February 28, 2025 • 32 mins
Step into the vibrant world of Carnaval! In this UNIT IDEAS mini-episode, we explore how this much-beloved celebration transcends mere festivities to become a powerful teaching tool for world language educators. Carnaval is not just a festival but a rich cultural phenomenon that allows students to connect with diverse traditions and identities.
From the historical origins of Carnaval to the various ways it’s celebrated across the globe, we dive deep into cultural narratives that shape identities. Learn how to creatively incorporate Carnaval into your language lessons with a list of ready-to-use ideas for your next Carnaval culture unit!
Don’t forget to share your thoughts and subscribe for more enriching content!
Resources and links mentioned:
Carnaval de Québec Virtual Field Trip
Mardi Gras High-Frequency Reading
Dominican Republic Carnaval Virtual Field Trip
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, keloke Et salut world language teachers.
Welcome to the PracticalProficiency Podcast, where we
make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class ina way that works for you, your
unique context and teachingstyle, and doesn't sacrifice
(00:21):
your well-being along the way.
I'm your host, devon Gunning,the teacher author, conference
host, curriculum creator andconsultant behind La Libre
Language Learning.
This podcast is for thecreative world language teacher
like you who's ready to ditchthe overwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
(00:42):
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy.
Instead of adding to your plateWith practical, authentic and
down-to-earth strategies thatdon't require reinventing the
wheel or more training, we'llwork together towards the magic
(01:03):
of a community-based,target-language-rich classroom,
rooted in the power of communityand comprehensible input.
Let's go of the PracticalProficiency Podcast.
This is a special series ofmini-sodes where, those times
(01:27):
when you're looking tobrainstorm for ideas for your
next unit, these episodes haveyou covered.
We'll be talking about waysthat you can take the activities
that you already have forcommon things that you're
teaching or thematic units thatyou're diving into.
Today's will be about a specialcultural topic and ways that
you can make it more excitinghave some new things to add to
(01:50):
your toolkit and some reallycool ways to explore the really
common things that you'reteaching every year.
It's like having a littleteacher brainstorm session right
in your pocket so you canlisten to it while you're doing
lunch duty or car duty or onyour way to work all that good
stuff.
So let's get started withtoday's mini-sode unit idea deep
(02:10):
dive, which is y'all.
It's carnival season, which ismy favorite season to be a
romance language teacher.
I used to teach Spanish andFrench and I had the best time
ever with this because I taughtFrench and Spanish.
So I would have that beautifultransition that everybody hates
(02:31):
of French one and then my secondprep would be Spanish two.
But one of the ways that I madethis weird transition work and
still had actually a lot of funwith it was connecting some of
the cultural themes and tiesthat these two global languages
have in common, which is theever popular global celebration
(02:54):
of Karnaval, which has so manyties between these two languages
that we have so much that wecould dive into with this, and
it was also a really easy thingfor me to do.
That would reduce a lot of prep.
For me, if you're in the sameboat as me as both a
multilingual teacher, butespecially if you teach both
Spanish and French.
(03:14):
This celebration is equally asraucous in both Francophone and
Hispanic Latina cultures, soyou'll have a lot to work with
and there's a lot of stuff thatyou can reuse between this time.
So, if you've never doneCarnaval, it's amazing to me
that this celebration inparticular, even though it's
wildly popular across both ofthese cultures, that we don't
(03:38):
actually spend a lot of time onit in the classroom, like not as
much as you would hear about,like Dia de Muertos, for example
, in Spanish class, which, ofcourse, like yeah, we're going
to give that its due time, butCarnaval is actually a huge
missed opportunity, so we'redoing a deep dive in it today.
So let's get started with someideas.
First of all, if you've neverworked with Carnaval before,
(04:00):
here is the reason I loveCarnaval.
When I was a French major, wetalked a lot about Carnival,
through the lens, of course, ofMaldigra, which is the Carnival
celebration that we have here inthe US, but also through the
various Carnival celebrationsthat happen, like Carnival du
Québec, or all of the Carnivalcelebrations that happen across
(04:22):
Francophone Europe, like inSwitzerland.
