More Spanish

Five for Friday: 5 uses for movie clips

My students are constantly trying to convince me to see a movie in class.  However, it’s rare that I show a full length film.  My intermediate students don’t have the language skills to view a full 90 minute movie in Spanish, and many of the movies filmed in Spanish speaking countries have inappropriate language or scenes sprinkled here and there.  I still try and incorporate authentic language via films, but I use short clip throughout the year with a variety of lesson plans.  Here are five ideas to use in class.

1.Show a movie clip and have the students ask each other questions about what they saw.  I usually will show the clip and model the kinds of questions they can ask, then I will show the clip again & have the students jot down questions for each other as they see the clip again.  

    ¿Dónde vive la chica? ¿Qué ropa lleva?

    ¿Qué estación es? ¿Quién está con la chica?

2. Show a movie clip with specific conflict between two or three characters.  Now have partners role play a short conversations between the characters.  I keep this very short about-- 4-6 lines of dialog per character, and I encourage my students to come up with the conversation off the top of their heads rather than write the conversation. I love this Pixar collection of short films for this activity.  Most of Pixar’s shorts have little dialogue, and will have vocabulary that beginning students can manipulate. 

3. Another variation to the activity above that focuses more on written communication, is to have the students narrate or describe what will happen next in the movie.  I usually keep it short-- maybe a paragraph, and then ask them to share their work in small groups.

4. I always introduce preterit vs imperfect with a short movie clip.  My favorite one in the last couple of years has been a 10-12 minute section from El Orfanato.  The selection I chose has little dialogue, and with a little bit of backstory, the students can follow the action because it is so visual.  I will stop the movie at strategic times to explain what tense I would use if I were re-telling the story to a friend.  The next few days, I will continually refer to the examples from the movie in class when explaining preterit or imperfect.  Of course you could use a movie clip to introduce or practice other specific grammar points.

5. A short clip from a movie can be used to introduce a cultural topic or theme. Pan’s Labyrinth comes to mind for advanced students as a way to start studying the Civil War in Spain.

What other things do you do with movie clips?  Can you recommend other movies that are high interest and/or school appropriate in the target language?  I'd love to hear your ideas.

 

App Review: Sock Puppets

I was catching up with my RSS feed, and ran across a Sock Puppet app for iPhones & iPads on The Creative Language Class.  I downloaded the free app immediately, and created the following skit.

 

How cute is that! I can see this as another alternative for prepared conversations with partners, or as a way for me to present grammatical topics in a conversation.  I had to mess around with the upload to YouTube for a bit, but part of that had to do with having two YouTube accounts open on my iPad.  You can select the puppets, the background and a few props.  Once the stage is set, you tap on the puppet that you want to talk, and record what it will say.  Once you are done, you save your show and can export it to Facebook or YouTube. You can go into the settings and modify the pitch of each individual puppet also. I'd love to hear about other ideas you have using this app!

Five for Friday: 5 Web 2.0 tools to record oral communication

I am working on a series of blog posts for the summer called Five for Friday.  

Today I want to share my favorite five Web 2.0 tools to record oral communication in the classroom.The biggest shift in oral assessment for my class occurred because of the variety of web 2.0 tools that can be used to record students.  I still believe the best way to practice the language is in person, with a partner or in small groups, but the best way to formally assess a large group of students (at the same time) or gauge their progress is by using the following tools.  Each one will fulfill a different need. 

Google Voice My students use this tool weekly.  They record their homework on it.  I will ask them to record textbook prompted conversations with it occasionally, and I used it on my semester exam this year.  GV is free for me and the students, but does require you to have cell phone connectivity in your classroom.  Most of my students have a cell phone, and GV will also work with a landline, so if a student left their phone at home, they can use our department office phone or borrow a classmate’s.  The voicemail will record up to @90 seconds, and is very clear to listen to, even when all my students are recording at the same time.  You can read about how I set up the oral portion to my final exam here.  

