but that was day one.
The second day, after reading chapter 7 “Mi novia”,  we worked with the words that I felt could prevent some comprehension. Those words were:

Ni siquiera: not even, didn’t even
Todavía: still
Inigualable: incomparable
Cela: watches over
Disimular: hide
Extrañar: miss
Tempestad: storm
Aunque: although, even though
Renunciar: give up
Melancolía: melancholy
Lágrimas: tears
Risas: laughter

We went through the list and I then asked them to categorize those words as verbs, nouns or adjectives/adverbs/other.  WHAT AN ACTIVITY! I was not prepared for the discussion that followed as they discovered that there were words that could potentially go in more than one category and even more, that it depended on how the word was being used in English.  Example: still….. was it “She stilled the class with a glance” or “still water” or “I still don’t get this”. We had heated discussions in each class about “melancholy”…several didn’t understand the word in English and many wanted to argue that it was only an adjective. We had great discussion over the many ways to say watch/look/see and hide, in Spanish, and we even had some more “pop up” grammar as we worked , such as with the word tempestad….why is it feminine (other than they felt it sounded better that way!).  I then had them create sentences that used more than one of the words at a time, and what sentences they created!!! They did not want to stop sharing! This was a wonderful activity for my students and I believe that working with the two sets of “lyric” words greatly enhanced their subsequent comprehension and reaction to the song.

Finally, on day three, I told them that the words were part of a new song.  I did NOT use the music video; I merely gave them a traditional cloze activity.  We no more got through the first two verses when I had students in each class commenting on the sweetness of the lyrics and groaning (remember, they do not know that Analía is going to die) that the overall sad tone of the music better not mean something bad! We worked our way through the song in stages, the first two verses, the chorus, the next two verses and then for the last round of the chorus (there were no cloze blanks), I asked them to find the 4 ways the song was lyrically different from the other choruses, and asked why that might be. Each class reacted identically:  they loved it, they couldn’t get enough of it, they had to sing it.  Also, they began to question what WAS going to happen to Analía (was it going to be Analía who would be “watching over” the narrator….from where?) and tying the lyrics about how the person in the song changes the life of the singer to what Analía is doing for the narrator. Finally, I let them watch the entire music video, which is quite simple, but much may be read into it.  To reinforce how strong their reaction to this song was: I introduced the song last Tuesday, the students proposed their “favorite” songs for March madness on Thursday, voted on them on Friday…….No hay nadie más was in the top tier of vote getters!

On the fourth page of the document for the song, is an activity that I will use to open class on Monday: matching pictures/drawings to specific text from Chapter 7 and lines from the song. 

This one song is a classic illustration of how music contains the power to connect…..text with music, text with culture, text with emotions, text with our own identities.  It literally is the perfect song for the pivotal events in Chapters 6 – 9.

Locura de marzo 2018

My students have been looking forward to March since we finished the December commercial madness from Dustin Williamson. Also, for many of my Spanish IV students, this is their 4th time with a “madness” activity (I taught many of them last year in Spanish III)!  And, for that reason, I promised them that I would allow them to produce half of our song entries.  While I already knew that I have many students who LOVE Latin music and maintain Spanish playlists on their devices, I was not prepared for the sheer volume of their suggestions. We had to vote from their  list to get it narrowed down to their top 10 choices….and it wasn’t easy!  For some of them, it was sheer agony!  I gave each student 8 votes…..they could vote for 8 songs and even then it was difficult as they tried to weigh which song they like better than another!  What was even more satisfying for me, in addition to their passionate pleas about what needed to be included, was the diversity of their selections.  Here is their original list that they submitted to me:

