We were beginning a unit on Panama in Spanish IV when Zachary Jones posted the Clozeline activity for Los Rakas Vengo de Panama. I thought it would be a great opportunity to look at the cultural references in the song and the slang expressions that are unique to Panama. I handed out the Clozeline sheet and they did the vocabulary matching section then I gave them each one of the places, foods, or people mentioned in the song. They looked their cultural fact up and came back to class prepared to be the “expert”. As we read through the song lyrics, the expert on each word would stand up, show a picture, and give a 2-3 sentence description of their item. It was a great speaking assessment because everyone loved the song and was anxious to know more about Panama! When everyone had shared their expert information, we read the lyrics in Spanish and English and then listened to the song. I used their pictures to make this video:
Vengo de Panama by los Rakas
What a fun activity it turned out to be! The music style was something that they really enjoyed and studying slang was fun for both my Spanish learners and heritage speakers! The heritage speakers were surprised to see how different Spanish can be from one country to the next.
I loved the video. I plan to teach this song to my eight graders (3rd year Spanish).