Literally every country has one, anywhere that there's any kind
of Catholic history.
There is going to be a carnavalcelebration because it's deeply
tied to the history ofcolonization.
Treasure trove of ways that youcan talk about mixed culture
(04:43):
and cultural interactions withcarnaval, from the ways that
it's celebrated in europe, fromits origin, from its origins in
that catholic culture of fattuesday, all the way up through.
How did this celebration becomean expression of new world
identity, with the way that itmixes indigenous cultures,
(05:03):
african cultures, as well asrepressed, enslaved cultures and
the Catholic culture that wasbrought in from Europe at the
time.
So how are these things beingmelded together and in what ways
were repressed peoples duringthe time of colonization using
Carnaval to express themselves?
Because that's really whatCarnaval is about, at the heart
(05:25):
of it.
So there's so many things thatyou can do with this holiday.
I would say that first, one ofthe things that you can explore
is this idea of freedom ofexpression.
Carnaval is one of the mostenduring holidays that we have
because it's hella fun.
When I was studying abroad, inthe Dominican Republic, this was
(05:45):
a month-long celebration.
It was every single weekendduring Carnival season and it
was huge.
It took over the whole countryand it is amazing to be a part
of.
So that was one of my firstexperiences like really seeing
and living what a carnivalcountry is like.
But it also has to do with whatare all of these ways that,
(06:07):
through these celebrations thaton the surface can look like
this is just party, these arefun.
All this, that and the other.
They're actually very intenseexpressions of people's identity
, people's culture and somethings that they might not, at
the time, have been allowed tosay or express.
(06:28):
And I'm going to share with you, at the end of this episode too
, one of my favorite places tobring French students to study,
carnaval, which is Mardi Gras.
Of course, we're going to talkabout Mardi Gras, but in
Martinique there was a reallyinteresting event that happened
that brings through this modernexpression of.
This is how we show who we are.
(06:49):
This is us as a people, andwe're coming together to
celebrate who we are as a people.
In Martinique there was aspecific event that happened
during COVID that really broughtthis whole perspective to light
.
So it is a Carnaval is abeautiful way where you can take
those easy to grasp on productsand practices, like the things
(07:12):
that happened during Carnavalthe defile, the masks, the
costumes, the celebrations, themonth-long debauchery and
wonderfulness that happens inthe Dominican Republic.
It's not just debauchery, ofcourse, but there's it's all
kinds of like fiestas and familycelebrations too, but just the
month-long atmosphere of partythat happens.
There is easy to talk about,but there's actually a lot going
(07:34):
on under the surface.
So let's get into some of theways that you can do this
tangibly in your class.
I would say first, withcarnaval, some of the things
that you need to know about itis that it's going on right now.
If you're listening or watchingthis episode, then Carnaval is
currently occurring.
It is one of those celebrationsthat is roughly around the time
(07:57):
of quote-unquote fat Tuesdayaround the world.
So you can look to Mardi Grasin our own country to see when
that's going to be.
But Carnaval is different ineach country and region that
celebrates it, so their FatTuesday usually is the jump off
point.
But there's many places likethe.
The DR does it for a wholemonth, the in Mardi Gras it's
(08:21):
technically like a one weekendor one day celebration, but
people who live in New Orleansknow that it goes on for much
longer than that and but thereare official celebrations that
happen on these specific days.
Carnival de Barranquilla, rightnow, is going on through March
8th, so it's all about lookingat what each country's different
(08:44):
versions of celebratingCarnival can look like.
If you're an Italian teacher,this is also a big thing.
The Carnival in Venice and allthroughout Italy is a whole big
deal in here.
So Carnival goes on fordiffering amounts of time, but
it is about the same idea inmost places.
(09:04):
That has this central tyingtheme, which is that this is a
time to feast, celebrate and getout all your excesses before
you have to be real tied in andrestrained during the spring
season.
So, with those dates in mindand what the whole celebration
(09:24):
is about, you have a lot ofoptions here.