Vote for NO MORE than EIGHT (8). If you vote for more than 8, your votes will not count.
_____ 1. Me Soltaste (Jesse y Joy)
_____ 2. Desencuentro (Residente from Calle 13)
_____ 3. Gangsta (Kat Dahlia)
_____ 4. No hay nadie más (Sebastián Yatra)
_____ 5. Robarte un beso (Sebastián Yatra y Carlos Vives)
_____ 6. Súbeme la radio (Enrique Iglesias y Gente de Zona)
_____ 7. Dile que tú me quieres (Ozuna)
_____ 8. Mientes (Camila)
_____ 9. Vivir mi vida (Marc Anthony)
_____ 10. Sofía (Álvaro Soler)
_____ 11. Sigo extrañádote (J. Balvin)
_____ 12. Mi gente (J. Balvin y Willy William)
_____ 13. Cómo yo (Silvestre Dangond y San Luis)
_____ 14. Livin’ la vida loca (Ricky Martin)
_____ 15. Corazón Espinado (Maná y Santana)
_____ 16. La Bamba (Richie Valens)
_____ 17. Me Equivoqué (CD9)
_____ 18. El Ganador (Nicky Jam)
_____ 19. El Amante (Nicky Jam)
_____ 20. La Bicicleta (Shakira y Carlos Vives)
_____ 21. Cásate conmigo (Nicky Jam y Silvestre Dangond)
_____ 22. Échame la culpa (Luis Fonsi y Demi Lovato)
_____ 23. El Perdón (Enrique Iglesias y Nicky Jam)
_____ 24. Lumbra (Cali y El Dandee)
_____ 25. Animal (Álvaro Soler)
_____ 26. El Mismo Sol (Álvaro Soler)
_____ 27. Como la flor (Selena)
_____ 28. Bailando (Enrique Iglesias, Gente de Zona, y December Bueno)
_____ 29. Soy yo (Bomba Estereo)
_____ 30. Caótica Belleza (Esteman)
_____ 31. Me enamoré (Shakira)
_____ 32. Chantaje (Shakira y Maluma)
_____ 33. La Cucaracha (traditional)
_____ 34. Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen (Santana)
_____ 35. Reggaetón Lento (CNCO)
_____ 36. Hey DJ (CNCO y Yandel)
_____ 37. La Gozadera (Marc Anthony y Gente de Zona)
_____ 38. Cuando me enamoro (Juan Luis Guerra y Enrique Iglesias)
_____ 39. A Dios le pido (Juanes)
_____ 40. La La La (Shakira)
_____ 41. La luz (Juanes)
_____ 42. Despacito (Luis Fonsi/Daddy Yankee)
_____ 43. Odio (Romeo Santos/Drake)
_____ 44. Fruta Fresca (Carlos Vives)
_____ 45. Se preparó (Ozuna)
_____ 46. El Farsante (Ozuna/Romeo Santos)
_____ 47. Dura (Daddy Yankee)
_____ 48. Odio por Amor (Juanes)

Many of the songs were songs that we had been introduced to in class, either as the “entry to class music” or accompaniments to our units; however, several others are songs that they have discovered themselves…..because they really like Latin music.  The only artist that I told them was off limits for ANY song was Bad Bunny, and I refused to include any of his music on their list.  I’m happy to say that I didn’t have to make that choice with Despacito because even though it was wildly popular last year, it didn’t make the cut for their top music!!

The top 10 songs, according to their votes, make up one half of the bracket and my own 10 choices complete the brackets.  I put all of their choices on one side (the left side below), and mine on the other (the right side).  I had just as tough a time choosing as they did.  I’m still not completely happy with my 10 choices and really wish I could add at least 4 more.  However, there are not enough days in March to cover more than the 20 songs.  Here are the brackets as they stand today:

Still in the running for me, and maybe replacing Tu foto (Ozuna) and one of the HA-ASH songs are:

CNCO – Mamita
Nuestro Secreto – Carlos Vives
La Estrategia Cali y el Dandee
Princesa – Río Roma/CNCO
Esperándote – MTZ Manuel Turizo
Un poco loco/Recuérdame from Coco
Danza de Gardenias – Natalia Lafourcade

This year I will follow basically the same plan as last year:

1.  Introduce 2 songs at the beginning of the period.  I use just a minute or minute thirty seconds of the song, making sure I include the chorus.  I do use the music video (unless it is entirely inappropriate), so for some songs, I have to be selective in which parts I choose.
2. I give them a brief intro to the artists, where they are from, etc. and we look at the meaning of the chorus.
3. Then we vote.  The whole process does not take more than 5 minutes initially.
4. This year, I will do 2 songs from “their selections” one day and the next day I will do 2 songs from “my selections”.
5. When we are ready for round two, I will use lyric videos for the songs moving on.  We will establish more meaning for those songs. For this stage, we probably spend about 7 – 8 minutes with the songs.
6. When we are ready for round three, I will use the original music video and we will sing the choruses.  (This is NOT to say that we haven’t been singing all along….)  For this stage, we will be spending close to 10 minutes with the songs.
7. For the final round, we will look at the lyrics again and watch the entire official video (as may be appropriate).

As Carrie Toth posted a few days ago, I don’t do anything fancy with the brackets.  I print the song titles/artists on card stock and devote an entire board to posting them.  Each day I put the final vote tally beside the card stock, and move the winning song over to the next bracket.

