Using an idea I found on Pinterest, I started new units today with a collaborative poster. Each table had a large sheet of butcher paper and each student in the group had a different colored marker.

In Spanish 3, we are preparing for a unit that compares biodiversity, deforestation, and habitat destruction in our community with similar issues in Panama. In order to acces prior knowledge, I asked them to create a poster that represented all of the words and phrases that they already knew about the world and nature…

After 10 minutes, they had exhausted all they knew so I asked them to use the first few pages of our book.

Then they had another 15 minutes to explore the text and come up with new things they could say about the rainforest and nature in general.

The text is easily accessible at level 3 with lots of cognates and visuals!

Now they’re all geared up to head into the rainforest tomorrow and our posters look great in the hallway! Hooray to Pinterest for another great idea!!

We did a similar activity in Spanish 4 as we activated last year’s knowledge of the Spanish Civil War before beginning our unit on imagery in art and film!