One thing Kara and I are really passionate about is CULTURE. That’s the part that “hooks” a student! We’re always trying to use authentic resources, real pics and websites, and allow students to see and hear from a variety of people around the world. However, come into my class and ask my students what they know about Hispanic culture… ha! I’m not sure they would wow you with their response.
They know and have seen a lot, but I’m not sure they understand the concept of “CULTURE.” I can’t really blame them. I’m sure my previous Spanish teachers talked about culture but I never really understood it until I traveled outside the US. (Hope they aren’t reading my blog – LO SIENTO!) Before we start using that loaded word in class, they probably need a reminder about what culture is!
Here’s how I’m going to address that early on. Kara and I put together a little trivia challenge for the first week of class. The students’ job will be to find a classmate who knows the answer to one of the simple cultural questions. Student can only sign a classmate’s paper one time. Then they try to get a signature for each box/question.
Oh, and for you French folks, here’s a peek at what our friend Rachel came up with…
I think this will be an engaging way for kids to get out of their seats and learn from each other. (Plus, it can be done in the target language later on!) My husband even liked the challenge when I asked him the questions over dinner – and he got almost all of them right!
As we go over the answers as a group, I think it will open a good discussion about what “culture” really is…
I want my students to learn more than just a language. They need to be familiar with different aspects of the culture to really be able to communicate and connect with new people.
So, here I go! I’m going to see what they know first week and check them again at the end of the year! Let’s be intentional about getting CULTURE back into our language classes!! Make sure your students know it’s important!
My goals for the upcoming year are similar: Put more focus on some aspect of culture in a meaningful and authentic context. But, want to go beyond music and food.
Exactly – we all introduce SOME culture – but I know I can do more!
Have you done any work with Cultural Triangles – analyzing the Perspectives, Practices and Products of some cultural aspect of a TL country? We are starting to work on this in my district. It is challenging in the beginning, but we hope this will be the “lens” through which all of our IPAs will be taught.
Great plan Claudette! Would you share a blog or tweet about your journey?
Thanks, this is fun! And I love that you make both Spanish and French versions since I can use both! I will let you know if I come up with other was of bringing culture to the students attention.
*ways
I like this idea! Thanks for sharing. This year I am going to try to focus on teaching “culture” as the 3 Ps – Products, Practices, and Perspectives. Whenever students see an authentic resource, I am going to try to have them point out the cultural products, practices and perspectives that they see. Within that context, they will hopefully arrive at many of the things in your word cloud!
Megan, I love following this blog! You all have inspired me in so many ways for more than a year now! Congratulations on your recent nuptials! Married life is fantastic and I wish you all the best! I have not only been following your blog but have attended some of your KWLA Conference sessions in the past. Will you be presenting again at this year’s session? Also, had a favor to ask of you ladies – I’m applying for a grant to attempt to get some iPads for my classroom this year. As this is a new endeavor and adventure for me – can you all give me some insight as to what apps are the most useful in your classes and other ways you use them in your classroom. I use stations weekly in my classroom – thanks to you all – and definitely plan to use them as a station each week. Just thought you all might be able to give me better insight as to what to include in my grant as to how I exactly plan to use them. Feel free to email me at abby.graves@bardstown.kyschools.us Thank you all!!!! You are amazing and an inspiration!
Thanks so much for your swee comment Abby! I love hearing about teachers using stations! I won’t be at KWLA this year (for e first time in 6 years) since we’re going to ACTFL in November! I’m going to miss catching up with all hose awesome Kentucky teachers! Let me ask about the grants for ya… Ill lt ya know!
Megan, do you guys have an updated list of useful Spanish apps in either small group or whole class? I know there are a TON out there that I don’t know about…
Thanks!
I don’t have a list, but this would be great to talk about. We need to all share that info! I will do a post soon!
Me encanta! For teaching culture, we do stations. For example, when we talked about Costa Rica and Central America in general, we had a music station, a create-your-own ox-cart wheel station, a food station (everybody’s favorite: plátano maduro, pineapple and rice and beans), a short article about Costa Rica in the news. Students get 7 minutes at each station and have a worksheet to work on as they go around. It’s exhausting and prep is a pain, but the kids love it. I also have a document called “The Culture Iceberg” that I’d be glad to share, but I can’t figure out how to attach it here.
I love your idea of using stations to look at culture! I never thought about that. Thanks for sharing!
Agreed! Great idea to do for holidays with your whole department!
Hi bhernandez2826, can you tell me more about your ox-cart wheel activity? Sounds fantastic!
I LOVE your culture stations idea, I tried a station review thing once last year and flopped big time, but I think your idea would be excellent for my geography unit! I would love more info on your ox-cart wheel station, and maybe info on your worksheet as you go around? And with the food, do you just have a few items there for the students to try? If you have a chance, could you e-mail that document you mentioned to me sometime? Thanks! cwolfe@laurel.k12.pa.us
Love this! I think it’s just as important to learn about the many Hispanic cultures as it is the language!
