{"id":694,"date":"2015-11-18T13:30:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T18:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.wpengine.com\/?p=694"},"modified":"2015-12-04T13:01:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T18:01:28","slug":"i-think-i-wanna-marry-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=694","title":{"rendered":"I think I wanna [marry] you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anna Sebaly<\/strong>
\nThe Charger
\nH. H. Dow HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 1, Yearbook
\nAcademic Writing<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Juan and Natalia stood\u00a0at the altar, about to get\u00a0married. Out of nowhere,\u00a0three old friends of the\u00a0couple drunkenly crashed\u00a0the wedding, and were\u00a0about to reveal a\u00a0shocking secret about\u00a0Juan. It sounds like\u00a0something out of a\u00a0Spanish soap opera, but\u00a0it\u2019s actually a brief\u00a0summary of a wedding\u00a0skit, put on by Lisa\u00a0Bonotto\u2019s Spanish III\u00a0class.<\/p>\n

Learning another\u00a0language was a\u00a0demanding and exciting\u00a0process. However, it\u2019s\u00a0often bogged down by\u00a0copious amounts of\u00a0workbooks, vocabulary\u00a0packets, and book\u00a0activities. As a result, it\u00a0left many foreign\u00a0language students able to\u00a0write and read\u00a0sufficiently, but not speak\u00a0with fluency or ease.<\/p>\n

Every teacher combats\u00a0this problem differently.\u00a0Listening activities,\u00a0speaking projects, and \u00a0watching films in the\u00a0topic language were all\u00a0good ideas, but never\u00a0seem to be enough.\u00a0Bonotto decided to take\u00a0matters into her own\u00a0hands and took a alternative route to fixing\u00a0this issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create an\u00a0experience for them that\u00a0they were invested in,\u201d\u00a0Bonotto said.<\/p>\n

The first project of the\u00a0year was with her\u00a0Spanish 2 class. In an\u00a0effort to connect foodvocabulary to sounds and\u00a0\u00a0smells they could relate\u00a0to, her three Spanish II\u00a0classes set up minirestaurants.\u00a0Students\u00a0were put in groups, and\u00a0served authentic Spanish\u00a0dishes. Food included\u00a0chili, enchiladas,\u00a0tamales, etc. Faculty,\u00a0students, and other\u00a0adults were invited to\u00a0come. There was only\u00a0one rule: the students\u00a0could only talk in\u00a0Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole class really \u00a0came together and put in\u00a0a good effort to keep\u00a0using Spanish,\u201d freshman\u00a0Maia Donahue said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant project\u00a0was held on Feb. 20, and\u00a0consisted of three\u00a0classes, five minutes of\u00a0prep time, and fifty\u00a0minutes of solid Spanish.\u00a0Students could combat\u00a0the language barrier by\u00a0using hand signals and\u00a0drawings, but never any\u00a0English.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my students\u00a0said at one point \u2018That\u00a0was the most intense 50\u00a0minutes of my life.\u2019 That\u00a0was what I wanted,\u201d\u00a0Bonotto said.<\/p>\n

Similarly, her Spanish 3\u00a0class did something along\u00a0the same lines, bringing\u00a0vocab to life. Wedding\u00a0vocab was a bit harder to\u00a0apply in real life, but a\u00a0fake wedding put on by\u00a0Spanish III students\u00a0make it work. Each\u00a0student had a particular\u00a0\u2018role\u2019. Roles included a\u00a0bride, groom, best man &\u00a0maid of honor, a priest, and even a few wedding\u00a0crashers.<\/p>\n

The wedding was held\u00a0in the little theater,\u00a0during second hour on\u00a0Feb. 28. Three other\u00a0classes were invited to\u00a0watch the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more hands on,\u00a0which gives you more of\u00a0a part and also helps\u00a0you with your oral skills,\u201d\u00a0freshman Varun Shanker\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to find a\u00a0method of teaching that\u00a0any student can learn\u00a0from. But creative\u00a0projects, such as a\u00a0wedding skit or a\u00a0restaurant helped\u00a0students learn, and\u00a0encourage students to\u00a0further their education in\u00a0the foreign language\u00a0field.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing these kids\u00a0taking something and\u00a0bringing it to life, out of\u00a0the textbook, and they\u2019re\u00a0owning it. That\u2019s the\u00a0moment where when my\u00a0heart smiled,\u201d Bonotto\u00a0said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna Sebaly The Charger H. H. Dow HS 1st Place Division 1, Yearbook Academic Writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104,3,11],"tags":[48,20],"class_list":["post-694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-academicwriting","category-yb","category-ybverbal","tag-48","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kelsey Parkinson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=3"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-bc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}