During Wooly Week 2017 Sr. Wooly released one of my now-favorite videos, Amnesia. In the video, a man mysteriously wakes up in the middle of the street and can’t remember who he is. The song is a great set of input for “No sé que hacer” and “no recuerdo (nada)” as well as looking at the differences between saber and conocer. Let me tell you how I used this song in my classroom and share with you some activities.

1. Before Amnesia, I actually used the Senor Wooly song “No voy a levantarme” first. We acted out a very simple version of this story in class where a student is sleeping and his mom tried to wake him up. In groups of 3, one student played the sleeping child, one the mother, and the other person was the narrator (who was also responsable for making sure the actors performed their dialogue correctly). I had two different scripts ready for students to act out. The main focus was on the daily routine phrases “se despierta”, “se levanta” y “se acuesta”.  

Check out the script here.

2. After using the scripts and becoming familiar with the phrases, it’s time for the video. Show your students the video for “No voy a levantarme” from SenorWooly.com.  You can also movie-talk the video by narrating what is happening in the video.

3. For additional input of these phrases, I also movie-talked the animated short, Destiny. This year, during a sick day, I had students watch the video with my narration on Edpuzzle with comphrension check quesions. I’ll be blogging about how to use Edpuzzle as a sub-plan soon. (Subscribe to our blog at the upper right of page)

4. Now that the students are familiar with the “waking up” and “getting up” it was time to reinforce these words in a new story, which was a preview to “Amnesia”.

First part of lesson: Act out.
I have divided a story into 9 parts, with scenes for 1,2,3 people. I randomly pass these out to students, putting them in groups according to how many people are needed for that scene. I give the class a few minutes to read their scene and prep their scene. Randomly, each group presents. When they present, they give their sheet to me and I become the narrator.

I can see how well they comprehend what is saying by seeing what the actors do. During the scene, I can also do some circling (asking questions) or provide additional input by interjecting into the scene.

There is some added mystery to this as well as some of the information is redacted. Students don’t necessarily know all the scenes make up 1 story and since it is not in order, it does not flow like an actual story. The purpose is to practice the vocabulary and provide input.

Part Two: Piecing it together
Then, I take the 9 sheets and cut them apart and shuffle them. In small groups of 3-4 students work together to try to piece the scenes together to make it a story. When they do, they will spell the keyword. What is the mystery behind this strange, strange story….???

Part Three: Reveal
Once the students have correctly put the story together, I project the complete story without the information redacted and we read it together.

Download the complete story (includes an editable version) of the Complete Story, 9 Scenes with redactions for acting, and 9 redacted scenes for students to put in order.

This all leads up to… SenorWooly‘s video “Amnesia”. If you have a subscription, your next step would be to watch the video.