Voicethread My class gets a lot of mileage from Voicethread as well.  There is a little bit of a learning curve so I phase it in over the course of 3-4 weeks.  I expose them to VT by having them do a listening activity with it first.  Then they create accounts & record a comment on another VT.  Finally they will create their own VT for a formal assessment when they describe things they used to do when they were in pre-school.  Several students will use this as a homework option, and more will use it for our “How- to…” presentations.  This tool works for oral work that has been scripted, planned and is more formal in nature. It is also free up to 3 VTs per account, and will require microphones.  One of my students found the Voicethead App on her iPhone easier to navigate & I know there is also an iPad App.

Lingt Language I did not use this website this year, but as I was preparing for an end of school inservice that described it, I regretted not using it.  It is very user friendly for the kids to use.  I ran into a couple of glitches setting up one of my assignments, and found the support to be very helpful.   You provide a prompt for your students like a photo, short movie clip or even questions you want them to hear & respond to.  The student can then record their response and submit using an email address.  They do not need an account.    You will need to have computers & microphones.  The kids can listen to what they said and record again if they need to.  When I used it previously, I figured out I needed to give them a time frame to complete their task, otherwise students will write out & then read their response, and I want to use this more for “off the top of their head” kind of communication.  The really cool feature of Lingt is that you can record or type in feedback for each individual student & send it to their email.  Lingt has a free account you can try out or you can purchase an upgrade.  

Cell phone Record App  If I am not mistaken most smart phones have the capability of being used as a portable recorder.  I know iPhones and iPods have free apps that can be downloaded and used to capture short conversations.  My students have used thses in the past when they have interviewed native Spanish speakers outside of the classroom or interviewed upper level students for a homework assignment.  The student would then send the recording to me via email or depending on the assignment, would play it for me in class. 

Audio Dropbox from CLEAR This is another tool that I have used in the past because it is so easy to use with my students, but I have replaced it with Google Voice.  This could be an option for those classrooms that can’t use cell phones.  The teacher creates a dropbox with a prompt and can embed it on a web site.  Students would then record their responses and type their names to identify themselves.  When I used it a couple years ago, it was not as media rich as Lingt, but it worked well, and it is free.

Audacity Alright, so this is #6.  I can’t complete this post without mentioning Audacity.  Some teachers love this tool.  I have used this with small groups of students, but I’ll be honest, it has a learning curve, especially if you want the kids to save the file as an MP3.  Part of the issue might be that I don’t find mixing programs to be very intuitive, and I am not comfortable trouble-shooting some of the issues.  Without a doubt it is a very powerful program, and it is free.  I could see students producing very professional podcasts with Audacity.  Here are examples of a podcasts on self-selected topics my students put together a couple years ago.  

What are your favorite tools to record oral communication?

 

App Review: Brian Pop Esp

One of the inservice sessions I attended yesterday had to do with iPads in the classroom.
I am curious to see how many of my students will be bringing iPads to class next year.  (Our district will allow each student to bring their own device, so I know I will have a variety of tablets
and laptops.)  I am still surprised by the lack of Apps that specifically target my classroom.  Don’t get me wrong there are many good Apps out there like Wordreference and Voicethread that can be used in the class, but few that take advantage of the visual and audio capabilities of the iPad AND
have specific content in intermediate Spanish for a high school student.   

One that has potential is Brain Pop.  This app presents a 4-5 minute movie on a specific topic like Frida Kahlo or water pollution in Spanish with lots of animation.  The script runs at the bottom
of the movie so the learner can hear and see the words.  The vocabulary is not watered down, but there are a lot of cognates.  It may be a challenge for many of my Spanish 3 kids, but I would love to test it out & see how much of the information they can get using previous knowledge, context
clues and the animation.  After seeing the video, the student can re-watch or take a 10 question quiz. 

What content-rich apps have you used with your students?

Power Up inservice for FL teachers

Next year our high schools will be encouraging students to bring their own device (laptop, iPad, tablet) to school for educational purposes.  This is a very big step for any district, and can be very daunting for everyone involved. Tomorrow I will be sharing what I have been doing in my class with my colleagues.  I have been writing about my own journey with technology in my Spanish classroom since 2009, and I have picked up a thing or two along the way.  

