Last week my Spanish IV class finished up the novel Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos by Carrie Toth. Because we spent a lot of time throughout the unit comparing various versions of the the age-old story of Snow White (the classic fairy tale, the incredible 2012 Spanish film Blancanieves, and the novel by Carrie) I wanted to make sure that our final project gave students the chance to do some character analysis across these three stories.
I purchased this Character cell phone activity by Laura Randazzo on teacherspayteachers.com and modified it for use in our class. Students worked in groups of three students (ideally) or 2 depending on class numbers. They could pick either the stepmother, the daughter, the father, or the "friend/prince" and make comparisons across the two stories and movie. The elements they included on their posters were songs, messages and a cell phone wallpaper image. All items had to represent the character's personality and/or actions. Here are some examples below.
Here is the rubric I used to grade the projects.
But what does Snow White have to do with a pirate? Well, one of my favorite all-time presenters has to be Dave Burgess. If you can see him in person, do it! If not, definitely add his book Teach Like a Pirate to your summer reading list. Among other things, Dave encourages teachers to make their lessons "experiences."
I have read about other teachers doing gallery walks in their classes, so we (I currently have a student teacher) created the Galeria Blancanieves. Although we vaguely mentioned to our students that they would be presenting their projects to their classmates, we did not give any details. When they arrived to class, lights were dimmed, chairs were rearranged, the bulletin board had been resurfaced for the occasion, and soft jazz music was playing in the background. Mark (my student teacher) and I stood out in the hallway, each with a tray of white grape juice in fancy plastic cups as students came down the hall. We created quite a stir during passing time as our hallway is a busy one. Our students did not know what to think! On the way into class, they had to pick up a glass, and a small piece of paper indicating what group they would be in to present.
The group was divided in half, and while one group was presenting their "artwork" the other group mingled and asked them questions. To facilitate this, Mark had made up a small sheet with some questions to answer. It was a success! Students were pleased to show off their projects and get deserved attention from their classmates. Engagement was high and they seemed inspired to keep their conversations in Spanish. And some students really got into the role of "artist" while they talked about their own work. Here are some pictures of our "Galería."
Note: Because of the camera flash, the room looks bright. But the dim lighting and background music really set the scene!
This was a great way to end our novel study! Can you think of a lesson that you can turn into an experience?
