Saturday, September 20, 2014

A 2nd-year story and activity

This story is one that I am using to get students ready to read "Mitch y el dinero" en my 2nd-year book "El cochino blanco". It was really successful, much more so than I thought it would be.

This was an especially difficult week for us in Tucson, since we were due to receive the force of Hurricane Odile. There was 100% chance of rain on Wednesday, and it had been really humid and cloudy all week. The school decided that we would run on a minimum day on Wednesday and a schedule one (normal day) on Thursday and Friday. My 2's were more raucous than usual for that reason.

My words were "no debes hacerlo", "tenía razon", and "devolvió".  I decided that I would have them read a short story and then write a paragraph to finish the story. They worked in pairs to finish the story. I then read the endings aloud to decide if Danny was a good boy or a bad boy. The students loved hearing their own words, and it was interesting to see how the students thought. Many of them had him do the wrong thing and then receive his just desserts as a consequence. That was great, since it introduced "tenia la culpa", which they normally don't get for a few more lessons!

Here's the story in English and Spanish.

Danny quería comprar un DVD nuevo, pero no tenía dinero. Sabía que no podía comprarlo, pero lo quería mucho.
Danny wanted to buy a new DVD, but he had no money. He knew that he couldn't buy it, but he wanted it a lot.

Un día, Danny llegó muy temprano a la clase de las matemáticas. Nadie estaba en el cuarto más que él. Danny vio la bolsa de la maestra en su escritorio.  El chico pensó “La maestra tiene mucho dinero. Puedo usar su dinero para comprar mi DVD.” Danny sacó cuarenta dólares de la bolsa.
One day, Danny arrived to math class very early. Nobody was in the room but him. Danny saw the teacher's purse on her desk. The boy thought, 'The teacher has a lot of money. I can use her money to buy my DVD.' Danny took $40 out of her purse.

Inmediatamente, un ángel apareció y le dijo a Danny –Danny, ¡ no debes hacerlo! No es tu dinero. La maestra lo necesita.—
Immediately, an angel appeared and said to Danny, "Danny, you shouldn't do it! It isn't your money. The teacher needs it."

Danny le dijo—Gracias, ángel. Tienes razón. El dinero es suyo, no la mía. Empezó a devolver el dinero a la bolsa, pero de repente apareció un diablito. –Danny, tú debes tener el DVD. Es importante. Es para tu colección de Batman. Solo faltas éste DVD. La maestra es muy rica. ¡No necesita $40!
Danny said, "Thanks, angel. You're right. The money is hers, not mine. He started to put the money back in her purse, but suddenly a little devil appeared. "Danny, you should have the DVD. It's important. It's for your Batman collection. You're only missing this DVD. The teacher is very rich. She doesn't need $40!


Escribe el final. ¿Danny devolvió el dinero o compró el DVD? Explica tu respuesta (answer).
Write the ending. Did Danny return the money or buy the DVD. Explain your answer.

I told the students that they needed to show what happened because of the decision that he made. I had everything from him putting back the money and feeling good because he did the right thing to using the money and being caught by the teacher in the same video store to buying the video and then being struck dead.  Interesting day, and we all had a good time. It was the most fun I can remember having on a Friday.


2 comments:

  1. I grew up in Tsn (Rincon HS grad) and am thrilled to see CI teaching going on there! Greetings from Denver!
    Nina

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