Culture in 3 Acts: Rethinking how I teach culture

This past week during our weekly professional development afternoon, a colleague demonstrated Dan Meyer's "3 Act" math tasks, or math stories. These inquiry based, student driven math explorations seem to be a great resource for flipped classroom models and for the kind of authentic tasks and higher level thinking that the Common Core is now requiring. Thanks to the magic of modern technology, math teachers can now find and share their own "3 Act" Math tasks, with links to prompts, standards and suggested questions.

As a Spanish teacher, I immediately began thinking of my culture lessons in 3 Acts. I already try to hook students with a fascinating image or video related to what we are learning about, and I always encourage guesses, questions, and discussions... but then I usually give them the questions that I want them to answer. If those questions were things they were actually interested in, they were driven by curiosity... and if not, they were driven by the grade carrot on a stick, if anything. In re-imagining these inquiries, I was drawn to the idea of having students drive the inquiry themselves.

I would like to adjust my culture lessons and apply some of the ideas behind the 3 Act math tasks:

• Act One: Introduce the central conflict of your story/task clearly, visually, viscerally, using as few words as possible.
• Leave no one out of your first act. It should be comprehensible to all levels. It should, as Dan Meyers says, get all students "right in the curiosity bone."
• Elicit questions from students, rather than handing them a list of questions.

In my colleague's demonstration, she categorized the questions elicited from students (in this case, teachers) by how much interest each question generates. Teachers can also try to pull out questions that fit with  specific objectives or standards. For culture lessons, I might leave it a little more open ended than in a math lesson, since culture standards are so broad. With that list of student-generated questions, there are some options. We could choose one question for students to focus on as a class, assign different questions to differentiated groups, or have students choose from a few selected questions that will address specific objectives.

• Act Two: The protagonist/student overcomes obstacles, looks for resources, and develops new tools.
• What resources do your students need to answer their questions? What tools do they need? What language do they need to answer their questions?

Teachers can try to anticipate student questions and prepare lists of resources (I often try to create differentiated lists of resources for various language levels and learning styles - I have shared some here on this blog.) However, in authentic inquiries, students need to look for information on their own. I might help students come up with authentic (and not-so-authentic) sources of information. We might brainstorm search terms in the target language. I might introduce Act 1 in the classroom, and then set students loose to answer their questions, in the computer lab or at home.

• Act Three: Resolve the conflict and set up a sequel/extension.
• The resolution should be a satisfactory payoff for students. (In Meyer's example task, he highlights the difference between actually seeing the basketball go through the hoop, and reading in the answer key - "The ball goes in.")
• Have students share the answers to their questions, and their process for finding those answers.

Using the  list of student generated questions from Act 1, and further curiosity generated by their investigations, this could easily open up extension activities and "sequels."

Many teachers are used to handing students questions, along with some set tools and formulas to answer those questions. In flipped classrooms and inquiry-based lessons, it is up to the students to select the tools they need to meet their objectives... and when students generate the questions themselves (after being motivated with a fascinating hook) they will be much more eager to find the answers. As a language and culture teacher, I want to develop independent language learners... and students who can independently find new information about other cultures, fueled by genuine curiosity.

I already am scheming up some new culture lessons in this format... I'm guessing my next attempt will be some inquiries about Semana Santa, perhaps starting with this great video. I'd love to hear from others, and perhaps collaborate on a database of resources. (Math teachers aren't the only ones who can collaborate!)

Los colores y las perspectivas de género

It's project time in middle school, and I am learning a lot along with them. Two of my students wrote a skit for their opiniones project, which takes place in a dress shop and has a fair amount of bridezilla drama in it. They wanted to know how to say the color "eggshell" in Spanish, which took us on a detailed journey of color palettes in Spanish. I ended up learning about the name of some specific shades in Spanish.

I also found this graphic, which I am using today as a writing and discussion prompt for my 7th and 8th graders. I'm hoping it can spark some interesting discussions. As a woman who is a language teacher (not an artist or an interior designer) I don't think I could name all the shades described... in my native language or my second language!

(Thanks to the community over at Wordreference for helping me with the eggshell question, by the way!)

El Carnaval: A resource pile

President's Day, the Lunar New Year, and Carnival were all jumbled together at the beginning of this week.

El Carnaval en Alicante, España.

My middle school classes have been working hard on other projects, so I wanted to create a somewhat independant exploration for students who were done with their projects, or for extra credit in some classes. Our schedule is a little messy right now after a 4 day weekend, so this was a fun "filler" to help get all the classes caught up.

