Innovator Spanish
Why learn Spanish now?
Language learning encourages children to cultivate abstract thinking and intellectual flexibility. They learn to problem-solve without giving-in to frustration. They learn how to be confused without becoming passive and how to be independent and receptive learners.
It takes curiosity and courage to learn a new language. Middle grade students are introduced to language learning as a practice, a discipline, and an art. As a result, they become receptive to new and challenging concepts in all aspects of their lives.
Conversación
¿Tú hablas español/inglés? Yo hablo inglés/español. ¿Usted habla español/inglés?
¿Cómo te llamas? Me llamo... ¿Cómo se llama usted?
¿Cómo estás tú? Estoy bien. ¿Cómo está usted?
Ser vs Estar
¿Cómo está? ¿Cómo eres? Today we talked abou the two different ways to say To Be in Spanish.
We discussed the different contexts in which ser and estar are used and how to create acronyms as memory devices. LoCo (Location and Condition) is used for estar and DOCTOR (description, occupation, characteristics, time, origin, relationship) is used for ser. We used many examples of each type of sentences, using the globe as a reference. For example, Brazil is big (ser) and Argentina is here (estar).
Isla Desierta
¿Qué qieres? What do you want on a desert island? The students answered this question with a variety of items: water filter, book. machete, flare gun, med kit, chocolate, space blanket, tent, freeze dried food, cat, another person. We then reviewed the four potential words for the: la, el , las, los. Each student got to pick two things from the surival kit, but had to say: yo quiero el/la... Next week we will see how to get off the desert island.
¿Qué tienes? What do you have? The students said which two items they had and then decided -¿Adónde quieres ir? Where do you want to go. They thought strategically about which tools they would need and whose island they wanted to find.
We reviewed the concepts of conjuguation once again and focused specifically on the two verbs tener and querer, to have and to want. We talked about the differences between regular and irregular verbs and how to alter the patterns as necessary.
¿Cómo se escribe?
This week we talked about the alphabet and some of the rules of pronunciation and spelling. We talked specifically about placement of tongue in mouth in order to make the correct sounds in Spanish. For example, students are often concerned that they cannot role their r. In fact, all they had to do is flap it. The linguistic term for this sound is an alvoelar flap and it is the same sound that you make when you say the t in butter or the d in ladder. The students learn not to make a bulldog face like they do in English, arrrrgh, and instead put their tongue behind their teeth and flap the r. Next week, we will listen to some songs and see if they can identify the sounds, the words, and their spellings.
¿Dónde Está?
We talked about directions again today. I gave a list of 7 directions that they could use to describe where each student's island is located relative to the others: Al lado de, a la izquierda de, a la derecha de, cerca de, lejos de, abajo de, sobre. They each described where an island was and then wrote a very short survival story. FInally, they listened to a story in Spanish in which I described how the Taíno colonized the islands of the Carribean.
What verbs do you need to write about your island?
1. Comer - To Eat
2. Beber - To Drink
3. Buscar - To Look For
4. Caminar - To Walk
5. Llevar - To Bring, To Carry
Students used these words to write about what they do on their desert islands.
Theme of the week: Creativity
This week students were introduced to some of my favorite Spanish and Latin American artists. We talked about estilo or style. They chose a Salvador Dalí painting to complete in individual pieces and then paste together. The goal is for their own styles to be visible in one unified piece of art.
This is the painting they chose:
Fernando Botero
Antoni Gaudí
Salvador Dalí
Pablo Picasso
Diego Rivera
Frida Kahlo
Theme of the week: kindness
Although not a direct translation, we talked about the concept of simpatía. Someone can be simpático/a if they treat others with empathy. We talked about how being simpático has a strong correlation with being pleasant to be around. In English, kindess focuses on the behavior of one person, whereas in Spanish, the emphasis is on the community. The question is: how does your behavior affect other people?
Quién somos
In the context of the discussion about kindess, we talked about one of the strange realities of human evolution: our brains evolved to look for similiarity and difference in the people around us and to ascribe safety to familiarity and danger to difference. It made sense when our primary concerns were hunting, gathering, and running from saber-toothed tigers. Today, we hear fear of difficence in discussions about war and immigration. Children have likely heard the names of Latin American countries in negative terms, whether conscious of it or not. They may already associate names like Mexico and Honduras with poverty and crime. It is also possible that they have never heard the names of these countries pronounced correctly. I want them to have a positive association with the countries of Latin America and to be able to recognize their names when said with natural inflection and speed.