I used to do a big deep dive onthis with my classes, because
it's something that you canreally go down a rabbit hole
with your students on.
Or you can also just show acouple clips from different
places around the world and say,hey, this is what's going on
right now.
Let's focus in on this one areaand do a group focus on one
(09:46):
specific place, if you want to.
So there's lots and lots ofdifferent ways that you can do
this, but I would say one of theimportant things and themes to
explore is, of course, what isthe folklore that's being
expressed in each city's regions, countries, different versions
of Carnaval.
What are the things that theyare saying are?
(10:06):
This is me, because that's oneof the reasons I believe very
strongly that Carnaval is ahugely important celebration.
To emphasize is that it's sotied to what countries believe
to be like.
This is us, this is who we are,this is what we're about, which
is a great way to showcasenational identity, cultural
identity, to your students.
(10:26):
So I would say, look at thatand see how many different ways
can your students explore anddive into different expressions
of identity within a specificculture through this celebration
?
There's also it's a nice,tangible way to look at it with
carnaval, because people willmake giant posters, they will
(10:48):
make paper mache costumes, theywill make all kinds of masks and
different things that relate towhat their area is, their city
is their region and I would say,too, like very much the region.
Like in haiti, every city has adifferent version of what they
make for Carnaval, and so doesthe Dominican like.
If you go to different citiesduring Carnaval, you will see
(11:11):
different masks that representdifferent important aspects of
that identity.
It's kind of like I'm from thePhilly area and it's like the
mummers parade, which is alsokind of part of that whole like
idea of Carnaval, where in onJanuary 1st every year in Philly
we do a big mummers paradewhere each neighborhood has a
different version andrepresentation of what their
mummer looks like.
(11:32):
Another fun thing to deep dive.
So let's get into some projectideas for what you can do for
this.
Something that I used to do forCarnaval is a student-led
inquiry discovery type project,for Carnaval is a student-led
inquiry discovery type project,a little bit like PBL, and if
you do project-based learning,this is a great way to explore
this.
But I gave my students someloose parameters.
(11:52):
Put them into groups that theycould self-select or if your
students are not, you know, inthe self-selecting type, you can
also make the groups for them.
But I asked them hey, pleaseselect from this list a couple
of countries.
I gave them a list of whatthose countries were.
These are some famous, easy toresearch popular carnival
(12:14):
celebrations and like there werethere's at least 12 for French,
for Spanish and there's, youknow, there's plenty for German,
there's plenty for Italian aswell, because for German and
Italian, what you could do iswhat specific cities are doing
and things like that.
I would also say, too, that youhave lots and lots of different
options of what you want this,this project, to look like.
(12:35):
I made it like a two-day thingwhere they had some time in the
research library area to look upthings on their own, and I
asked for them to make some sortof final product with it, like
make a PowerPoint with yourgroup, make a Google Slides deal
, make a poster, if you want.
But what I'm looking for isanswer these few questions for
me.
What is the folklore you seerepresented in this?
(12:57):
You're going to have to explainthat question, because they
don't really know what folkloremeans.
What are some of the thingsthat you see are like a big part
of national identity?
And then the way that you canincorporate target language into
this is ask them to describewhen each celebration is, what
dates are they, what times arethe major events?
What do you see in each pictureof the major events?
What do the major costumes looklike and the major themes of
(13:21):
things look like, and ask themto describe things in the target
language If they're not at thatpoint of describing things in
the target language to thatdegree or depth.
You can modify this to be allkinds of different things, but I
would say, put some sort oftarget language emphasis on
there.
If you don't have a lot of timefor a project, you also don't
have to ask your students to getup in front of everybody and
present or anything like that.
(13:42):
Or if you're like me, and manytimes we're just looking for a
last minute thing to do, whatyou can also do is do a simple
picture talk to explore thesedifferent celebrations and
places, these differentcelebrations and places, and I
would say that with Carnaval itcan be as simple as a 10 minute
quick Google search of imagesfor Carnaval in specific areas.
