SAMPLE OF LESSON PLAN

Lesson Plan (2 days)

Class and Meeting Time:

First-Semester Spanish

Class meets four times a week for 50 minutes

Day 1 Objectives:

  • To reconstruct a text (dictogloss) that will help us infer the topic of a short film.
  • To review the construction of the present progressive and stem-changing verbs in the present in the text that we have previously recreated.
  • To learn the rules for adverbs ending in –mente by recognizing them in a text and thus creating our own rules.
  • To anticipate the end of a story after watching the first half of a Dominican short film.

Materials Needed:

  • For students: Handout A
  • For instructor: Script A
  • Projector / Computer

Day 1

TIME / GROUP SIZE / INSTRUCTIONS / MATERIALS
07:55 / Write goals on the board.
Greet students in Spanish as they come in the classroom.
08:00 / In pairs / New Vocabulary / Translation
Paso 1: Look up new vocabulary in the dictionary.
Paso 2: Translate adverbs from English to Spanish. / Students:
Handout A
08:05 / Sequence:
Individual
In pairs
Groups of 4 / Dictogloss
Paso 3: Read the paragraph three times. The first time, students listen to the main idea. The second time, they take notes. Then, they reconstruct the paragraph with a classmate.
Paso 4: The third time, they compare the text with another couple. Each group of four should end up with one final version of the paragraph. Finally, instructor shows original script on projector. / Students:
Handout A
Instructor:
Script A
08:30 / In pairs / Inductive Grammar
Paso 5: Students recognize examples of: present progressive, stem-changing verbs in the text, and –mente adverbs. They come up with their own rule for adverb formation. / Students:
Handout A
08:40 / Individual / Top-down Approach / Video
Paso 6: Students will watch the first three minutes of the short “La cartera”. Then, they will answer the three questions on their handout. / Instructor:
Short Film
“La cartera”
08:48 / All students / Wrap-up / Homework: Dialogue and Prediction
Explain homework. Each student will write a possible dialogue for the following scene of the movie based on what they had watched and their creativity (Instructions on Handout A).

Day 2 Objectives

  • To confirm yesterday’s hypotheses after watching the end of the short film.
  • To discuss about the life of Dominicans in a marginal neighborhood in Santo Domingo.
  • To describe the neighborhood and the people living there using grammatical constructions previously studied.
  • To review the uses of the immediate future by speaking in couples about what will happen after the story ended.
  • To present a topic of Dominican culture by comparing the Caribbean game of vitilla to the American baseball.

Materials Needed:

  • For instructor: Script B, C, D, Article A
  • Projector / Computer

Day 2

TIME / GROUP SIZE / INSTRUCTIONS / MATERIALS
07:55 / Write goals on the board.
Greet students in Spanish as they come in the classroom.
08:00 / All students / Warm-up
In Spanish, ask students what they remembered about the short “La cartera” and predict what will happen at the end.
08:05 / All students / Homework / Dialogue Presentation
Instructor chooses three students to present their homework (dialogue) in front of the class. Ask for permission to project them on the screen.
Have two other students read the dialogues and briefly correct any mistakes.
08:15 / All students / Video
Show the complete short film “La cartera”. Confirm hypotheses.
08:20 / Groups of 3 / Interactional Approach / Dialectal Spanish / Translation
Instructor shows the original script of one particular scene of the movie. Each group will “translate” the dialogue from Dominican Spanish to First-Semester Spanish. Students turn in their dialogues. / Instructor:
Script B
08:30 / In pairs / Oral Communication / Bottom-up Approach
In couples, students will use the Immediate Future to answer the questions on Script C. / Instructor:
Script C
08:35 / In pairs
[In English] / Culture / Comparison between the US and the DR
Instructor will show an article about Dominican baseball player: Francisco Liviano. One student will read it out loud. Then, students will contrast American baseball with the Dominican vitilla (which they saw in the movie) / Instructor:
Article A
08:42 / In pairs / Definitions
Each couple will come up with a definition for the Dominican game. Choose three couples to read their definition out loud. Then, show an online definition for vitilla and have students compare it with the one they wrote. / Instructor:
Script D
08:48 / All students / Wrap-up
Explain homework for the following day.

Nombre: ______

Capítulo 4: La República Dominicana (Handout A)

Paso 1. Look up these verbs in the dictionary. Are any of them irregular or stem-changing verbs? If so, explain the irregularity.

VERBO / SIGNIFICADO EN INGLÉS / IRREGULAR / STEM-CHANGING
caer
recoger
devolver

Paso 2. What are the Spanish equivalents for the following English adverbs?

