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El Clasico

Posted on April 21, 2012 by spanishplans

If you have soccer fans in your classroom, they will undoubtedly know all about the big game this weekend between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Dubbed “El Clásico”, this game is as big as it gets in Spain. For information about el Clásico, see this wikipedia page. When these two teams play each other, everyone is watching, in what is considered the most anticipated game of the year. Lucky for us, they meet at least twice each season; home and away in La Liga. Meetings in other tournaments such as Copa del Rey and European Competition are additional bonuses. Over 218 matches played between the two clubs, the teams have tied 46

Learn more about Spanish Futbol with this La Liga Webquest.

times, with Real Madrid being victorious 88 times and Barcelona winning El Clásico 85 times. These games are also big statements in winning the league that particular season, as these two clubs are almost always at the top of the league standings.

The competitive nature of these two clubs is more than just a fútbol game as Barcelona represents the Catalan region and Madrid was granted use of “Real” by the Spanish Crown, and was favored by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
Check out these infographics detailing the best players of both teams.

Click to enlarge or PIN IT

Click to enlarge or Pin It

Also check out the Mexican Clásico between top teams América and Chivas:

Click to enlarge or Pin it

Surely, being prepared to talk about this game on Monday will spark many of your students’ interest!
Para leer unos tuits sobre #ElClasico… Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | Tagged Barcelona, El Clasico, futbol, Real Madrid | 3 Comments

De Que Me Sirve La Vida

Posted on April 10, 2012 by spanishplans

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about “Tengo Tu Love,” today we listened to Camila’s song “De que me sirve la vida,” a single from their 2010 album “Dejarte de Amar.” It worked as a great activity for students to put the lyrics in order as the song goes at a relatively slow pace that students are able to keep up with. After I made copies of the lyrics, I used the paper-cutter to cut several sheets at a time, but only to the margin so they wouldn’t all mix together. I then took one sheet at a time and made the small cut to gather all the lyrics from only 1 sheet so I could gather them in a paperclip to hand out to the students. Although each student probably would have been able to do this activity on their own, I had them work with partners, so I didn’t need as many sets. You can download my sentence strips here, with teacher copy in proper order and student copy in random order for students to cut out themselves.

At the end of the lyrics, I told that it would repeat again except for the first two strips. That way they could double check their answers or put in any strips they missed. At the end, I projected the lyrics, which almost all students had correct anyway.

We then proceeded to watch the music video, which has a great message. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest watching it now:

After the video, we talked about the message of the video about being accepting of others, and standing up for people. I think this is a great video for teaching tolerance and it also tied in nicely to our recent unit of positive and negative commands.

However, the video flashed those “posters” quite quickly, probably too quickly for a novice learning to be able to read and/or understand. I have taken screen shots of a majority of the posters and compiled them.

The first set of pictures is a majority of the signs; whether is be someone stating a problem, talking about self-worth, talking about how someone else views them or treats them. Also includes the signs from the second set.
The second set of pictures include posters that “da ánima” or enouragement to people. Most are in a command form (mainly informal, affirmative and some negative).

If you want the actual powerpoint, each “sign” on a page, so you can pick and choose the “signs” you want to use, you can download the item for free here.

Posted in Music | Tagged camila, música, Songs, tolerance | 7 Comments

Canciones de Sie7e and Camila

Posted on April 9, 2012 by spanishplans

Today in class, we started with the song “Tengo tu love” by Puerto Rican artist Sie7e (Siete). To start off, I had the students listen to the song and try to write down any names of Spanish or English language artists and also any infinitives. You can have students listen for any particular type of word. It gives the students a meaningful task to focus on listening for something specific.

Then I showed the official video, which is an entertaining video, and I also had up a lyric video so students could see the actual lyrics. To do this, I opened two windows in my internet browers, found the video, and then re-sized the screen so they both fit. I muted one of the videos and away it went. You can see both videos after the jump. After the video, I asked students what country Sie7e was from, and a few were able to tell me Puerto Rico. They were able to recognize the Puerto Rican flag in the video. I also pointed out the use of the word “guagua” which Puerto Ricans use instead of the word “bus”.

To start tomorrow’s class we will be listening to Camila’s song “De que me sirve la vida”. This time, I will print off a lyric sheet and cut them into strips and put the strips into envelopes. Students will work in partners to put the strips in order. You can download my sentence strips here and see the videos after the jump. Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged camila, canciones, música, music, sie7e | Leave a comment

Music Bulletin Board

Posted on March 14, 2012 by spanishplans

In conjunction with one of my recent assignments, which students seemed to enjoy, I decided to put up a new bulletin board on the theme of music. I play música quite a bit in my classes and dedicating a tablón de anuncios was something I’ve been thinking about for some time.

