Reimagining a Spanish Story
Source/Author: Al Irwin, US Spanish Teacher
March 03, 2021
Shorecrest Upper School students in Spanish IV Honors recently concluded a unit of study based on the Chicano story, "Un oso y un amor (A Bear and A Love)” by author Sabine Ulibarrí. The central focus of the unit was to continue to develop interpretive reading and listening skills as well as further strengthen presentational speaking abilities.
The story, set in New Mexico, keeps students engaged and anxiously awaiting the outcome of the relationship that develops between the protagonist and his long-time friend, Shirley. Throughout the story, students learned to speak in the hypothetical and properly employ other parts of speech that serve to help them elaborate on their ideas and enhance their communicative abilities.
Following their journey with the characters, the students encounter a rather anticlimactic end to the plot. This is where their project began! The students rewrote the end of the story - making it anything they wanted, and the creativity was abounding. Each student also created an illustration of their alternative ending and recorded a narration to describe it in detail.
Through the use of QR codes students listened to each others’ recordings, and were challenged to correctly pair each narration with the corresponding illustration.
For the final unit assessment, students will assume the roles of the characters and “meet” at a staged class reunion 20 years following the end of the story.
For the final unit assessment, students will assume the roles of the characters and “meet” at a staged class reunion 20 years following the end of the story.
