Vocabulary Game -- 2por1 -- Basic school vocabulary

     I'm very excited about a new vocabulary game that I've been working on for a while.  I love the game SpotIt!, published by Asmodee and by Blue Orange Games.  They have a couple of basic Spanish versions, but I have wanted to create something similar that used vocabulary specific to my lessons.

     The first finished game is finally ready!  It includes basic classroom items, school subjects and places. The new series of games is called 2por1, and I've been working on the first game for several weeks, checking and double checking that this simple game's complex construction works every time.
   
     Every card has one and only one element in common with every other card.  You can find a free sample of the cards here.  See if you can find the item each one has in common with the others!  There are lots of game variations, so you can play over and over. The basic instructions are illustrated in the graphic below, in a sample game of 4 players.  Each player takes one card, face down, and the rest of the cards are face up in the center.  At a given signal, all players turn over their cards and try to find the one element their card has in common with the center card.  The red lines in the graphic illustrate the shared element for each card pair.  Whoever finds and calls out a match first gets to take the top center card and add it to the bottom of their stack.  When the center pile is gone, whoever has the most cards is the winner.  Fun!

If you like the sample, you can purchase the game here: 2por1 Game - Basic School Vocabulary  Enjoy!

Recognizing Birthdays -- A Pinterest fail, PLUS a cultural faux pas! Yay, me!

   I am terrible at remembering to acknowledge kids' birthdays.  I can be looking at my birthday list two minutes before class starts, and then completely forget about it as soon as the bell rings and the beginning-of-class chaos ensues.  Solution?  Let the kids remember their own birthdays!  I created a birthday poster, using, of course, my favorite decor -- butterflies, inspired by this photo online: Butterfly Guestbook

     So on Back to School night, I had carefully labeled butterflies for all of my students with August and September birthdays.  At the end of the evening, a wonderful mother, originally from Central America, approached me and told me that the black butterfly symbolizes bad luck, or even death.  She very kindly pointed out that perhaps I did not want to pass along such wishes for my precious birthday kiddos. 

     Of course, I could have ignored her advice.  The color was a stylistic choice, and not a death wish, but I decided to make it a teaching moment for myself as well as for my kids.  We talked in class about how symbols can vary from culture to culture, and how being culturally intelligent, which is one of our goals in the world language class, involves being open to more interpretations than just your own.

     The black butterflies came down, and here is the replacement.  Much more colorful, and I have to say that I like it better.

Puntos de Partido -- Using movie trailers to start conversations -- Esteban

Esteban is an award-winning 2016 movie about a young Cuban boy with a dream of learning to play the piano.  The trailer featured here separates each scene with a black screen and the text: "Persigue tus sueños."

Esteban faces multiple obstacles that might prevent him from achieving his goal: (1) the piano teacher is a curmudgeon who says that a boy like Esteban would play one of his pianos over his dead body, and he threatens to call the police when the boy actually does play a few notes; (2) Esteban's father is not willing to pay for the lessons, and tells his son to study the maracas, which is much cheaper;  (3) Esteban's mother discovers the lengths to which her son will go to learn to play when she finds that he has obtained money to pay for his first lesson sneakily, if not dishonestly.  If only she hadn't spent money to buy him new shoes, he would not have had to resort to such methods,  he says, under his breath.  You can find a link to the text of the trailer here, and a handout with comprehension questions and conversation starters here (in progress).

The two-minute trailer has lots of themes for class discussion, although, with its Cuban Spanish, it might merit several showings to be sure students understand the dialogue.  A fantastic bonus in the YouTube version of the trailer is the comments section, where there is a post about piano lessons being free in Cuba, thus making the movie's premise unrealistic.  Other users chime in, pointing out that this is the case only for the elite, and that not everyone has this free access.  This would make a wonderful jumping off point for further research and discussion about equality and equity in all cultures, including our own.

The movie itself is not available on DVD or Blue-ray, but will certainly be added to my library as soon as it comes out.  It is currently on HBO and Cinemax.

Comment below how you use this trailer in class!

Enjoy!