I love this idea! I am working on an intro unit that is more about language learning than actually learning language. Hopefully it will give kids a better idea of what to expect, and will definitely help with all those schedule changes the first few days! I will have to work in a “What is Culture?” lesson!
You are right! Even kids that are only in class a few days(because of schedule changes) will walk away with something valuable after a “culture” lesson!
I can’t wait to start with this activity and take the time to show websites and discuss the answers. What I also love is that when I use the “seek and sign” activity in the target language later in the year, they will hopefully remember the procedures so I don’t have to leave the target language.
Sorry to be picky, but the singular of “tamales” is “tamal”
Thanks! I learned something new today!
Jaimie, so you made me curious. I’ve never heard it as “tamal” in English. I dug a little on the Internet and found out that “tamale” is a back-formation (in English) from “tamales”. I learned a new language term as well! I think it is ok to still use “tamale” here since the activity is in English and that is the word they are familiar with. It does bring up another cool language point to talk about with them! Thanks again!
frijol
(but who can eat just one?)
I assign a culture project each marking period that focuses on one aspect of life in a Spanish-speaking country. These are topics outside of my vocabulary curriculum, but the kids love to find out more about day to day life. Each project incorporates products, practices and perspectives; kids choose from a variety of topics related to the same main idea (general country information, currency, artesanias, holidays) and choose a Spanish-speaking country; we share in small groups so no one has stage fright in front of 25 classmates and we aren’t sitting listening to English presentations for a week. Even parents like these projects, since kids can choose from computer presentations, paper reports, or posters / 3D projects.
Hi Stacy, I love your idea. Just wondering what you mean by “we share in small groups.” Does that mean that two or three students will work together on one country?
Hi Stacy, would you be willing to give a little more information about how you set up these projects? I am really looking to include more culture into my lessons, and I also am trying to plan for a geography unit (mine last year was shaky!) Anything you share would be soooo appreciated! Thanks!
cwolfe@laurel.k12.pa.us
This was quite focused, but last semester I created a game I called El Decatlón and treated it like the Olympic event. Students divided into teams and got a Spanish-speaking country at random. We had an opening ceremony, and to prep for that they had to create an entrance sign using their country colors and then sports/daily life info they researched online. They presented that to their classmates before I ceremoniously placed their poster on display (with the Olympic theme music in the background). One of the decathlon events involved their knowledge of their own country, and another their knowledge of other countries (the other 8 covered other topics). Teams also got bonus points added on for saying a real or created spirit cheer from/related to their country. At the end I had a medal ceremony, complete with the playing of the winning country’s anthem. It was a great experience for them…and for me!
This sounds amazing! Would you be willing to share any of the documents you gave to students, explaining the activities? My email is maestrasenn@gmail.com if you wouldn’t mind sharing some more. How long did you do this?
Sure! I will try to email you this upcoming week! I played one event per day, so counting the prep time and time to review the other countries it was 12 school days. I gave one full class (I’m on block-90 mins) for prep, the opening ceremony and review took about 60, and then the actual game play took 15-20 per event.
I wouldn’t mind any examples of your Olympic idea too. It sounds like so much fun! harissima@hotmail.com Thanks!
Lori,
I tried to send the info to you, but it came back as not sent. Do you have a different email?
I would love a copy of your cultural decathlon too!
Levonuk@yahoo.com
Thanks!
This sounds like a great idea. Maybe it could be a Fifa World Cup activity with students playing as different countries. I would like to know what the other events of the decathalon were. Can you share with me?
Hola, I am excited about the new school year and am planning a mini culture lesson for day 2. I was able to get onto Wordle and create something similar to what your did with the words but couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to save it or download it to my computer. Can some one help…thanks
BTW love your site ladies
I take screenshots when saving gets difficult.
And anyone wanting to share, I suggest posting it on google docs, your site or creativelanguageclass.wikispaces.com and just posting the link. Just trying to save you the extra work of emailing many people. Keep the sharing going! I want to see these ideas too!!
Will do, Kara! Be on the lookout for a link on the Wiki!
I would LOVE the Olympic lesson plan info too! I am new to teaching this year & desperately trying to figure out an enthusiastic way to incorporate culture into each class! Thanks. Please email them to me at abeasley@harnett.k12.nc.us ¡Gracias!
Since it may be overwhelming to email to everyone that asks, remember that there is creativelanguageclass.wikispaces.com to post and share documents. Or if you have your own site, link to it there. Glad to see all the sharing!
Thanks for the interest. I put a link to my resources for it on creativelanguageclass.wikispaces.com!
I can remember playing those games in my classes in school! Always interesting, what I always wished was that we had more time to discuss how they knew the answers or for the teacher to go in depth with each response. That’d be cool! Maybe have the students pick the best answer for each question?
Culture is a huge thing, but hard to define and harder to teach. I recently started learning Spanish with BRIC Language Systems, and as the teachers are located in Mexico, they’re able to tell me a lot about their culture. Like El dia de los muertos next week. Very cool.