Kids crack me up. In my experience, teenagers like to express their opinions and they like to win. And I think it’s important for them to use their brains in different ways throughout the school day, so we draw, sing, play games, and act things out, even in high school, even in IB. Something else I learned when I became a Spanish teacher? Day of the Dead is a wildly popular October unit. Holidays are a really great opportunity for cross-cultural comparison, real world applications, and incorporating authentic materials. Plus they’re fun! Today we combined all of these "best practices" of teaching Spanish to high schoolers. 😝 Last Friday I had an idea while I was making copies of last year’s DdeM webquest: I have students this year who will finish this in 20 min. Our class period is 50min… What if they also have to draw an ofrenda (a DdeM altar for a loved one that includes their favorite foods, personal items, candles and flowers, among other things) for a celebrity who passed away in 2016? Lots of options to choose from, nice synthesis of what they’ve learned about DdeM traditions without being overly personal, and I’d get to enjoy their drawings. Genius! It was. Proof: Then, I had another random thought early this year: I ask them to draw a lot, but then what happens to the drawing? It usually ends up in recycling bin. I had a bunch of off-brand sticky notes that failed miserably as a reading log bulletin board earlier in the year (not nearly sticky enough…), but they’d work great for kids to vote for their favorite drawing or write a brief description of why they like their classmates’ artwork. So, we’ve used the crappy stickies this way a couple of times with great success! I ask for 2 “Me gusta porque…” and one “Es mi favorito porque…” and they post them on the drawings. Today I asked the 9th graders in Spanish 2 to look at the juniors’ ofrendas and post 2 “Me gusta porque…” and then they got to pick a Spanish praise sticker to vote for their favorite. Robin Williams won by a landslide, probably because of the very accurate depiction of Flubber. :P The winner was a sweet junior who was very excited about her DdeM mug (90% off at Tuesday Morning). Happy drawing!
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AuthorSC native, Salvadoran at heart, Spanish teacher, trivia nerd, and novice blogger. Archives
January 2018
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