Again, way behind in blogging my plans...we have finished El Nuevo Houdini, so I just need to find the time to post what we did for the last five chapters of the book! Here are the plans that my classes followed for Chapter 6:
Chapter 6 is called "Un beso increíble", which lends itself very nicely to discussions about KISSING--something that is quite hilarious to do with middle schoolers :)
Before reading Chapter 6
On the day that we read this chapter, my students' warm-up (Campanada) prompt was "El Capítulo 6 de El Nuevo Houdini se llama "Un beso increíble". ¿Qué piensas de los besos?" (What do you think about kisses?). They wrote down their answers, but we didn't discuss them just yet.
We watched two video clips: first, we watched the scene from the end of "The Princess Bride" in which the grandfather closes the book and the little boy says that he doesn't mind about kisses as much, and then the grandfather continues reading and describes Wesley and Buttercup's historic kiss. We quickly discussed the clip with these questions: ¿Fue un beso romántico? ¿Fue el beso más romántico del mundo? ¿Te gusta ver besos cuando miras una película? ¿Un beso siempre significa el amor?
Then, we watched "High Five for First Kiss". If you haven't seen this, you're in for a treat!! It is so sweet.
I debated using MovieTalk to watch it the first time, muted, but I think that the dialogue is so sweet that the full effect of the video comes when you watch it and hear it for the first time together. I'd love to hear your thoughts!! We discussed it using these questions: ¿Quién besa a quién primero? (El niño se llama Elliot y la niña se llama Bowie). ¿Cómo se siente Bowie/Elliot después de besar a Elliot/Bowie? ¿Cómo se sienten los padres de Elliot y Bowie? ¿Tú piensas que Elliot y Bowie van a ser novios?
Finally, we returned to the Campanada and discussed the question to which students had already written responses (¿Qué piensas de los besos?) As yo can imagine, middle schoolers' answers to this question are awesome.
Next, we discussed the pre-reading discussion questions from the Teacher's Guide.
Before we read the chapter, I clarified the meaning of the following terms and then asked students to provide the sound effects described on these cards. I love using sound effects to reinforce the meaning of words with which students are not super familiar but are important to the understanding of the chapter!
I read the chapter aloud, pausing after the sound effect words for my sound effect students to work their magic.
We discussed the during and after the reading discussion questions from the Teacher's Guide.
Instead of using the "Put the events in order" activity from the Teacher's Guide, I had my students cut and paste the events using this timeline. This was simply because we had a block period that day, and I wanted something that was going to break up the time a little more. Students were allowed to call me over twice to have their work checked before they glued down their answers.
I did not use the Adolescentes y la tecnología reading this year simply because of timing, but I did last year when I taught the book. I printed out each statement from the reading on a separate sheet of paper, laminated them, and then stuck two sticky notes on each paper: one that said "estoy de acuerdo" and one that said "no estoy de acuerdo". Students wrote their initials on whichever sticky note corresponded to their opinion on the statement (agreement/disagreement). We then discussed their answers.
I used this writing assessment instead of the chapter quiz from the Teacher's Guide. Vocabulary that the students would need to answer the questions are in bold, and specific requirements are listed below the writing space. The TEACHER (not the student) is to check off the requirements listed.
