Inside: Novice Spanish 1 Culture & Civilization Class. Spanish culture elective class. Teaching Culture & Civilization to Spanish 1.
This post was originally published on March 24, 2016 by Allison Wienhold.
For context, at that time, it was the end of my first year teaching at a new school. We were on trimesters, but knew that the following year would be semesters. Previously Spanish 2 would have started 3rd trimester.
With the switch from trimesters to semesters, I had the opportunity to teach an optional extension to Spanish 1. It was an elective class taught with the prerequisite of Spanish 1. It also had the option of a credit recovery class for Spanish 1. So it was a mix of students who were taking it to try and pass Spanish 1, and those who just wanted more Spanish.
I decided to title the class Culture & Civilization (title from Kara Jacobs) and focus on comprehensible culture. Since it is an optional class, I wanted it to be fun and interesting, while still providing the needed input in Spanish to help these students be better prepared for Spanish 2 in the fall.
I sent out a Google form to those signed up with many culture ideas that we could investigate and learn about as a class. It included the following topics: lucha libre, bullfighting, medio ambiente, immigration, health, superstitions, biblioburro, native civilizations, la guerra sucia, guachos, yipao parade, fairy tales, geography, la tomatina, geography, culture of piñatas, specific countries of study, music, food, holidays, etc. Their results guided my planning of this class.
Since they wanted to learn about such a wide variety of topics, I decided to keep most as short cultural mini units. This way no had had the chance to get bored and everyone gets to learn about their number one choice. Also, I wanted our study to be currently relevant, so as much as possible we studied festivals and celebrations that were happening at the moment.
In addition to our units, students completed 5 points bi-weekly of choice real world homework, to make sure they were also experiencing culture locally and outside of class. Many thanks to the wonderful resources of others, which made planning these units so much easier! Below are the units we have completed so far, as well as our tentative plans for the rest of the trimester.
Unit 1 – La Guerra Sucia
Update – This was based on student request, but it the future I wouldn’t start with something so heavy!
Unit 2 – Las Fallas
Since this class took place 3rd trimester, we included Las Fallas, a festival that takes place in March in Spain.
Update – You can now also get my Las Fallas in Spanish Culture Unit
Unit 3 – Semana Santa
We used Martina Bex’s plans for this mini unit on Semana Santa since it was in the Spring.
Unit 4 – La Tomatina
If this class was in the fall, I would start with La Tomatina, since it takes place in late August.
Unit 5 – Tumba – novel by Mira Canion
I decided to do one culturally centered novel in this class and knew Tumba would be the perfect fit. Using the teacher’s guide would be a great way to talk about The Day of the Dead, as well as many aspects of the culture and history of Mexico.
See my posts for this novel unit by clicking on the image below.
Unit 6 – Bullfighting
See Elizabeth Dentlinger’s plans & resources for this mini unit by clicking on the image below. Have you seen all of the wonderful resources she has posted for this unit for free! Mil gracias!
Unit 7 – Comida
I did something similar to Kara Jacob’s Gastronomia unit. We focused on the cuisine of a couple Spanish speaking countries. I used some of the Zachary Jones activities such as “¡Qué rico!”.
It was a fun and lighthearted way to end the year. It was their top pick, probably because they have hopes of being able to try food out in class 😉 I had hopes to include an end of year field trip to a local authentic Mexican restaurant. But the new school was very against field trips.
NEW* – Final – Culture Project
A couple units we are not using based on student choice, but would fit well are the following:
Piñata Mini Unit
Now that I have a full ready to go unit about piñatas, I would for sure include this unit.
Geography of Spanish Speaking World Mini Unit
I would include Spanish Speaking Countries martes del mapa 26 as a routine to teach geography through the class.
It is pretty awesome to not have any focus on certain sets of vocabulary or grammar and to just teach Spanish with culture at the core. This class has shown be that ANY language class could ultimately be set up like this, but with a better planning of targeted high frequency vocabulary. Overall my goals for this class are to help struggling students be better prepared for Spanish II, while meeting the following essential standards related to both culture and communication in Spanish.Have you ever done a class like this? What did you include?
