Are there any ghost stories about your school or other places in your community? Now is a great time to dig them out and translate them into comprehensible target language stories. They are always high interest and often involve pretty basic vocabulary (people often HEAR or SEE ghosts that WALK or TALK or SCREAM or LOOK OUT windows). Last year, I made a short reading about the ghost that lives at Clark Middle School, and then my class spent a few days investigating the claims. We spoke to staff that had been at the school for a long time and teachers that often work late at the school. Some of them wrote us emails, and others came into class and were interviewed. All of their contributions were in English, but we compiled the evidence and discussed their claims in Spanish. It was awesome! If you don't have a ghost story, you could have your students read about the purported ghost at my school and then have a discussion about various hauntings that students have heard of and whether or not they believe in ghosts at all! Here is the story that I wrote and use in my Spanish B classes: Si tú buscas “Clark+Anchorage+Ghost” en el Internet, tú vas a leer información sobre el fantasma que vive en Clark Middle School. El fantasma es una mujer que lleva un vestido blanco. Ella camina por los pasillos cuando los estudiantes no están en la escuela y toca instrumentos en la sala de banda. Algunos maestros oyen o ven el fantasma de la mujer cuando están trabajando en la escuela por la noche. Otros maestros dicen que no hay un fantasma; que ella es sólo un mito. ¿Qué piensas tú? ¿Hay un fantasma que vive en Clark?
- Translate the story to English in between the lines of Spanish.
- ¿Tú crees que hay un fantasma? ¿Es un mito o es verdad? (Do you believe that there is a ghost? Is it a myth or is it true?)
And here is the reading that I use with my Spanish II kiddos (thanks to @espanolbartlett !!!)
