Story Script - the fake id (Spanish 2)

So as you might know if you've been doing storytelling for any length of time, ANYthing can be fodder for a story provided you can find ways to get reps in there and have your class help make it compelling.

When I was in high school, I remember making a movie for Spanish 3 in a group project where a guy (me) tried to get into a club/rave and had to eventually buy a fake id. If I remember, it was a commercial for fake ids.

With the Broccoli story I had made for reflexive verb practice, I thought it would be fun to have a story script beforehand to preteach some other words that might come up in a unit on Food or just have fun with.

I needed to introduce: "le pide" (s/he asks for / s/he orders). This works in Spanish for ordering food as well as asking for something. So I had my main structure for the storyline. Now all I needed was a few other structures.

What I came up with was:

Structures:

• era más bonita que (she was prettier than)
• le pide su identificación (s/he asks him/her for his/her identification)
• odiaba (s/he hated)

*Could have used "se enamoró de ella inmediatamente" (s/he fell in love immediately)


General story skeleton:

There was a [girl] who was prettier than [someone].  She wanted to dance in [name], a club in/on [place].  There was a [person/animal] that was working in front of the door of the club.  His/her name was [name].   The girl went towards [bouncer] and he asked her for her ID. She showed/gave him her id and he didn't hate pretty girls. He loved them. He told her, "You are prettier than ___.  I love pretty girls. You can go on in." He returned/gave her her id.  And she went in. 

Someone saw her enter. It was a wet waffle. He thought she was prettier than [same person or different person/thing from earlier]. He was in love.  He immediately fell in love with her.  He wanted to dance with her. He went towards the bouncer. The bouncer asked him for his id. He gave him his id. The bouncer looked at the id but there was a problem. The bouncer hated wet waffles. He told the wet waffle, "Sorry, you can't go in. You are a wet waffle and I HATE wet waffles." (Optional: Maybe add backstory as to why he hated wet waffles). He gave the wet waffle back his id and the wet waffle needed a fake id.  

He left [place[ and went to [store]. In the store, he looked for a fake id and found one. The fake id cost [quantity] and it was for a Fat Pancake. The wet waffle hated fat pancakes so he went to another store. 

In another store, he looked for a fake id and found one. It cost [quantity] and it was for a strong chicken named Bruce.  The wet waffle thought it was a deal and bought it. He went back to the club and walked towards the bouncer. The bouncer asked him for his id.  But he didn't give him his id. He gave him his fake id.  The bouncer looked at the id and told him, "You look like a wet waffle but it says here you are a strong chicken. I don't hate strong chickens. I LOVE strong chickens. You can go in." He didn't hate strong chickens and the wet waffle could enter the club! 

The wet waffle went in and looked for the girl who was prettier than [person].  He found her and walked towards her. He asked her, "Want to dance?" She asked for his identification.  He gave her his id. She looked at it and said, "Sorry, I hate strong chickens. I prefer wet waffles. I wish you were a wet waffle." 

That's terrible!  She thought he was a strong chicken and she hated strong chickens!

*In one class, the bouncer liked what the id was of (pancake or something) and ate the character instead of letting him in. The ending doesn't matter if you have delivered enough repetitive, compelling, comprehensible input.

**Some structures used in the story were from previous stories in our class stories. I always try to recycle things from previous stories.

And here's a worksheet with the present tense reading that I was quite proud of with some routine reflexives and additional activities if you need them!

Let me know if you end up using it or tweaking it!

Spanish 2 - Broccoli story for daily routines / reflexives

Ever get locked into silly curriculum (or what others call curriculum which is really just a textbook)?

Well if you find yourself having to teach those pesky "daily routines", how about doing it in a new and sillier way?

In my Spanish 2 classes this semester, I am supposed to cover reflexives as well as foods. So I thought, why not combine them!?

So here is what I came up with.

It's about a piece of broccoli that aspired to something more.

I want you to be able to use it in your classes ABSOLUTELY free.  But I do ask that you don't delete the slides that tell that I am the author of the story because it did take me a LONG time and it would make me very sad if someone else took the credit for all of my work.

