This film chronicles the challenges that poor Hispanic students face in LA when they try to pass the AP Calculus Exam. Based on a true story of a Hispanic teacher in urban LA this film is great for Spanish I to open discussions about Chicano students and discrimination. Questions are in English. Colleagues have also shown this film to math students and social studies when studying Chicano culture.

Questions in English to accompany film the Disappearance of Garcia Lorca. This film presents a possible hypothesis as to why Franco's soldiers kidnapped and assassinated Federico Garcia Lorca. The film provides good insight for an intro to Garcia Lorca if you are reading his poetry or Casa de Bernarda Alba in class. It can be a somewhat confusing film for students without some assistance from the teacher.

Sugar is the story of a young Dominican baseball talent recruited to play for the Kansas City farm team. It chronicles all the challenges and barriers faced by hispanic athletes and other immigrants trying to assimilate to the American life. This film is excellent and appeals to male students as well as the girls. The movie inspires great discussion and instills compassion for new immigrants trying to adjust while away from family and culture. PG-13 in Spanish with subtitles and in English. Movie guide has 17 chronologically ordered questions and 3 follow up discussion topic. Film is 114 minutes and takes 2 class periods to show.

This is one of my favourite lessons to do and one I am most proud of. I received an award for this lesson at the state level in a teaching lesson contest. Students work in small groups to replicate, research and interpret a mural by Diego Rivera. I never cease to marvel at how well their work turns out and everyone learns a ton about Diego Rivera. Great end assessment for a unit on art, or as prep for AP/IB programs this lesson is suitable for Spanish III students or higher. Includes commentary on how to execute the project, detailed student explanation, helpful weblinks and readings, list of murals that are suitable for research, helpful thematic vocabulary for students to prepare their written portion.

This 5 page easy read short story by Sandra Cisneros is so cleverly narrated, easy to read and opens the door to a great discussion around childhood, identity, and personal experiences. I teach this story in my Spanish Heritage Learners Classes, but its suitable for a level IV or higher where students are comfortable with past tense usage. Reading guide includes a couple of questions for pre-reading to get students thinking about their own childhood experiences, then some relational questions where students can form their own connections between characters and items as they read. Finally there is a follow up project with a graphic organizer to help students brainstorm before crafting a poem about themselves at a specific age. Budget 3-4 classes for reading the story, discussion, brainstorming and final project production depending on their level. Download link to the pdf version of the story. https://genius.com/Sandra-cisneros-eleven-spanish-annotated

Film covers what happens when ICE agents invade a meat processing plant in Postville Iowa. A true story, this film is EXCELLENT at explaining how undocumented workers are detained, deported, separated from families, how they are processed, why they come to work, and the responsibilities of the people who own businesses that benefit from their presence. Movie guide contains 26 questions in chronological order of the film, with opportunities for students to brainstorm, pair share and discuss their reactions. Runs just over an hour and is available for purchase at http://abusedthepostvilleraid.blogspot.com/ or on demand at vimeo. There are several links for follow up trailers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDG6-1zp52w&list=PL00B092D3FE38B664 if you want to track with students what happened a year later. This film works well for Social Studies class discussing immigration or Spanish class. The documentary is in English with subtitled interviews in Spanish.

This step by step lesson plan will guide your Heritage Learner students through an oral presentation on their two (sides of) identities. Many Heritage learners navigate between the world of their parents home country traditions, language, foods while simultaneously functioning the US world of friends, language, fast food, pop culture and social media. This scaffolded project helps them to brainstorm the moments when they feel more one than the other and create a compelling oral presentation for small group setting. Download contains charts for both worlds, guiding questions for reflection, and a rubric for presentation day. Project works best if you allow students at least three days to brainstorm, create slides and the weekend for them to practice.

One of my students favourite projects, the murder mystery project is excellent for 2nd year students finishing up preterite vs imperfect usage or for 3rd year students as a review of the concept. Students create their own powerpoint murder mystery where they present the victim, 3 suspects and the crime scene. Using preterite and imperfect they include motives, locations, descriptions, personality characteristics in a creative and unique presentation. I assign this project in pairs but a student could easily complete it alone. Students present their mysteries to classmates in powerpoint and peers can make their guess to arrest before the last slide gets revealed. This project won an award as a Missouri Best Lesson Showcase project. Project instructions are in English, model examples in Spanish, project could be easily adapted to Passe Compose/Imparfait usage in French.

This 56 minute documentary on Netflix is the best thing I have seen this year for either a Spanish or Social Studies. 4 college students spend 56 days in a remote Guatemalan village on 1 dollar a day budget, while exploring effects of living in extreme poverty and some innovative solutions people have come up with to survive. Excellent for any Spanish class where you have been studying immigration and reasons people leave their home countries to risk their lives traveling to the US, or for a Social Studies class looking at underdeveloped countries and what it means to live in extreme poverty. My students loved this film bc it was created by four college students and used their observations and connections as narrative between interviews with people in the village. (Interviews are in Spanish with subtitles, narrative in English. ) Suitable for any level middle, high school, available on Netflix, this film was such a gem you will want to own a copy. Movie guide contains 29 questions.

