Online Learning

When online classes first starting making their appearance I did not think it was an effective way to teach or learn a foreign language.  But distance learning has opened the door for many learners who depend on it and there is a necessity to utilize digital tools in order to bridge the Digital Divide.  Because teaching online classes is inevitable I took a graduate course to develop new skills.

Creating an online learning environment should be a collaborative acquisition of knowledge in which engaged learners are active participants.  Students should be self-directed.  They should be allowed to give input. It is the instructor's responsibility to create this type of atmosphere.

Getting learners to engage online means establishing comfort with technology and interdependence.  Students who take online classes have other responsibilities besides school.  Many students may be new to the online environment.  Instructors must incorporate activities that address various learning styles.  They can start by having students introduce themselves and create student profiles. 
Icebreaker activities open the lines of communication and set up the learning environment.  Students need the activities to feel a social presence.  Social introductions between online students are the instructor’s responsibility.  Effective icebreakers allow students to express knowledge of themselves in regards to their personal lives.  This social interaction humanizes the online learning experience and builds the trust that is needed for further social interaction.  They also give students an opportunity to practice using technology. Instructors will want to draw on the experience that students have and let them choose topics.  It is important to allow adequate time for activities. Online tools that help engage students include:

• Discussion forums
• brainstorming activities
• small group discussions
• Videos
• Websites
• Audio Files
• Test Files
• Surveys

Conrad and Donaldson identify Phases of Engagement that occur over a semester.  During the first two weeks learners need interactive activities such as icebreakers and introductions that establish the expectation of engagement.  Teachers should serve as negotiators and introduce learners to the accepted Netiquette for the course.  The third and fourth weeks are a time for critical thinking, the sharing of ideas, and reflection.  The teacher is an engineer who encourages students to review the work of their peers.  Weeks five through seven can be spent with small group activities such as problem-solving, discussion, role-playing, and reflection.  The final half of the semester should focus on learner-designed activities such as group projects.

Online classes require structure and clear expectations for students.  At the beginning of the course the instructor must present a syllabus that establishes the requirements for students and the procedures to follow to engage in learning activities.  Conrad and Donaldson recommend that instructors adapt classroom-based activities for online courses.  They would address students’ needs in the same manner and by choosing the most effective tool for communication including videos, audio files, text files, or web pages.  They must decide if students will be expected to participate in an asynchronous or synchronous manner.  And finally they should prepare students for alternative methods when technology fails. 

Conrad, Rita-Marie, & Donaldson, J Anna.  (2011)  Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and

Resources for Creative Instruction.  

Authentic Text

Using authentic text in the classroom allows students to develop the interpretive mode.  They have the chance to negotiate the meaning of oral and printed texts without input from the writer or speaker.  Authentic text allows them to have a cultural experience as they read between the lines and make comparisons with their own experiences.  The interpretive mode gives students a chance to listen, read, and view video in the classroom.  It teaches them to make predictions, draw conclusions, voice opinions, explain meaning, and ask questions.  Authentic text is ideal for comprehension because it is presented like a story.

The Interpretive Mode of Communication involves comprehension processing.  Materials should allow students to use both bottom-up processing, in which they recognize patterns in the language that help with understanding, and top-down processing, where the teacher provides contextual clues to help them comprehend the material.  Language teachers can help students comprehend new material by connecting it to what they already know.  In this way teachers don’t overwhelm students with unknown aspects of the language and culture.  Teachers should encourage students to relate the material to their own personal experiences.  Signaling clues such as preview activities, summarizers, emphasis markers, and logical connectives also help students comprehend.   Teachers identify essential vocabulary.  When more than one communication skill is needed, the teacher should create separate activities for each skill.  For example, when using a music video present it first without sound so students can focus on the story that is told by the visual images.  When using reading as a skill, have students look for cognates.  Then have them identify main ideas or a theme.  Expand their comprehension by having them compare the theme to other stories they know.

Thanks to the internet there are many great examples of authentic text available to teachers.   Music videos are valuable because they usually tell a story.  It is easy to find music videos that are popular in various countries where the language is spoken that also have a cultural significance.  Another source of authentic text that appeals to students are urban legends.  These stories have been told over and over and usually exist across cultures.  They provoke discussion and invoke opinions that increase discourse in the classroom.  Not only do they give insight into the culture of the targeted language, the differences and similarities provide information about both cultures.  Finally, one last type of authentic text that is useful in the classroom is the television commercial.  These are created to be appealing and relevant to specific cultures or members of a culture.  For most students there are a lot of contextual clues that are readily available.  For example I have used commercials for McDonalds from various Spanish-speaking countries.  I have yet to meet a teenager who can’t tell me all about what it is like to eat at McDonalds (even when I taught in Korea).  The jingle for McDonalds is the same tune with Spanish words (Me encanta instead of I’m lovin’ it).  

Cultural Customs in Latin America

Travelers to Latin American countries might notice that people have many different mannerisms when interacting with others.  These differences are small but interesting.  Here are a few examples from the book Exito by Michael Scott Doyle.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20896.html

In Venezuela you never point your finger when you are referring to something.  You would use your entire hand to point to someone or something.

In Venezuela it is considered rude to walk between two people.

Never put your feet on the table or other furniture in Venezuela.

In Venezuela you are expected to sit with your back straight.

http://www.instyle.co.uk/celebrity/pictures/celebrity-pictures-0/leighton-meester-yawning-on-the-set-of-gossip-girl-celebrity

In Colombia you should never yawn in public.

Never interrupt others when they are talking when you visit Colombia.

If you shake someone's hand in Colombia, don't squeeze too hard.

http://www.conroysflowersnewportbeach.com/index.php?content=delivery

When you visit someone's home, bring flowers.  But don't bring lilies or marigolds.  Those are for funerals.

