Now here is the success story from the 4th Hour Spanish 2 class.
One of my students thought it would be fun to do a class video. From that idea grew a variety show with items of interest to teens: Music, celebrity news, fashion, Siskel and Ebert movie reviews, spoofs of talk and Saturday Night Live skits. I liked their ideas but I knew that they did not have the Spanish vocab and skills at a level to acheive such a variety.
I gathered a list of all the grammar topics covered in the Spanish 1 and 2 books as well as items from the college placement tests, and put them on the board. I expressed concern that at the end of their HS life they needed to know all of this and it would be given to them in written test form (that's how the college placement test is given) Was this video for fun or for learning? How would it be graded? If its a class project how can I grade it? I will not guarantee and A or B grade is that ok? Here is their solution:
· Each segment will contain part(s) of the grammar listed (i.e. fashion and future tense, Commercials and demonstratives, comparisons,). They covered all of the items I listed very well.
· They agreed that this would take time but we should be learning from the book too=2 or 3 days a week video, 2 or 3 days a week in the book.
· They thought that each person would be responsible for a one minute commercial. Graded on pronunciation, writing and video production. This also allowed for about 20 minutes of commercial time for the 1 hour variety show.
· They divided themselves into groups and groups chose skits/segments that they liked or thought of for the show. Each member of the group will evaluate how they worked to help make a decision on the grade.
· One class is doing a talk show and another a sitcom (Saved by the Bell) to work together on a final Spanish class "souvenir". (I think I might have to grade this individually)
· This will be the majority of their 4th quarter grade. I will review the work done on the 3rd day allowed that week and assign the work participation points. This insures they are staying on task and the quality stays high. All deadlines are final because we need to film on days when the camera is available. A missed deadline or film time will result in a lowered grade.
· We posted the project on the Global Schoolhouse Project page and solicited Hispanic students and other Spanish classes to respond. So far we have had one teacher and one student respond.
Students can use the Real Audio to get Spanish music and radio for their background sound. (How's that for tech=Internet, e-mail, a project, and video!)Now I just hope they learn something in the process! Maybe I will give them the video for their semester test and see if they remember what they were talking about!! We will see!!
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