(14:05):
I would keep it to like two orthree specific places, unless
you want to do like a bigoverview of what Carnaval is and
put some of those picturestogether in a super quick hey,
these are 10 slides.
You don't have to put anythingelse on there, no other language
.
If you only have 10 minutes,grab 10 pictures and just start
talking with your students basedon the pictures that you see.
(14:26):
That's a really easy, quick, noprep way to do this.
If you would like to do a morerobust picture talk, then some
of the things that you can do isfind specific pictures where
you're asking for students tolook for more in-depth things,
or you can also make sure thatthey have some language with
them to help with the picturetalk.
(14:47):
But if you don't have any timeto prep, you can do a picture
talk without any prep, exceptfor just finding a few pictures
and write on the board, asyou're talking, the phrases that
you know your students willneed.
What are the things that you'resaying?
More than two or three times?
Those are the ones you shouldput on the board.
I would also say too, anotheridea for you for any of your
lessons for this is Carnaval andany kind of Carnaval
celebration, mardi Gras.
(15:08):
All of that is because it'scelebrated in so many places.
It is comparison city andcomparisons, comparing and
contrasting and finding like,what do I have in common with
this celebration?
Or what does this carnival havein common with this other
carnival that's across the world?
You can ask for a lot ofcomparison language with this,
(15:30):
as long as you help withscaffolding like Venn diagrams
are beautiful for these kinds ofthings, but you can also do it
as a class.
If, especially, one of thefollow-up activities I used to
do is after student groups wouldtake a deep dive into specific
carnaval celebrations, I wouldask them to get together with a
(15:50):
group that studied anothercountry or another city and say,
like what, what was in common,what's the same, that kind of
thing, and you would give themscaffolded structures like los
dos tenemos, things like that.
I would also say one of thebest ways that you can do this
is because this is such a variedcelebration.
You have so many different waysto explore this that this is a
(16:13):
great opportunity to letstudents lead the conversation
and let students studentsexplore.
You want to give them a fewsimple parameters like this is
where carnaval is located.
These are some of the biggerones and these are some of the
things to be looking for, butotherwise you can let the
curiosity of the student groupdrive the conversation, because
it's naturally interesting.
(16:33):
There's so much there to workwith.
Like, there are many times inyour class where you might have
to talk about some things thatare fun for you but are kind of
stuffy, but this one, like this,is a global party.
Y'all your kids will have somuch fun talking about this and
getting interested in this topic.
This is definitely one of thehighlights of my students here.
They all loved talking aboutCardinobol, and yours will too,
(16:56):
if you let them lead the thecuriosity side of this here.
So a way that you could do thisis simply just ask them, like
what do they know about, kind ofall, what do they know about
Mardi Gras?
And just let the conversationflow and you can pick up on
where are the misconceptionsabout this?
What's actually going on, andget into some of the other
(17:17):
events.
Another thing that you can do isdive into some short readings.
There are short readings abouta lot of these different events
and places, and this is a greatway that you could spice up some
of the typical activities thatyou have to do, like oh, we got
to get in some reading practice,we got to do some interpersonal
.
That kind of thing is.
(17:37):
Make it about these specificevents and holidays.
Like, if you're doing Carnavalde Quebec, it's a great idea to
find some authentic texts, somevideos about it, because there's
always tons of footage aboutCarnaval de Quebec and ask your
students to just listen to itfor a little bit and see what
they can pick up from it.
What are some things that theycan write about it?
(17:59):
You can do a write and discussall kinds of things.
I would say, too, that one ofthe major things that you could
do which is really, really fun,especially with Mardi Gras if
you're a French teacher is whatcan be a collaboration.
What can you do with otherdepartments around the school?
It sounds like it's a lot ofwork, but it's actually a lot
(18:22):
less work on your part If you doone simple meeting with
somebody in the culinarydepartment or the music
department or the historydepartment and you say yo, I'm
doing a Mardi Gras project.
