Text Set número dos: "Me gusta"

This text set features the grammatical topic of the verb "gustar" in Spanish. This verb is used to express like or dislike in the target language, and translates directly to English as "_____ is pleasing to me". For this text set, I chose a grammar topic instead of a thematic topic, because I see gustar come up again and again in both Spanish I and Spanish II. It takes a while for students to grow comfortable using this verb with an indirect object pronoun, because it is so different from how we express the same thing in English with "I like ____". I also chose this topic because there are so many text resources available that I love to use when teaching it.

Books


Casi Se Muere  (A TPRS novel)
by Lisa Ray Turner and Blaine Ray
Ages: 12 and up

This short and simple novel is written entirely in the present tense and provides a great context for teaching grammatical constructs like "gustar" as it appears in different chapters. I love that in chapter 4, when gustar is used a lot, I can then introduce and teach the forms of the verb more specifically as students see it in an authentic text and story.

¡No me gusta mi moño!
by Hans Wilhelm
Ages: any

This short children's book may seem a bit young for high schoolers, but they are easily entertained by the silly storyline of a dog who doesn't like to take a bath, and the reading level is perfect for novice learners. It is a great short piece of a lesson, providing them the grammar, once again, in the context of a story.



Websites

http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/SLC/gustar1.php
By Barbara Kuczun Nelson
Ages: 12 and up

I really love that this website is like an online interactive worksheet. It asks students to fill in the blanks in sentences by typing in the correct form of the verb gustar. Interactivity is so important, and this is something that most students could do at home.


http://www.lingolex.com/swom/wom-gustar.htm
Ages: 12 and up

This website could be supplemental material for students to see how the verb gustar is used. It has some great examples that show translations from English to Spanish, and the layout of the site is kind of old school but simple.


http://www.spanishdict.com/conjugate/gustar
Ages: 12 and up

When students get into upper levels and learn to speak in different tenses, it is often useful to have a go-to tool online that will show them all the conjugated forms of a verb in every tense. This website provides that tool for students. It is organized in a way that is morphologically logical and is something that I often refer to if I can't grasp a complicated tense of a particular verb.


Other

http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/documents/tirate_a_escribir/tirate_a_escribir_conylu_musica_navidena.pdf
by Zachary Jones
Ages: 12 and up

This humorous document put together by Zachary Jones uses a funny comic ("tira") as inspiracion for students to then produce the language using gustar to talk about what Christmas songs they like or don't like. I love that this text is a comic strip, or somewhat of a meme that is interesting and funny to students. It is authentic and they can really relate to it, and it thus provides a great prompt for a bellringer in which they must write using gustar.


Tweets Using "Gustar"
Compiled by Zachary Jones
Ages: 12 and up

I love the layout of this worksheet for students that presents various Twitter tweets in Spanish using the verb gustar, and asks students to identify which things the tweeter likes or does not like. This worksheet encourages skills of interpretation and recognition and pushes students a bit out of their comfort zone by askign them to interpret a text genre that they are not as accustomed to. And it's FUN!


Reading and Writing Tweets with "Gustar"
Compiled by Zachary Jones
Ages: 12 and up

This handout is similar to the previous Zachary Jones twiccionario handout but it of course provides a totally new text since it uses different tweets. The task that is presented to students is also different because they must respond to tweets by producing a whole sentence and expressing their personal opinion. Another great starter!


El monstruo de la laguna (tira)
Compiled by Zachary Jones
Ages: 12 and up

This comic strip compiled by Zachary Jones is a funny and authentic way to introduce gustar to a Spanish II class, and then have them complete the pdf worksheet as practice. This comic comes from a different artist, could be the inspiration for a project in which students make their own comic using gustar.

Comic for Un-fans of Futbol

Ages: 12 and up

This comic strip is another funny and simple text that students could interpret and translate, as well as use to discuss the use of the verb gustar. It is a great thing to integrate in a unit on sports or likes/dislikes.

Do you like the Google Olympic Doodle? Handout
Compiled by Zachary Jones
Ages: 12 and up

This handout is the introduction for a writing activity that shows various Google Olympic doodles and asks students to write a simple paragraph about which ones they like and do not like, and why. This is an interesting prompt, especially around the time of the olympics (winter ones, or right after summer, I suppose), and gives the text of the graphics leading to a prompt in which students must produce written work using gustar which they would have already been introduced to. This would be a great ticket out the door.

Gustar Infograph
Ages: 12 and up


This infograph is not only an alternative way to present and read text, but it also is graphically organized in a way that is easy to read and contains the most important information about the topic. This text could be a tool that a teacher refers to as they are introducing gustar and its constructs, and could be something students keep in their notebook to refer to. It is entirely in the target language, so students would have to interpret it and comprehend it.









Music and Song

Me Gustas Tú
Song and Lyrics by Manu Chao
Ages: 15 and up

This song is catchy and rythmic, and could be used for some great cloze activities with the lyrics. Although the song misuses the verb gustar, it presents a great segway to discuss this with students, and talk about the cultural incorrect uses of grammar in various cultures and contexts. I would not use it with younger students because the song mentions marijuana.


