Día de los muertos

Content objective(s):
Day of the Dead- Dia de los muertos

Language objective(s):
Conjugation of er/ir verbs
Future tense using ir+a
Introduce new vocabulary

Standards (ACTFL & MI):

• Comparisons- How language compares/dia de los muertos v.
Halloween
• Culture – Celebration of the holiday- Dia de los muertos
• Communities –Native speaker from Mexico

Communication Standards: Multiple Intelligences:

• Interpersonal • Reading
• Interpretive • Listening

Materials Needed: Preparation:

• PowerPoint- Dia de los
muertos
• Sound clip of Fernando
• Verb conjugation worksheet
• Practice worksheet (still
need to finish tonight)
• Seating chart
• Record sound clip
• Make worksheets
• Prepare worksheets and
overhead with key words for
the listening

Announcements: Pass backs:

Grades due today-if you find a • Grade sheets
problem circle it and give it to me • Project sheets
before you leave. • Diarios

Warm up:
New seating chart! Have students sit in their new seats.
Ask the class if there is anyone who can name all of their classmates.
Have students practice “ir+a” that they learned yesterday using
prompts written on an overhead while I pass back papers and grades.

Activity 1: Time

Adapted from Gibbs, 2007- 2008

Día de los muertos
Dia de los Muertos actividad 30 minutes

Rationale: Dia de los muertos was this weekend. It is important that

students study it because it is a very important holiday in Mexican
culture. Also, I wanted to use an authentic sound clip of a native
speaker from Mexico describing how he celebrates the day.

Students will be given a transcript of a sound clip of a friend of mine

from Mexico talking about Day of the Dead. The script is broken into
seven chunks, A-G.

Student will number off by 7 and in their groups they will each be
responsible for reading and interpreting the information in their section
of the text. They will be asked to report back to the class as to what
they read. Each group will need a dictionary a paper and pencil.

Before starting, the teacher will give students an overhead containing

important words in the text so that they can understand the material.
Each group will also be given key words for their section of the
reading. I am giving them more support than I might give a higher-
level class because this reading is fairly complicated.

Teacher will circulate the room to help students as needed.

Students will report back to the class about what they have read.

Teacher will show a picture of the person who is talking and play the
sound clip of her friend. Students will be asked to follow along with
the text and to raise their hang when their portion of the reading is
being said.

Differentiation strategies: I plan to give different sections to groups

based on their level. There are some sections that are more
challenging than others.

Activity 2: Time
Dia de los Muertos PowerPoint 10

Rationale: I want to give a more solid explanation of the Holiday and

show pictures.

Teacher will present a PowerPoint about Dia de Los Muertos that

Adapted from Gibbs, 2007- 2008

Día de los muertos
includes its origins, pictures and some of the important traditions.

Activity 3: Time
Verbos! Review –ar verbs and introduce er/ir verbs 30

Rationale: It is important to learn the new verbs.

Short review of what a verb is.

• What verbs do we know?
• Regular? Irregular?
• When do we conjugate? When do we use the infinitive?
• What are the three types of verbs?

Using the reading from the previous activity, students will find all of
the verbs in their section. These verbs will be put into a chart (which I
will provide for them) and separated based on the endings of the
verbs. Students will write out both the conjugated and infinitive of the
verb. I will also provide a separate chart that has all of the verbs that
are in tenses other than English so that the students don’t get
confused.

Next students will be asked to come up with a generalization about the

endings of verbs. What is the rule for er/ir verbs?

Students will fill out the correct information in their packet of notas for
section 2.3 of the book.

Activity 4: Time
Practice worksheet Remainder of
class/HW

Rationale: Students need to use the information that they just learned
in order to retain the new information.
Students will be given class time to work on their homework with a
partner. Whatever they do not finish in class will be homework for the
night.

Adapted from Gibbs, 2007- 2008