Last year I did an introductory vocab lesson about clothing that had high-energy, engaging, and competitive activities, and lots of Spanish.  What it definitely lacked was ANYTHING related to culture, authentic resources, or real people doing real things.  The lesson was fun, but as I try to improve what I do in the classroom, I am working to find more authentic ways for my students to engage with the language.  This lesson is the upgrade from last year’s lesson.

I was searching for videos of clothes shopping, but really, who makes a video of themselves wandering through a store?!?  And then I found this on YouTube: “Ropa para ellos: Hombre ejecutivo.”  I almost cried.  I texted the link to some friends and basically yelled “You have to watch this RIGHT NOW!”  It was real and clear, slow enough, with visuals and explanations, and WOW!  I set out to make that the connecting piece of the lesson.  This is my level 2 class, so they already know the basic clothing items, but it’s been awhile, and we’ve never gone deeper into fabrics, styles, or functionality of clothing.  This video has possibilities of tasks well beyond what I did with it, but this was my starting place.

I had a review Kahoot at the beginning of my lesson, and some basic listening to me with a little bit of movement and conversation about clothing in the TL before introducing the video.  I wanted to make sure they remembered what we were talking about before dropping them into the video.  Then I gave them the graphic organizer and explained that the 1st time we watched, I wanted them just to listen, circle words they heard.  After the video was over, they went back and put checks next to words they actually understood.

As the lesson went on, we asked and answered questions to put clothing items in different parts of a store, we walked and talked, interviewing other people about their clothing preferences, and then played my crazy dress up game.  It’s the same game as last year, but it’s really fun and effective for listening to strings of sentences.  It gets competitive, verging on out of control, if you pick the teams right. If you want a more detailed idea of how to play the clothing game, that’s at http://spanishrhodes.weebly.com/content-activities.

So now that they’re all hyped up, we moved back to the video fclothing video sheetor some final interpretive practice. The last 2 times through the video, we focused on actually writing down the details of the outfits that he was reviewing.  The graphic organizer I made has them divided into collections, so I had them write the details under each of the items as they heard them.  Originally I didn’t intend to watch it 3 times, but I decided to add an extra watching just because I would prefer to give an extra shot for them to be successful if they’re actually trying.  I had several kids who just couldn’t think and write fast enough to get all the details, so we did it again.  A little extra time that ends in success for them is better than frustration over an arbitrary number of times that I’m “allowed” to repeat a video.

The final task was a post-it note length description of one of my doll people dressed up in an outfit I chose.  They looked at it and wrote as detailed of a description as they could give me as a result of their lesson.  When they had to reflect on what they liked, didn’t like, and learned at the end of the day, they actually LIKED THE VIDEO!!!!! It made me so happy.

Below are the docs I used in this post, so feel free to use anything you see.  The lesson plan is there, as is the video sheet that I made for it, and the PowerPoint I used on the day.  The Target layout is in the PowerPoint, and I just print that slide and copy it so each student has one in their notebook.  The clothing cards I used that day are 3 sets to a page for ease of paper usage.  I hope you find something you can use, and if you do, please let me know how it goes for you.  Have fun!

Published by Rosalyn Rhodes

Rosalyn Rhodes is currently a Spanish teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. She holds a Bachelors in Spanish from UNC-Greensboro and a Masters in Teaching K-12 Foreign Language from UNC-Charlotte. She has traveled and led student groups in Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. In her thirteen years of teaching, Ms. Rhodes has taught every grade level K-12, and has worked in both public and independent schools. In her professional career in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, she served as the WL New Teacher Coordinator and WL Master Teacher, writes curriculum, and presented a variety of professional development workshops. A member of both ACTFL and FLANC, her 2014 and 2016 FLANC presentations earned top 10 status, and Ms. Rhodes was named the 2015 FLANC Teacher of the Year. She loves teaching Novice learners and states that her goal with her students is to “open their eyes to new people and new places, and to equip them with the language skills necessary for their own cultural journey.”

8 replies on “Fashion Forward”

  1. hello! Thanks for sharing your ideas. I´m interesting in getting to know the activity you did the previous year, the one you are playing with the drawings in the blackboard. I teach kids and I need an active lesson. Thank you in advance.

  2. It sounds and looks like a great lesson. I just have one question. Did you add your PowerPoint ? I can’t find it…thanks lourdes

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