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Sensory Experiences with Authentic Materials

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Sensory Experiences with Authentic Materials

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Many learners benefit from auditory and visual aids. However, sense of touch, whether they realize it or not can also play a role. As a Spanish teacher, I love when I have the chance to share stories with my students from my time studying abroad. Rather than "boring" them with a simple slideshow however, I bring in authentic souvenirs and artifacts for my students to pass around. It helps to make what I'm saying more realistic. For example, bringing in pesos  from each country I've visited in Latin America. Not only do students have the opportunity to compare U.S. currency to those of other countries in terms of appearance and exchange rates, they also are subconsciously learning about important figures in history/government due to the photos and names written upon them. Those names and geographical locations depicted often show up later within our textbook activities or other example sentences as context clues.

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Newsela is an online platform for K-12 educators full of news articles and resources related to current events around the world. Teachers can assign different articles for students to read or assign a general theme from which the students find a related article on their own. Articles help to improve reading proficiency/comprehension skills. They are often offered in more than one language and at 5 different levels of reading proficiency. Students have an element of voice & choice within this website. Articles help to bring "real world" conversations and discussions to the classroom while making connections to the content as well as the community.

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Newsela | En EE.UU. el Día de los Muertos es un gran negocio, quizás demasiado

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Hay un creciente interés en el Día de los Muertos, el día festivo mexicano que celebra la vida de los amigos y familiares fallecidos

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Thanks to platforms like YouTube multimedia resources such as video clips are abundant and easily accessible. Videos provide opportunity to present new information (or review information) in ways that are both engaging and throught provoking. Animations full of vibrant colors and music gain student attention and promote discussion as everyone interprets them differently. Unlike when used for grammar lessons, videos/animations that can promote discussions without any straightforward text/conversation included, allow students to make inferences and predictions of thier own. When used appropriately at the beginning of unit, students are able to hold onto those predictions and investigate the content moving forward in such a way that can confirm or deny them. Thus, ownership of learning begins to occur.

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🏆CGI 3D Animated Short Film🏆: "Dia De Los Muertos" - by Team Whoo Kazoo + Ringling | TheCGBros

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Incorporation of the arts and pop culture into curriculum is a vital tool in 21st century education. It makes the content relatable and appealing. especially for a generation that is connected so frequently through social media platforms.  An idea in this regard is using recent/popular movies that students may have seen in theaters, own on DVD, or stream on Netflix to introduce or reinforce a cultural topic.  For example, showing the 2017 Disney/Pixar film Coco to students in November around Día de Muertos (a Mexican celebration), is an example of how to cross pop culture with current curriculum.  For students who have not yet seen the movie, it is a more informative activity as it's new (as well as entertaining) to them. For those who have seen it, it promotes the opportunity for a shift in perspective as they are are now viewing it with a more critical eye and are looking for things they may not have noticed the first time around when they were in a less constructive mindset/atmosphere. An added element of connection may occur for students who  have visited Disney World. They may better understand why this movie/theme was located in Epcot's  Mexico and recall details of the park that were actually based in culture.

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Coco de Disney•Pixar | Escena: 'La Tierra de los Muertos' | HD

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I like the idea of having a "book nook" in my classroom where students have flexible, comfortable seating. When they have free time after completing their work, they can hang out in this area of the classroom and pick out a book to read, or even to flip through it to simply see the pictures. Being cognizant of the books I choose to provide in the nook, allows for more culture to be put forth in English and Spanish. Stories that are non-fiction but that reinforce notable figures, attractions within Latin American history factoids, examples of dialect, etc. are ideal. The "Who was" series / "Where is" book series are a great example, as they apply to people/places all over the world. They provide detailed biographies/fun facts at a friendly reading level. By having these included in my book nook, students who happen to read them during their free time may just benefit later on when one of those places is brought up in our Latin American Geography unit where students learn the capitals and countries, or during Hispanic Heritage month when we learn about notable hispanic Americans and their contributions.

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Cloze Activities that incorporate authentic Spanish language are a great way to build background knowledge of dialect, vocabulary, grammar patterns, etc. For Spanish classes, using song lyrics from popular Latin American artists are an easy way to incorporate such activities since the structure of song lyrics include repetition. At the very least, even if students were confused by the words/grammar structures that they were attempting to fill in, they may enjoy the song and go as far as to download it to their Spotify account. They then may listen to it frequently (while continuing to learn other grammar concepts in class) and eventually start to be able to pick out words and phrases that they hear, that they may not have understood  the first few times they had heard it. The website LyricsTraining.com for example, provides an interactive digital platform from which to complete such activities, though they can also be done on paper.

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LingoClip - Enjoy learning languages with music

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Discover a new and fun way to learn English and other languages by filling in the lyrics of your favorite songs.

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Some students may never have the opportunity to travel to the countries they learn about in Spanish class. Virtual Reality / Virtual field trips are an affordable way to mimic the firsthand experience of an excursion abroad. Google Maps has recently added features such as "Google Cardboard" and "Tour Creator" for teachers to utilize with students. Websites such as WideOpenSchools.org also offer virtual field trip elements for educators. These "field trips" allow students to see streets, housing, ruins, etc. from other countries in a 3D/4D view that is more lifelike than simple pictures in a textbook. Students can really feel immersed and peak further interest in what they see/hear. Connections to prior history/civics courses may also be prevalent if tours focus on cultural districts, rather than just the beaches/resorts/tourist attractions .

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Tikal, Guatemala - CyArk - Google Arts & Culture

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In November 2005, a team from the University of California, Berkeley traveled to Tikal in Guatemala, a World Heritage Site, to demonstrate the advantages o...

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Guest Speakers / Native Speakers/Heritage Speakers

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Guest Speakers / Native Speakers/Heritage Speakers

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Inviting guest speakers into the classroom helps to make connections between the content and the community. Especially for students who may never have the chance to travel, any opportunity that can be provided to make them realize "wow, that's actually a real place" or "wow, they really talk like that" is worth it. For World Language teachers, depending on where you are located, it's not always easy to have many local contacts with   native/heritage speakers of Spanish. However, reaching out to families within the school district that you've gotten to know or reaching out to local college professors is a manageable way to start, if you have no contacts of your own. Guest speakers share first hand experiences, and within the context of a World Language course, these experiences help to reinforce dialect, geography, & history of Latin American countries in comparison to the United States. Recently, a student teacher in our building suggested we ask her professor who was from Chile to come and speak to students in our language department. It was a great learning experience even for us teachers!

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Learning through play aids kinesthetic auditory, and visual learners. Games often reinforce memorization skills and strategies. For example, games such as Guess Who require attention to detail regarding physical features/clothing. Students who are already familiar with how the game works in English can use the Spanish version in a similar fashion to practice their associated vocabulary for adjectives. Or when learning numbers, they may recognize the word "uno" for the number one, and recall the card game. Playing simple cards games/board games during free time in class or as review activities allow students to relax and subconsciously pick up on context clues related to grammar and vocabulary that is currently being studied.

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TV commercials are forms of authentic media that students see on a daily basis. Though TV commercials can often become "background noise" when at home, those that are incorporated on kid friendly networks such as Nickelodeon often offer learning opportunities for the viewers. Clips are used with actors/actresses from shows that students are familiar with. With much diversity amongst actors, they often are interviewed in commercials for the purpose of sharing their culture in a timely fashion, such as during Hispanic Heritage Month. Incorporating such clips into our lessons further emphasizes the real-world purpose behind the course.

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Hispanic Heritage Month | Be Inspired | Disney Channel