Context: This activity is designed for students in a semester-long intro-level Spanish for Second Language Speakers class at the college level in the US.
Textbook: Marinelli, Patti J. & Karin Fajardo (2019). Conectados, 2nd Edition. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Objectives: At the end of this activity, students will be able to:
Understand basic information in Spanish-language weather forecasts
Describe current weather conditions in their location
Discuss how current weather conditions influence their plans for leisure activities
They will practice the interpretive listening, interpersonal speaking, presentational speaking, and presentational writing modes of communication.
Prerequisites: Students are expected to have learned vocabulary related to leisure activities and travel at this points in the course. They are expected to have familiarized themselves with present-tense verbs, the ir a-future, and the syntax of the verb gustar.
Homework related to the day's class: Students are expected to have read the vocabulary section of Capítulo 4, Paso 2 in the textbook and to have done exercise 4-26 (p. 152).
Structure of the activity:
Warm-up brainstorming activity - Interpretive listening and interpersonal speaking mode of communication. Instructor projects this website on screen. Students will listen to the phrases associated with the pictures in the "listen to some examples" section, thus providing multisensory input. They will repeat out loud each expression, and volunteers will be asked to translate each phrase.
In small groups, students will then be asked to talk about the following questions. They will be given prompts to help them express these thoughts in Spanish (e.g. Cuando _____, me gusta _____).
Which of these are your favourite weather?
Which of these are we most likely to experience in Albuquerque in December? How about July?
Which of these are most likely to occur where you are from?
Which hobbies do you like to do when the weather is X?
Listening activity. Students will listen to a fictional weather report from the YouTube video above (from 01:04 to 02:35). They will complete a set of activities detailed below the video.
Selective listening task at the word level - Interpretive listening mode of communication. Students receive the list of weather vocabulary presented below, and will for each word indicate whether or not it occurs in the audio excerpt. They will not have access to the transcript for this activity. This is aimed at helping students recognize the vocabulary they have learned in (simulated) natural discourse.
Nieve
Viento
Templado
Tormenta
Calor
Nublado
Congelados
Niebla
Fresco
Agradable
Llovizna
Despejado
Sol
Relámpago
Huracán
Granizo
Listening for content - Interpretive listening mode of communication. Students will listen to the recording a second time, again without access to the transcript. After listening, they will write down whether the following statements are true or false. If they mark a statement as false, they will be asked to correct it.
Hace buen tiempo en América del Sur.
Las temperaturas en Santiago de Chile y en Quito están negativas.
Está nevando en Quito.
En Santiago de Chile, está despejado.
En Río, hay muy bajo riesgo de huracán.
Hay relámpagos y truenos en Río hoy.
Hace buen tiempo para ir a la playa en Río.
Partner conversation - Interpersonal speaking mode of communication. Students will be given a transcript of the recording, and they will be shown three photos of activities:
One of a person skiing
One of a person inside watching TV
One of a person on the beach
They will talk to a partner in Spanish about which of the three places discussed in the video they would or would not want to be doing each of these activities in.
Follow-up activities. Students will receive via the online learning platform access to a voice recording (transcript below). They will be told that this is a voice message left on their phone by a friend who is currently on holiday in Mexico. Students will not receive the transcript of this recording.
Transcript: ¡Hola amigo! ¿Cómo estás? Estoy aquí en Oaxaca para mis vacaciones de otoño. Desafortunadamente va a hacer mal tiempo casi todo el tiempo que estoy aquí. Va a estar muy nublado la mayoría del tiempo y probablemente va a llover, así que no sé si voy a poder hacer mucho senderismo. Me gustaría tomar un colectivo para ir a la playa en el fin de semana, pero si hace menos de 20 grados no vale la pena - ¡ni incluso podría tomar el sol! Suerte que mañana va a estar soleado y va a hacer un poco más calor. Quiero aprovechar para hacer una excursión en la Sierra Madre. ¡Dicen que la naturaleza es tan bonita allí! Pues cuando hace más frío, busco algunas actividades adentro. Hay unos edificios históricos muy interesantes que quiero visitar, como el Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán y el Convento de San José. Y si llevo paraguas, siempre puedo recorrer la ciudad misma también. A la noche, me encantaría ver un espectáculo en el teatro Juárez. El veintiuno de noviembre hay un concierto, tal vez puedo obtener un boleto para eso. ¿Cómo está el tiempo allí en Albuquerque? Espero que tus vacaciones te ayudan a relajar también. Nos vemos la semana que viene. ¡Chau!
They will do two activities related to this recording.
Question answering - Interpretive listening and presentational writing mode of communication. Students are asked to write 75-100 words answering the questions below, helping them practice using weather vocabulary and recently learned grammatical structures (e.g. gustar, ir a + inf.):
¿Cómo va a estar el tiempo en Oaxaca la semana que viene?
¿Cómo afecta eso a los planes de tu amiga?
Recording a response - Presentative speaking mode of communication. Students are asked to voice record themselves responding to the voice message they received (45-60 seconds). They will respond to the question their friend asks at the end (¿Cómo está el tiempo allí en Albuquerque?) and to give a description of what activities they might do if the weather were like that over the holiday.