Gustar Song
Lyrics by Sr. Mara
Ages: 12 and up

This song is a great learning tool for students being introduced to the verb gustar, because the song is a fun rap and it is interactive! Students must participate and sing along. They also must identify a few errors in the lyrics that appear on the screen. I have used this several times and Sr. Mara always creates helpful grammar song videos. Students remember the concepts better.


Me Gustas Tú
Lyrics and Music by Luis Fonsi
Ages: 12 and up

I promise this is not the same as the song above! :) This is a song by Luis Fonsi that is a bit more advanced, and could be used with a Spanish III or IV class to review the use of the verb gustar in the context of the entire song. I like the cloze activity for this song, because it emphasizes student's aural skills and input.

Reflection #10: BBR ch. 10

I thought the topic for this chapter was very interesting. Students clearly have almost unlimited access to technology outside of the classroom. However, at least for me, we don't spend a ton of time during class doing research on the internet. This topic made me think more about how I can provide those opportunities for my students to search the world wide web for information pertaining to our class without wasting too much time. (Because seriously, going to the computer lab is quite an ordeal with 34 students!). I thought the two strategies proposed in this chapter were fairly straight-forward. I suppose I like the SAND technique because it immediately asks students to assess the credibility of the source they are looking at, before getting too immersed in the content. If they site seems credible, it suggests they bookmark it to go back. This seems like a more efficient way to go about finding information, and I think it would be very applicable for subjects like history and sciences. For my class, I think they are generally going to find good information, and even authentic sources can sometimes be hard to tell if they are credible enough for a Bibliography. It's important for us to sometimes use the opportunity to teach students about the more formal processes involved in research.

Reflection #9: Long

I thought this brief article was very interesting. It actually gave me a bit more background knowledge and information regarding the implementation of Common Core, on the government side of things. It was interesting to see some of the priorities expressed in the article that surprised me. I was particularly intrigued that they would have the goal that all the assessments be technology-based. This just doesn't seem like a very high priority to me, and it seems like an expensive thing to implement in all schools, but I understand (as the article pointed out) that it has a lot to do with getting feedback and scores in a timely manner. The only thing that bothers me is that I don't like taking online assessments, and it is a whole new big kahuna for students of all ages and especially those who are not very good test-takers to begin with to learn to take their assessments in a new format online. I was also interested to learn that so many states had tried to resist the implementation of these CCSS. It's one thing to implement the standards, which I think seem pretty good, even though it's so hard to read them all, but another thing altogether to tell teachers their pay will now be tied to scores. My perspective of Common Core has been one that sees it a bit distantly, since it does not currently directly affect my content area of Spanish. However, we have talked as a department about implementing the CCSS in the ELA areas. To be honest, this stuff in common core is really intuitively already integrated into the ACTFL proficiency standards that we try to use in our language classes. Translating a text or reading a simple yet authentic text for comprehension in the target language includes having to cite evidence explicitly from the text. 

Web Resource Review Número Dos

2nd Web Resource Review:

Photo Vocab
Spanish Word of the Day
http://zachary-jones.com/photovocab/


I found this website through another site that is created by Spanish teacher extraordinaire, Zachary Jones. Apparently, Señor Jones has multiple websites containing an infinite amount of Spanish teacher tools! Yay!

Ok, so this site is very simple, but very cool. It basically has a daily post (like a blog) that includes an interesting photograph and a new Spanish vocab word to go along with that photo. I really like that it first introduces the word through the context of a short paragraph in Spanish, and THEN if you scroll down it explains what the word is (in English).

This is definitely something that would be appropriate for students in middle school or high school, although I would say that it might be a bit better for students in Spanish II or above if the teacher is going to expect them to struggle through the paragraph at all, simply because it's a whole paragraph of normal Spanish (normal as in not super elementary). This is definitely a site that could be used in school, which is awesome! The first thing I thought was that it would make a really cool daily starter. It could be a part of the routine that students come in to class, the teacher has this site pulled up, students answer a few questions about it quietly on a sheet of paper, or work on translating some sentences from the paragraph. It would also be a neat springboard into using that new vocabulary word in the context of the grammar that is being learned that week. This has clear connections to the content of Spanish, since the whole purpose is to introduce new words in this specific target language. It's also really neat to see how they incorporate culture into these words. For example, this weekend the Day of the Dead is being celebrated in Mexico, so one of the words this weekend was the specific name for a Mexican marigold, the flower that marks the weekends festivities and is used to decorate altars on this special occasion.

The site is not very interactive for students, although they can navigate to see past words, and can click on a little "play" button to hear the word pronounced correctly aloud. The site is not commercial at all. There are no distractions or advertisements. I love how simple the layout is! I think some other pros are that it is simple to read and navigate, that it is so useful and the purpose is so straightforward, and that it has really engaging and cool photos. I also like that it tells where the word comes from, because there is usually a particular cultural connection. I suppose the simplicity could also be a con. I almost wish there was more there! I also wish they gave a few synonyms or related tags or something, maybe that could take you to their other site that has a ton of stuff on it. No sign-up or login in required, and there is no adult supervision required because it was made for students of Spanish.

Great resource!