La esclavitud y el tráfico de personas en el mundo actual / Global Human Trafficking and Slavery and the campaign to END IT!

Today, April 9th, is a day to END IT!  For practice with simultaneous translation, today I showed this brief video about slavery in the world today.  As the subtitles ran in English, I offered an interpretation in Spanish of the video's script.

I provided students with a few key terms that appear in the video, including:

• la esclavitud
• la mentira
• las fábricas
• la amenaza
• el burdel
• la justicia
• la opresión
• oprimido/a 
• contra su voluntad
• luchar
• la voz
• a indiferencia
• la libertad

I showed students the X on my hand sketched with a red marker, and my Facebook profile picture of my family's hands.

In Spanish 203 and 204, students have been preparing debates this week using the subjunctive form.  I asked whether there is any debate to the subject of slavery.  Following this video and translation exercise, students began presenting opposing points of view over various topics of human security and human rights:  gun control, immigration, the DREAM act, gay marriage, abortion, lowering the drinking age, legalization of marijuana.  I allowed students to propose topics and to choose the side of each debate that they wish to argue.  They have been preparing during class and at home this week.

By doing debates in class, students are gaining confidence in embracing their own bilinguality.  They are taking their speaking abilities to the brink in answering impromptu questions from the audience about controversial topics---and as they stretch their linguistic capacity, their language skills grow before our very eyes.  It is an honor to see the students grow.

Here are some ideas for class discussion in a language classroom. After we watched the video, I offered some sentences using the subjunctive to talk about action steps we can take.  I had a list of infinitives on the board:  

• informarse sobre el tema
• compartir el video
• divulgar la información
• cambiar nuestros hábitos de consumo
• participar en un boicot de las compañías que abusan de sus empleados
•  influir en el Congreso con peticiones y cartas sobre esta situación
• orar por los víctimas del tráfico de personas 

We formed sentences using the subjunctive and impersonal expressions that trigger its use, such as:

• Es importante que
• Es triste que
• Es necesario que
• Es preciso que
• Es urgente que
• No creo que
• Espero que

I have learned the following statistics from reading many sites about slavery, exploitation and trafficking.  Did you know that 27 million people around the world live in slavery, working in brothels, or in hard labor, for someone else's benefit?  The global cost of a human being is $90. The average international cost of a sex act is $5. Five bucks. Life is cheap in a world where slavery is permitted. If we turn a blind eye to the plight of the enslaved, our complicity chips away at our own humanity and we become lower than beasts. April 9, this is a day to recognize the role of consumers (of chocolate, of coffee, of pornography, of exploitative sex, of cell phones---all our first world addictions) about the human cost and the price that someone else is paying. END IT is a campaign to educate and empower people for change. There is more slavery today than at any previous point in history. Trafficking and slavery exist INSIDE the United States, very likely around the corner from where you live. There is more criminal money changing hands for human trafficking than for the drug trade now. This is EVERYONE'S issue.

Since we are talking in class about food, we did a reading from the textbook (Identidades) that talks about the chocolate trade.  Some in the class knew about fair trade clothing, and we discussed the boycotts against Hershey's and Nestlé.  We mentioned the local fair trade store in our community, The Welcome Mat.  We discussed how sometimes something healthy and good, like quinoa, can lead to environmental devastation, as is the case in present-day Bolivia.

As students learn how consumer choices and personal decisions affect others, they become truly engaged global citizens.  They take their language from an artificial, safe classroom environment and prepare to use their language skills for everyday tasks that involve logic, rhetoric, science, technology, social justice, love and mercy. 

How do you engage students in thinking compassionately about their own responsibility for justice in the real world?  Please share your comments below. 

Local Hispanic Food Markets / Mercados locales

  El Salto has just opened a new Mexican grocery store in Valparaiso.  It's on Lincolnway right next to Domino's pizza and Au Naturel Market.  They carry fresh produce, dry goods, pan dulce sweet breads, meat, fresh tamales, and household goods and toiletries.  They provide excellent service.  The selection of fruits and vegetables is a mix of domestic and imported produce, and all is fresh and ready to eat without needing time to ripen.  