I’m looking forward to looking at the brackets of many of your classes!  A huge, grateful THANK YOU to @spanishplans for creating this hugely popular activity!

Introducing Vida y Muerte with Voces Inocentes y Casas de Cartón…..again

This makes my 4th year with the superb novel Vida y Muerte en la MS 13 from Fluency Matters.  The novel is the anchor in my largest unit of Spanish IV that encompasses goals and dreams, El Salvador, Voces Inocentes, the novel and Immigration. For the past 3 years, it has been the “favorite” unit of my Spanish IV classes in the end of the year evaluation.  Each year, as is the case with any unit, I have added new materials, deleted others and revised many.  After an introduction to El Salvador and it’s troubled history of the past 80 years or so (thanks to a spectacular presentation from Kara Jacobs), I have used the movie Voces Inocentes.  Focusing on a featured song from that movie, Casas de Cartón, the comprehension of the lyrics of the song significantly increase the emotional connection of the students as well as their awareness of what the Civil War in El Salvador really meant.  Two years ago, I discovered Mike Peto’s brilliant post and activities for the song.  This year due to snow and mandated state testing, the introduction to the novel has been extended.  Therefore, I have had the opportunity to create a very simple introduction to the song and an equally simple, but powerful addition to the study of the song. Below I have detailed how I began the El Salvador/Voces Inocentes part of the unit this year.

Day 1

1.  Brief talk/discovery of what students know about El Salvador
2. Kara Jacob’s presentation for El Salvador (I stopped on the slide for Casas de Cartón) with some additional information that I created
3. I created this presentation to introduce the song Casas de Cartón
4. Watched/listened to the first 1:42 seconds 
5. Completed a simple cloze Casas de cartón 2018 (Spanish and English)

Day 2

1.  Class started with FVR. Students read novels of their choice for 10 – 14 minutes twice a week in Spanish IV.
2. Grouped students (2-3) with questions on cardstock related to the El Salvador presentation from day 1 (Essential Question #1).  Students answered the questions in the small groups, and then the whole class quickly reviewed/clarified together.
3. In groups of two with a laptop, used Mike Peto’s matching activity for about 5 minutes.
4. I created an extended visual presentation of El Mozote, based on Kristy Placido’s La Mascare de El Mozote. (Please do not ask me to share, Kristy’s work is worth the money! I can share what I added, but not the original work.)  Students worked in groups of two to read through the presentation and explore the visual presentation.  They spent about 10 minutes doing this. At the end, we reviewed as a class what they considered to be the most important facts that they learned.
5. Based on an idea from Martina Bex, the groups of two students created a 25 word summary in Spanish of what they considered to be the most important details.

Day 3

1.  I used 2 parts of a study guide from Rachel Hawkes to introduce the movie, Voces Inocentes.  However, when I looked for that guide again online, it did not contain the 2 parts that I used! I suppose it has been updated? The parts that I had are a cloze for the trailer of the movie and an additional cloze that focused on preterit verbs from the trailer. We did both of these prior to watching the actual trailer, and then confirmed our answers when we watched.
2. Working in groups of two, I gave each group lyric strips (on cardstock) to Casas de Cartón in English and Spanish.  With the music playing softly in the background, they matched the Spanish to the English…..they were not putting them in order. The strips were all randomly ordered. Casas de carton matching
   

   
3. Students then removed the English lyric strips and then put the Spanish lyrics in order as best as they could remember them.
4. I played the song for them (first 1:42 seconds) and they revised the order as necessary.
5. With the strips now in the correct order, they looked at the Spanish strips and read through them in English.  Hopefully, this additional background work will make the song even more powerful when we hear it for the first time in the movie.
6. We briefly went through an introduction (on SMART) to the movie, using these slides (the vocabulary slide is from a larger group of words on quizlet) : 

7.  We watched the first 20 minutes of Voces Inocentes (in Spanish)

Day 4 (this coming week)

1.  We will use Mike Peto’s concentration game for Voces Inocentes
2. We will complete a post viewing review of day 1, using some of the slides from the day 3 presentation and additional comprehension questions.  This will be done in small groups.
3. We will watch an additional 20 – 25 minutes of the movie.

More to come…….

Starting the novel, Frida

This week my Spanish IV classes are starting the novel, Frida by Kristy Placido. I’m posting very quickly (and probably with some errors! :)) how I am beginning it for the second time. I decided that one of the first activities that we would do would be to work with the song, Soy Yo by Bomba Estéreo.  Kara Jacobs has a great unit on her blog for Level I Spanish students with additional materials available on TPT (Sherry Nesbitt also has some materials here.). I took her basic google presentation or powerpoint and revamped it for Spanish IV.  It is available for download (free) below.

