Algunas fechas importantes en la historia del mundo hispano: Una actividad para practicar los años y el pretérito
In this video lesson, we begin with how to say years in Spanish. Next, we practice while learning about some of the many important dates in the history of the Spanish speaking world. We´ll also practice preterit verb forms while we talk about these historical feats.
Los mandatos informales, informal “tú” commands, can be a bit challenging at first because you must remember to conjugate the verb differently depending on whether the command is affirmative (Yes! Do it! ¡Sí! ¡Hazlo!) or negative (No! Don´t do it! ¡No! ¡No lo hagas!) This cultural presentation will take you on a journey of table manners around the world while practicing affirmative versus negative tú commands.
Objectives:
Practice conjugating affirmative and negative tú commands
Share your reflections and what you´ve learned in the questions at the bottom of the handout. Do you think any of these tips for international table manners will come in handy someday?
If you would like to share these materials, please do so by providing a link to this blog post. Thank you!
Update: A typo in the handout has been corrected (10-8-2018)!
Update: This post has been changed & updated to include the video lesson (5-21-2020)! We re-posted to the front page of the blog for visibility without deleting the previous link for those who may have saved it.
Many of our students have gotten to know the fantastically colorful and imaginative alebrijes of Mexican folk art through the film Coco. This video-story allows students to build upon that background knowledge and acquire new language while watching compelling film coverage from the Desfile de los alebrijes, an annual parade sponsored by the Museo de Arte Popular in which hundreds of alebrijes come to life throughout the streets of Mexico City.
I play this video first with no volume and lead students in identifying what they see. After watching and discusisng the video, students design their own alebrijes by drawing and writing a detailed description. Finally, students share their unique alebrijes with their classmates in lively, small group discussions.
You can click “CC” in the lower right corner of the video to turn on accurate Spanish subtitles. Also, here is a full transcript of the story if you would like to use it for reading activities: El desfile de los alebrijes Full Text Transcript (PDF)
Enjoy the video! Any comments are welcome and appreciated. I’d love to know if you share this video with your students!
“Un día típico de un estudiante universitario” is a read-along story for beginner-level students. There’s a special focus on “yo-go” verbs, por versus para, and food vocabulary, my class’ learning objectives for this unit.
There’s one notable absence: reflexive verbs! Usually ubiquitous in any daily routine story, I have left them out of this sequence because my total-beginner students haven’t learned about them yet. My goal is for students to become comfortable with writing and talking about daily routines and sequences of events in a contextual narrative before we reach the next unit in which the main focus is daily routines with reflexive verbs!
Before making this activity a few years ago, I polled my beginner Spanish students about the most well-known families from a TV show or movie. The Kardashians won, but Family Guy consistently took second, ¡so I went with la familia Griffin!
First, we watch the video below together to provide comprehensible input for introducing family vocabulary. I pause frequently to ask “circling” style questions, all in the target language, Spanish. (Click here for a great video on circling by Kaizen Teaching).
Finally, students put what they learned into production by writing a similar description of a family on the back of the handout. Here are the instructions I project on the board:
¡A escribir! Descripción de una familia Use theFamilyGuypresentation as a model
Describe una familia famosa(de la televisión, el cine, un libro, la historia, etc.)
Usa el vocabulario para expresar las relaciones entre los miembros de la familia.
¿Qué hacen los miembros de la familia?
–Escribe 1-3 frases sobre cada persona.
Dibuja (draw) un árbol familiar.
I instruct the students who finish writing early swap papers to do peer editing.
Any feedback welcome in the comments! I´d love to know if you use this activity in your classroom or have any suggestions for expansion/improvement!