Suddenly : ______Actually : ______

Paso 3. Your instructor will read a paragraph three times. The first time, take notes of words and expression you recognize. The second time -and with a classmate- try to reconstruct in the space provided a first version of the story:

______

Paso 4. Listen to your instructor one more time. Write the final version of the story:

______

Paso 5. From the previous text, find examples of the present progressive, stem-changing verbs, and adverbs:

Present Progressive:

PRONOMBRE PERSONAL / ESTAR / GERUNDIO

Stem-changing Verbs:

PRONOMBRE PERSONAL / VERBO CONJUGADO / INFINITIVO

Adverbs ending in –mente:

ADVERBIO / ADJETIVO ORIGINAL

Write your own rule for adverbs ending in –mente:

______

Paso 6. You will now watch the first part of a short movie made by teenagers in the Dominican Republic. Pay attention to the story, the place, and the actors. Then, answer the following questions [en español].

  1. ¿Por qué la película se llama “La cartera”?

______

______

  1. ¿Cómo es el barrio en la película?

______

______

  1. ¿Cuántos años crees que tienen los muchachos de la película?

______

Paso 7. Tarea para mañana: Grandma seems pretty upset, right? In a separate piece of paper, write a possible dialogue between her and the guys in the movie. Be creative!

Abuela:

Muchacho 1:

For the instructor:

Script A

Es domingo por la tarde. Cuatro amigos están caminando por las calles de Santo Domingo. De repente, ven cómo a un muchacho se le cae una cartera. Los cuatro amigos recogen la cartera del suelo. Quieren devolverla a su dueño pero no pueden. El muchacho empieza a correr rápidamente hasta llegar a su casa. Los cuatro amigos lo persiguen por todo el barrio. Cuando finalmente encuentran la casa del muchacho, van a hablar con su abuela. El problema es que ella no está muy contenta, en realidad, está muy enojada. ¿Qué creen que va a decir la abuela? (98 palabras)

Script B

Abuela¿Muchacho dónde tú estabas? ¿Con quién tú estabas? Dime. Contéstame que te estoy hablando.

NietoDoña, doña, déjeme tranquilo, suélteme en banda.

Abuela¿Cómo que te suelte en banda? ¿Tú quieres que te rompa la cabeza? Respétame que para eso soy tu abuela.

Abuela¿Y ustedes, qué quieren comebocas?

Muchacho 1Doña, doña, no se agite, tranquila, nosotros vinimos a…

AbuelaNo, yo no me agito.

Muchacho 2No, no, señora… Lo que pasa es que nosotros vinimos a… a traerle esta cartera a…

Abuela¿Qué cartera ni qué cartera? ¿De qué cartera tú me hablas? Ese muchacho no tiene documentos, ni acta de nacimiento, ni cédula.

Se me van de ahí.

Script C

¿Qué crees que va a pasar con el nieto?

¿Qué va a hacer la abuela?

¿Qué van a hacer los muchachos?

¿Qué va a hacer el dueño de la cartera?

Script D

Definición de “vitilla”

Vitilla es una simplificación del juego de beisbol, usando un palo de escoba o vara de poco grosor como bate y las tapas de las botellas de agua como "pelota". En esta variante no se corre a las bases y es un duelo entre el bateador y el lanzador, asistido por los demás miembros que tratan de atrapar la tapa cuando es golpeada por el bateador.

Article A

August 7, 2006

From Small Field to Major Leagues

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

JUAN BARÓN, Dominican Republic, Aug. 3 — The town’s only baseball field sits at the back of a dead end. Pigs, goats and chickens wander near a cement wall that surrounds the field. Small trenches mark the basepaths on the field, and rocks and trash are strewn on the grass.

In this coastal fishing town about a 90-minute drive from Santo Domingo, the nation’s capital, a current major league baseball player made local history when he was 14, when he became the youngest player to hit a home run over the cement wall.

People here said he was one of the best outfielders the area had ever seen, but he does not get to swing the bat much anymore. His days playing the outfield are probably over.

That young slugger, Francisco Liriano, has blossomed into a left-handed pitching phenomenon in the United States.

[…]

Liriano joked that he could still play the outfield in the majors and credited his ability to hit so well to a game called vitilla, popular among children in Latin America. It is a modified version of baseball, using a broomstick and a bottle cap. The cap swerves and swoops like a slider or knuckleball.

“I played all the time when I was a kid — every morning and afternoon from when I was 5 until I was 15,” Liriano said. “It taught my eyes and my hands to move faster.”

[Otro comentario sobre la vitilla en la red]

American coaches who visit the D.R. are intrigued by how these young players are made. For starters, they note, most Dominican kids don't have video games-they have beisbol. They may practice three hours a day, two or three days a week. Then, after dinner, they run outside and play more baseball. Children hone their skills with street games like vitilla, in which the batter tries to hit a water bottle cap with a broomstick. Good pitchers can make the cap dive like a curveball. By age 9, kids are trying to hit tossed kernels of corn.