Carnival/Carnaval/Mardis Gras is a truly multicultural topic of exploration, and there are so many great examples of colonized cultures combining (or disguising) their beliefs with newer Catholic traditions. It's also a good example of some traditions that are fun enough on their own, even without the complex historical background behind them!

This might be belated for this year, but I wanted to share some of the resources I used this year related to El Carnaval! Here is a leveled list separated by learning style, with resources in both English and Spanish.



I gave this list to my students directly, along with this paper. They could choose which resources they used to find the answers to the questions, according to their language level, learning style, and interests.

(I went paperless with some classes by creating a Google Form of these questions, too - I can share the template with you if you wish. Feel free to contact me!)

Do you have any more great resources related to Carnival? I am especially interested in expanding my knowledge of celebrations in Latin America - my only personal experience is from Spain and my own Catholic childhood.

Muñecas Quitapenas

Worry dolls are one of my favorite culture lessons for the little ones. It allows for some personal connections and relationship building, and also brings a little magic into the classroom. I have used worry dolls with kids in K-4, and as a brief cultural lesson for the older kids (usually when talking about good luck and anxiety, particularly before quizzes.)

We talk about the Guatemalan tradition of worry dolls and how they are used, and then create our own on paper. (Although much of this cultural lesson is in English, most classes can understand the basics in Spanish... and they know the animal words necessary to understand when I tell them about my childhood fear of dogs!) Kids decorate their dolls, and write what they are worried or scared about on the back of each doll. We hide all the dolls together somewhere in the classroom, and check on them the next day. Sometimes they just disappear with all our worries... and sometimes there is a note in their place that tells each student "¡No te preocupes!" (Sometimes these notes are even in color... it depends on how much time the worry dolls had, and if they could use a color printer. Worry dolls apparently don't get a lot of prep periods, either.)

Especially in the older classrooms, the students almost always are convinced that I took the dolls - but most of them say that it made them feel a little better, anyway. Students write in their culture journals comparing this tradition to the ways their own families comfort them when they are sad. 

Depending on your students, I would caution against extended group sharing what students are scared of. I always focus on sharing what makes us feel better when we are scared - not the things that scare us. (Why have these kiddos seen so many scary movies?) Back in Detroit, this lesson led to at least one referral to child protective services, based on the troubling fears one kindergartner expressed. This can be a very real window into your students' lives - and not everything there is pretty.

Some resources:

• My simple worry doll templates - for students to make their own in class. (4 per page.)
• I bought my worry dolls at Ten Thousand Villages, but there are other fair trade options available. (For example, from the Hunger Site.)
• El Misterio de los Muñecos Quitapenas - Article (beginning and advanced versions) and related media from the wonderful Veinte Mundos magazine.
• Worry Dolls - Article in English (to send to parents) with instructions to make your own at home.
• Silly Billy - A sweet book (in English) about worry dolls. (Find a review and preview from Alexandra Asophie here.)

Paz y Libertad

Hello all! My posts have been a little sparse in the new year so far. I have been a little swamped with the end of the semester grades and report cards, but I'm introducing some things during the new semester and I'm hoping to share some of them!

In 3rd and 4th grade we have been beginning the class all year with a greeting song, but after a few months of that I think they are ready for something fresh and a little more involved. We are learning Paz y Libertad, by José-Luis Orozco.

This is from his album De Colores, which I love. I have both the book and the CD:

 

The book has the lyrics, music, and beautiful illustrations, but I wanted to make sure my students could understand the song they were singing. So I created a lyric sheets with some key words illustrated. (You can find the PDF here.)

I had my students see if they could read and understand the main ideas of the song, with the support of the pictures. We went through each verse individually, adding actions, and then sang the whole song together with music. It's simple and repetitive enough that the kids could sing along with the chorus almost immediately.

We also spoke about what peace and liberty mean, and real life examples of each (in a kid-sized context.) To wrap up the lesson I had kids illustrate one of the verses on the back of their paper. (Lots of people wanted to illustrate the last one.) I reminded them that they should illustrate what peace and liberty might look like in each of the situations mentioned in the song... so we didn't just produce pictures of bombs and kids fighting.

When we sing the song together, we'll use the lyrics sheets and illustrations as a listening activity - kids will listen for their verse and hold up their illustrations when we get to it.

Pie charts for all!

No más. Sí, mas.

For my kids, this was a successful (and meaningful) way to introduce a new song. I hope it can be useful to you, too!