20 Time in a Foreign Language Classroom

Now that I have a better idea of what I'm in for this fall when it comes to Genius Hour and 20 Time, I've started thinking about how I'm going to connect it to my curriculum.  There are two main areas that Genius Hour can (and should) be connected to in a Foreign Language class: culture and language.

NOTE: A special "thank you" to Denise Krebs and Señorita Barragan for helping me form and articulate my ideas for this post.

Latino Culture

I just found out I'll be teaching a class titled "Latino Culture" this summer for the TRiO Upward Bound program this summer!  This is a huge program as working with this program as an undergrad is what inspired me to become a teacher. I have a few ideas for where to start, but I'd really like to get ideas and suggestions from others for how to structure this class or activities we can do. I just got my certification this January, so this is my first official class and I'm completely new to planning and implementing my own curriculum! Plus, rather than being a Spanish class (which I'm much more familiar with), this will be taught entirely in English. An overall theme that I'd like to tie the class together is that each country and its culture is unique, but that we are all tied together by common themes and elements.

The class is 1.5 hours/day for 24 days, and I have free reign for what I want to do. Moreover, I have a lot of resources at my disposal that I wouldn't usually have in a regular classroom, such as the ability to take students to local restaurants and businesses. For example, I'm hoping to take the students to lunch at a local empanada shop run by this wonderful Mexican and Argentine couple as well as having a day of dance instruction by a ballroom dance studio.  The sky is the limit! If you have any ideas, resources, worksheets, etc. that might be helpful, please let me know!

As I come up with ideas, I'm going to update here to keep this all together.

Materials: I want my students to keep interactive notebooks, though these will be pretty basic.  Here's the structure for as far as I've planned:  They should have a "housekeeping" section in the front where they can put the syllabus, track their grade, etc.  The bulk of their binder will be a section for the countries, with a few pages dedicated to each country.  Finally, I imagine there will be a few things that don't fit into a specific country or civilization, so a "misc" section is appropriate.

Curriculum: 

• Given that my expertise is in Spanish, I think we'll mainly focus on the Spanish-speaking countries and I can pull from much of the material I'm used to teaching.  I think I'll spend the first week giving students an overview, talking about our own cultures (many of the students will likely be Latinos, so this should be interesting!), and covering ancient cultures and general history of Latin America, such as the Mayans, Incas, Aztecs, and Spain's conquest up to where the individual countries started gaining their independence.  From there, I'd like to dedicate each day to a country or cluster of countries that we can talk about in more detail.  Though I think a brief history of the country is appropriate, I'd like to dedicate the majority of the class to modern cultural elements and symbols of the country.
• UPDATE: Another way to structure this would be to choose a "theme" for each day or a few days, such as art, music, food, holidays, and religion, as well as heavier topics like oppression, revolution, and immigration.  I think this would end up being a lot more meaningful for students, especially since there are many themes that are common through all the countries, and, instead of having some repetitious things come up over and over again, using those commonalities to emphasize how much countries do have in common.  Of course, throughout the course, I can point out specific things that stand out from various countries, but I think this structure would be much more powerful and endurance than covering each country in an isolated way.

Evaulation: 

•  Since the general theme of my class will be how each culture is unique but we're all tied together, I think I want my final to be a project or essay demonstrating what students found most meaningful from other countries and how it relates to them.  For example, they could do a poster or essay that shows in-depth knowledge about a (or a few) specific cultural element, and then draw connections and distinctions between it and their own lives, possibly even identifying how it changes how they view their culture and the "new" culture and any ways that might affect them.  (For example, learning about the Day of the Dead had a profound effect on how I want to try and remember my loved ones that have passed on). 
• UPDATE ON FINAL: I want my students to produce a poster showing their culture.  I really like the instructions given here, with a few modifications.  For example, I want them to include some of the themes covered in our class as well as draw connections between their culture and the Latino culture.  Throughout the course, I'll have students reflect in their journals about their own culture as well as similarities and differences between what we discuss in class and their own life.  This should give them a jump start on their final collage.  When they present their cultural collage, I may require them to identify a few things they have in common with Latino cultures.  In fact, they could write a one-page explanation highlighting 5 things, but only identify 2-3 when they present their collage to the class.
• The other main part of their grade will be maintaining a complete and organized notebook, showing evidence of their participation and learning.
• Finally, it would be easy for students to do mini-presentations about countries that they choose on the day that we talk about that country.
• Some questions I want my students to be able to answer:
• What is culture?
• What is my culture?
• What are some similarities and differences between my culture and Latino Culture?

