ACTFL Takeaway – Names and Stereotyping Lesson

I love getting new ideas – big and little – from ACTFL! Here’s one lesson plan idea that incorporates a social justice issue appropriate for novices and higher.

I was really inspired by “Promoting Social Justice in Classes from Novice to Intermediate” presented by the following ladies:

Anneke Oppewal, Gravelly Hill Middle School, Efland, NC – anneke.oppewal@orange.k12.nc.us
María Eugenia Zelaya, Eastside High School, Gainesville, FL – zelayame@gm.sbac.edu
Jennifer Wooten, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL – wooten@ufl.edu

Anneke Oppewal talked about a lesson that she has done with novices about names.

Show just a name.
Ask questions in TL like:
- Is it a girl or boy?
- Where is he/she from?
- How old is he/she?
- What language does he/she speak?
Show another name and repeat.
Eventually students will say something like you can’t judge a person based on a name. There’s the ah-ha moment!
Show the “José vs. Joe” video about José Zamora searching for a job. It’s only 1 minute in English and I think this is worth being a part of my 10% English time.
- Or here are articles in Spanish:
  - http://www.primerahora.com/noticias/increible/nota/noconseguiatrabajohastaquelequitounaletraasunombre-1125304/ – this one has a few comments/reactions to the article in the TL at the bottom
  - http://www.univision.com/noticias/empleo/no-consiguio-empleo-como-jose-zamora-pero-como-joe-zamora-si
Discuss this using the cognates that she has on the screen. Keep it simple for novices!
- Is this discrimination? Stereotyping?
- Do you agree?
Last, they can write a response letter to someone. This is where I’m trying to think of a person to write it to in the target language. Also my novices need a little more input to do this in the TL. After seeing the comments on the Primera Hora article, I’m thinking this would be a way to model how to talk about this in the TL. So I’ll find more comments (other articles, twitter, Facebook) and show a few of them so students can respond back. This is similar to what I’ve done for “What’s Trending” before.

You can turn on the subtitles in Spanish.

So a big thanks to Anneke for sharing with us and those who inspired her to do this lesson! You can follow Anneke on Twitter for more ideas. -> @an_oppewal