READING LECTURA

Are your students always complaining that they can not understand enough Spanish to make reading fun? These web sites might keep them interested and give them the opportunity to decide to read what THEY are interested in.

For many university students, reading is an important part of learning. It allows them to see the language used correctly, at their own desired pace. Encourage your students to read in Spanish by directing them to specific sites that interest you or which connect to the lesson your class is currently working on.

RESOURCES

Check out the activities below to help your students get a chance at seeing how fun it can be to read in a foreign language. Don't forget to stress that there are very interesting things going on around the world, not just in the USA. Also try the incredibly comprehensive CIA link with a lot of information on all Spanish-speaking countries.

ACTIVITIES

Mafalda: a fun comic strip in Spanish

• Have students make up a new ending to one or several of the comic strips.
• Have students read comic strips and make up others of their own using vocabulary and grammar they learn from Mafalda.
• You may print out a strip and white-out the scenario given. Photo-copy the strip for each student or group of students to fill in on their own, making up whatever scenario they want. Don't forget to write example sentences on the board using the grammar or vocabulary relevant.

• Use newspapers to teach reading techniques such as skimming on the basis of headlines and pictures.
• Reports on current events.
• Reading English-language newspapers (New York Times, LA Times, CNN) can be an excellent pre-reading activity, before jumping into Spanish-language journalism. Have students read articles on the same world events first in English and then in Spanish. Have them compare the coverage, the points of view, the pictures, the lay-out, etc...

• Prepare questions for students to answer as they take a virtual trip or pretend to prepare for a trip to Spain or some other Spanish-speaking country. Where will they go and why...?
• Have students take a virtual trip--reading about all the possible places to go and important things to see while in a particular city. Then follow this up with information students already know. Bring in any picutres or extra props as pre-reading inticments that will catch their interest.

• Have beginning students use this dictionary as they would a normal dictionary as they take their virtual trip and as they try and write about their trip.

• REPORTS

Have students report on certain singers. In small groups they may be able to come up with several interesting facts to share with the class. Try to have students take specific interest in artists everyone or many students have already heard about so it is more interesting for them and will help them better be able to deduce the meaning of words and phrases they might not otherwise know.
• MOVIES

Singers like Selena could be used in many ways. You may spark student interest by having them watch the movie about "Selena" at home or outside of class (since the movie is in English you probably won't want to waste class time watching the film). This could be an excellent pre-reading exercise which encourages beginning students to want to seek out more information on the singer which they can in turn, share with the rest of the class (maybe for extra credit or as part of a class presentation).
• CONCERTS

Many Latin singers perform locally quite often (especially in California). This might also be something you could inform students about and give extra credit for anyone who goes and reports on the experience to the class (in Spanish of course). Students may not always learn Spanish at such events, but if it sparks an interest in the Latin culture, then it is an invaluable experience. These reports can then be used as pre-reading exercises for the rest of the class; then you can use this link or others to guide students to information on the web about a particular artist.

• Have students check on their horoscope weekly and report to their group (maybe of the same sign) every prediction that has or has not come true. Make this a half-page report which they turn in weekly. Be sure you give them useful comments -- you may decide not to correct grammar or not very critically so they feel less intimidated to try and express themselves. You may want to have them try and use the grammar point being studied as much as possible as they write, and only correct this part of what they have written.

These exercises can of course be used in colaboration with the other sections,
such as writing and speaking.

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