Bomba Estereo – Soy yo – revised for blog

Here is my three day plan:

Day 1

1.  I used Kara’s original story and rewrote it for an upper level class. I am not sharing it because it is part of her unit that is available on TPT. Students read it aloud with a partner, answered questions, identified vocabulary. (I had previously assigned them a quizlet with key words from the song).
2. We watched the video.
3. We brainstormed what “belleza” meant.  In groups of three, they had 10 minutes to prepare a powerpoint (as a group) of things/people that are beautiful.  We did a quick gallery walk to view the finished products.  Each group then wrote a definition of beauty.  It is my hope to return to these powerpoints later and see if they would change anything.

Day 2

1.  I used the powerpoint for Soy yo by Bomba Estéreo (Bomba Estereo – Soy yo – revised for blog).  We took the time to discuss the slides throughly.  When we got to slide 6, with the message from the group about the song, “No hay nada mejor que ser tú” I began to tie it into Frida. I referenced a poster of her in my room, and we talked in general terms about when she was born, what was happening in the world during her lifetime, the “unibrow” and facial hair, why she might want to look like that (in historical terms) and what people might say about her.  Slides 9 – 11 were crucial in continuing the discussion.
2. Next, I gave each group of 2 students a set of cut up lyrics (printed on card stock and cut out) soy yo lyric arrange strips  For my own sanity, each set was printed on a different color in case any strips were dropped on the floor (!) they would be easily identified as to what group was missing the strip.  Within the first 10 seconds of the music, students identified how very difficult it was going to be to put the strips in order….but that was a great challenge that they really enjoyed.  I had to play the beginning three times before they got the order correct for the first 4 – 6 strips.  As we did it in sections, we also talked about what the lyrics were saying (quizlet came in handy!). Finally we had the entire first verse and chorus done.  I had them “make meaning” with their partner of the lyrics, and we checked our thoughts.  Then……we tried to “rap” it!  Such a blast!!! We did it several times.
3. We worked with the first part of the Zamba: Excursión al Museo de Bellas Artes, Frida Kahlo. We watched it and shared what we saw and heard. There were MANY questions about it; I encouraged the questions but didn’t give answers yet.
4. Finally, we played quizlet live with our Soy yo lyrics.

Day 3

1.  I plan to open with a cloze of Soy Yo. Soy yo cloze day 2  The document also contains a space to write a 25 word summary of the message of the song. I’m pretty sure we will have to sing again!
2.  We will work with the Zamba video again. Kara Jacobs has a great activity for this.  Arianne Dowd also has a terrific unit on TPT for Frida and the Zamba video!
3. We will read chapter 1 of Frida

Looking ahead, we will begin working with Caótica Belleza on days 4/5.  See my blog post from last year here. Additionally, I hope to add this song in later chapters: Yo Soy Así by Redimi2 and Funky. I’ve already had it playing in the background and they are very “into” it.  When I get it done, I’ll post it here or on my wikipage.  A sampling of the lyrics:

Acéptame, recházame
pero no quieras cambiarme
Sé que mi estilo de vida
no se parece a tu vida pero
que le puedo hacer
Yo soy así

Yo no voy a hacer
lo que todos hacen
seré diferente
aunque me rechacen
conmigo mis amigos
no se complacen
quieren destruirme
pero no la hacen

Adding MIENTES to La Llorona de Mazatlán

This is now my fourth time using La Llorona de Mazatlán by Katie Baker with my Spanish IV classes.  While there are standard activities and creations that I use with all of our novels each year, I never do anything the same way twice. This year has been made a bit more complicated since I decided that we would start the year with both FVR and El Internado once a week (as opposed to just second semester), effectively eliminating one day of the week.  However, I still want to cover the same amount of material and novels as last year, so I have to really consider how much more I add to each novel! It actually has worked out well, as I have had the students read about half of the novel on their own, and half with the whole class and therefore still been able to add in all the little “extras”.  This past week we finished chapters 9 and 10 (the fracturing of the friendship of Laney and Desi and the gift of la pulsera from Luis to Laney). We also have begun our readings of other legends (El Sombrerón, El Cucuy, El Chupacabras) as well as the first versions of La Llorona (thanks to Bryce Hedstrom!).  The first part of Chapter 11 is the huge argument between Laney and Desi, when Laney lies about the giver of the gift. My students certainly know the nouns “mentiroso/a” and “mentira” but I did not feel that they were as familiar with the verb “mentir.” With oral assesments coming up, I really want them to be comfortable when talking about the people who lied: Laney and Luis. In addition to that, the lyrics tie in beautifully with the book and the legend of La Llorona: You came into my life to teach me; with eyes closed I followed you; you’re not the person that I thought you were; you hurt me; I’m better off without you. Last year, AFTER the chapter, I used the terrific song Mientes by Camila, and they really enjoyed it. However, I made a note to use it BEFORE the chapter this year, and it worked really well.  Note: I did not use the video at any point in time; it is not appropriate and absolutely not needed. Here is the order of what I did.

