Providing educational resources for Spanish speakers in our community

Operation Get Spanished 2015: The Virginia Living Museum

We provided the Virginia Living Museum with:

• A Spanish version of the museum map

• Video “overviews” of the different galleries to be used on their site

• Audio players with information in Spanish about each section of the museum

• Bilingual resource materials for the children, using the students’ original art

• A guided overview of the Boardwalk with facts about each of the animals along the path

Filling a need

I met with the marketing director who told me about deliberate efforts to target the Spanish-speakers in our community. She said that they had been given a Spanish version of the museum map, but she was told that it has many errors.

We worked closely together to determine what would help them the most. The project that I had originally planned changed as I focused on what was most needed by the museum.

She visited the school and spoke to the students. For them, this turned the project from a “school assignment” into a service to the community. It also gave them a personal resource as they proceeded with the project. They contacted her directly with questions throughout the project.

The HOOK

Students were told to watch a museum video and answer these questions: 1. What interested you most about the museum? 2. What part of the museum would you like to

investigate more? 3. What did you learn about his museum? 4. Would you like to visit the museum in person?

The catch? The video was in Turkish. The students could not understand the language as they watched a tour of the museum.

As a result of this activity, the students agreed that they could have learned more and the video might have inspired them to want to visit the museum someday, had it been in a language they understand.

Video

My three-year-old niece speaks Spanish in the home. After a trip to the museum with her, I recorded a conversation we had over ice cream. She chatted about what she had seen at the museum and what she liked.

I then used the video in class with an assignment. On the one hand, it was a great listening activity because they are not accustomed to trying to understand children in Spanish. But this video was also very important for the class because it was a real world reminder of why they were doing the project. Kids, like the one in the video, are the true recipients of the work the students are doing.

The assignmentProjects: (assigned to groups of four)• Gallery overview: Coastal Plains Aviary• Gallery overview: Outdoor Boardwalk• Gallery overview: Virginia’s Coastal Plains Gallery• Gallery overview: Virginia’s Piedmont and Mountains Gallery• Gallery overview: Virginia’s World of Darkness Gallery• Gallery overview: Virginia’s Underground Gallery• Gallery overview: Appalachian Cove and Cypress Swamp• Presentation: Conservation Garden• Presentation: Abbitt Planetarium• Presentation: Native Plant Teaching Garden• Presentation: Virginia Garden• Bilingual elementary education tools

Modules: Writing: Written information will be submitted individually for grading by all members of the group. The groups will then collaborate, reading each submission, and decide what information to use for the final product. Protocol: Each group will present the information that they have compiled and the class will follow a protocol to give feedback – questions, likes, wonders, ideas. Oral: Each member of the group will submit a recording of the information for grading. The group will then listen to all recordings and rate them to decide who will record the final product, based on clarity, pronunciation, and enthusiasm. Video: All members will collect photographs of their area. The photographs will be submitted online with explanations and information. The group will then choose which photographs to use for the final video. Vocabulary: All students will maintain a log of the relevant vocabulary they are learning throughout the project.

Collaboration

With this method, • The students had some choice

about the group topic and their collaborators

• I made sure, from a teacher perspective, that all groups had the required skills “on board”

• The students were able to pick their group members without making any students feel left out.

Group assignment method: • Name the 13 projects. • Choose 13 students with video experience and let

them each pick a project.• Choose 13 strong speakers and let them pick. • Let the remaining students come to the table and

pick a project until each group has 4 students.

Student checklist

This was given to students at the beginning so that they would be aware of all components. Grade: Assignments: Explanation: Group Need to Know Make a list together, brainstorming what you will need to learn in order to complete this

project. Individual Ind. research Individual research component: 20 or more facts organized into 3 or more topics

Group Group report Together, read all facts gathered by group members and decide what is most important to include in the overview.

Group Group protocol Present the group info to the classIndividual Ind protocol Give feedback to the other groups and submit your written evaluationsIndividual Ind. Recording Make a preliminary recording of yourself presenting the overview (using Google Voice)

Group Group recording Read the reviews from the Span 3 class and choose who does the final recording Individual Ind photos/videos Upload all photos and videos from the museum trip to the class folder

Group Group photos/videos Choose the photos and videos you wish to use from the class folderGroup Final video Create the final video according to the checklist and rubric

Individual Ind. Vocabulary Maintain a list of new terms learned from the project and submit it

*Note: This is a Spanish IV class. All student materials have been translated to English for this presentation, but were given to the students in Spanish.

