Before Watching and Episode 1 of Tierra Incógnita - Teaching with Authentic TV Shows

Inside:   Introducing the tv show Tierra Incógnita  and watching Episode 1 ideas!

This blog is about 3 years in the making if I am being honest, but it's about one of my all time favorite things.-- teaching with authentic tv shows. I first saw this in action during my time student teaching with Allison (Mis Clases Locas)  when she was using  the classic, El Internado in her Spanish 2-4 classes.

Since then I've used lots of different shows in my Spanish classes including, but not limited to, other favorites such as Go! Vive a tu manera (Materials I use with this show HERE and HERE), Latin Street Foods (Awesome free materials HERE), etc.  I was teaching Spanish 2 and 3 and using Go! Vive a tu manera in Spanish 2 -- I would have loved to  keep using it in Spanish 3, but the semester length classes  meant that I had students in Spanish 3 that never took Spanish 2 with me, so they didn't have the previous knowledge with the show and would have needed to rewatch the episodes while others had already seen episodes in Spanish 2 -- which they didn't  want to rewatch. So  I was in a predicament... I want to watch a show, but WHAT show. 

Disclaimer: I have always paid for my own streaming sites to be able to use these shows in class and I find it very worth it in my opinion. I know that isn't the reality for every classroom or every teacher.

Luckily,  Allison discovered and shared about Tierra Incógnita and using her super easy to implement with ANY episode templates   (also her resources would make GREAT sub plans if you need them), I was able to whip something together super quick that year to use with my students. I (really WE)  fell in LOVE with the show. It's a little spooky with a good mystery storyline and suspense, but totally appropriate for high schoolers. It's not quite as high school musical, cringy as Go! can be in my opinion though students loved that about that show, too. 

Tierra Incógnita is a Disney+, TV 14 show that is located in a fictional town, Cabo Qwert, in Argentina.  The show follows a teen boy, Eric Dalaras, and his family as they try to discover what happened 8 years ago when his parents mysteriously disappeared from the amusement park their family owed.  There are secrets, suspense, mysteries to solve, and plenty of adventure. Think modern Scooby Doo.

Over the next 2 years  , because I taught on 95min blocks, I had to make additional materials and activities to go along with the episodes to fill that time and in the process I  made games, review slides, introductory activities, etc . and it quickly become one  of my students favorite parts of our curriculum. I have been using this show exclusively with Spanish 3 students, but it can be adapted to use in 2 or upper levels as well. I haven't really used shows with Novice Low-Mid students and find I prefer to start a show after I've read a novel with students, so they have some of the language skills I think are necessary for them to actually enjoy watching the show. I've been dying to  share more about what I've been doing with this show with all of you , so here is:

PART 1 - Before Watching and Episode 1!  

**Download my FREE materials HERE  , so you can follow along as I describe my plans!**

Depending on how long your classes are you totally don't have to do everything I do, since I at one point taught 95min blocks I have a little "arsenal" of stuff made now and you can totally pick and choose what works for you and your classes. I'm also presently teaching Spanish 3 and Advanced 3, so I am  making Novice and Intermediate versions of most of my activities.

I'm going to walk you thought my present reality  and plans of introducing this show this week to my Spanish 3 students. My schedule is a little different then it was in the past. I  see all 170 of my students on Mondays. We have a late start for PD and then have an 8 period day (35min classes). The plan is to watch the show on Mondays , instead of how I traditionally did it every Friday in the past. Then I see my odd class periods in an 85 min block (Tuesday and Thursday) and my even class periods  opposite that (Wednesday and Friday). For that reason, myself and my amazing colleague  have put together the following plan and materials and I'm so happy to share them all with you!

Monday (35min class):

Introduce characters using Bunches of Hunches  (alá Señor Wooly). I hang pictures of the characters all around my room and then give students a sheet of paper with descriptions on them. (Novice have full descriptions and Intermediate have sentence starters to help them make their own predictive descriptions) Their job is to write the letter of the character that they best feels goes with each description.  I then project pictures and ask students to  share the predictions they choose. This way we are getting to see the characters before we watch, they are being exposed to language  for them to make predictions, and they got LOTS of repetition and input from me.

Day 1 (Tuesday/Wednesday) (85 min class):

I will introduce each character and some background of the show using Personalized Questions and Answers and some guided notes and slides to help students connect to characters and associate them with their names , as well as introduce them to some vocabulary we would be seeing in the first episode.

We will then watch Episode 1 and they will complete the appropriate level of a event ordering viewing  activity  -- I find that viewing activities keep students engaged with the input of the show. Additionally, I should note that I do not use English subtitles , but Spanish ones and find that  most students comprehend the show quite well, because of the supports of the pre-teaching activities. With any time left in class after watching Episode 1 they can work on the viewing activity.

Day 2 (Thursday/Friday) (85min class):

Students turn in their viewing activity -- sometimes if there is time I go over it with them as a class, but not always. I do a "Clip Chat" using stills/screen shots from the episode and circling to review what happened in Episode One -- this way if anyone was gone they get to "watch " the episode as well and can participate in the class. We then play either a Quizlet Relay Race or Gimkit Musical Chair Round to review vocabulary used in  Episode 1/the show. Then finally we will play the Marker Game with statements about Episode 1 to review what happened.

If you want to check out any of these activities or materials mentioned for teaching this engaging and fun show in Spanish class they are all 100% editable and FREE on my TPT.

And if you have anything you'd like to share  please email me at [email protected] and I'll add them to this blog! 

-Sierra