cultura

Hi high beginner Spanish class!

I apologize that lesson plans weren't posted the two weeks before holiday break since I was in South America. Students had a substitute from Colombia and continued to learn about cultural aspects of the Spanish speaking world including information about Colombia and festivals celebrated throughout the region. I am now officially back on track in terms of posting lessons.

In class today, students answered the following question:

Escribe 2 cosas interesantes de las clases con Karina.
I asked students to share one interesting thing they learned.

We talked about typical elements of a letter:
* fecha (date)
* querido/querida (dear)
* sinceramente (sincerely)

Students wrote a letter to Karina (the substitute while I was gone before break) thanking her and sharing what they learned. Phrases used:

• Gracias por... (venir/enseñar)
• Me gustó...
• Aprendí..
• Fue interesante...
• Mi festival favorito es...

We are going to review what students learned about festivals and have a quick test next week. The test will include information about our culture unit and verbs:

• lucha libre
• festivales
• verbs and conjugations (ser/estar/hay/tener)

We spent the remainder of class starting our review as I asked questions about the above items.

Tarea: study information about festivals, lucha libre, ser/estar/hay/tener

Students arrived and we spent 10 minutes reviewing for culture test.

Students took test (attached). For the extra credit section, students listened to four songs and wrote down the type of dance that the music represented (ballet folklórico, tango, flamenco, salsa).

Since students have enjoyed recent presentations and dialogues, we are going to do a short unit on telenovelas. We went over what a telenovela is, and came up with a list of adjectives:
* dramático
* cursi (cheesy)
* romántico
* exagerado
Students watched a few quick clips from Colombian novela Betty la fea.

Students were randomly assigned to groups of 3 and had the remaining part of class to come up with a main character for our novela. Students will quickly present their character on Tuesday and we will choose a protagonist around which our novela will be based. Students need to complete their character description for Tuesday's class. They should describe: the character's name, age, personality traits, profession and any other relevant information.

Tarea: complete character development/description of main character.

Students arrived and answered two questions:
¿Por qué is importante Semana Santa en América Latina y España?
¿Cómo se celebra Semana Santa?

We reviewed Tuesday's activity matching up photos with a description and went over where the photo was taken in the Spanish-speaking world.

Students each presented the photo they had brought in of a Semana Santa celebration around Latin America and Spain. Other students took notes while each student presented.

Tarea: we will be reviewing our culture unit (next Tuesday) and will take a quiz (next Thursday). In addition to starting to review, students should complete the attached crossword puzzle.

Students completed the attached warm up activity talking about what units they've enjoyed/learned from this year.

Talked about the current holiday: Semana Santa and introduced other vocabulary:
* Pascua - Easter
* Cuaresma - Lent
* Cena de Seder - Passover
* Carnaval
Talked about the importance of Semana Santa in the Spanish-speaking world because of the prevalence of Catholicism.

Students received attached descriptions as well as a map of Latin America and Spain. Students passed around photos from the Semana Santa in the Spanish-speaking world and matched them with the description. They also looked up the underlined words. Finally, students found each of the cities/countries mentioned in the description and put them on the map.

Tarea: students need to bring in a photo of a Semana Santa celebration in the Spanish Speaking world. They can use news.google in Spanish. Students are going to briefly present their photo at the beginning of class Thursday. If they can't find a photo perhaps they can just explain a celebration somewhere in the Spanish Speaking world.