LATIN MUSIC

Shock!

Ana Tijoux!

The World Language The World Language Teacher ToolboxTeacher Toolbox !

! Activity: !!! WORD CLOUDS!!Purpose: !!! READING PREVIEW VOCABULARY WHAT IS A WORD CLOUD?

1. A word cloud is a computer-generated representation of the most

significant words in a reading passage. I like to use them for songs. 2. The more a word is repeated in the passage/song, the bigger the word

appears in the cloud. 3. Common words (el, un, a, me) are automatically removed.

HOW DO I USE IT IN THE CLASSROOM?

1. Put up the word cloud of a Spanish-language song as a warm up activity before listening to it.

2. Ask students to identify and define key words that they know. That way there’s less direct translation time during the listening activity.

3. Ask students to find all the _____ tense verbs that they see on the slide.

4. Ask students to predict what the song is about, given the words on the slide.

5. Ask students to make a cultural comparison – what words would show up in a word cloud of their favorite American music?

6. Ask students to do a comparison assignment – send them to www.wordle.net to make word clouds of their favorite American songs and write a paragraph analysis of what they find.

7. Create your own word cloud of a poem, a story, or any other reading passage as a preview.