One year I did it with middleschoolers where we did like a
deep dive on jazz and thebirthplace of jazz being New
Orleans and all that.
We did a collaborative piecewith the music teacher at the
(18:43):
elementary school and he taughtthe lesson.
For me it was awesome because Iwas doing all this work, trying
to research about jazz andthings like that and finding
them a good documentary but youknow like kids don't want to sit
for a documentary.
That and finding them a gooddocumentary, but you know like
kids don't want to sit for adocumentary.
So it was actually a lot better, a lot more interesting and a
lot more fun when you are ableto bring in other experts from
(19:03):
around the school to focus in onwhat is a piece of Carnaval.
That would be really cool forstudents to experience from
another teacher.
So what are some ways that youcan collaborate with them?
The history department wouldalways be down for it.
I'm sure that you can findother departments in your school
that would also be like veryexcited about the cool things in
there.
(19:24):
The culinary department wasparticularly excited during
Mardi Gras when I was like doy'all want to make a galette des
rois?
Like there's all kinds ofthings that you can do With the
art department.
You can make masks, which again, that's like two days of prep.
That's no longer on your plate.
You just have to go down andmeet with the art teacher during
one of your preps and say, hey,do you have supplies for this?
(19:45):
What do you think about puttingsomething together where we can
make a cross-collaborativething going on here?
It's awesome in that way.
The next thing that you can dois keep in mind that you can
always do a really smallcollaboration.
You know you can always havesomething that is small scale
(20:07):
and then bring it into.
Hey, if we have more time nextyear, I'd love to do a bigger
thing.
That's always an option.
Some language specific thingsthat you can do with all of
these ideas is can you do avirtual field trip?
I have tons of those.
I'm going to show you someexamples of what a virtual field
trip can look like if you'regoing through the lens of
carnival.
(20:27):
Can you do a map talk?
A map talk is amazing.
It is a skill taught by anothercomprehensible, input driven
teacher, ben Tendley, and a maptalk is a great way to explore
what are the events of Carnival.
Also, if you have multiple prepslike every French teacher that
(20:49):
I know and many Spanish teachersas well so if you're doing
Spanish two, three and four,four and you want to do
something that actually makessense, where you have Carnival
and Carnival in all itsdifferent forms throughout all
of your classes, then what youcan do is put a different spin
or theme for each of your class.
(21:09):
Maybe you do jazz with yourlevel ones.
Maybe you do food andcelebration with your level twos
level ones.
Maybe you do food andcelebration with your level twos
.
Maybe you do the, the visualsand the arts and everything
that's visual land.
That happens with carnaval withyour level threes and have them
explore some themes of likewhat is what is beauty, what is
(21:30):
art, what is identity expressedthrough visual means, because
they're your level threes andthey'd be able to go a little
bit deeper on that, things likethat.
I would also say, too, that away that many teachers lean
towards making this uh, doingcelebrations and holidays more
feasible is can you find someshort and I emphasize the word
(21:54):
short videos to make this reallyfun for your students to see,
hear and experience and get moreimmersive into what a lot of
these celebrations look like.
However, something this fun,like this is literally a party.
Something this fun should notbe a 30-minute or a 60-minute
documentary.
This is not the time to do that.
There are other times that youcan do it, too, but I would say
(22:16):
that with something that's thisfun and this vibrant and this
alive and active that adocumentary is really going to
like, put a damper on things,and your kids want to experience
this, they want to absorb it,they want to be immersed in it.
So there's a lot of otherthings that you can do that are
far more tactile.
The last thing that I wouldsuggest to you is with Carnaval,
(22:37):
keep it local and keep itinteresting.
With that I mean that there areso many different iterations of
what these celebrations looklike, and your students will
have so much fun just byexploring the different ways
that people express theiridentity through Carnaval, even
(22:58):
in the same country, howdifferent this can be and what
different celebrations look like.
So don't be afraid to dive into different places, but also
give your students a little bitof freedom to explore what these
different areas are, because ifyou do just the hey, this is
Carnaval.
It's a global celebration, it'sbased off these areas and these
(23:19):
ideas.