Click here for a version for Spanish teachers:

If you teach another language or if you'd rather a wordless version to do a picture-talk of sorts with your kids (describing each slide with your own target vocab) click here.

I'd love to hear if you end up using it in a class and how it is received!

If you'd like to use it in your classes but have no idea where to even start consider the following steps:
How to do a Picture Talk:

1. Look at the pictures and look for any underlying themes or words that could be repeated.
(needs, thinks, should, wants, goes, decides, is, etc)

2. Come up with a simple written version of the story that you can tell your students while you go through the pictures.

3. Tell the story to students.

4. While telling the story, to build interest, add dialogue, add voice inflection, ask the students questions about how the character feels, what happens, something parallel in their lives (who would put on a meat dress), etc. While staying in the language in a comprehensible way.

5. Perhaps tell the story again on a different day.

Other Options:
1. tell a super simple version of the story on day 1; a slightly more difficult version day 2; etc

2. tell the story in chunks depending on the length of your classes

3. have a student act out the story

4. come up with your own similar (but different) story about a character wanting to get into a club but maybe they don't have an id or they don't look old enough. So by the time you read this story, it is similar to them and you can compare and contrast the information in this story to their story.

5. have a reading version of the story on another day with fleshed out details; backstories; anything else that will make the story more compelling. I might for my classes add that the broccoli goes to different stores to buy the parts of his wardrobe.

Hope that helps and you're able to have great success in your classes with this story!

"Secret Password" happenings

Last school year, I started out incorporating a secret password to get into class.  This year, I no longer teach on the block, so I am doing new passwords that I never had the time to get to last year!

So it's been neat. In conjunction, I have really been having fun to break away from the monotony.  While sometimes, I just wait for the password, I played around with these two recently.

Last week's was:

Ojalá = I wish (let's hope)

Each day I would ask students different questions in TL that were accesible to their level(s):
   Do you want a million dollars?!
   Do you have 5 bellybuttons?
   Is it Friday yet?!
   Is it June yet?
   Is it hot outside?
   Is it July?

And they would respond with: "Ojalá" (I wish).

It was a lot of fun and later gave me the opportunity to throw Ojalá + past subjunctive in a reading for Spanish 1 that some kids were able to figure out (once they knew "ojalá" was like "I wish"). Cool!!

TPRS year 7 - secret password tweaks

Here's the evolution that I have had in my teaching.

4 years ago, I decided to stand at my door to greet students.

3 years ago, I continued to do this.

2 years ago, I thought it would be great to add in a handshake while greeting students.

1 year ago, I decided to try out a secret password with my students so that they could get in my class. (see post)

This year, I have continued with the secret password, but continue to experiment.

While I think they really helped me have something else to play around with during targeted and non-targeted comprehensible input during class last year, it also just added that extra element of fun.

Nevertheless, the way I did it last year made it a little disjointed.

As I have been reading on Bryce Hedstom's blog, I have found that there are passwords that are almost call and response. Or they are an interaction that kids have to go through before they can enter.

Last week, I tried out, "Of course!" (Claro que sí).

Comercial - Me voy de casa

So this year in Spanish two, I have certain vocabulary points I need to hit for a unit and I have wanted to use this commercial for years.

I decided to do a lot of TPR first with my classes to build up their understanding of some words for sure.

So this folder gives you all of the things that I used with the Argentine commercial: Personal - Me voy de casa. (Folder Contains: screenshots from movie, TPR, warm ups, readings, Movietalk slides, instructions & reflection)

Commercial:

Here is more or less what I did.

Persona Especial - Observer

So the other day (I want to say it was two weeks ago), the teacher next to me has resource lab with students that have special needs in certain areas. They're given time to work on certain classes and homework.

And as my students are telling me the password of the week, I have that teacher tell me, "One of my students wants to observe your class today."  To which I responded, "Is that ok with you?" And she said it was fine. I told her that if he or she didn't cause problems, they were completely welcome.

So a student comes in, sits down and works on homework.  It's one of my rowdier classes (30 or so students). They have a great energy but need a lot of redirection.