Album Booklets

I used the CD album booklets as well as articles and pictures from magazines that I’ve collected over the year. If your school library has a subscription to People En Español, that’s a good place to start. I also bought some pop-culture Spanish posters drawn by MartinMRochaArt.com including this Adele poster, which students loved! Many students also enjoyed the Beatles posters.

I then made a poster asking students ¿Qué es tu canción favorita?” with a column for Spanish songs and English songs. It allows students to share their own interests and allows them to connect their world with the Spanish speaking side. I hung this poster right next to the bulletin board. Students are sure to be checking this out before class to see what type of music their peers listen to.

The end result is this bulletin board:

Edit:

We now have available for purchase this Juanes poster at SpanishTeacherShop.com: La música es el lenguaje universal.

Posted in Bulletin Boards, Music | Tagged adele, beatles, bulletin board, jesse y joy, música, music, posters | 4 Comments

Central States Conference 2012

Posted on March 9, 2012 by spanishplans

Day 1 of the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (CSCFL) has concluded and we are resting up in anticipation of Day 2. We’ve heard many great things coming out of the many sessions. You can track the talk with twitter hastag #CSC12 and perhaps find some other Foreign Language teachers to be part of your PLN (Personal Learning Network).

We’d like to thank everyone who stopped at our booth today in the exhibition area. Like you, we are current teachers not corporate reps. We look to bring creativity into the classroom by publishing our own materials of engaging lesson plans and classroom decoration. We will be back tomorrow with our postcards, Spanish curriculum materials, Pop Culture music/movies Posters, and more! Los Juegos del Hambre Poster seems to be popular and with posters at buy 2 get 1 free, how can you go wrong?

Spanish teacher and artist, Martin Rocha, takes time for a picture. His prints of his colored-pencil drawings feature pop culture icons of movies and music such as the Beatles, Adele, Captain America, and Thor among others. It’s a great way to connect with your students with these amazing posters for your Spanish classroom. If you were unable to attend the conference, look for these posters coming soon to his website MartinMRochaArt.com or be sure to like him on facebook as well.

For more pictures and information….. Continue reading →

Posted in Resources | Tagged art, Conference, materials, postcards, posters | Leave a comment

Exploring Spanish

Posted on March 6, 2012 by spanishplans

We often listen to Spanish music in my classroom. As students come into class and start on their bellwork or as they are working on certain activities, I will frequently have the CD player with some Juanes or Jesse & Joy, or some other latin artists. The students have come to love the music and even request particular songs from time to time. Other times, we do listening activities where the students fill in blanks to the lyrics of a song, put cut-up strips of the lyrics back in order, or listen for particular words. Sometimes we even watch the video (love not having Youtube blocked!!)

What can I say? I am a huge advocate for music in the classroom. So I came up with the the following assignment as a way to get students to explore some other songs that they might not get a chance to listen to in class. With the availability of music through the Internet and Youtube, our students have the ability to seek out and listen to many different types of music. The assignment is simple: have students look up 5 different latin artists and then choose one to look up the lyrics for. I have them look at the lyrics and fill in the assignment on a basic 3×5 notecard.

For the above image plus a list of various artists, view the PDF.

Posted in Music | Tagged letras, música, music | 2 Comments

CSCTFL

Posted on March 1, 2012 by spanishplans

In one week, the Central States Conference for the Teaching of Foreign Languages will be underway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are proud to be an exhibitor at this year’s conference. Friday and Saturday, March 9 and 10, we will be offering Spanish materials for great prices in the exhibit hall. Please come visit our booth.

Thanks for all who voted in our previous poll on the 4 pictures of Costa Rica. Picture 4, of Volcán Poas, has been selected our winner. With this winning photo, we have designed a poster that we will be offering for sale at the conference. (In the future we may also design a poster with the catarata from picture 2)

Poster of Volcan Poas, Costa Rica

This will be available for purchase (without the site name), along with MANY other posters, postcards, mousepads, t-shirts, teacher resources and more!

Here’s a very small preview of some of the items we will be offering for sale:

For curriculum Spanish resources, you can check out our store now or check out the covers of some of our more popular products here.

We hope to see you there. If not, be sure to follow conference tweets with hastag #CSC12 or follow their tweets @csctfl. And welcome to all our new Twitter followers of @spanishplans and participants of #langchat. If you are new, you can read past summaries of weekly professional development chats at the #langchat summary archives brought to you by Calico Spanish.

Posted in Resources | Tagged Central States Conference, Conference, posters | Leave a comment

Ser and Estar

Posted on February 24, 2012 by spanishplans

One of my favorite grammar points to teach is the difference between the verbs SER y ESTAR. While both verbs mean “to be” in English, in Spanish they couldn’t be more different. I know many teachers use an acronym to teach this sometimes difficult topic.

