School:  SUNY Cortland

LESSON TITLE  La buena crianza

LESSON SKILL TARGETED Interactive Model for Reading (Shrum & Glisan)

CLASS LEVEL Intermediate Spanish
 
 

TARGETED STANDARDS

1.1  Interpersonal Communication 1.2  Interpretive Communication 1.3   Presentational Communication 2.1  Cultural Practices and perspectives 4.2  Cultural Comparisons

1.1  Students discuss what good manners are and generate lists of examples (in pairs or small groups).

1.2  Students read and interpret an article from a target language newspaper about a traditional event involving Venezuelan students.

1.3  Students write a letter of response to the newspaper expressing their own views on the end of year celebration.

2.1  Students learn about a Venezuelan tradition (practice): the end of the school year celebration.  They consider the celebration from an individual and a comunal perspective:  the individual students involved, that of the author and others of a like opinion, and the singular student not in concert with his peers.

4.2  Students discuss their own traditions and ways of celebrating similar events and make comparisons between the different ways two cultures commemorate the same occasion.
 

II.  MATERIALS

Article from Frontera, el Diario de Occidente para el país (de Venezuela)
Photographs of Venezuelan students celebrating the last day of the academic year in Mérida.
This article/editorial can serve as a point of departure for a conversation about proper upbringing, good manners, acceptable behavior of a person.

III. PROCEDURES

This lesson follows the Interactive Model for Integrating the Three Modes of Communication (a reading comprehension lesson) by Shrum & Glisan

A.  Preparation phase
 

Work first with the title:  ¿Celebración?
 

• brainstorm ideas about the content of the article -> what could this possibly be about?
• the title has question marks -> what might this be telling the reader?

Talk about different ways to celebrate occasions:  graduations, a significant achievement, the last day of school.  Ask students how they celebrate these events in their own culture.
Another question to treat:  Are traditions necessarily always good?

B.  Comprehension phase

Read the article and find the main reason for the celebration.
Describe the manner of celebration.
Deduce the author's attitude toward this celebration in general (the main idea).

C.  Interpretation phase

Identify the words that reveal the attitude of the author and the tone of the article (the details).
Is there another person that shares the author's perspective on this celebration?
Who is it and why might this be ironic?

D.  Application phase

In pairs or small groups:
Students generate a list of good manners for this celebratory event, for classroom atmosphere, and/or for life in general.

E.  Extension phase

Look for Internet sites that talk about proper upbringing and that discuss what good manners are.
Each student writes a letter to the Frontera in response to the author's editorial, depending on his/her own particular perspective on this type of celebration.

IV. CULTURAL INFORMATION

Venezuelan celebration of the end of classes each academic year.

V. TECHNOLOGY USED

Photocopies of the original article.
Digitized photos of students celebrating the end of school in Mérida, Venezuela.
Internet sites in Spanish discussing the theme of the lesson.