In Hobart / New Chicago / Lake Station, La Rancherita bakery and El Ranchero restaurant are my favorites.  From Old Ridge Road, turn at the rooster statue onto Michigan Street (it's at 3559 Michigan St).  The mural on the wall is pictured above and is a landmark. Their restaurant is busy at lunch time---free chicken-tomato noodle soup comes as an appetizer with the meal.  The pan dulce Mexican sweet bread is 35 cents to 75 cents a piece.  My kids love the watermelon-shaped cookies, and I like what my mom calls elephant ears (different from the fried dough at the county fair) that in Spain was called palmeras.  Next time I am there I'll take a picture of those to share. 

  Tarimoro is a larger Mexican grocery in Lake Station  located at 330 Central Avenue.  The produce is fresh, ripe, ready to eat, and the prices are great.  They have a selection of piñatas for children's birthday parties.  They also sell gift items like the piggy bank pictured below.  

 

"Inocente" gana un premio Oscar

Inocente
Get More: Inocente, Full Episodes

A Tale of Two Villages

“A Tale of Two Villages” (Frontline)

Ser /v/ Estar  y los interrogativos

Español 203 / 204

Profesora Degner Riveros

Durante la clase:  (miraremos el principio de la película sin sonido)

1.       ¿Cómo son las montañas que se ven al principio de la película?

2.       ¿Cómo es el pueblo que se ve en la introducción?

3.       ¿De qué colores son los vestidos y la ropa de las mujeres?

Tarea:

En casa, mira la película de Frontline en YouTube, “A Tale of Two Villages”

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2009/07/guatemala_a_tal.html

(Tienes que hacer “clic” en el enlace que dice “WATCH VIDEO.”

La introducción

A) Debes pausar la película después del primer minuto

¿1.   ¿Qué tiempo hace?   (Marca todas las respuestas que son lógicas)   

  Hace calor         Hace frío       Hace sol     Hace fresco   Está nevando       

  Está despejado             Está lloviendo        Está nublado

¿2.   Dónde están las familias guatemaltecas?  

33.   ¿Qué están haciendo?

44.   ¿Por qué están allí?

B)  Puedes continuar mirando la película.  Las preguntas siguen en orden cronológico.

1.  ¿Quién es William Toj?

2.  ¿De dónde es William?

3.  ¿De dónde viene ahora?

4.  ¿Cuál es su trabajo?  (¿De qué está trabajando?)

5.  ¿Dónde está la casa de William y su familia?

6.  ¿Cómo es la esposa de William?  ¿Y cómo está ella?

7.  ¿Cuántos años tenía William cuando vino a los Estados Unidos?

8.  ¿Cuántos hijos tienen William y su esposa?

 La redada

¿1.  ¿Qué es una redada? 

¿2.  Cuándo fue la redada en Postville?  (la fecha)

¿3.  ¿Qué es Agriprocessors?  

  4.  ¿Cuántas personas fueron detenidos durante la redada?

¿

¿5.  ¿Cuál fue el castigo para los hombres?  ¿Cuáles fueron las consecuencias para las mujeres?

16.   ¿Por qué tienen que llevar las bandas electrónicas las mujeres guatemaltecas?

17.   ¿Qué porcentaje de la población del pueblo desapareció en la redada?

18.   ¿Dónde está el pueblo de Postville?

19.   ¿Cuánto dinero pagaba Agriprocessors por hora a sus empleados?

Breve ensayo:

Elije una pregunta de las opciones que siguen para escribir una comparación para el viernes.  (Debes escribir tu respuesta a máquina, con acentos, doble espacio).  Es importante incluir una frase de introducción, unos ejemplos específicos de la película, y una conclusión.  La breve comparación debe ser de 150 palabras mínimo.

Escribe UNA de estas comparaciones:

        1.  ¿Cómo era Postville antes de la redada?  ¿Cómo es Postville ahora? 

     2.    Compara la vida actual en el pueblo de Postville ahora con la vida en los pueblos guatemaltecos de Rosario y San José Calderas?

