Spanish class day 2-Von & Blaine Ray

So during this session, we were doing a reading, based on what Blaine and Von thought we already knew.  They overshot the mark, so we did a quick translation together of an embedded reading to get basic meaning so we could move on to what Blaine and Von would do with an embedded reading. 

There was a ton of great stuff in this class and I really saw the benefit of using myself as a parallel character in a story.  I've slept since this class and I didn't take notes since I was involved in the class as a student and not really as a teacher, so I'm sorry that I can't give you the exact structures that Blaine and Von were working on...

From what I remember, this was to go along with the LICT story of the Big Surprise.  So, we had our main character, who was hungry, and who wanted to go to a restaurant.  The aha moment came when we had what Blaine and Von call "an event".  We knew that our main character loved surprises, so we went back in time to find out why she loved them so much.  Turns out that her mom gave her a doll...her favorite doll.  Blaine didn't like surprises because his mom gave him a tennis racquet, but he preferred golf.  All of this back story to let you all know that while we were learning this, Blaine was constantly comparing himself to the girl.  In the past, in the present, first person, second person, third person.  It was magical.  He was asking everyone "Do I like surprises? No, she likes surprises."  Then, to the girl "Do you like surprises?  Yes, you do.  Do I like surprises? No, I don't"  The actors were also answering in complete sentences, so they were getting practice in using all forms as well (the structures were written on the board, so there wasn't any pressure on the actors).  In the beginning, when Blaine would ask "Do I like surprises?" the actor would respond "Yes, I like surprises."  Blaine would say, "No, I was asking about me" and the actor would self-correct.  After a few times, there were no more mistakes or hesitation and the actors were switching between POV super easily.

Then, when we were "done" with the story, we went back to the reading to see how much easier it was after all the reps we had just gotten.  Again, the reading was harder than would be used in a real classroom, where we know what our students know.