Soy Lo Que Soy

My advanced Spanish students have a "Do It Yourself" project this quarter.  They had to write their own project, the grading rubric, set their timelines, set their own due date, and present their work in Spanish.  They also had to give a rationale for their project and explain to me how they were going to use Spanish in it.

So far I have gotten a board game based on the movie Rio (which we watched in class in Spanish), a demonstration on how to make apple and cinnamon empanadas, a recipe poster and a sampling of menestra de verduras, and a music video.  We have a skit, a flamenco dance, and some more food coming up in the next couple of weeks - so this should be interesting, educational, and entertaining!  What more could I ask of life really?

The down side to the project is the same as it usually is when I have students do a presentation in Spanish: their pronunciation and intonation is often so bad that the other students don't understand what is being said.  The students feel the need to have note cards and then wind up reading off of them the whole time - which makes for a very flat presentation.

The good side is that everyone gets to chose something that was interesting and meaningful to them, and they came up with ideas that would not have occurred to me.

The image above links to the video that these two made of themselves singing Lo Que Soy by Demi Lovato.  I especially like the bloopers they included at the end.  These two often get into laughing fits like that in class too, but that's another story.  For their presentation, they shared the video and explained how it was made and edited.  They also did a little skit for us.  I have to say I was pleased that they had a good time while learning some Spanish along the way. 

If you watch it, please leave them a little note to let them know you liked it.  I know that would make them very happy.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK