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5 Things You Didn’t know about 5 de Mayo

Posted on May 2, 2011 by spanishplans

5 Things you Didn’t know about Cinco de Mayo:

1: When: May 5th, 1862. Unlike Independence Day, celebrated September 15 and 16th, which is the largest national celebration, Cinco de Mayo is only celebrated regionally and in fact, is celebrated more in the United States than it is in Mexico.

2. Where: Puebla, Mexico, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of Mexico City.

3: What: One particular battle in which a small, local group of Mexicans were able to defeat the well-trained and well-equipped French army, despite being outnumbered. Estimates range from a 500 to a 2,500 difference with the Mexican contingent being around 4,500 men. This David v. Goliath victory was a rallying point for Mexican Unity and national pride. However, in the end, French won the war and occupied Mexico for 4 years with Napoleon’s appointing his relative Maximilian as ruler, until he was later overthrown and executed.

4: Why: The French invaded Mexico since Mexico was unable to repay its debt to France, who was looking to expand its empire. While the United States certainly did not want France to occupy the land to our south, Lincoln was a little bit occupied with our own Civil War.

5. It is not a national holiday in Mexico. Most Mexicans do not celebrate 5 de Mayo. However, commercial interests have long promoted it in the United States with Mexican food and beverages.

sources: http://www.mexonline.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm

Posted in Culture, History | Tagged 5demayo, cinco de mayo, Holidays | 5 Comments

Cinco de Mayo

Posted on April 27, 2011 by spanishplans

Oh great, it’s that time of year again. The one day a year Americans pay attention to the Mexican “culture”. It’s the one date your average American can say in Spanish. (Although I’m sure we’ve all had that student who has asked what day is Cinco de Mayo!) But why May 5? Why is this the holiday that seems to be the focus of all Spanish classrooms? Have you ever looked through a foreign language catalog? Count the number of products featuring 5 de Mayo. It will undoubtedly outrank any other cultural aspect of any country. Go to a party store. Guaranteed you’ll find a section with “Cinco de Mayo” decorations.

But why? What is Cinco de Mayo? To learn of its historical significance, I suggest reading this page, and recommend sharing it with your students.

Before we look at what it is, lets talk about what it is NOT:
It is not Mexican Independence Day. Repeat, it is NOT Mexican Independence Day. If there is just one thing that my students remember from my class, I hope it is this piece of information. I know that if they don’t continue to study Spanish, that in 15 years, they may not remember what a “reflexive verb” is, or what “-ar preterite endings” are, but if they can spread the message of what 5 de Mayo actually is, then I will feel successful.

Yes, students commonly mistake this holiday for Mexican Independence Day. And why wouldn’t they? How many products do you see being sold for that “holiday”? How many Spanish classes have a “party” on September 15? (“It’s too early in the year for a party”) Now compare that number to the number of celebrations that take place in Spanish classes for May 5th. (“It’s almost the end of the year!”) I’m not slamming those who do celebrate this holiday, but comparing the attention it receives in relation to actual important events in Mexican history.

I believe that Spanish teachers are perpetuating ignorance by insisting on having celebrations on Cinco de Mayo instead of actually informing students. What do students remember? Parties, Celebrations, fun, food, fiestas! “Well, we had a party in Spanish class, so it must be Independence Day” When the focus is food rather than information, students lose focus.

Fact is, Cinco de Mayo is not even celebrated throughout Mexico. It is celebrated more in the U.S. than it is in Mexico. Yes, Cinco de Mayo has its regional historical significance. Yes, it continues to be celebrated in the town of Puebla, Mexico. Outside of Puebla, no one in Mexico celebrates Cinco de Mayo. It is not a national holiday. However, it is marketed by companies to sell products to Americans. People who know nothing at all about its history are the first to the bar and Mexican restaurants to consume Corona, tequila, tacos, and quesadillas. Actually talk to someone from Mexico and you will get a complete different perspective on this “holiday”.

This day is not even one of the major Mexican holidays. Clearly the celebrations of Independence September 15 and 16th are at the top of the list. And after that you have November 20th (Día de la Revolución), February 5th (Día de la Constitución), and March 21 (Día del Natalicio de Benito Juárez). But I guess el quince de septiembre, veinte de noviembre, cinco de febrero, and veintiuno de marzo are not as easy for English speakers to say when they are un poco tomado.

One of the best analogies I have heard about the foolishness of making a big deal of Cinco de Mayo comes from a former colleague of mine, who was born and raised in Mexico City:
Americans celebrating Cinco de Mayo is like Mexicans celebrating a battle that the South won in the Civil War, a war which they lost.

It’s your turn. Comment below with your reactions. Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo in your class? Do you celebrate other Mexican holidays in a similar fashion? If you asked your students, would they be able to accurately tell you what 5 de mayo is? What are your plans this year for May 5th?

Posted in Culture, Discussion/Methodology, History | Tagged cinco de mayo | 31 Comments

Expresate Spanish Resources

Posted on April 2, 2011 by spanishplans

Expresate Chapter 1
–Subject Pronouns Practice on Powerpoint
–Teaching Subject Pronouns (5 pages)
–Teaching Subject Pronouns with Pictures
–Telling Time : Notes and Quiz (FREE)

Expresate Chapter 2
–Expresate Chapter 2 Test (Adjectives, Gustar)
–Ser Adjectives Flashcards

Expresate Chapter 3
–Expresate Chapter 3 Test (gustar, ir, jugar, ar verbs) and Review

Expresate Chapter 4
–Expresate Chapter 4 Files- 19 Documents, Worksheets
–Expresate Chapter 4 Test and Review Game
–Getting students to practice vocabulary

Expresate Chapter 5
–Expresate Chapter 5 Files- 20 Documents, Worksheets
–Expresate Chapter 5 QUIZZES (vocab and grammar) family/house/chores
–Spanish Location words: Prepositions, preposiciones Interactive Lesson
–Family Familia Album / Book Project W/ RUBRIC
–Guess Who? Game Clue sheet for students
–Chores Vocabulary student oral activity Spanish
–Tocar Worksheet and Parecer Worksheet
–Facebook Myspace Profile Description Project

Expresate Chapter 6
–Expresate Chapter 6 Files – Documents, Worksheets
–Expresate Chapter 6 Food Vocab Presentation
–Expresate Chapter 6 Test, Review Game, Study Guide
–Food Vocabulary Unit for Spanish: Worksheets, Quiz
–Food Project (Level 1) with Rubric
–Spanish Food Oral Partner Speaking Listening Activity Comida
–Spanish Food Vocab Bingo
–Ser and Estar Unit Lesson Plan Packet: Spanish (19 pages) (pdf)
–Ser and Estar Unit Lesson Plan Packet: Spanish (19 pages) Editable (.doc)
–Affirmative Informal Commands Powerpoint Notes
–Ser Estar Practice Review Powerpoint Whiteboard
–Ser Estar study sheet cheat sheet BOOKMARKS
–Commands and Direct Object Pronoun Practice Powerpoint
–Direct Object Pronoun Notes and Practice Spanish Worksheet
–Direct Object Pronoun Practice Spanish

Expresate Chapter 7
–Expresate Chapter 7 Test, Review Packet (with answers)
–Spanish Body Parts Drawing for Listening
–Spanish Body Parts Project and Presentation
–Body Parts Spanish Memory Game
–Reflexive Verb Unit Lesson Plan Packet
–Reflexive Verbs Guided Notes packet
–Doctor Skit (Projecto de Salud) with Rubric for Spanish
–Dear Abbey Asking and Giving Advice Project
–Positive and Negative Informal Commands Practice
–Tener Expressions + Feelings and Estar and adjectives (answers included)

Expresate Chapter 8 and Chapter 9
–Clothing Shopping Spanish Unit
–Corte Ingles Clothing Webquest
–Preterite of AR Verbs
–Preterite of -IR, -ER verbs
–Preterite Spanish Powerpoint Past Tense
–Preterite and Informal Commands Application Worksheet
–Preterite Canciones Songs for Past Tense Spanish
–Preterite Pack: El preterito– All the above files plus more for one low price!

Chapter 8:
La Ropa : Clothing Unit pack

If you are looking for Worksheets and Assessments for ALL of Level 1, look no further Expresate Level 1 File Pack 23 MB – Check out the free preview to see all that is included in this Mega-pack.

Spanish Level II:
Spanish Conversation Cards Level II – Oral Speaking Activity Our most popular item now expands to level two, with 28 pages of questions to get your students responding to questions. Divided into 15 common topics and themes from level 2 classes.

To be alerted of new products, follow me and you will receive an e-mail when new items have been posted: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Sellers-Im-Following/Add/Spanishplans

Other Resources:
Spanish Verbs Word Wall Bulletin: Make a word wall using the verbs from Expresate
Spanish Speaking Country Research Project: Have students research a Hispanic country
Latino America: Central and South America Country Capital Quiz: Geography quiz
Spanish I Resource Book of Worksheets: The BEST collection of all our items
Spanish Conversation Cards – Oral Speaking Activity: Makes a great emergency lesson plan or for when you have a few minutes left at the end of class
Spanish Bell ringers: Our most popular product
Pronunciation Assessment / Oral Speaking Test: Focus on pronunciation of vowels and syllables
Free Animales Unit Spanish: Students love this lesson!

For an updated list click the “Our Products“.

Posted in Expresate textbook, Resources | Tagged espanol, Expresate, spanish, teaching resources, worksheets | Leave a comment

Past Tense

Posted on March 21, 2011 by spanishplans

I remember hearing that over 85% of communication in a language is in the past tense. Yet, we as language teachers, generally wait until second year to fully engage our students in past tense. Ideally, we should be introducing and exposing students to past tense throughout the whole year. If you are a TPRS teacher, we surely can incorporate past tense into our teaching without teaching the specific endings. For those more traditional teachers, we seem to wait until the end of level 1, as textbooks dictate, before introducing past tense.

I like to first introduce my students to the verb “ir” in the past tense by asking about their weekends when we start class on Monday. The question “Adónde fuiste este fin de semana” with a response of “Yo fui a….” every Monday has students talking about where they went, without even realizing they are using a different tense. (Although explaining that “Yo fui a mi casa” is not a valid response may take some more time 😉 )

So here are our products that feature the El Pretérito, the Spanish Preterite (I just can’t spell it Preterit):

FREE Spanish Preterite Lesson: Preterite of AR Verbs:
See why over 300 people have downloaded this packet. The introduction to the preterite tense explains the difference from present tense to past tense and builds on prior learning. Focuses on the endings of -AR verbs in the preterite and explains -Car, -Gar, -Zar verbs.

Preterite of -IR, -ER verbs
If you liked the -AR packet, this one is next in line. 6 page packet reviews -AR verbs in past tense and shows differences between present and past of -ER, and -IR verbs highlighting the difference between “boot” verbs and “flip-flip” verbs. Gives conjugation practice and practice choosing the correct verb for a specific sentence. Includes answers and an alternate packet without flip-flop verbs to keep it simple. Total of 13 pages!

Preterite and Informal Commands Application Worksheet
2 pages to practice with the Spanish past tense of el preterito
Practices using Informal Tú Commands (Positive and Negative)/ Mandatos (Afirmativos y Negativos)
First page: Write a command, telling someone what to do or not to do, based on something that they DID. (20 sentences) Second page: Write what someone did based on what someone is telling them not to do. (14 sentences)
Involves higher level thinking as students are responding to something in the target language and their is no one single answer; they can answer in a variety of ways.

Preterite Spanish Powerpoint Past Tense:
A Powerpoint presentation of 8 slides for student to practice el preterito.
Can be used as Bell Ringer, Class Activity, Exit Slip, or just review.
Presentation includes the answers, just click space bar to begin.

Preterite Canciones Songs for Past Tense Spanish
4 authentic Spanish songs that feature forms of the preterite tense. Includes links to the official video and complete lyrics. Cloze activity (fill in the blanks listening activity) lyric sheet included for one of the songs.
Bonus song also included that is a ‘prequel’ to one of the past tense songs.
Featured songs by: Juanes, Maná, Camila, and Nelly Furtado.
Don’t have YouTube access at school to show the videos? Don’t worry. Instructions included on how to download videos from YouTube and save them to your computer.

Preterite Pack:

Get all of these:
-AR Past Tense Notes Packet (4 pages + answers)*
-ER/IR Past Tense Notes Packet (6 pages + answers)*
-Worksheet on choosing the correct verb and conjugating it based on the sentences (includes answers)
-Powerpoint of Bell Ringers or Class Activities
-Double Sided Worksheet using informal postive and negative commands with past tense*
-Past Tense songs (4 songs using el preterito)*
-Worksheet on IR in past tense
-2 Quizzes
-Timeline project

*Files in BOTH PDF and Word, making it capable to edit the files to more directly fit your own classroom’s need

So, do you spell it Preterite or Preterit?

Posted in Lesson Plans, Resources | Tagged conjugation, preterite, verbs | Leave a comment

Updates

Posted on March 16, 2011 by spanishplans

Just a few quick notes. On Wednesdays we will be posting a link on our twitter (@spanishplans) whether it be a web2.0 tool, cool Spanish sites, education sites, or other sites of interests to educators.

Our previous two:
Wed, March 16: http://capl.washjeff.edu/index.php Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon: images for language learning
Wed, March 9: Our first website includes games and activities in Spanish: http://www.hello-world.com/Spanish/index.php

***Updated: All links to these websites are now featured on our sqworl.

TeachersPayTeachers Updates: We posted two new products utilizing songs in your Spanish class. One I used for a 4 day week as Bell Ringer cloze listening activity. The other one has 4 songs that feature preterite form verbs.

