Taking the advice of one of my overseeing professors, this week I completely focused on getting my students to talk, talk, talk. Being that last week my students were hesitant to participate and volunteer, I knew I had to make sure each student was definitely speaking at least a few times during the lesson. To do this, I threw it back to middle school and used a review game that I had once played in my Spanish I class. It works great for reviewing new vocabulary, so I used it to review the American, British, and Australian slang we learned last week.

The game, which has no name but I am surely working on it, consists of flash cards with one word on either side of the card. On one side of the card was the definition of one of the slang terms (I.e. American slang for ‘significant other; crush’). On the other side of the card, there was a different slang vocabulary words that did not match the definition on the front of the card (i.e. British slang for ‘friend’). To start the game, one student would first read their definition. Then, another student who had the matching vocabulary word on their card would say the vocabulary word aloud. If they were correct, they would flip their card over and read the different vocabulary definition. The game continues as so and each vocabulary term matched to someone else’s card until each student stated their term/definition. Each student got at least one card, and some students got two. Overall, it was a fun little way to start off the class, and it worked well for review.

To continue class, I decided to led a discussion on stereotypes. First, I got my students to explain to me what they thought a stereotype is. In both classes, a couple students chimed in with what boiled down to an idea about a person or a group of people that are generalized and can sometimes be true and sometimes be false. After we determined the definition, it was time for the fun part. I had each student write down one stereotype about Spaniards and one stereotype about Americans. I was quite surprised at how quickly they jotted down their answers. We then went around the room one by one and shared our stereotypes aloud. In my first class, the Spanish stereotypes were varied. Some included that Spaniards are always taking siesta, are always partying, and are always loud. With each stereotype that was mentioned, I prompted the students to tell me whether or not they thought the stereotypes mentioned were true or false and why they thought so. When we went on to discuss American stereotypes, student after student after student said Americans eat too much fast food. Looking back on it it now, I do not know why I was very surprised, but sure was I shocked! Almost every student agreed with the stereotype, too. Me, as someone who does not eat fast food often, defended myself and fellow Americans, but I also saw their point. In my next class, however, I told all the students choose another American stereotype besides that we eat too much fast food. This time I got some pretty good answers, like Americans love country music and baseball. Some of their ideas for American stereotypes were hard to combat, too, so it was overall a great discussion. 

Once I finished the lesson, both professors were pleased with the lesson and the amount the students participated. Boy was I relieved. I have realized that I get more out of the students when we talk about topics that they know a little something about, like stereotypes, but that also could be explained a little more in-depth, like the validity behind some of their generalizations. I really did have fun with my students this week, and now that I have a better idea of what to do with my lessons, I think this internship will go over swimmingly. And now that they know that not all Americans looooove fast food, I feel like a small weight has been take off my shoulders! The rest of this semester with them should be quite interesting.