 

    3.   ¿Cómo era la vida de William Toj y su familia antes de su viaje a los EE. UU.?  ¿Cómo es la vida de la familia Toj ahora?

  

      

Valpo Chapel Guest Speaker Rev. David Vásquez 

Rev. David Vásquez, a consultant on this film, is preaching on Sunday at the Chapel of the Resurrection as     part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration.  The service is this Sunday at 10 AM.  All are welcome.

Writing Children's Books in Spanish in StoryBird

StoryBird offers free accounts for educators and has a selection of pre-fab art for writing children's illustrated storybooks that can be read online, downloaded to print, or sent to press and made into a hardcover book.

My students wrote 8 page stories in Spanish 203 this semester.  The creativity of writing a narrative to accompany the art available to them in StoryBird got them out of the rut of writing the same four ideas (description of my mom, my favorite sport, etc.).  We were learning the present subjunctive at the time, so students used the subjunctive in context (a minimum of 8 times) in their story. 

They drafted stories directly in the program.  I gave them 4 days to get them written.  We went over some in class, and students paid attention and acted interested when we went over some of the stories and tweaked the grammar.  After looking at about 10 stories in class one day, I asked students to print out a Word document of their story so I could write on those and edit them for everyone.  I think two drafts were very necessary.  If we wanted perfect grammar, we would have needed a third draft---there were still some errors in the final draft for quite a few students.







Students needed to be able to include accent marks in their compositions.  I sent them to instructions on the Language Resource Center website for setting up the computer to do accents outside of Word.

http://www.valpo.edu/foreignlanguages/assets/docs/lrc_accentguide_2010.pdf


Grading the first draft was occasionally confusing because I had the text but not the image from StoryBird.  Some students were not brave enough to have me go over their first draft story in class on the projector, so the Word document draft was a way to get feedback to everyone. 

In addition to bringing grammar into context, this assignment stretched students to learn new vocabulary.  They looked up words for the stories since the pictures led them in new directions. Occasionally this led to dictionary overuse and some errors in word selection. 

Here is a Wiki about using Storybird in the language classroom, with example stories in several languages.
http://mfl-storybirds.wikispaces.com/Spanish+Storybirds

Unfortunately, StoryBird does not allow the publication of stories in languages other than English, so I can't show you the sample stories from my class until I get them posted to the Wiki.

If you use StoryBird, comment and share some ideas about how it worked for you!

Viaje virtual con muñecas de papel

Virtual Travels through the Hispanic World with Paper Dolls
A Geography Lesson

We're planning a new project about countries in the Hispanic world in the Spanish Club at my kids' school.  We are making "Flat People" (kind of like a "Flat Stanley" paper doll) wearing traditional Latin American clothing.  For an example of a traveling paper doll project, see: 

www.flatjohn.blogspot.com 
http://www.flatannaley.blogspot.com

Here's What We Did:
I photocopied a paper doll cutout (see PDF file below):

http://www.angelstreetmom.com/downloads/angelstreetmom-readingworld-mexico.pdf

In advance, parents sent in a headshot photo of their child and signed a permission form so they would know the photo would not be returned, and to give their consent for sending the paper dolls with photo faces around the world to visit my friends.

During class, I wrote words on the board for the art supplies we used, and asked kids to come to the front table to request what they needed by saying, "Necesito _____________."

Materials

• Papel de construcción (de color rojo, verde, amarillo, café, etc.)
• Una muñeca (la fotocopia)
• Los colorines
• Las tijeras
• El pegamento
• Unos colorines (un Crayon de color________)

I told students I would not share my supplies unless they asked me in Spanish.  I urged them to ask each other in Spanish for borrowing tools at their tables.  We repeated the supply list aloud before getting started on the project.

The kids colored clothing for our paper dolls, and then attached each child's photo face to his or her "Flat Self".  I wrote to several of my friends and family in Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Spain to ask if they would be willing to receive a package of our Flat People.  I invited these Spanish-speaking friends to pose in a picture somewhere in their city with the Flat People, and then to email their photo back to me so that our Spanish Club kids can see where "we" have traveled around the Spanish-speaking world.  As we talk about the map of the Spanish-speaking world this week, sending their paper dolls to real people in real countries is bringing the geography to life for them.