When you finish eating, say "Buen Provecho"

Don't be surprised if people stand closer to you when you are talking.  There is less personal space in Latin America.

El Día de los Reyes

www.clker.com

Día de los Reyes, or Day of the Kings, is celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries on January 6, the twelfth night of Christmas.  It is actually a continuation of the Navidad celebration in that it honors the three wise men that visited the baby Jesus.  These men saw a star in the sky that lead them to the baby Jesus.  They traveled from afar to bring gifts to the child they believed would be king.    The wise men went to see King Harod after their visit.  Mary and Joseph fled with the baby to hide him in Egypt and to fulfill the prophecy that a great king would come out of Egypt to save the people of Israel.  In the United States this day is called Epiphany and is celebrated in Christian churches on the Sunday closest January 6.

theatlantic.com

For those of you that think that Christmas is not complete until gifts are given, this is the day that you have been waiting for.  During the holiday season children write letters to the wise men to let them know what presents they would like.  The letter is attached to a balloon that carries the letter into the sky.  The week before Día de los Reyes, the wise men visit town.  Children gather in the center of the town to see the wise men and to get their picture taken with them. Usually the central park in town is filled with people and vendors.  Before they go to bed on the night before Día de los Reyes, they leave their shoes outside filled with hay to feed the animals.  They also leave milk and cookies for the wise men, who leave presents in their shoes.

projectespanol.com

In Mexico families gather on Día de los Reyes to eat a meal of tamales and hot chocolate.  The meal is followed by Rosca de Reyes, the King's cake.  The cake is round like a crown and usually filled with fruit that resemble jewels.  Other descriptions of the cake say that it is shaped like a wreath.  A small plastic baby is baked into the cake.  The baby symbolizes the way in which Jesus was hidden from King Harod.  The person who finds the baby in their piece must host the next gathering in February.    


http://www.inside-mexico.com/featurereyes.htm

http://www.mexonline.com/history-lostresreyes.htm

Amazon Prime

Last year I got a Kindle for Christmas and I purchased an Amazon Prime Membership.  I have enjoyed watching T.V. shows and movies, getting free shipping on Amazon orders, and free book rentals on the Kindle.  But I have also found it to be useful in my Spanish classroom.  I have been able to show cultural videos in my classroom by renting them or streaming them for free.

There are several series that can be rented for $1.99 per episode.  You can buy the episode, hovwever renting it gives teachers the opportunity to try the video with their class before they invest a greater amount of money.  My classes really enjoyed the series produced by Teacher's Discovery under the label Moo!.  They have several cultural topics including food and holidays.  Each of the videos are about thirty minutes long.  They are interesting to students because the camera follows a native host as they introduce the culture to an American teenager.

Another series that is available to rent are the Globe Trekker episodes produced by PBS.  Each episode highlights a different country.  The host visits iconic places and explores local rituals.

There is a series of educational videos available for free with an Amazon Prime membership.  These are produced by New Dimension.  They are a little bit drier and more like a documentary than the ones mentioned above.  But they are well-organized and contain a lot of valuable information about culture including geography and history.

Día de los Santos Inocentes

If you are visiting a Spanish-speaking country on December 28, be on the look out for practical jokers.  One might compare it to April Fool's Day in the United States.

This fun holiday has it's origins in the Bible in the story where King Harod had all of the baby boys under two years of age executed.  His intent was to kill the baby Jesus so that he could never be a rival for Harod.  But the joke was on the king because Joseph and Mary had taken baby Jesus to Egypt so that he would be safe.  The holiday is celebrated to honor the children, los inocentes, who were killed by King Harod.

During the Middle Ages it was celebrated with a feast.  Today it has become a day of playing pranks called Inocentadas.  



http://spanish.about.com/b/2013/04/01/spains-equivalent-of-april-fools-day-is-dec-28.htm

http://spanishfood.about.com/od/holidaysfeasts/a/santosinocentes.htm

The Poinsettia

A local CBS affiliate does a news segment they call "Good Question" in which viewers ask questions and the reporter finds the answer.  I was excited when I saw the question, "How did Poinsettias Become a Part of Christmas?" I rolled up my sleeves and told my family, "I got this".  I didn't need to view the story to answer the question.  One of the benefits of teaching Spanish is decorating my classroom with poinsettias.


The plant and the Christmas tradition originate in Mexico.  According the Biology department at UCC the poinsettia, or Euphorbia pulcherrima, blooms in Southern Mexico and Central America between November and March.  The Aztecs called it the cuetlaxochitl and used the milky substance produced by the plant for treating fevers.  They made red dye from the flowers.  The red flowers are not actually flowers, they are the plant's leaves.

The legend that inspired the use of poinsettias as Christmas plants involves a small boy that did not have enough money to give a gift to Jesus on Christmas Day.  Before reaching the church he stopped an picked some weedy branches and prayed that it was enough.  The people at the church laughed at his pathetic gift, but he carried the branches to the altar.  When he reached the altar, the branches began to bloom with beautiful red flowers.  This story is told in a book by Tomie de Paola.

The story also caught the attention of Joel Roberts Poinsett, an ambassador to Mexico in 1829.  He had the Mexican fire plant shipped back to his home in South Carolina and later the plant was named after him.


http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/12/17/good-question-how-did-poinsettias-become-a-part-of-christmas/

http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/pow/poinsettia.htm

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/3554-how-the-mexican-fire-plant-became-the-poinsettia

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Poinsettia-Tomie-dePaola/dp/0698115678/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1387384481&sr=8-6&keywords=tomie+depaola+christmas