• Technology should enhance and not distract from the lesson.
• Web 2.0 tools & devices allow students to collaborate from multiple locations & with different schedules.
• If the tool is not user friendly, it's not worth using. However, all technology has a learning curve, and the teacher needs to incorporate this into his/her expectations.
• Technology allows for differentiation in the classroom, but this doesn't mean we get rid of methods or lessons that work without computers or devices.
• Learning a language takes time and practice.  The Internet is filled with resources that will support a language learner to develop fluency.  It's our job as a language educator to expose our students to those resources, but the students need to actively engage in the language to actually learn it. 

Here is the Google Doc I created to share resources and student examples.  I am thankful for a great group of students over the past three years who contributed to this document by producing quality work. Please feel free to view, and add your thoughts about language learning and technology in the comment section.

Assessment through an authentic exchange

I found out through a student’s blog that one of his classmates wanted to be a marine biologist.  One of my cousins, Diego Amorocho, is a well known marine biologist that specializes in marine turtles.  Since our last unit of the year had to do with careers and the environment I asked my future biologist if he would prefer to write my cousin a letter asking about his work instead of taking the lesson quiz.  At first my student was a little reluctant.  He said he felt like his language skills were not up to writing to a “real” Spanish speaker.  I assured him that they were, and gave him a link to a video that introduced him to Diego’s work.  He came in the next day very willing to write. 

Here is the exchange: 

My student to Diego...

Cuando Señora Amorocho me dijo que eres un biológo del mar estuve muy interestante. Me encanta el oceano también y todos mis amigos dicen que yo deba trabajar con animales del agua. Estoy seguro que quiero conservar animales en peligro de extincíon y creo que biologia es una buena carrera hacer esto. No estoy seguro si sea mejor pasar mas tiempo en una universidad o empezar trabajando an el aire libre primero. ¿Que crees? Siempre reciclo y ayudo a mejorar el medio ambiente es muy importante a mi. Me encantan los peces del oceano Pacifico y tengo muchos peces y corales en aquarios. ¿Que sugieres haga apprender mas de estés animales? Trabajaré con estes animales por mucho tiempo, pero la condicion del mar tropico es muy grave. Como la selva tropical, hay mucha contaminacion del arecife y no hay muchos puros no mas. Crees que podramos salvarlos? Yo creo que si todos de la tierra trabaja, mejoraremos el mundo y los arecifes no sean contaminado no más. ¿Que haces con las tortugas del mar? Nadé con uno en el verano pasado por unos minutos cuando me buccee, pero eso era en el caríbe. Regresaré este verano y espero nadar con mas. ¿Crees que haya muchas tortugas en Colombia, o están en peligro de extinción? No hay muchos en los Estados unidos. Espero trabajar al lado del mar, pero no sé si puedo. Ire a una universidad para aprender biología, pero no sé si hay muchas carreras con el mar. ¿Que sugieres estudiar para recibir un buen trabajo? Pasare mucho tiempo en paises otros si es necesario. ¡Gracias para la ayuda! 

 Su Amigo,

MW

 Diego back to my student

Hola M, 

Gracias por tu estimulante mensaje. Desde ya puedo decir que eres un héroe del planeta. Estoy seguro que con tu ayuda podremos salvar a las tortugas marinas y otras especies amenazadas de extinción en el Pacifico tropical y el resto de los mares de nuestra tierra. Creo que serás un excelente biólogo y me encantaría poder ayudarte a que así sea. En Colombia te estaremos esperando cuando quieras venir para que nos acompañes en nuestra misión de proteger y cuidar a estas hermosas criaturas de las cuales tenemos tanto por aprender. Te invito ba que visites las páginas www.cimad.org y www.wwf.org donde encontraras mas información sobre lo que yo y mis amigos hacemos por los mares de nuestro planeta azul. 

Un abrazo. Diego Amorocho Ph.D

 

I can’t express how thrilled I was by this exchange.  I want to thank my cousin for taking the time to read the letter & write back, but also for giving my student an authentic audience that went beyond the school walls.  I would love to be able to do this more often.  Can you imagine getting rid of traditional assessments in order to have students produce authentic communication with an authentic audience?  Our blog project was a step in the right direction, I would just like to be able to personalize even more.  I can’t provide a specialized audience for each of my students, but I’m also not sure how to challenge my students to find their own audience, or to even be able to identify their passion.  

How have you been able to create a connection between your class and your student’s interests?  How have your students found an audience to authentically use the language?