Canciones Songs for Spanish Bell Work
Features songs by Jesse & Joy and Juanes. Includes complete lyrics and cloze lyrics and also a list of cognates. Also links to the official music videos.

Preterite Canciones Songs for Past Tense Spanish
4 songs: Juanes, Maná, Camila, Nelly Furtado
Includes full lyrics.
Forms of past tense in songs include:
se lanzó, llegó, se conectó, contó, regresó, se quedó, mató, enterró, enseñó, prometió, tracionó, tronaron, fue, encontró, desapareció, amó, creció, abandonó, maltrató, fue, preguntó, negó, dio, lastimó, escuchó, quiso, olvidó, llevó, se apagó, lloró, cambió, vi, me convertí, fue, fui, tembló, escribió, pasó, sentí, me sorprendió, estuve, tuve, di, fue, me sentí, vi, busqué, encontré, llegaste, sangró, perdí

Posted in Web2.0 Technology | Tagged canciones, música, twitter, webwed | Leave a comment

Comics

Posted on March 6, 2011 by spanishplans

We talked about creating comics and cartoons about a month ago, and we are back with some more ideas and new sites.

Did you know that creating comics is one way to differentiate in your classroom? Differentiated instruction can be in the form of choices and regards for multiple intelligences. Having students work on cartoons fits both categories as you are adhering to the visual/spatial intelligence and logical/mathematical intelligence. You can also allow students to have choice with these activities. You may give them a number of different comics to choose from and they pick a certain number of those to complete.

Our newest comic creation website is called Make Beliefs, a free comic strip creation tool that provides students with a variety of templates, characters, and prompts for building their own comic strips. The site provides students with a pre-drawn characters and dialogue boxes which they can insert into each box of their comic strip. The editing options allow users the flexibility to alter the size of each character and also their emotions.

Sample Comic from MakeBeliefsComix.com

The nice thing is that they are black and white outline and make quality copies on the copy machine. You can even have your students color them in themselves.

The following samples were created from ToonDoo and I let me students finish the already started comics.

Or let the student create the whole comic strip:

These make ok copies as well, although you can decide if you want to add background and other items (there are soooo many items to add in!)

Some ideas for students to draw with their comics are to:
-Introducing someone
-Asking someone about their plans
-Declining an invitation, making an excuse
-Talking about food
-Telling a sibling what to do
-Talking about likes and dislikes
-Describing what you did on vacation

As you can see, these activities can be used in Level 1 and go all the way through Level 4 and above in any foreign language class.

Posted in Projects, Web2.0 Technology | Tagged comics, tiras comicas, web2.0 | 1 Comment

Listening Activities and native speakers

Posted on March 1, 2011 by spanishplans

Someone passed along this website to me and it is a great tool for all foreign language teachers. RhinoSpike is an online language learning community tool that lets users around the globe connect and exchange foreign language audio files. Get any foreign language text read aloud for you by a native speaker.

Sign up is free, you can submit text in the language you want it recorded in and include directions on how you want it read. Other users record themselves speaking and upload the audio file to the website for you to download. Teachers helping teachers. Students helping students. Hear how a native speaker would pronounce certain words or texts. Right now there are thousands of request for English recordings and hundreds of requests and recordings of Spanish audio. Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Korean, Russian, and many other world languages are also available!

As a teacher, I have used this in my Spanish classroom as part of listening activities. I submitted a short short text, along with a set of questions. A woman from Spain, uploaded these recordings and I was able to download them as an mp3 file and upload them to iTouch for students to listen to individually.

I first have the students listen to the audio track to see how much of the recording they can understand. Then, I have them listen to it again, this time, reading along with a script of the recording.
I then had the students transcribe the questions on a piece of paper. They wrote the questions that they heard. (I had a few notecards with the actual questions so they could check what they wrote to make sure it was correct). Then you can have the students answer the questions using the text.

If you do pronunciation assessments in your class, you can have a native speaker record a script or certain sentences that you will assess the students on. You can upload this audio file to your website and students can download it at home, or even put it on their music players, so they can listen to it as many times as they want and practice it on their own.