Other resources:

• A general worksheet like this, comparing the similarities and difference of major cultural elements, might be great for students to complete about each country.
• A great breakdown of what culture is and its features.
• A worksheet from the Peace Corps listing many different cultural features encouraging students to evaluate their own culture and another culture.
• Peace Corps resources and lesson plans for educators to teach about culture.
• Naza Naza game, adapted from Bafá Bafá, which teaches about the importance of cultural rules and adaptation to a new culture
• Say what you will about Wikipedia, but it has a great "Latin American" article!

Plan:

1. Intro to class; What is culture?
• Put together interactive notebooks
• Essay Pretest: What is culture?
• Discuss what culture is
• Material v. non-material culture
• KWL for Latino Culture
2. NaZa NaZa game
3. Latinos in the Treasure Valley
• documentary
4. The Latino world
• Countries and capitals
• Languages spoken
• Geography, Weather, and the Environment
5. Pre-Columbian History
• Aztecs
• Mayans
• Incas
6. Conquest and Modern World
• Conquest
• Colonialization and colonial life
• Revolutions and independence
7.  Language
• Spoken Languages
• Dialects and colloquial words
• Indian languages
8.  Religion
9.  Holidays and Festivals
• Día de los muertos
• La Navidad
10. Education
11. Sports
12. Food
13. Communities
• Role of the family
• Education
• Social norms and customs
• Gender Roles
• clothing
14. Government and Oppression
15. Modern Revolutions
16. Immigration
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE
17. Art
• Fine Art
• Dramatic Art
• Architecture
18. Music and Dance
19. Dance Instruction
20.  Wealth and Poverty
• Problems
• Drugs
• Products
21. Work Day
22. Work Day
23. Question and Answer presentation - Humberto Fuentes from Hispanic Cultural Center
24. "My Culture" presentations

Syllabus:

• Objective:  After taking this class, students will be able to answer the following:
• What is culture?
• What is my culture?
• What are some features of Latino culture?
• What are some similarities and differences between my culture and Latino culture?
• Topics to be covered: A variety of cultural themes will be discussed and experienced.  In general, each day will have a "theme" and we will explore many aspects of that theme in Latino culture.  In addition to identifying what culture is and why it's important, other topics may include:
• Countries, Geography, Weather, Environment, History, language, holidays and celebrations, religion, sports, food, community features, politics, immigration, music, art, dance, and other topics as they relate to Latino Culture
• Assignments and Grading: 
• Interactive Notebook (50%): You will be required to keep an Interactive Notebook, which we will discuss in class.  Having a complete and organized notebook is a major part of your grade and will enable you to be successful in this class.  Nearly everything from this class will go in this notebook, including any handouts, worksheets, and activities we do.
• Reflections (25%): Each day, you will need to write a reflection in your notebook.  These reflections will compare and contrast your culture with the Latino culture features we discuss that day.  Completing these reflections thoroughly will prepare you for your final project.
• Final project and essay (50%): Your final will consist of two parts.
• Collage (25%): You will create a collage representing your culture and present it to the class on the last day.  More details about this collage will be given in class.
• Culture Essay (25%): You will write a 2-page culture essay and turn it in with your collage.  Your essay must discuss what culture is and why it is important and then  choose 5 features of Latino culture to draw connections between it and your own culture.  Completing your daily reflections will prepare you for this essay.
• Rules and Expectations: The following are the rules I expect you to follow at all times:
1. Follow directions.
2. Be ready to begin when class starts.
3. No put downs, name calling, or hate speech.
4. No swearing.
5. Bring your pencil and notebook every day.
6. Be respectful in the classroom.
7. No electronic devices unless I permit it.

Pobre Ana

While reading through Pobre Ana, I made a list of the structures that are used throughout the book.  Not all of them are included, but this is a fairly comprehensive list of the most important structures used.  I narrowed my list down to what I could tell stories about for approximately a quarter and grouped them together by what made sense for a story as well as a rough order for presentation due to necessity and complexity.  I  plan to teach these structures using stories and then sum up our learning by reading the book as a class during the final week of the quarter.  

Finally, at the bottom, I listed all of the cultural topics I found in the book that students could research and present to the class.  


