Language and culture are windows into the hearts and minds of a people. As a high school foreign language teacher, and a graduate in education, I am interested in exploring the best ways to teach culture and language responsively, integrating one with the other.
This site is the result of my exploration of art and culture in the Spanish-speaking world. In my journey of researching my subject, I was fortunate enough to find ways to integrate the cultural products and perspectives of the target culture while teaching a foreign language. I discovered the many cultural treasures of the Spanish-speaking world, and used them to maximize engagement in the classroom and provide students with exposure to cultural perspectives that will aid in their growing up and becoming global citizens of the world. The rich history, culture, legendary oral tradition and extraordinary literature will serve to enhance my students’ life experiences. These thematic units and their PBLL component are geared towards high school students of Spanish in the intermediate low to mid-range. The curriculum, the authentic resources used, and the activities I designed are meant to guide the content exploration in a student-centered classroom environment, in which students are exploring, analyzing, interpreting, making connections, communicating, and demonstrating creative agency. |