Tierra Incógnita Episode 5 (Season 1) - Teaching with Authentic Shows in Spanish Class

Inside:  Activities and plans for teaching Episode 5 of Tierra Incógnita from Disney+.

Hola and welcome back to another chat about teaching the show Tierra Incógnita. In this blog I'm talking about Episode 5.  If you haven't  already I recommend going back and joining me on the journey with pre-teaching and Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3, Episode 4 so you can see the whole scope and sequence .

As always, we start by watching the Episode. Episode 5  is packed with fun discoveries and the cracking of codes, so I tried to lean into that energy for my students.

Their viewing guide for this episode had them reading sentences that summarized things that happened in the episode and choosing a word to complete the sentence  (Novice) or  filling in the blank with the missing word (Intermediate) and then using that word  to uncover a secret message in a word search similar to how Uma and Eric crack the code in the episode.

As the review activity for this episode we played Quip-lash which I learned from Somewhere to Share and the amazing teacher's guide that come with some of the Wayside Matters novels.

I made a set of cards with character names and a list of quotes said throughout the episode.

How to play/set up:

Print one set of character cards for each team of ~4 students. As a team they listen to the quotes said by the teacher and then race to bring the correct character's name to the teacher. I recommend having them deal out the cards so each student is responsible for a few characters and that student must be the one to bring it to keep all of them engaged. Once a team has turned in the correct character, discuss the quote as a class and then move on to the next quote.

As a bonus resource, we  did a fun review activity on a short class day over Tierra Incógnita Ep. 1-5 since we were just over halfway done with the show. This game is a Sr. Wooly classic and such a fun way to get students engaged and listening in the target language.

Here's how to play Pass it up!:

1. Set up the Room:
   1. Print your color copies of the characters and places.
      
      **Before students enter your room OR with their help rearrange the desks or chairs so that each team will have two equal rows facing the front board.
   2. Ex. You have a class of 24 students. Split the class in half and have two teams, so you should have 4 rows of 6. Leave room between each row for students to walk comfortably, but close enough they can communicate and pass things.
   3. Behind the rows set up a table, desk or extra chair that the manipulatives can rest on and students can access.
   4. Place two magnets or clips on your front board for each team so in my example above I would have 4 total, two for each team.
   5. Have students sit in the chairs!

1. Let’s Play:
   1. Read a prompt that describes a  scenario in which a character did or said something in a specific place.
   2. For each team the last student in row 1 will find the name of the person who did whatever you are saying and the last student in row 2 will find the place where the action occurred. Sometimes this does require students to infer or use context and it won’t be SUPER obvious. This is why they need to listen VERY closely.
   3. Students then pass the person and place forward person-by-person down their row with the goal of reaching the front two people and being correct.
   4. They should feel confident they are correct, because it is the job of every person between the front and back person to double check the answers. If at any time someone does NOT agree they should pass the paper back to indicate that it is wrong.
   5. When the papers reach the front (every single student must touch the paper, no tossing, no reaching, etc.) the front student must hang the paper on the correct magnet, going to correct way, neatly and then return to their seat in order to win a point for their team (if they are correct). If it’s right I’ll say “Equipo 1 ganó” if they aren’t I simply take the wrong paper down and hand it back to the first person to pass it back.
   6. Students rotate one seat forward for the next prompt and the game continues until you have no more prompts to use.

Helpful Tips:

-This game can get loud quickly. Have a call and response ready to use for students to know when to stop talking and reset for the next round.
-Instruct students that they cannot move or do anything until you have read the prompt TWICE to give slower processors a chance to process and understand the phrase – this keeps everyone more engaged
-Competitive students can get really into the physical side of this game– remind students to slow down, but also remind the second person to watch their knees as the first person might be coming in hot from the front board and take out their knees. I always have students repeat our mantra “No violencia, no sangre”
And as always -- I made a short ClipChat slides set with screenshots from Ep 5 to review what happened  at the top of the next class  !

This episode is one where we were making LOTS of stuff and students were super engaged! If you'd  like to get your hands on these materials and not have to make your own sets you can get them here for EP 5 or in the Season 1 Bundle!

If you have any questions please let me know!
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