Structures/Stories:

• Story 1: Poor Maria
• era un(a) ______
• había un problema
• quería un(a) ______
• fue a ______
• Story 2: Tiny the Elephant
• vivía en ______, pero estaba en ______
• estaba (feeling)
• tenía ______
• Story 3: Frederick's Marvelous Hat
• lo necesitaba para ______
• nunca compraba nada
• vio a la policía
• Story 4: Chucky's Chocolate
• le gritaba mucho
• siempre comía ______
• buscó el ______ pero no lo encontró
• Story 5: A Boyfriend for Linda
• pasaba poco tiempo ______
• le dio un boleto
• llevó el boleto
• Story 6: A Dress for Helga
• le gustaba ______
• no podía pagar
• iba a pagar con
• Story 7: Transportation in Africa
• tomaba el ______ y iba a ______
• se subió a(l) ______
• bajó de(l) ______
• Story 8: Making an Impression
• tuvo que hacerlo
• estaba (-a/iendo verb) bien
• estaba sorprendida
• Story 9:
• podía vivir con una familia mexicana
• le dijo
• no comprendió nada pero sonrío y les dijo "sí"

Culture Topics:

1. Passports and travelling abroad
2. Poverty in Mexico
3. Transportation
4. Mexican states
5. addresses in Mexico and other countries
6. utilities (power/hot water/etc)
7. homes in Mexico
8. Tepic, Nayarit
9. recreation (exercises, swimming with clothes on)
10. food
11. money
12. music
13. dances
14. schools
15. greetings and gestures
16. accents and regionalisms

Patricia Va a California

Culture

1. Guatemala
2. Panajachel, Guatemala
3. Lago Atitlán
4. tourists
5. volcanoes
6. indígenas
7. poverty
8. school
9. huipiles y cortes
10. colors of clothing to represent town
11. seasons of the year
12. work

New Books!

I received my 20 books from blaineraytprs.com yesterday!!  Yay!  I ordered all of the novels for the middle school and level 1 classes.  Then, I labeled all of them with my name and the level they were written for (Novice-low/mid/high).  Finally, I'm reading all of them to see which ones I want to center my curriculum around and decide how I want to use them.  So far, I've read "Pobre Ana" and "Patricia va a California", and am just starting "Casi se muere".

My first impression is that I want to center my curriculum on the Pobre Ana series since they are so consistent with structures and draw upon a lot of culture.  My original plan was to pull a few structures for storytelling from a chapter, work on those structures for a week, and then read a chapter or so of the book.  However, there are so many structures used right from the beginning and the repeated throughout the book (which seems logical now), that it doesn't seem that would be effective.  Instead, I've adjusted my idea to use the book like a "unit".  I'll pick out the most important structures from the entire book, pair those with mini-stories (either from LICT or my own), and then work on those for a number of weeks.  I imagine I want to stretch these out over the entire quarter, and I think there's plenty of structures in the book to do so.  Then, at the end of the quarter, we'll set aside a week or so to simply read and discuss the book!  That week, there wouldn't be any independent reading or storytelling - just simply reading the book in-class, discussing it in Spanish, and possibly some sort of homework to reflect on what was read that day.  Another TPRS-er mentioned they liked reading books all at once this way because it's easier to remember and discuss some of the more minor details that make the story interesting.   I'm very excited about it!

In addition, I had another idea for culture.  Since I'd like to do about books per semester (one each quarter), I can compile a list of culture topics related to the book.  To keep the topics organized by which book we're reading, and possibly to help students create connections between different aspects of the culture, each topic would have an assigned date with one topic per day.  Students would sign up for which date/topic they would like to research and do a brief presentation on.  (Depending on how students sign up, I could either skip the remaining topics or do them myself.)  I want to explore different "approved" presentation methods to allow students some flexibility to use their strengths and interests along with a topic somewhat of their choice.  With only one 3- to 5-minute presentation per day, these would be spread out across the course of the semester, but not on our week set aside for reading.  Instead, all of the topics related to that particular book would be presented before our class novel-reading, which I believe would greatly enhance the class's background knowledge about the book and our discussions during the reading.  In lower levels, students could do their presentations in English, and, eventually in higher levels, I could require students to do their presentations in Spanish.

