One of the favorite books of the year from Spanish III was Robo en la noche by Kristy Placido. We read it in the past tense as a part of a bigger unit about the environment and Costa Rica. I relied heavily on the Robo en la noche teachers guide. We also actually read the book to start out Spanish IV, as they had never read a novel. They loved the storyline and although the reading level may have been a bit low for them, it provided a lot of high level discussions and gave them great confidence to go on to read La Calaca Alegre and Cajas de Cartón.
Before the novel
We started out the unit by completing these stations using realia about the environment in Spanish. *Update you can now get these in my website store as well El Medio Ambiente y Costa Rica Spanish Earth Day Stations.
Learn more in this blog post.
During the novel
During the novel, we completed many activities from the teachers guide. An especially great resource is having students explore the Costa Rica MINAE website, so they can see this organization actually exists.
We also talked about the Escuela de Botellas Peace Corps project. It shows a way to eliminate trash by using it to create a school. This awesome resource used to be an interactive online book that has a recording of a native speaker as you turned the pages. It actually takes place in Guatemala and could be used a part of a unit on Esperanza or schools around the world.
*Update use these Spanish Novel Conversation Cards to support conversation during the novel and for speaking assessments.
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After the novel
There were two assessments at the end of the novel, individual speaking assessments, which can be found in the teachers guide and a modified
Choice Board based on the one shared by the author Kristy Placido. Some of the projects can be found below.
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For next year I would like to add a movie to this unit. Any ideas?
Other Great Ideas & Resources to add to this unit
Blog posts for Robo en la noche– shared by Sharon Birch
Blog posts for Robo en la noche – shared by Cynthia Hitz
I am about to start an unit in environment for my Spanish 3 IB. I was looking for new resources and I found the movie los 33 about the miners in Chile. I ordered the movie already. I am planning to work on it during my spring break. I will let you know.
Claudia
Ooo that's sounds awesome! Please let me know how it is!
Would you be willing to share your modified Choice Board? Thank you so much for all of your awesome ideas!
You can see Kristy's original on her blog! I am sorry, I can not share a version made from hers!
There is an awesome song called “Soy Tico”. It is full of culture, all the singers are famous artist from Costa Rica. Includes Folk song titles and other important facts of the country. I’m Costa Rican and I love the book and this song. Soy Tico: video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLW3lbv94FY Lyrics https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iytszTcBl6ZgtUfsF7mqWCPiuyr0ByNK6moS77KQUik/edit?usp=sharing Google slides/artists https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/196NNKBZSsGd3JZNz63XwMvhQuIEDtAbaN3Nj-x7uQkk/edit?usp=sharing Google slides/resources https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1A7Ja5a95zJewizeyALm3z8hNgJer5u5dthimHGNhtis/edit?usp=sharing (if you see an error, please let me know)
Thank you for sharing! I am using that book this week!
Thank you for sharing your resources! Is there anything specific you do with the MINAE website? Are there any activities you do to prep students before they read about it?
About how long did it take you to work through this unit with your students?
It all depends on your goals! In the past I would spend a month or so on novels. Now I have started front loading the culture and then reading the books quicker to not lose the story.
Hola! I am trying to find your Find Someone Who – Any Novel but it just brings me to your TPT store and when I search for it, it doesn't bring anything up…..any thoughts??
Gracias!
please send me an email!
Thought I would comment and say neat theme, did you design it for yourself? Really looks really good!
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