THEME: Families and Communities
CONTEXT: Social Networks
CONNECTIONS: Science and Technology
This set of resources is something I started to develop last year. I initially found the article "Qué hacer para cuidar las relaciones personales" and built questions using the Interpretive Reading Guide for my students in Spanish four. One of the things that we are supposed to be working on and contributing to as a district/school is ACT style questions to help prepare our students for the ACT Aspire and ACT tests that they take in Wisconsin, but I also wanted to prepare them for AP style questions for when they move on to AP Spanish Language and Culture next year. So I wanted to write questions that were somewhat similar to each. I looked at the ACT Science questions to try to generate similar questions in Spanish (typically graph analysis), which I did for the graph entitled, "Cómo influye la tecnología en las relaciones interpersonales".  I linked both of these resources with an infographic, "La comunicación en la era digital. El impacto de las 'redes sociales'."

These three sources are related in their discussion of interpersonal relationships, but they approach them from different perspectives. I used all three of them together as an interpretive summative at the end of our unit on "Love and Interpersonal Relationships," but each resource could also stand alone. 

There are 8 total episodes, each ranging in length, that in the end have been combined to create a seamless movie. When it first streamed, it was interactive. After each episode/segment viewers could vote for what happened next in the story with a "what would you do" question being posed to the audience every time. It would have been very cool to be a part of that voting process!

Why does this appeal to me for AP Spanish? For a variety of reasons! First, like I said, the episodes vary in length, 9-20ish minutes if I remember correctly. That makes it so doable to show in class and develop meaningful resources. Second, the title itself and the "what would you do" scenarios offer a lot of repetition of this valuable phrase. Thematically I think this series will fit great in my Personal & Public Identities unit (Personal Beliefs & Values, Personal Interests, Self-Image/Self-Esteem) but it also ties into several other themes: Families & Communities (Educational Communities, Family Structure, Friendship & Love), Contemporary Life (Lifestyles, Personal Relationships), Global Challenges (Philosophical Thought & Religion). Maybe most importantly the episodes are highly engaging and with a little bit of prep work can be very comprehensible to students. Attached are the resources I've created so far for Chapter 1. Let us know if you have used this web-series before!
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Google Slides Link: Picture Talk (No text)
Google Slides Link: Graphic Novel Chapter 1
Pre-viewing Questions for each chapter​
All photos were taken as screenshots from http://www.rtve.es/playz/sifuerastu/.

AP THEME: Beauty and Aesthetics
CONTEXT: Defining Beauty
Sometimes I think that we make more work for ourselves by searching for multiple resources to use in different levels. Instead, we can use the same resource and change the task to fit the level of out students. This helps us manage our time and once we have a great resource, why use it only once? Change the activity and reuse the same resource for the same class - the same resource could be the basis for in-class interpersonal conversation, and interpersonal writing activity using a backchat like TodaysMeet while watching a video. Create an interpretive listening task for the video.

I used Videonot.es to write comments and questions as I watched the video. I was thinking about multiple proficiency levels as I took notes because I wanted to maximize my time. Writing prompts and questions for the Novice level should be in English. Once students reach Intermediate levels, prompts and questions may be written in the target language, but we must specify the language of response for the assessment. 

Angélica Dass, a Brazilian born photographer, has done several TEDx talks about her project, Humanae. Humanea is a project that addresses skin tone, art, personal identity, self-esteem, and perceptions of beauty. It is truly an amazing project. Using one of her TEDx talks, I developed two tasks - one for Novice learners and one for Intermediate learners. The theme of this video is more challenging, but with questions at a different level, I believe it is also accessible to lower level students as well. While viewing with students the teacher may need to pause at different times throughout the viewing to give students a chance to answer and ask questions. 

AP THEME: Global Challenges
CONTEXT: Political Conflicts (Social Welfare)
Canal Encuentro, the first TV channel created by Argentina's Ministry of Education, creates and publishes a lot of really incredible videos on YouTube with the purpose of social education for educational use and general society. They had an illustrated documentary series about different Revolutions throughout the world, but it is no longer accessible through their channel (they have a new series about Dictatorships in Latin America as well as a new of for the Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity that look really amazing).