It loses the sense of meaning,and you'll get a lot of the
sense of meaning when you givethem the chance to experience it
from more firsthand accountsfrom specific areas and places.
So, without further ado, I'mgoing to show you some ideas,
and if you're listening, you canfollow along too.
I'll describe them for whatsome activities and ideas can
(23:43):
look like for you during thisoutrageously fun season of
Carnaval that we have.
If you're looking for someideas to help you get started
with ways that you can doCarnaval in your class, I have
for you some examples that youcan check out, and there will be
some links as well in the shownotes below so that you can get
these for yourself if you'relooking for an easy way to do
(24:04):
Carnaval.
So this here that I have foryou is a Mardi Gras reading with
high frequency verbs.
It's designed for French 1 and2 and some of the things that
you'll see in here is I havehere the high frequency verbs
that you need to emphasize a lotin French one which are based
off of the super seven and inthis reading passage, what I'm
(24:26):
describing here are just thecommon things that you'll see
around a Mardi Gras celebrationin a way that's really
accessible for students, withlots and lots of great pictures,
and it also has all of thesethings that can be tough to do,
like your glossary is ready togo.
There's tons of pictures andwith this reading too, it's very
short.
It's really really shortbecause the focus is actually on
(24:48):
the activities.
There's a bunch of options thatstudents have to do after
they're done with the very shortreading that describes, like,
what the celebration is, whatit's about, where it comes from
and some cool things they'll see, hear and be all about and what
they'll like about Mardi Gras.
There's a postcard that they'llbe asked to write some of the
(25:10):
things like what are the thingsthat you see or hear about Mardi
Gras?
They can design a mask usingthe colors and the symbols, and
there's also a ghetto de roiactivity where they have to make
a ghetto and design it and tellus a little bit about it and
what's going on.
Here is a writing activity thatthey have to do, and my
(25:32):
favorite part here is doing astoryboard.
So in this one here you have astoryboard that you can do,
where you can read this story tostudents, and it's just about
two kids who go to a Mardi Grasdes Filets and they have the
story and then they get to drawout what's happening in the
(25:53):
story to indicate theirunderstanding of it, and they
can also even write their own orjust draw as well another.
So this is a way that you canthat might be helping you to get
some activities for what youcan do during this mardi gras
season.
A bunch of great activities.
I mean, of course you're goingto have the class party, but
there here are some ways thatyou can really bring in the
language to it too.
If you're focusing onCôte-Nouvelle-du-Québec, there's
(26:15):
a virtual field trip here foryou that might give you some
ideas, too, on how you canexplore this through pictures
and how it really makes thewhole celebration come to life
and be more immersive.
In this virtual field trip, Ihave here for you lots and lots
of pictures, as well as links tosome of the best authentic
(26:35):
texts that I've found aboutCalneval de Quebec, but it also
dives deeply into what are someof the other aspects of culture
in Quebec that they can alsobranch into.
It's a very open-ended resourcewhere they get to choose which
links they want to explore,based on the description or
(26:56):
based on the things that youwant them to see specifically,
but there's over 40 links inhere, so they have a lot of
things that they can choosebetween, and it also has a focus
on indigenous identity andcontributions to Calneval de
Quebec all of the things thatstudents may not know about some
(27:17):
of the origins of some of theirfavorite celebrations, as well
as a lot of celebrations ofindigenous culture in this here,
and it also has for youdifferent ways that you could
focus your Carnaval de Quebeccelebrations and language if you
wanted to focus on the eventsand activities that are in here.
(27:38):
There's also a lot of stuff inhere specifically about Carnaval
de Quebec that might be reallyhelpful around singing
specifically in here.
As well as all of the athletestuff, there's a lot of stuff in
here about sports and whathappens during Cal Nouvelle de
Quebec, because it is also a bigsport event and an athletic
(28:00):
thing.
So that is one of the ways, too, that you can bring in target
language into here.
This is one of the benefits ofdiving deeply into a specific
celebration for Cal Nouvelle isthat you'll be able to make the
target language much morespecific and interesting.
