Famous+people+and+argot

Every week, my mentor teacher and I give the students a new set of "Monday information" which is written on the white board in our Spanish 1 class. The information includes the following categories:

**La tarea**- Homework (updated daily)
 * Importante**- Important information for the upcoming week
 * Fonética**- Information about the pronunciation of two letters per week (we started with the vowels and have worked our way through the alphabet).
 * Argot-** Slang or more colloquial terms and gestures
 * Persona Famosa**- One famous person from the Spanish-speaking community

Students write down the information, which is to be kept in their notebooks. Every six weeks we have a notebook quiz where they can use their notes to answer questions about any of the "Monday information" and homework corrections. This is designed to reward students who are paying attention in class and staying organized.


 * Persona famosa:** The students really enjoy the "persona famosa" section of the Monday information.  Generally, there is 15-20 min. chunk of the lesson dedicated to that person at the end of the week.  We try to pick people from a variety of professions and have been able to use a lot of different styles of lessons because of this.  Some example of some people that we have featured and the lessons taught along with them have been:


 * Julieta Venegas**: Students were asked to research Julieta and bring in two facts about her before class at the end of the week.  When students came to class I had them all stand up and they were only allowed to sit when they had told the class one of the facts that they found.  We then analyzed one of Julieta’s most popular songs, “Eres para mi” which fit really nicely with the introduction of the verb ser.


 * Raul Gonzalez**: Raul is the captain of Spain’s soccer team, Real Madrid. We discussed the popularity of soccer in countries throughout the world and compared Raul to iconic veterans in American sports like for example, Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings.  Students then watched a video clip of some of his highlights.

[|Bullfighting’s Blood Brothers.docx]
 * Francisco y Cayetano Ordonez:** Students watched a video clip from 60 Minutes and answered questions about Bullfight.  They were also asked to discuss their opinions on the controversial sport. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/16/60minutes/main4526581.shtml


 * Frida Kahlo:** Using an art book that we had in our class, I asked students to read a passage about Frida that I selected before class. The book was really large so I placed a chair in the front of the room and had students volunteer to read to the rest of the class as if it were “story time”.  The passage was in English so it was not as threatening.  After, students were shown several of Frida’s paintings and asked to write whether or not they liked the painting The Wounded Deer. http://homepage.univie.ac.at/melanie.feratova-loidolt/Frida%20deer.jpg . We were focusing on gustar that week and expressing opinions.

user:burhopam
 * Other people featured were:** José Posada, Juan Carlos de Borbón, Felipe Calderón, David Archuleta, Daddy Yankee, Junot Díaz, Carlos M. Gutiérrez, Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco