Hija del sastre Capítulo 2

Chapter 2

Day 1

1. Warm Up: As a Chapter one review, I started the class by asking students to write what they knew about each of the following story elements:

Emilia

Lorenzo

La Guerra Civil Española

2. New Vocabulary: After reviewing students' answers, I then introduced three new structures to the class, which they copied in their dictionary pages and followed up with some PQA to practice the words.

Structures:

Se negó

Ya pasó

Fingió

Translations:

Los estudiantes se negaron a escuchar a la maestra.

Mi cumpleaños ya pasó pero sigo estudiando.

Luis fingió su propia muerte para no tener que hacer la tarea. 

Personal Questions:

¿Alguien en la clase se niega a escuchar a la maestra?

¿Tú te niegas a contestar una pregunta cuando no sabes la respuesta?

¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? ¿Ya pasó?

¿Has fingido que estás dormido en la clase? ¿Cuándo? ¿Por qué?

Cuando alguien te acerca en la calle, ¿finges que hablas en tu celular?

¿Has fingido saber la respuesta en la clase cuando no la sabes?

3. Reading: With about ten minutes left in the class, I began to read Chapter two out loud.

4. Exit Slip / Antes de salir: In this particular chapter there are a lot of examples of the past perfect (había…) tense. I had already given my students the vocabulary structure “Habían luchado” and I wanted to check that they understood the structure if I used it with other verbs. I projected the structure and asked students: ¿Qué parte de esta estructura significa «they had»? After hearing the correct answer, I projected the slide below and asked the class to write the English translations on their exit slips.

Habian Luchado

Day 2

1. Warm Up: I started the class with four of the comprehension questions from the teacher’s guide that I thought would give the most information in terms of a review. While students were working on their warm-up, I passed out the exit slip from yesterday’s class so that students could use it to help with difficult passages in today’s reading.

2. Reading: I generally like to have students work together to read and comprehend a passage and then review it as a group but because I knew that this chapter was going to be difficult I decided to read out loud with the graphic organizer I made (below) and to work through the chapter as a class. 

After reading the first two paragraphs, I had students label the figures in the organizer. Then we worked through the conversation between Rosario, Lorenzo and Diana (with lot’s of comprehension checks and some enactments). When I was satisfied everyone understood, I had students close their books and re-create, using their own words the dialogue from the chapter. This is what they copied on the organizers.

Cap 2 Graphic Organizer

3. Enactments: As students were writing, I walked around the class passing out slips of paper with each character’s name on it and a corresponding number. I then called all “unos” to the front of the class and had them enact the dialogue.

When I noticed something important missing or incorrect I called on the class to help me correct it. Also, I made a big deal of emphasizing that Pablo wasn’t arrested because the police had new evidence but rather because he refused to talk. Really wanted to get in some useful repetitions of that “se negó” structure!

This was how we ended the class and I asked all students to bring their organizers with them to class the next day.

Day 3

1. Warm Up: Using the vocab. structures from yesterday, I had students translate a short story to English. 

2. Review: Today we were learning about Lorenzo’s escape plan and I really wanted to ensure that all my students were comprehending what was happening. I asked them to take out their organizers and began by using the equity cards to ask some comprehension questions about yesterday’s passage. (I should mention that while all of the questions were asked in comprehensible Spanish, I sometimes wanted students to answer me in English to demonstrate they truly understood what I was asking. Each time I wanted an answer in English I would flash an “Inglés” sign and, when we reverted back to Spanish, I would wave the “Español” white board in the air.)

3. Transition: When I was satisfied that everyone was on the same page, I asked students to do a Think, Pair, Share with the following question:

¿Qué harías si tú fueras Lorenzo? ¿Qué opciones tendrías?

A few of my students needed some extra help with this question so, as students were working, I went round the classroom and reminded struggling students of the situation Lorenzo was by referring back to the graphic organizer.

4. Reading: I continued to read out loud and as Lorenzo explained his escape plan in the novel, we broke it down as a class into more comprehensible (for my students’ level) on the graphic organizer.

5. Comprehension Check / Exit Slip: After we finished the chapter, I projected a short six question true or false quiz taken from the Teacher’s Guide and had students complete it before leaving.

Day 4

1. Warm Up: Today’s warm-up was differentiated to accommodate all students. Students who needed extra scaffolding were asked to explain, using English, Lorenzo’s plan. Students on reading-level, were asked to describe the plan in Spanish, in their own words and those who finished early or who needed a greater challenge, were asked to make as judgment as to whether or not it would work and why. (It seems repetitive, but in order for us to really learn from this book I wanted to review as much as possible and this meant taking advantage of every opportunity to go over the chapter’s events.)

2. Review: I passed out the mini-prueba from yesterday and reviewed the answers with the class, asking students to correct any false information.

3. Vocabulary: Se queda / Se quedó

                        Se mete en problemas / Se metió en problemas

(Although I’d given my students a structure with “quedar” earlier in the year, I felt like many students hadn’t quite gotten it down. With “se mete en problemas,” I wanted to give students a high-frequency structure that would allow them to further personalize the reading.) 

I had students translate the following sentences:

·      Cuando era joven me quedaba con mis abuelos en el campo durante los veranos.

·      Luis se metió en problemas cuando no le dijo la verdad a su madre.

·      Emilio se quedó en DC el año pasado y pasó mucho tiempo en los museos.

·      Lorenzo fingió estar dormido en la clase y se metió en problemas con la maestra.

4. Story Asking / Vocabulary Instruction: Finally, I followed Cynthia Hitz’s Four Part Guided Story Asking Activity. The basic story is below (the words in red are the ones students were asked to contribute):

Teresa no quería estar en la clase de español. Ella fingió que se sentía enferma y pidió permiso para ir a la enfermera. Ella se quedó con la enfermera por dos horas. El director de la escuela habló con la enfermera y Teresa se metió en problemas.

Teresa estaba en la oficina del director de la escuela. Ella no quería estar en la oficina. Ella fingió que tenía que usar el baño y pidió permiso para ir al baño. Ella se quedó en al baño por dos horas. El director de la escuela entró el baño y Teresa se metió en más problemas.

Teresa estaba en la estación de policía. Ella no quería estar en la estación de policía. Ella fingió que tenía hambre y pidió permiso para ir a la cafetería. Ella se quedó en la cafetería por tres meses y comió toda la comida. ..

Our classes are 50 minutes long so the story-asking activity took two days. On the second day, students finished the story and we voted on the most interesting, boring, compelling, etc. ending! My students are really loving the story asking this year and it's totally owing to Cynthia Hitz's Guided Story Asking grid. Love it! And that takes care of Chapter 2, Week 2. On to Chapter 3...