Wondering how to teach culture when you’re a World language teacher? Wondering what’s the best way to teach culture in the classroom?
In 2016, I was in Spain on my study abroad in Salamanca. We had mini pasaportes for all the places we went in Spain. That’s when, I got the idea to create Pasaportes Culturales for Spanish-Speaking countries for my students. The first Pasaporte Cultural resource was a research type activity. I started to teach culture in the classroom with country study units.
I wanted to expose my students to more than the textbooks offered about the culture, geography and holidays, and pretty much everything else about those countries.
Then, I had an aha moment. I realized that I could write the reading passages that to accompany the questions I wanted students to answer.
Then, I had ANOTHER aha moment! Comprehension questions that pair with the reading + activities to get students moving. Now, all 21 Spanish-speaking countries have a unit! There is even a country study for the United States and guess what? It’s free!
Pasaporte Cultural Country Study Unit
Included:
- Reading Passage
- Comprehension Questions
- Prueba y Pasa – Quiz Quiz Trade Style Activity
Reading Passage
Reading is a great way for students to acquire new vocabulary and learn about language and culture. Each text has images to help students make connects to vocabulary, in addition, to cognates and high frequency verbs.
Students will explore:
- Basic country info
- Geography
- Traditional and Typical Dishes
- Celebrations
- Famous People from the Country
- Country Symbols
- Leisure Activities
- Popular Places & Landmarks
- Interesting Facts
Each country has 4 versions of the reading passage for you to decide which is best for your students.
Versions:
- Reading completely in Spanish
- Reading in Spanish with an index for new vocabulary
- Reading in English with Spanish headings
- Reading in English with English headings
Comprehension Questions Activities
These activities are great to check for comprehension. Different modes of communication are evaluated with a variety of activity types.
Types of Activities:
- Cierto/Falso Listening
- Cierto/Falso Reading
- Unscramble the Sentence
- Label the map
- Complete the sentence
- Charts for cultural comparison
- KWL Charts
- Matching
- Image recognition labeling
Each country study will have some of these different activities to check for comprehension. There are also versions with instructions in English and Spanish to best meet the needs of your students.
Prueba y Pasa
This is a great activity to get students up and moving. Prueba y Pasa is a quiz quiz trade game. It gives students an opportunity to review everything they’ve learned about the country during the country study.
Each student will have a least one card that has a questions and answer. Students will take turns asking each other questions. When they’ve both answered the questions, they switch cards and partners.
Grab all 21 Pasaporte Cultural Country Study Units with this bundle here!
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