I can't wait to read more!  I haven't read any of the other novels (except "El Nuevo Houdini"), but right now I feel like those would best serve as class library books for free-choice reading.  If I got a few of each novel, I'd have enough books to go around and most students should be able to find something appropriate for their level :)

Culture Projects

Culture is going to be an important aspect of our curriculum, and I had an idea as I was laying out my curriculum map.  One of the most valuable learning experiences I had was my senior project in high school as well as my capstone class report in college.  What set these assignments and projects apart from the rest of my school experience was the degree of flexibility we were allowed in selecting our subject.  Given loose guidelines, I was able to choose something of most interest and relevancy to me.  For example, in my senior project, I had to choose something I wanted to change in my community, form an opinion, and propose a solution (persuasive).  My capstone class was more expository and I had to select a topic related to any of the themes or ideas presented in any of the literature and media we had read/viewed during the course - the topic was the Dirty War in Argentina, but had many underlying themes like friendship, family, love, and patriotism, so anyone could find something they were interested in if they searched hard enough.  While the subject matter was flexible, the requirements were very specific.  For example, my senior project required a research paper and proposal as well as a presentation in front of a panel of judges, while my capstone class took us through a series of activities and assignments that culminated in a presentation of our paper to the class during which our classmates graded us using a rigorous rubric.

I'd like to give my students this same opportunity.  Since our curriculum will be novel-based, I'm thinking that we'll read one novel each quarter, then students will have time to prepare a "culture project" with specific requirements, but flexibility in what students choose to present.  I imagine I would like to do this similar to my capstone course and require students to choose a cultural theme or idea present in the novel we read that quarter.  Of course, students will need to get their topic approved by me first, but I think this would be a fantastic way to dive into the culture in our books.

Here are a few ideas I have for projects, mostly inspired by the projects I did in high school or college:

• Create an artistic representation of your idea and present/explain it to the class
• Prepare a dramatic piece (can perform a scene, interpretation, monologue, puppet show, etc)
• Create a cultural artifact (food, clothing, tool, model, etc....)

Getting deeper into the book, there are more specific things like creating a political poster, a passport, diary of a character, design a house or market booth, draw a map, etc.  Once I select the books I want to use, I'll make a list of ideas I have but also allow students to come up with their own (approved) ideas for their projects.  I did find a lot of cool ideas on this site!

I'm excited to dive into the books and begin thinking about the culture we could pull in!

Sample Lesson Plan 3

Lesson Plan

• Date: March 12, 2013
• Class: Spanish 1
• Lesson #: 1.1.2 – Novel, Culture, and Assessment
• Objectives: Read a novel for 8 minutes and write a summary of the reading.  Sing the countries and Capitals of Central America.  Write in Spanish for 5 minutes.
• Evaluation: Students will respond correctly and appropriately to comprehension questions and sing along with the class with enthusiasm.  They will also count the number of words they can write in 5 minutes.
• Resources/Technology: Structure Cards, El Nuevo Houdini, Rapitals Powerpoint and Song
• State Standards: WL1.1.3.2: Recognize written forms of basic vocabulary.; WL1.1.3.3: Associate the written text with spoken forms.; WL1.3.2.1: Locate the areas in the world where the target language is spoken.; WL1.1.4.4: Construct simple sentences using familiar vocabulary and phrases.

Posted Agenda:

1. Pruebita
2. El Nuevo Houdini
3. CA Countries and Capitals
4. Timed write

Lesson Plan:

1.   Pruebita (10 minutes) - take attendance during this time

• On page 12 of your IN (Interactive Notebook), answer these questions in Spanish:
• ¿Cómo te llamas?
• ¿Qué tienes?
• ¿Qué quieres?
• ¿Adónde vas en la noche?
• Correct and graph your score in your IN.

2.   El Nuevo Houdini (20 minutes)

• Librarians get books for their group and open to page 1.  I translate and students chorally translate the next word when I pause.
• After 8 minutes, ask and answer comprehension and discussion questions in Spanish using structures.
• Librarians collect and return them to the shelf.

3.   Countries and Capitals (45 minutes)

• Display Rapitals powerpoint.  Present country locations, names, and capitals one by one, adding actions.  Each time a country and capital is added, sing the capitals with actions we've done so far up to the next one until the song is complete.
• Students stand and sing with the Rapitals song, including actions.

3.   Timed Write (15 minutes)

• Display structures on the board.
• Students open their notebooks to the appropriate page.  When I say "go", they begin writing.  When the timer goes off in 5 minutes, students put an X and count the words they got.
• Scores are graphed in their IN