Ser:
DOCTOR (Description, Origin, Characteristic, Time/date, Occupation, Relationship)
DON’T (Description, Origin, Nationality, Time)
JETCO (Jobs, Events, Time, Characteristics, Origin)

Estar:
CLIFT (Condition, Location, -Ing verb, Feeling, Taste)
PLACE (Position, Location, Action, Condition, Emotion)
ELF (Emotion, Location, Feeling)
HELP (Health, Emotion, Location, Present Progressive)

My favorite is DOCTOR and CLIFT because I use the idea to create a character of someone who is an “especialista de ser y estar”. I totally play this up, telling my students that they will have a guest speaker as a substitute and that I will not be in class because I have “meetings”. On that day when they see that the “guest” looks a lot like their regular Spanish teacher wearing a lab coat and wearing a guest ID badge, they start to think I’m a bit crazy. But I’m ok with that.

They soon realize that the “Doctor” doesn’t speak any English at all and responds best when spoken to in Spanish. Although, he does rely on the students to help translate certain things to clarify for struggling students.

For a copy of this particular lesson, a 19 page document, including an ID badge, guided notes packet, over four pages of worksheets, and a quiz, click here.
For more Ser and Estar resources, including Ziggy Comics…. Continue reading →

Posted in Lesson Plans, Resources, Ser Estar | Tagged comics, estar, lesson plans, Ziggy | 2 Comments

Participation Apps

Posted on February 20, 2012 by spanishplans

1. Pikme (Free) by Smitesh Bakrania

Can randomly select students with a shake. Or can scroll to a particular student. Upon answering a question, you can rank the student’s response one, two, or three stars. Good application if you want to rank the quality of student responses. The downfall is that there is no way to view all scores on a single page. You have to go to each student and you can see their question average, and you have to click on another button to see total questions answered.

2. MyClassTalk ($0.99) by Langology

Adds a point every time you tap on students’ name or picture. You can also see a rank page of the whole class and see who has participated the most; you can also add or subtract points here in case you made a mistake. The only con is that there is no randomizer to randomly call on a student.

3. Pick Me! ($1.99) by ClassEapps

Easy to sort students by name. Can “spin” to select a random student or scroll to a specific student. You can keep track of if the answer was correct or incorrect by pressing thumbs up or thumbs down. Shows you the students’ score on the same screen, you don’t have to go to an extra page to see how many questions they have answered. You can also have it set to remove students from the list if you don’t want to call on repeat students, although it is real easy to add them back into the pool.

Conclusion: Out of the three, “Pick Me!” by ClassEapps, seems to be the best. The features I liked are that you can keep track of the number of correct and incorrect answers while also being able to see the numbers of all students on the same screen. The easiest to use is probably “MyClassTalk” because you simply just tap the student’s name/picture every time they participate and a majority of students are visible without scrolling. Ultimately it depends on what you are using the application for. If you are just looking to see how many times a student participates then “MyClassTalk” seems to be best. If you are looking for the quality of responses, then the free “Pikme” would suffice. If you are looking to track the number of correct and incorrect responses, your best option is probably “Pick Me”

We’d love to hear your feedback. Have you used any of these 3 applications or other Apps in your classroom? What suggestions would you make to the creators? Post your comments below.

To have some fun, if you want to “subtract” points, issue students a “red card” every time they speak in English.

Posted in iPads, Speaking, Web2.0 Technology | Tagged apps, assessment, class participation, participation, spanish | 3 Comments

Adding some culture to info-gaps

Posted on February 11, 2012 by spanishplans

We all use info-gap activities with our Spanish students to engage them in the foreign language. These are the activities where they must ask their partner for missing information and likewise, respond to their partner’s questions. Some texts books have some very good ones. At the top of the page, it designates one person as “Persona A” and the other as “Persona B”. Well, why not get the white out out and make each a bit more interesting than A and B. Try incorporating culture by writing the names of famous latinos on each page.

Try these famous duos or pairs of Hispanics:

Jesse Huerta y Joy Huerta (hermanos de Jesse & Joy)
Rodrigo y Gabriela (guitaristas mexicanos)
Frida Kahlo y Diego Rivera (artistas mexicanos y maridos)
Juanes y Shakira (cantantes colombianos)
"Persona A y Persona B" o "Pique y Shakira"
Shakira y Pique (novios: cantante colombiana y fútbolista español)
Che Guevera y Fidel Castro (revolucionarios)
Gabriel García Marquéz y Octavio Paz (escritor colombiano y escrito mexicano)
Pablo Picasso y Salvador Dalí (artistas españoles)
César Chávez y Dolores Huerta (fundadores de United Farm Workers)
Diego Maradona y Leo Messi (dios argentino/fútbolista y su sucesor)
Presidente actual de México y President actual de otro país latino
Pancho Villa y Emiliano Zapata (revolucionarios mexicanos)
Salma Hayek y Penelope Cruz (amigas: actriz mexicana y actriz española)