For ideas on pronunciation assessments, see below…. Continue reading →

Posted in Resources | Tagged native speaker, pronunciation, rhinospike, speaking, web2.0, webtools, webtools2.0 | 3 Comments

Los Enanitos Verdes A Las 3

Posted on February 24, 2011 by spanishplans

Another song to use in your Spanish class. Includes very easy vocabulary that a student in level one could understand with some help. Includes many common Spanish 1 verbs in the present tense, but also includes conjugations in the past tense as well. The official video clearly shows the song’s theme of immigration about a man leaving his family behind and his desire to be with them. Would be a good song to supplement an immigration unit or just to do as a listening or cloze activity.

Artist: Los Enanitos Verdes
Song: A las Tres
Video Oficial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RREMRZ8MJMI

Letras:
Sé que muchos no me quieren por aquí
pero no hay trabajo donde yo nací
se termina la jornada
el sol dice hasta mañana
y las nubes se devuelven hacia el sur

Tengo una cama para descansar
y una foto tuya si quiero soñar
voy a serte muy sincero
aunque se gana buen dinero
nunca en mi vida yo sentí esta soledad

Los domingos a las tres
sabes que te llamaré
para mí oir tu voz
es la fuerza, las ganas de seguir

el entusiasmo algunas veces se me va
con la rutina masticando mi verdad
aunque el trabajo sea pesado
yo me la aguanto y no me rajo
es lo mejor que puedo hacer para los dos

los domingos a las tres
sabes que te llamaré
para mí oir tu voz
es la fuerza, las ganas de seguir

Para darte algo mejor
es que yo llegué hasta aquí
a ganar con mi sudor
lo que tantas veces te prometí

The next day, or after the video, I review feelings with them by asking these questions:

edit: We now have a complete lesson that incorporates this song. After showing the music video, have students read a story that describes what happens in the video. Also includes the full lyrics as well as space for a students to write their own version.

Posted in Music | Tagged canciones, enanitos verdes, immigration, letras, música | 1 Comment

Spanish Projects

Posted on February 20, 2011 by spanishplans

7 Ready-to-Use projects for the Spanish 1 classroom. These projects are ready to be utilized in your classroom. Download them now, print the necessary pages, and have your students get to work! These projects can be used as assessments during or at the end of the chapter.

Facebook Profile Description Project
Students will create their own ‘Facebook’ profile page that describes themselves in Spanish. This ‘perfil’ will include students writing about themselves, giving:
name, origin, birthdate, favorite activities, hobbies, movies, tv shows, comments from ‘friends’ and more. Includes list for common vocabulary/terminology used by Facebook.
This projects makes a great review of descriptions that students learn in Spanish 1 and also an easy activity that a sub could do in class. Easy lesson plan. Use in case of emergency with sub or implement into your level 1 or early level 2 class. Although you can even use this in higher levels with ‘past participle” tense.

Doctor Skit (Projecto de Salud) with Rubric for Spanish
This project where students write a dialogue to act out a skit between a doctor and a patient works great with your “Health” (Salud) chapter. The skit (along with its attached rubric) assess students’ application of vocabulary, use of positive and negative commands, as well as reflexive verbs, body parts, and describing pain. This file is a word document so it can be easily adapted to fit your textbook’s requirements for this unit.

Spanish Speaking Country Research Project
Groups will research a Hispanic country in South or Central America. The student project includes a presentation board, map, travel brochure, and flag. Rubric is detailed but this file is a Word file so the buyer can EDIT any part of the project or rubric to their satisfaction.
Students must research their information and cite sources. This project is great for middle school or high school Spanish classes looking to teach about the countries and culture of the Spanish-speaking world.

Family Familia Album / Book Project W/ RUBRIC
Create a book about La Familia. Write descriptions about family members describing what they look like and what they like to do.

Food Project (Level 1) with Rubric
Project allows students the choice of making or performing one of the following: skit, recorded video, interview, comic strip, Children’s book, storyboard, or powerpoint. Great way to differentiate!
Project deals with: Food vocabulary, commands, Direct Objects Pronouns, and restaurant ordering vocabulary.

Spanish Advice Dear Abbey Project
Students write a letter to Abbey describing a problem and then write responses to their classmates with advice. Students can use negative or positive commands in their responses.
Can be used with Health Unit or any other unit where the grammar focus is offering suggestions or giving commands and what someone should do.

Want even more projects? Check out a list of all our projects, plus get them all with one click when you purchase our bundle at a savings of 40%!!

Posted in Projects | Tagged Spanish 1, teacherspayteachers | 2 Comments

YouTube commercials in Spanish

Posted on February 20, 2011 by spanishplans

A great idea over at musicuentos blog….

Youtube is filled with lots of video clips of commercials in Español. For listening comprehension, Musicuentos has come up with the idea of finding Spanish commercials, and writing the script to compile a database for Spanish teachers to use as close activities in class!