Integrating culture has always been a challenge for me. As a mid-level Spanish teacher (level 2 and 3), I find myself mired in trying to find new and creative ways to integrate grammar and culture kind of goes in wherever I can, which is usually isolated holiday celebrations. I think using some digital storytelling websites like Animoto, Slideroll, or Stupeflix will help me get the culture integrated in my lesson and not just a box to check off at certain times of the year.
I created this short slide show using pictures from Antigua, Guatemala, a place where I spent a great deal of time over the past few years. Although the pictures are not mine (Creative Commons pics from Flickr), I found them easy to upload and put to the pre-loaded choices of Latin music offered at Animoto.
Make a video of your own at Animoto.
I can see myself using pictures of different locales and using them to teach about bargaining with different verbs and different vocabulary words and phrases. In this case, we could talk about the coffee, jade and gorgeous textiles found in Guatemala. The "chicken buses" in Guatemala are always a fun topic of conversation for me and something cultural outside of a holiday to share with my students!
I laughed when I read your phrase "and the dance starts again" because I often thought of f2f teaching of young people as "tap dancing" to a fast rhythm!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the two other sites that you mentioned. They both look quite promising.