And we go through normal class. The students applaud for the things we usually do. We went over the day, date, how they were doing and we interviewed someone.  We laughed, we joked, we stayed in Spanish most of the time.

After the class, I asked if the student got any of his homework done or what he thought of class.

He responded with, "That was awesome!"

I heard from the teacher next door that he just hears our class through the wall and it must sound so exciting that he just needed to experience it for himself.

Mafia game - Presentation

This year I use PAT with classes to help with buy-in for being on task during class.

So this week we have a lot of accumulated PAT and since it's the end of the year, I thought we could play a simplified version of Mafia.

I got the idea from Martina Bex last year.

Changes I made:

• I decided for my Spanish 1 class to remove the doctor, because we never finish a game anyway.
• I added a point system because we never finish a game so that way it gives some more semblance of purpose

And here's the presentation I came up with for today to facilitate the game. The language for "se hace de noche" comes from an activity we do earlier in the year so it's familiar.

You could easily take away the language like "killing" to something else. I talk about how the mafia eliminates people, but might use the term "kill" if the classes are familiar with it. The people they accuse go to prison.


If you can use it in your classes, great!  The kids enjoyed the picture of their town in the presentation.

When dinosaurs attack - movietalk

Here's something I decided to do to help review some things for later as well as add in some additionally useful words.

And I think it's funny.

I realized since this week was a shorter week, it might be fun to spice things up with a MovieTalk and do it as a mini lesson and then build to another MovieTalk with similar structures.

So here is MovieTalk one about dinosaurs:

What's the password?!

So if you walk by my classroom during passing period, you'll most likely see something a little out of the ordinary for the average classroom: a line of students.

In the window to get into my classroom there is a green sign that reads: "Puedes pasar" (You can pass) and "No puedes pasar" (You cannot pass). The latter makes me think of Gandalf talking to the Balrog in the Fellowship of the Ring. Although I am sure he would have said something like, "No pasarás" (You shall not pass.)

Last year, students had to shake my hand to enter and I would say "good morning" or "good afternoon" to them.

This year, I have followed in the footsteps of some foreign language teaching pioneers and I make my students tell me a secret code before they can enter.

The secret code is posted on a small white board in the classroom with the Spanish and English translation.

Foreign language and wordless comics

*Edit* Maybe I should sell this idea as a "brand new method" called "ComicTalk". Could I make millions?

My memory is a little foggy on this one, but I remember hearing once about a language (foreign or language arts?) teacher that taught a class with a book that had no words, but was a series of pictures.

That would be a great idea (at least in my opinion) because each level you would add richer and richer language.

Last year, when I taught multiple levels, I was able to do the same thing with some comics I have found called "buni-comics".  They are a bit dark at times (and you definitely couldn't show some of them to your class). But the best part is that they often have a strange turn of events for the main character and they have few to no words!

Your ability to sell the comic is entirely up to you and making it comprehensible for the kids.  In the low levels, I try to tell a short story (with words we know to review) and have the kids try to guess (in the language) what might happen next.

In the higher levels, you could ask them to put themselves in the shoes of the character. Or you could ask them what should he do... or what will he do... or would you do that, etc.

Why do I bring this up now?

Well, maybe it's the mixture of students I have this year, but today when my students remembered that Thursdays we had a comic to look at (see template post to see how I pace it in my class),  they got incredibly excited!  Before I even showed the comic, they I could already see the anticipation building on their faces. And the comic delivered.

Good engagement, fun mini-discussion.

New Interactive Youtube Storytelling

A few years back I did an experiment called Cuentas Conmigo where I basically did a TPRS story but on Youtube. At the end of each video, people would write in the comments section the next detail, which I would add in the next video.

It was really fun!

Here's my new attempt.

I am going to do the same story in the present and past tense.

And I have some ideas on how to get more first person / second person forms of the verbs in there (interviewing the character).

I think it's going to be fun! Please join in by adding your details and if you're a teacher why not get your class involved to?

Present Tense:

Past Tense:

And you might subscribe to the channel where I wanted to do a new storyline each semester (maybe even one in the summer depending on how this one turns out!)


Check out my Cuentas Conmigo channel or playlists of old Cuentas Conmigo attempts.