When the dolls were complete, at the end of our Spanish Club meeting, I invited the kids to come to the front of the room to place their dolls in the pre-addressed envelopes to be sent around the world.

I sent home a map and asked parents to help their child to find the countries together, and to decide whether they want their paper doll Flat Self to go to Barcelona, Spain, Costa Rica (2 locations), Baja California in Mexico, Mexico City, or Argentina.

 The paper dolls have made their first stop in Tijuana, Mexico.  They visited the Hidalgo Market where vendors are preparing for Christmas celebrations with figures of the Nativity for decorating their homes in time for the Posadas. 

Finding Host Families 
I wrote to a few friends in Costa Rica, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico to enlist their help with hosting these paper dolls.  Here's my note:

Querido/a _____,

Quisiera pedirte un favor. Tengo un grupo de niños en un "club de español" en la escuela de mis hijos. Quiero que hagan unas muñecas de papel para enviar por correo a diferentes partes de Latinoamérica. Podría enviarte un paquete de muñecas de papel y pedirte que les saques una foto para enviarme por Facebook o por email? La foto de las muñequitas se podría tomar en un lugar de tu barrio, o una visita que haces a una tienda interesante, o en algún lugar de interés turístico en la ciudad. Podría ser una foto con tu familia o tu casa. Después de sacar la foto, podrías tirar las muñecas a la basura--- no me las tienes que devolver. Ya habrán servido su propósito de llevar a la clase en un viaje virtual.

Si tienes tiempo para recibir un paquete de personitas hecha de papel, déjame saber. Gracias por considerar la idea.

Sinceramente,
Sarah

They all said yes, and now the kids have been assembling packages of paper dolls.  We mailed the first set of paper dolls yesterday! 

DREAMer Deferred Action Event:

The Valparaiso University Immigration Law Clinic is hosting an event for DREAM-eligible youth and their families about the Deferred Action program.  You're invited!

Are you a DREAMer?

If you entered the U.S. before your 16th birthday and are under the age of 31, you may be eligible for Deferred Action. With Deferred Action, you cannot be deported for two years, and you can obtain a work permit. 

The Valparaiso Immigration Clinic helps people who cannot afford a lawyer with their immigration law cases.  The Valparaiso Immigration Clinic invites you to our community forum on Deferred Action. At the forum, we will:

·         Explain what “Deferred Action” means

·         Help you to figure out if you’re eligible

·         Teach you how to apply for Deferred Action

·         Help you decide whether you need a lawyer to assist with your application

Where:           Valparaiso University School of Law—Tabor Classroom

                        656 S. Greenwich St.

                        Valparaiso, Indiana  46383

When:             Saturday, November 10th, 2012

Check in:  12:30 p.m.

                        Session: 1:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

¿Es usted un DREAMer?

Si usted entró a los Estados Unidos antes de cumplir los 16 años y tiene menos de 31 años, puede ser elegible para la Acción Diferida. Con la Acción Diferida, no puede ser deportado por dos años, y se puede obtener un permiso de trabajo.

La Clínica de Inmigración de Valparaiso ayuda a las personas que no pueden pagar a un abogado con sus casos de inmigración. La Clinica de Inmigración de Valparaiso le invita a nuestro foro comunitario sobre la Acción Diferida. En el foro, haremos lo siguiente:

•     Explicar lo que significa “Acción Diferida”

•     Ayudar a averiguar si usted es elegible

•     Enseñar como solicitar la Acción Diferida

•     Ayudar a decidir si usted necesita un abogado para ayudarle con la solicitud

Lugar:            Valparaiso University School of Law Classroom-Tabor

656 S. Greenwich St.

Valparaiso, Indiana 46383

Cuándo:         Sábado, 10 de Noviembre 2012

Hora de llegada: 12:30 p.m.

Sesión: 1:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.