1.  Quickly went over present and past tense of mentir, with some PQA 
2. Shared some memes and images 
3. Had some discussion about famous liars (I gave them a few, they added more). 
4. Had some discussion about our own lies, and why we lie 
5. Talked about consequences of lying; this was deliberate to incorporate some unfamiliar words in the song Mientes:  hace daño, conseguiste, quedan ganas
6. First listen to the song and work with a traditional cloze chap 11 MIENTES Camila
7. After listening to it twice, checking the words that they filled in, and making sure that meaning had been established, most of them were begging to sing it. One of my classes had to sing it three times and we have decided that this week they will come up with gestures for the song.
8. Read the first two pages of Chapter 11 (the fight) and was delighted when so many of them started yelling:  Mientes, Laney, mientes!

This upcoming week

1.  Review the song again, singing with all classes, adding gestures with at least one of those classes
2. Pull out specific lines to emphasize 
3. Use Pictograms Chap 11 Mientes picto  
4. And/or use Pictograms as a game (projected on SMART)
5. Act out the fight scene between Laney and Desi, using the actual script in the book first, then creating their own script

If you are interested in seeing the rest of what I have done with La Llorona de Mazatlán this year, use this link.  The page is in chronological order so that the most current plans are at the top.

Cabaret, a celebration of cultures, languages and arts!

Nine years ago, in 2008, I attended a world language conference in Maryland. It was in a session there that an idea was planted in my head. I wish that I could remember who the speaker was, but I don’t. She shared with us the idea of a type of talent show that featured talent in many languages.  The next year, in 2009, the first Cabaret at James M. Bennett High School took place. Indeed, it was a celebration of talent: singing, dancing, skits, poetry recitation and instrumental selections that came from a variety of languages and cultures.  Since then, we have held a Cabaret about every two years.  I feel very strongly that one of my major responsibilities as a world language teacher is to open a window on the world for my students of rural Delmarva (rural, but with a quite high immigrant population) and to build bridges leading to acceptance and understanding of other cultures. Last night, we held a Cabaret that achieved that, and I will always remember it.  It was so very special that I will cherish the warmth, the love and the good feelings for a very long time.

This year, for the first time, my committee for the Cabaret was not just world language teachers.  Instead, it was made up of me, a Latin teacher, an English teacher, two science teachers, a history teacher, a media assistant and an ELL teacher.  We began our planning the first part of January, meeting so that I could explain what was involved and then dividing the work load.  The English teacher was responsible for decorations and theme (cinco de mayo, since it was held on May 5th), the science teachers were responsible for the international desserts, the history teacher was responsible for the beverages, the ELL teacher was responsible for tickets and finances, the media assistant was responsible for publicity and the Latin teacher and I covered auditions, program, power points, school promotion (morning announcements and videos), technical needs, and stage crew. We made a phenomenal team.

We charged $4.00 a ticket, which included a beverage and their choice of an international dessert.  Additional desserts were available for $1.00.  Since our principal assisted us with some discretionary funds, we were able to make almost $600. We decided at a planning meeting in early April that the profit would be used to begin a scholarship in memory of our guidance secretary who passed away suddenly in March.

We chose two outgoing senior students to be our emcees for the evening, and they were wonderfully high energy, involving the audience from the opening minute of the show. They introduced each act with information about each performer.  There were more than 62 performers in the show, and another 25 involved in decorating, baking, serving and stage crew. The event was well attended by our students, who were polite, receptive and enthusiastic in their support of each other.  We began promptly at 7:00 and finished at 9:20, including a 20 minute intermission break for more dessert and dance (described below).  I prepared two enormous power points, one that played for 20 minutes prior to 7:00 that featured music, pictures and quotes for all languages encompassed in our show and a second power point that had a slide or two for each act, featuring lyrics or trivia about each act and performer.  We used our Clipper Galley (the cafeteria) as the venue because we would be able to eat as students performed.  The very nature of a Cabaret is an intimate gathering with food and entertainment.  By removing many tables and chairs, leaving only 24 tables with 10 chairs at each, we were able to create a very welcoming environment. We did have to add more chairs due to a higher than expected attendance.