Using videos to create listening/viewing is essential for finding authentic resources, but also challenging when the video you find and develop resources for is removed or no longer accessible where you initially found it. To help alleviate this frustration, there is an extension called savefrom.net that will help you save videos that you are using to create interpretive listening or viewing assessments. 

The Revoluciones videos are amazing, but challenging because they are truly authentic (created by Canal Encuentro). We created a formative assessment in EDpuzzle using the Revolución Boliviana 1952 video. Using Edpuzzle as the formative was great because the narrator in all of the videos is the same, so they are able to get used to his voice and the format of the videos before the summative. Students are able able to rewatch any part of the video as many times as they need to hear an answer. The summative uses the video for La Revolución de Guatemala. When we gave this assessment, we allowed students to view the video three times (the first time without the questions in front of them so they were actually viewing the video and the second/third time viewing with the questions). This is more of a listening assessment however, and on a couple questions students used what they saw in the video to answer a question, which does not correspond directly with what is said, nor what is asked (specifically question #4). 

AP THEME: Global Challenges
CONTEXT: Social Context
When looking for a reading based on current events, Newsela provides really wonderful readings in both Spanish and English. It is an easily searchable database. Each article has at least four different reading levels, which makes differentiation way easier. Newsela has also created a quiz appropriate for each level. Once you have created an account, you are able to download and print articles. 

This reading activity is designed for upper level students and focuses on the changes to the term used by the Library of Congress from "illegal aliens" to "undocumented immigrants". After reading the article, the topic could lend itself to a good discussion on the reasons for the change. 

AP THEME: Contemporary Life
CONTEXT: Love and Relationships
I love using short videos in class (cortometrajes). They are really engaging for students and there is so much you can do with them to get students using the target language.  MovieTalk is a teaching strategy that was developed by Dr. Ashley Hastings as part of the FOCAL Skills approach to language instruction. Martina Bex describes the MovieTalk process on her website, but essentially you find a short movie (5 minutes or less) with simple language (or no language), and play the movie in class, pausing frequently to talk with students about what is happening, ask questions, and make predictions. Use your targeted vocabulary and grammar as you talk about the video. 

I used the video El Cerebro Dividido in my Love and Relationships unit. The MovieTalk took the entire 45 minute class. My students weren't quite ready to just answer in Spanish, so I gave them a little time after each question to write their thoughts down before calling on them in order to give them increased processing time. I asked the questions, and then based on the students' answers I circled and discussed what was happening on the screen. They were really engaged and hooked on the video. 

To prep for the MovieTalk, I used www.videonot.es/ to take notes and write the questions I wanted to ask students in class. In VideoNot.es as you watch the video, it records the time that you start writing a question. It really helped me while I was doing the MovieTalk to know when to pause the video and ask a question. I created a Google Slides document with screen shots of the video with the questions I used to guide the discussion in class. 

AP THEME: Personal and Public Identities
CONTEXT: Alienation and Assimilation
Martina Bex and Elizabeth Dentlinger get the credit for the idea behind the Smash Doodle. A Smash Doodle is a series of illustrations and words related to a theme. We love Smash Doodles because students are able to be creative, but they also have to synthesize and apply information from the unit into one cohesive thought/presentation. Our students have created Smash Doodles after reading and viewing activities relating to the theme (i.e. read an article/book and watch a movie/documentary) as a way for them to integrate their learning from a variety of sources. We are sharing an example from a unit on Alienation and Assimilation during which students read a segment of "Cajas de Cartón" by Francisco Jiménez and viewed the documentary, Living on One Dollar​. ​

AP THEME: Science and Technology
CONTEXT: Effects of Technology on Self and Society
This resource is designed for the thematic unit of Technology in an upper level course. We utilized the amazing website, Audio-lingua.eu to find native-speakers talking about their opinions on personal technology. What a great way to get students listening to various native-speakers in one assessment! When using this activity, which could be used formatively or summatively, we recommend giving students the opportunity to listen to the audio source three times with time to respond in between. The link to the website can be found at the top of the assessment and is also linked to each speakers' name. ​