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!

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.

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.

Last minute gem - Una papa - simple song

I always find myself planning late at night before bed (for some odd reason) and stumbling across something that I really want to use with my students (because I LOVE to mix things up each year with new activities).

I stumbled across this really cute little song about potatoes that like to dance!

It could be great for elementary teachers or middle school/high-school students to get those wiggles out for a brain break. (Of course you know your classes better than I do. As a wacky teacher, I can often encourage them to do things like this or the mascota activity.)

video:

But I digress. I found this song a few minutes ago and HAD to use it tomorrow for the following reasons:

TPRS year 5 - spontaneous output

The other day in my Spanish 2 class, I was pleasantly amused by my Spanish students.  My class is a mixture of popular and non-popular kids (as most classes are).  Generally in my classes this is a struggle all year as we try to build them up enough to get away from those silly social norms.

But last Tuesday, I was chatting with my students about their weekends (or how they were doing) I forget.  And somehow it came up that I asked my students a question because I didn't know the answer and there was a pause.

A bright (but somewhat quiet) student said suddenly, "Porque estás en una coma" ("Because you're in a coma").

Suddenly, I was flooded with questions about how I was in a coma and for how long and my students shrugged it off as if it was no big deal and made up a back story as to why I was in a coma.  The entire thing was incredibly hilarious (within the contexts of that class).  Of course comas are not necessarily funny.  But this day, the fact that my students were explaining to me in their Spanish 2 way that all that I knew was an illusion, made for a very interesting and somewhat deep conversation in Spanish.

The neatest part was that regardless of popular status, everyone was contributing to my being in a coma and laughing it off since I am such a loser that no one visited me.  All of this of course is a surprise to me.

I love input-based teaching.  The output is so much more meaningful to me when it's finally ready to come.

TPRS year 4 - song - El Pollo

Many years ago, I learned this song from an Argentinian gentleman in Guadalajara, Mexico on a missions trip.  He was in charge of the activities of this sports camp at a park.

One of the favorite things of everyone was this song where he said the following:

El pollo   (Hold hand up on eeeeeeeeeeel  and stomp when you say pollo)
El pollo con una pata. (step with one foot)
El pollo con otra pata.  (step with both feet)
El pollo con una alita. (step with both feet and move an arm like a wing)
El pollo con otra alita. (step with both feet and move both arms like wings)
El pollo con la cabeza. (step with both feet, move both arms, and move head)
El pollo con la colita. (turn around and shake your caboose)

Even with high school students, this is one that was a crowd favorite at my first school.  I kind of forgot about it at my previous school.  But some of my students asked about a poster I made of it that was hanging up and so we went over it and they seemed to enjoy the simplicity and silliness of it.

So If you would like to try it out in your class, I'll upload an audio file later of me saying it or maybe even a short video clip of me doing it.

TPRS Year 3 - Piratas - Chapters 5-6

So we're still working on reading a chapter or two of Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto.  This week we needed to read two chapters because my seniors are leaving in the second week of May!  And we are only in Chapter 5 this week.  So Wednesday, my afternoon classes read through chapters 5-6 (which are not too long and can be lumped together).

Since it was a half day and the afternoon classes aren't always incredibly excited about reading, I noticed that the phrase, "Preparen los cañones." (Prepare the cannons!) was used various times throughout chapter 5 and once or twice in chapter 6.  On a whim, I decided to let them know that every time it came up we had to run to the window and prepare our cannons and fire them at different targets.  I teach high school students ranging from freshman through seniors and I saw most of them thought this was awesome for the first few times.  By the last few, not as many were as enthused, but I was still frantically yelling to them, "Preparen los cañones." and trying to prepare my cannon.  I figured it would add to the intensity of the action in the chapters as well as help us connect to the story.  Oh, and it would keep my students awake.

Maybe it was more of a distraction for some, but I thought it was great.  I even saw a student I haven't been able to connect with much this year grin each time we ran to the window to prepare our cannons.

That definitely made it worth it!

Día 25 - Reading Activity with Junior High

I had a reading activity with the Junior High students and it was a subtle joke but it was right up their alley.  I actually didn't think about it on a conscious level when writing the story but it popped out of my mouth during the talking about it and the kids became much more interested in the story when they made a connection that I hadn't thought of. (See story)

The premise is that a girl has a horn and she can't get a boyfriend.  It echoes the story that I told the class a few days ago in that there is a person with a relationship problem.  I'm just working with the present tense and some similar structures from the previous class period.  The idea is to build their confidence on reading.

The activity is to go over a sentence, have a student translate it and help with any words they don't know.  In helping them with the words, you can move on to the next part.  You may circle during the reading to ask about previous information in the story.  You can also refer to the parallel story that you told in class in the past tense to test the students' memories and remind them of the funny story that they created which happened to be similar.  You can also create spin off facts about the students.  I hadn't even thought that I would have students who would want to have horns.  But they did and then we were able to circle about how they have horns, how many, what size, what color, etc.

Then we could continue with the story after some circling about their horns and the girl's horn from the story.  I will give them a short quiz at the beginning of class later today to see how they do.  Other than that, I'm not sure what to do with them today.  Hmm....

Día 20 - Goofiness

I can't underestimate the importance of goofiness with Junior High students.  It's interesting teaching middle school and high school because their worlds are so incredibly different.

Middle school students have so much more energy and I am trying to use that.  Part of me tries to calm them down a little bit so that we can learn.  The high school classes often need me to encourage them and coax them into getting a little more goofy.

There is definitely something more fun about middle school students.

Yesterday we were reviewing a story and they were dying of boredom.  So I introduced a new word while we were talking about the story.  I figured it couldn't hurt to through in the word besar (to kiss) into the PQA.  The students suddenly all got really excited when I asked if the character in the story kisses someone else.  Of course he does not.  But then the students start getting really excited and I have to ask if the character in the story kisses or if a student in the class kisses.  Suddenly all of the students want to call out suggestions and contribute to the story.

And all I did was introduce the word kiss.  I need to start thinking like a middle school student again in order to better teach them.