All of this years’ acts were by student performers.  In the past, we had several faculty participants, but none this year.  Here is the First Act:

• Song, Wilkommen from Cabaret, in German, French and English
• Song, Dana Dana, in Arabic
• Instrumental (flute, violin, trumpet), Santa Lucia, Italian folk song
• Dance, BBoy, American
• Song, Fate, Korean
• Song, Bulleya, Hindi
• Instrumental (clarinet, flute, trumpet, trombone, french horn, tuba, saxophone) Serenata, Spanish American
• Song, La Fleur que tu m’avais jetee from Carmen, French
• Poem recitation, Fakat al tanfus, Arabic then translated to English
• Song, Konfie m nan De, Creole
• Instrumental, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Saint-Saens, French
• Song and guitar, Malagueña, Spanish
• Dance, Garba meets Bollywood, Hindi

Intermission featured the most popular Just Dance videos from my Spanish III Baila Viernes (Bailando, Limbo, Bailar, La Bicicleta) as well as an additional Bollywood and Korean Just Dance and a special tag team Free style by our break dancers. Intermission was an overwhelming success, with at least 50 students up dancing together in front of our giant screen.

Act II

• Fashion show with narration and music with 17 models featuring attire from Ghana, Morocco and Algeria (all of the clothes belonged to students from Northern Africa)
• Song, Como la flor, Spanish
• Song, The Sound of Silence, English
• Dance, original dance choreographed to Caótica Belleza, Spanish
• Poem recitation, Y si el hombre, Spanish
• Skit, Latin
• Dance, popping animation, American
• Song, Fotografía, Spanish
• Dance, Bangra Bollywood, Punjabi
• Song, O cessate di piagrarmi, Italian
• Song, A Million Reasons, English
• Dance, JMB Dance Team, street dance, American
• Song with saxophone solo, At last, English

Conclusion of the Cabaret featured another 20 minutes of Just Dance videos as students were reluctant to leave and just kept asking for more! I lost track of the number of student participants (and parents) who thanked me profusely for allowing them to share their language and culture and the student audience members who said that they couldn’t wait to be participants in the next show!

The idea to embrace and celebrate our very diverse population at JMB is one that is of tremendous importance. It was more than just beautiful to watch the multitude of culture, language and art converge in our Clipper Galley, it was inspiring, and hopeful, and oh so very necessary. To present those cultures, languages and arts through song, dance, poetry and drama was more than entertaining, it was good for our hearts. I am so very, very proud of the representation of languages and cultures: Spanish, Creole, Hindi, Latin, Punjabi, Korean, Arabic, Italian, German, French, and English. Additionally, we embraced students whose cultural identity includes: the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Ghana, Sudan, Morocco, Algeria, India, Pakistan, Italy, Germany, France, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and the United States. It absolutely was one of the best nights ever of my long teaching career. Watching these diverse students support each other, cheer for each other and come together at intermission to fill the “dance floor” as they danced through at least 7 Just Dance multicultural videos (and to do the same AFTER the show was over) was something that I know had to impact those in attendance. If you don’t already have such an event at your school, I would encourage you to consider doing something similar. It is so very worth it.  I will leave you with the following message that a student emailed me last night:

“Everyone was so supportive and kind and light and friendly that everyone else just couldn’t help but let their guard down and relax with them. I 100% believe that without this, without multiculturalism among the Stars and Stripes of our American flag, we would not enjoy life to the fullest extent. Whatever help you need in planning future Cabarets, I’m on board. Here’s my email. My phone number is (443) *** ****. I would hate to see people of future generations miss out on an opportunity for something as amazing as what we all witnessed tonight. ESPECIALLY considering the giant thumb known as Donald Trump, is constricting every piece of diverse culture America contains into boxes marked “over the wall, you go.” You have provided me with a window into these lives, a door into different cultures, and a way to immerse myself in all of their beauty. Thank you so much for that. Your hard work and effort really glimmered tonight, my family and I send our thanks and appreciation to you and the rest of the participants/teachers/staff.”

Intermission JUST DANCE!

Intermission JUST DANCE!