This movie guide accompanies the biography of Selena starring Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos and others. Totally kid friendly PG-13 rated suitable for any level of Spanish classes. Great as a sub plan. 27 questions, 3 discussion topics and several internet follow up topics for students.

This wonderful Netflix movie tells the story of Ramon's immigration to Germany and how little by little he begins a new life with the help of Angela a retired nurse. The movie is entirely in Spanish and German with English subtitles and would be suitable for either language class. There is one slightly mature scene so its best suited for high school students, as there are suggestions of innuendo. This film addresses the challenges people face both in their home country and assimilating to a new country and is very enjoyable, fluctuating between serious and light hearted scenes. Movie guide contains 19 questions in chronological order. and is available in both English (for lower level or German classes) or Spanish. Film takes two class periods to show. I have marked one question with an asterisk as it pertains to that specific scene if you wish to eliminate it. I showed this film to my Heritage Language students and they really enjoyed it as it was a film with which many Mexican immigrants could identify.

21 chronological questions in both Spanish and English to accompany the film Motorcycle Diaries which chronicles the early life of Che Guevara. This film won awards and is excellent for any level of Spanish or Social Studies. However, one should note that the film carries an R rating for the language that appears in the subtitles. (the English is harsher than the original script) and you will want to obtain parental permission or limit this film to junior and senior students. Movie guide also contains 9 follow up topics for class discussion or independent student writing. Great film! Your students will love it.

This reading guide accompanies the sequel to Francisco Jimenez Cajas de Carton. Senderos is divided into 25 short chapters and this reading guide accompanies each chapter. Components include, asking students to make predictions about the story based on chapter titles, useful vocabulary to better understand the story, and reading comprehension questions for students to apply to what they read. Also included are some topics for small group or pair share. This book is best suited for a Level IV class or higher and can be completed together in class or assigned as homework. 1 chapter per night, this book will take approximately one quarter to complete, if you intersperse the reading with other topics covered in class. Senderos Fronterizos Reading by Barbara Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This 96 question reading guide accompanies the book La Línea by Ann Jaramillo. The story is fiction but based on facts she learned from her own ELL students. This story chronicles the perilous journey of two Mexican children heading North to reunite with their parents. This book is in English but is full of Spanish words and would be a great filler activity to read in a lower level Spanish class for a few minutes daily or to use in a middle school classroom or with ELL learners who could connect with the story. The book is highly recommended and positively reviewed. Its a cliff hanger in parts and a tear jerker in others, and should invite students to be introspective about the hot topic of illegal immigrants in the US. This book would also work well with the film "La Misma Luna" or the documentary "WETBACK".

These open ended, closed ended, decoding and reflection questions accompany the book HOME OF THE BRAVE by Katherine Applegate. This book tells the story of Kek, a refugee from Dharfur who relocates to Minnesota. This beautiful book is written in free verse and is an easy read for anyone in middle or high school. The underlying themes are deep and strike personal connections with many students. The language is not difficult and would be excellent reading for an ELL class of students. Questions are in order by chapter and there is a list of additional resources at the end on Youtube so you can educate everyone on the complexities of the situation in Dharfur and cultivate an understanding of the loss the suffering these refugees bring with them to the US. This book is culturally sensitive and opens up a lot of great discussions, and while sad at times, has some great comical moments.

Teaching the Cultural Component to a foreign language class can be challenging. This collection of 99 independent projects grouped together by interest (art, music, history, internet, etc) has something for everyone. Students select which projects to complete and present their findings in the first five minutes of the class daily. Projects have different point values based on time and difficulty levels which students combine to complete 50 points each semester. This portfolio is the ongoing work and revision of 15 years of teaching cultural topics in foreign language classes. Years later students tell me that these are the projects they found to be the most interesting and memorable in their foreign language experience because they connected to areas of personal interest. Download contains goals of investigation, step by step instructions on how to complete the projects, activity sheets for students, 99 diverse cultural activities, supporting guided adventure sheets for community excursions and an exit survey to collect their feedback year end. You will need a couple of days in class to explain to them how to do the projects and to field any specific questions they might have. I ask students to read the activity list and highlight projects of interest to discuss in further on day 2. Afterwards, every day is a new adventure as your students lead the class in their discoveries. Projects help students hone their presentation/public speaking skills while everyone learns. This portfolio works great for home-schooled students as well, they can work at their own pace to discover as many different adventures of interest and connect them to other curricular areas such as art, history, music and culinary. Load up your printer, download is 43 pages long! Note: You will need to insert your own "approved restaurant list" as it will vary depending on where you live and teach. Keywords: differentiated, internet, culture, French, presentation, community, historical, artistic, culinary, communicative

This project is my brainchild of 10 years of teaching. The Cultural Investigation Portfolio contains 101 different activities linked to various aspects of Hispanic culture, organized by interest (music, culinary, historical, artistic, etc) These student led projects start my class every day for the first 5-10 minutes as the 1-2 students of the day present their project and findings show- and-tell style. Because there are so many different activities, there is something for everyone in the room. Often one project leads to another, as a student is inspired by a classmate to pursue a topic further or connect it to another. I love this portfolio because kids have so many different choices, and most will select projects that showcase their individual talents in other areas, so you and the class learn about each others artistic or musical abilities. Many of these adventures are designed to send students into the Hispanic community to interact with local employees and business owners...