Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Saturday, February 9, 2013
La Casa Project
What it turned out to be a two-week project helped the students to become familiar with several house part names as well as several room names and house appliances. Many students felt curious about learning new vocabulary from objects they saw at their houses. After we finished building the house, which turned out to be a two-store house with a campo de golf (golf course) included, we had extra activities to review the spelling and pronunciation of the new vocabulary. I was so amazed to see how the children were able to connect the new vocabulary related to houses to their practical meaning.
The idea was to introduce the vocabulary in a meaningful way rather than the traditional lecture with the white board. At then end, they knew what a silla was because they had made one out of clay. We finalized the week with a team activity where we connected the use of definite articles (un, uno, una, unos, & unas) to the vocabulary we had learned.
Also, I wanted to share a personal reflection regarding this topic: I find it quite challenging to explain this concept of female and male objects, which is confusing, but it's also key for understanding Spanish. As one of my students pointed out how can the sun be female (la estrella) and male (el sol) at the same time? Sometimes, there are questions like this one that do not have a right answer. This is part of what we call culture. Learning the gender of each object is something we, as native speakers, learned as part of the socialization process even though sometimes it does not make too much logical sense, but that's the beauty of learning a new language: being aware of other points of view different than ours.
Ok, here are some of the pictures from our Construyamos Una Casa Project:
The idea was to introduce the vocabulary in a meaningful way rather than the traditional lecture with the white board. At then end, they knew what a silla was because they had made one out of clay. We finalized the week with a team activity where we connected the use of definite articles (un, uno, una, unos, & unas) to the vocabulary we had learned.
Also, I wanted to share a personal reflection regarding this topic: I find it quite challenging to explain this concept of female and male objects, which is confusing, but it's also key for understanding Spanish. As one of my students pointed out how can the sun be female (la estrella) and male (el sol) at the same time? Sometimes, there are questions like this one that do not have a right answer. This is part of what we call culture. Learning the gender of each object is something we, as native speakers, learned as part of the socialization process even though sometimes it does not make too much logical sense, but that's the beauty of learning a new language: being aware of other points of view different than ours.
Ok, here are some of the pictures from our Construyamos Una Casa Project:
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| Group discussion on what objects should go in our casa |
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| One of the students labeling the wall as pared |
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| This puerta's picture was taken before the labeling assignment, but it reflects the love of one of my students for his multicultural heritage . |
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| Another group discussion on how to design the interior of the house while learning the different room's names in Spanish. |
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| And the furniture started to take shape |
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| Proudly, showing La cisterna (toilet), which she had made. |
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| Besides building la casa, they also elaborated their own stories on who lived in the house. |
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| Very creative inner walls - paredes de adentro |
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| La casa en la pared |
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| The final product inside: habitacion con closet y todo! |
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| Sports' fan pared |
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| We also labeled the furniture or house appliances |
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| Coming to an end. Checking what else is needed... |
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| Campo de golf made by our sports' fan of course. |
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| El jardin - the garden |
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| Everything creative is valid in this class: this is the random wall by Ken |
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| At last, group picture showing how proud they are from their team work |
Thursday, February 7, 2013
DAC Beginning French
Salut tout le monde!
If you've been wondering what the beginning French class has been doing for the past couple of weeks, here is an update!
Last week, building on the food vocabulary that we learned the week before, we learned about breakfast, lunch and dinner, and how to set a table à la francaise. Jada even brought in croissants for the class on Friday so that we could fully understand the importance of breakfast and appreciate how delicious croissants are. It isn't enough to just talk about them in class. You have to eat them too.
This week we have been doing a comprehensive review of what we have already learned. Monday, we talked about feelings, then shapes on Tuesday (with Sophia one of the lovely French subs), clothes on Wednesday (with Nicole, our wonderful TALK president), and today, we reviewed parts of the body. We are currently working on a collage, and those will be up here hopefully. Jackson's already looks very promising! Here are some drawings that the class created on Monday, depicting how they felt that morning.
Jada est heureuse! :)
et Chloé aussi. :)
Cependant, Jackson est étonné. :O
Alexis est heureuse aussi! Elle nous souhaite une bonne Saint Valentin (mais un peu en avance). :)
Sam est fâché. >:(
Maya est triste. ):
I was glad to see that at least half of my kids were happy!
We will start learning about parts of the house next week!
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