First, I showed them a map of what is considered Latin America and pronounced the names of the countries for them. Then, we listened to the song below and they were asked to write down the names of the countries they heard.
¿Cómo estás? ¿cómo eres?
These two questions are translated the same way into English: How are you? However, the first means how are you doing right now and the second means how are you as a person. We talked about the response to ¿cómo estás? how are you doing. I gave them the option of saying bien or fine and gave them a couple of ways to respond if they were not feeling good. Estoy enfermo/a, estoy cansado/a, estoy normal, estoy ok. One student asked how to say "I've been better": he estado mejor.
Then we talked about ¿Cómo eres? or how are you (as a person). I gave them one answer for that because they had all done their assignment for the week: one act of kindness. They could all then say, soy simpático/a, I am kind.
Auditory Comprehension
This is an authentic Spanish-language song about a house, casa. I played the song for the students ans asked them to listen and write down any words they could pick out, even if they weren't familiar with the meanings or were unsure if it was a real word. I then wrote down the words on the board and played the beginning of the song again, this time pointing to the words when they were sung.
¿Qué Signifíca? ¿Cómo de dice?
These are the most critical questions for all Spanish students to know by heart. When they hear a word in Spanish that they don't know how to say in English, they can ask: ¿Qué signifíca...What does that mean? When they want to say something in Spanish, they can ask: ¿Cómo se dice... how do you say...?
In order to practice this skill, I made two columns: one of for ¿cómo se dice? and one for ¿qué signifíca? I showed them pictures from a book and asked them to pick and image and remember it. After everyone had picked an image, e.g. rock, sun, dry grass, paintbrushes in a pocket, etc. they each had to ask how to say that thing in Spanish: ¿cómo se dice rock/sun/dry grass? I put the words in Spanish in the ¿cómo se dice? column.
Once everyone had asked for their word, we worked backwards. Another student had to say, ¿qué signifíca piedra/sol/hierba seca? Then another student had to answer: signifíca rock/sun/grass etc. It is a little bit like a game of memory.
Theme of the week: Safety
This week in Spanish, the Innovators learned the word seguridad, safety. We talked about how the intention of a constitution is to ensure the security of a country and all those who live in it. Some students also noted that it doesn’t always work that way and doesn’t always apply to everyone equally. I showed them an example of a very new constitution: Spain, an old country, has a young constitution, which says in summary, “we must pay taxes, we must protect the environment, we must respect the law and other people and we musn’t tolerate discrimination or unfair behavior.” The Innovators were also introduced to Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor and her book, Solo Pregunta.
Auditory comprehension
Auditory comprehension is one of the more challenging skills to cultivate in second language-learners. It is particularly difficult for speakers of different language families to understand each other. For example, Germanic language-speakers have a harder time understanding Romance Languages than they would a language more closely related to their own. Afterall, accents are just the imposition of one set of pronunciation rules onto another language that doesn't follow them.
So, in order to cultivate this skill, there are a variety of games that can be played. Here is one that I adapted.
All the students stand in the center of a spacious area. I gesture with my right hand and say "derecha" and with my left hand and say "izquierda." I explain to newer students that they already know more Spanish than they think and I tell them that this game will prove it. I explain that many words in Spanish sound much as they don't do in English. These words are called "cognates." I then tell them that they will have to choose between two cognates and run to the side associated with their choice. They also have the option to remain "neutral." Here is a list of the words they have to decipher and choose between:
vegetales vs. fruta
animales vs. humanos
individualismo vs. comunidad
familiar vs. amigos (most students know the word amigo)
bananas vs. mangos
elefantes vs. Gorillas
melones vs peras
bicicletas vs. carros
actor vs. músico
pasta vs. lasaña
simple vs. complicado
taxi vs. autobús
tropical vs. ártico
ficción vs. no ficción
mágico vs. electrónico
curioso vs. misterioso