Other checklists/rubrics

Requirements for individual research: Checklist: • Include at least 3 main topics of research• Elaborate the topics with at least 20 overall details (no specified

quantity for each topic). • Categorize the information.

6 7 8 9 10Very little information is provided. The topics and details are not evident.

The information is incomplete and the requirements are not quite met. The work is lacking in vocabulary. Mistakes and lack of structure make it difficult to understand.

All required information is included and organization of the topics and details is evident. There are mistakes, but the information is comprehensible by people with experience in language-learning.

Information is abundant and well-prepared. Details are elaborate and comprehensible. The work demonstrates a good vocabulary. There are mistakes, but the work would be understood by a native-speaker.

The research is very well-organized. The vocabulary is extensive and the information provided is very detailed. There are very few mistakes and they do not interfere with comprehension.

Requirements for group overview: Checklist: • Begin with an introduction• Include sufficient details and

information• Organize the information well

Grading checklist for final videos: ____/ 5: Audio is clear and pronunciation is accurate. ____/ 5: The pictures and videos relate to what is being said. ____/ 5: The video is edited and trimmed correctly. ____/ 5: Individual participation grade based on teacher observation and group comments.

The map

I involved my Spanish III online classes in the project by having them collaborate to create the Spanish version of the museum map. For them, there was a strong emphasis on the skill of accurate translation. Although “translation” is not one of the language standards, this is a marketable skill and important strategy to learn. They discovered that translators and dictionaries are not adequate for good interpretation. They used a “reverse look-up” strategy to find the most accurate translations for each of the areas of the map.

1. The map was broken down into sections and they used “reverse look-up” for each. One section was due each week.

2. They had to read each other’s maps, find the discrepancies, and decide what terms to use.

3. They listened to the audio overviews from the other classes to verify that the terms used in the audio match what they used in the maps.

Audio ratings

All students from every group phoned in a recording of themselves reading the overview using my Google Voice number. I loaded the recordings into a shared folder and the Spanish III online class listened to each of them over a set period of time. After hearing the recordings from all members of a group, they completed a ratings chart and they made note of any terms that were different from the terms they had used in the map. Folder of initial recordings

Group: Name: Ratings: Total score:

La llanura costera[Here, write comments on what they have said. Do the names of their section correspond to the names you used on the map? Do you think they included enough information? How much can you understand?]

Fell Pronunciation:

Clarity:

Enthusiasm:

Young Pronunciation:

Clarity:

Enthusiasm:

Gestwick Pronunciation:

Clarity:

Enthusiasm:

I then let the Spanish 4 students read the feedback and decide how to go about recording the final version.

MP3 players, purchased with a grant, that were donated to the museum for Spanish-speaking guests.

The museum visit

We had created a shared folder in Google Drive. All photos and videos were uploaded to this folder. The students stayed in their groups but we not limited to the area they were assigned. We spent two hours at the museum and arrived early so that the animals were out and interested.

Challenges and conflicts

• On the date of our planned trip to the museum, the planetarium was closed. The group that had been assigned to that area was unable to photograph it, but they contacted the Marketing agent for the museum and she sent them images from the museum archives.

• Two parents complained about the use of technology in a Spanish class. They said that it caused the students unnecessary frustration and they shouldn’t be required to use technology to such an extent if it is not a computer class.

• The gardens were not very attractive during the time of year in which we visited. Like the planetarium group, this group worked with the Marketing director to get archived images.

• Snow days set us behind. We had planned to finish the videos in third quarter, but had to complete that part in fourth quarter instead.

• We needed to create a professional product since it would be made available to the public, but we did not have the equipment for quality audio recording. We recorded on three different occasions, trying to capture clear audio files without background noises and echoes. This part took far more class time than I had intended.

• I had advised the students to use landscape orientation in the photos/videos, but many used only portrait orientation, which is not as good for creating the video.

Conclusion

Here, you can view one of the final product videos:

The students were ultimately very pleased with the final project and what we accomplished. One student commented, “It’s possible that someday my kids and grandkids could hear me when they visit the museum.”