Inside:  Activities and my plans for teaching Episode 2 of  Season 1 of Tierra Incógnita.

Welcome back! If you're just stumbling upon this post as you research teaching with TV shows or because you want to start teaching Tierra Incógnita in your classes you should checkout this blog post that is full of ideas on how to pre-teach and teach Episode 1.

Let's jump in to Episode 2:

On Monday (35min class) we watched Ep 2 and students had  a viewing guide I created with screen shots from scenes through out Ep 2 and quotes that are said in those scenes by the characters. Their job was to match the quote with the correct scene and characters as the watched and then to go back and based on familiar words and context attempt to translate those quotes from the show.

Then the next Monday (35min) we did a Clip Chat  using screenshots with prompting questions and PQAs to review what we had watched.

We then took one block day  (85min) to review vocab using a  Quizlet to review some essential vocabulary and played a super fun circumlocution game  called Pasa la palabra.

Here's how to play Pasa la palabra:

You need a set of words (about 1-3 words per students in class) these words should be words your students are familiar with and you feel they can describe  to others. I choose my words and then make a Quizlet with the words, and instead of translations I have them match the word with a Spanish description and have them play that for a little to familiarize them with the words first.   I then put each word NOT description on it's own card you can do this by writing them on notecards or typing and cutting out.
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Then split your class into two teams. I like to do this before hand and preemptively balance abilities on the two teams.

The game plays   in three rounds. If you've ever played Monikers (a great board game btw) it's the same as that game. Each students gets a turn of 1 min each round lasts as long as their are cards left. Play rotates every min from one team to the other back and forth.

Round 1-  Student can say as many words in target language as they want  to get their team to guess the word as long as they don't say the word. If their team guesses the word they keep the card as a point for that round. Then the round goes to to the other team and their player get's one minute to do the same until all cards have been guessed in round 1.

When all cards have been played have each team count them up one card is one point then re-shuffle them and start the second round continuing play to the next student in the next teams turn who should be going next.

Round 2- Instead of saying however many words as they want to they can only say ONE word. It must be the same word for that card their entire 1 min -- this is where paying attention in round 1 PAYS OFF. 

Again, When all cards have been played have each team count them up one card is one point then re-shuffle them and start the second round continuing play to the next student in the next teams turn who should be going next.

Round 3- This round no words, only actions students have to act out like charades the vocab word.

The repetitions  are great. The circumlocution is great. And the FUN is the best part. The team with the most points between all 3 rounds win.

Finally, we did a super short reading assessment where students matched scenes from the show with descriptions using high frequency and familiar vocabulary to assess that the Spanish gained from the show was being acquired by students.

If you're interested in grabbing these activities and assessments for your own class you can find them HERE.

And if you have any questions comment them below!

-Sierra

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​¡Hola colegas! The final push is here for me before the highly anticipated and dare I say it – needed break from school. I love my student’s, but sometimes distance and time apart makes the heart grow fonder, if you catch my drift.
That being said, I know I am not alone in brainstorming and planning for those weird days before break when it feels like over half your students are gone and no new learning can take place either because it doesn’t make sense to do it with half your students gone OR because admin have mandated it so… We’re all working with different time frames and energy stores, so I hope at least one of these might inspire you or that you can Frankenstein some together to make it work for you in this season of teaching.

So here is my brainstorming-- 7, easy, low prep ideas you can steal for your plans:

1.Musical Chair
Sometimes the magic of the season comes in the form of a magical transformation of your room! I have a desk free classroom and students constantly joke that it’s perfect for playing musical chairs which I actually haven’t done yet with them, so having them come into the room the day before break to see it transformed into their wildest dreams – a circle instead of our traditional rows sounds pretty fun! Here’s a Spotify Playlist of Spanish Holiday Music to make it even more festive. (and if you need a refresher on how to play Musical Chairs here you go!)

2. Picture Talk and Draw That! Mode
Project a festive winter picture and introduce students to some basic vocabulary through Picture Talk– Srta Spanish has this great video walking you through how to Picture Talk if you’ve never tried it. Then you can play Draw That! Mode on Gimkit.  Draw That! Mode has one student drawing while the rest try to guess the word so even if you don’t have a Gimkit account you could live play in on your white board and have students in teams trying to guess aka pictionary, but the Gimkit mode allows you to use less energy and sit back and relax if that is what you need.
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Here’s an example of the type of    Gimkit Set  you'd want.

3.   Adivina la canción (Guess the song!)
A super fun time filler that I learned from Elizabeth Detlinger is to play Spanish covers of songs and have students guess them. You can have this be in small groups racing other groups for a more competitive spin OR you can just play as a whole class. Here’s a playlist of Spanish Covers of Hits or Spanish Covers of Christmas Songs depending on your school and demographic. I highly recommend you think about representing ALL students as much as you can around the holidays.

4. Craft it up!
There are SOO many cute crafts out there from different creators, so you can definitely find something fun and festive to do if your students like being creative. I’ve enjoyed making holiday cards and having students write a message to a teacher on the inside in the past. You can grab the template and instructions HERE.

5. Quién sabe, sabe
If you haven’t played the game Quién sabe, sabe (an adaptation of the board game Wits and Wagers) for the world language classroom by Nelly Hughes I cannot recommend a better game and the Comprehensible Classroom has done ALL the heavy lifting and made versions of it on SOOOO many different topics – such as this Christmas themed one.
This game is incredible for comprehensible input and learning numbers/number repetitions.

I am not going to explain exactly how to play, because Martina has a great blog HERE. I am just simply going to say that if you haven’t played it yet you NEED to and you and your students are going to love it. You can easily fill a whole block playing and their resource has everything you could possibly need to play at any level.

6. Los muñecos de hombre en el jardín (Snowmen in the Garden)
This is a super fun brain break/game most commonly called statues in the garden (estatuas en el jardín), but I love to give it a seasonal spin and call it Los muñecos de hombre en el jardín. One student stands in the center of the room and everyone else stands around the outside. I make students touch the wall. The person in the middle is turning around and looking at their peers. If the student in the middle is looking at you then you CANNOT move you are frozen (snowmen). However, when they are not looking you can WALK towards them. If the person in the middle catches a snowman moving I have them point and say ‘fuera’ and that person must return to the wall and touch it again before moving towards the person again. The first person to touch the person in the middle wins and gets to be IT on the next turn. 

Here’s a blog with an awesome example video from La Maestra Loca to help you conceptualize how to play the game.

7. Color by Word

I first heard of this activity from Courtney’s blog (Profe Zulita) and it’s my go-to-emergency sub plan and now I’m thinking it could be a great before or right after break activity. Here is her blog explaining how it works, but I have created some coloring pages that are winter themed HERE if you would like to shake it up and make it more seasonal. 
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I love that no matter which of these activities you choose you’ll be creating a moment to connect and build relationships with your students. And if you need to hear it from someone – it’s OKAY and encouraged to take some of your class time and fill it with the fun stuff that makes your students enjoy school. Whatever you decide to do before break with students I hope you have a restful and relaxing time off from school and come back refreshed in the New Year. ¡Hasta el año nuevo!