This is Martinique, and divinginto Martinique during the
(28:20):
season of Cal Naval.
I love this one in particularbecause Martinique is a small
island that has a lot going on,so there's a lot for your
students to explore and for themto absorb, and it's also very
accessible in terms of the factthat there's Maltenique has a
(28:41):
very visually striking andunique Calnaval celebration that
you can find a lot ofinformation about.
There's also, especially, allkinds of things with the
celebration that emphasizes whatwe were talking about at the
beginning of this episode thatCarnival really is an expression
of a country's identity.
(29:01):
So one of the things that thisis focused on is that during
COVID, when a lot of otherCarnival celebrations were shut
down and people were told not togo outside of their houses,
this is one of the countriesthat decided to ignore that rule
and go ahead and celebrateanyways.
And there's a whole focus onthis, on this celebration of why
(29:25):
people chose to celebratecarnaval anyway and why they
felt that it was important to doso and why it's an important
part of their culturalexpression.
Here it also gets into theAnscafau Slave Memorial, which
is enslaved culture is animportant piece of Calnaval, so
it's a great way to bring in themulti-layered identity of the
(29:50):
places that you're talking aboutin one celebration.
It is completely jam-packed.
What I'm looking at here too, ifyou're listening to this, is
this Calneval virtual field triphas a lot of vibrant pictures,
and you can tell already thatthere's definitely a color theme
with Martinique.
They celebrate their Carnivalall in red.
(30:11):
There are specific colors thatgo with it, and there's also in
all of these pictures.
These are all pictures of realpeople from Martinique, so your
students will get an idea, too,of what does the country look
like, what's going on there andwhat are some of the places,
common themes and scenes thatthey will see.
And the last one I want to showyou is my favorite one, which
(30:35):
is the carnival that I actuallygot to attend.
So this is a virtual field tripto explore the Dominican
Republic, and there's so muchinformation about carnival for
the Dominican Republic you canliterally even you can watch
each carnival celebrationcelebration.
They always film it and do ahuge hurrah around it, so you
(30:55):
can even put on in thebackground what's going on with
each of these big celebrationsand just put it in the
background while students arelooking up other things.
The masks are incredibly variedand beautiful.
People spend all year makingtheir Carnaval masks and they
are a true work of art.
So there's all kinds ofbeautiful things that you can
dive into and get into.
(31:16):
And there's, of course, allthese interesting traditions
with Carnaval that come with it,and each that's my city, that's
Santiago.
So there's a lot of differentways that you can explore and
see how national identity isexpressed, and also regional in
here.
You'll see a lot of differentways that you can explore and
see how national identity isexpressed and also regional in
here.
You'll see a lot of interestingthings going on in here.
(31:38):
So I hope that this gives yousome ideas for how you can make
Carnaval really come to life foryour students in different ways
, that it will feel like you cantalk more easily and allow
students to explore and comparemore easily those things that
are the most important for us todiscuss in a world language
(32:00):
class, which is these are theproducts of a culture, these are
the practices of a culture likecarnaval.
So what are, how do theyrepresent the perspectives of
that culture?
And Carnaval is a really greatentry point to do that.
I hope this gives you lots andlots of ideas that you can do
this in a really low prep way.
If you're listening to thisright on your way to school and
(32:21):
you're like I want to do thistoday, you've got some options.
Or if you want to do a biggerproject, you also have some
starting off and jumping pointsfor that as well.
Thanks so much for being herefor this podcast, for my
favorite celebration of the yearto be a French and Spanish
teacher, and I will see you onthe next Deep Dive, minnesota.
Bye for now.
What's up, keloke Et salut world language teachers.
Welcome to the PracticalProficiency Podcast, where we
make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class ina way that works for you, your
unique context and teachingstyle, and doesn't sacrifice
(00:21):
your well-being along the way.
I'm your host, devon Gunning,the teacher author, conference
host, curriculum creator andconsultant behind La Libre
Language Learning.
This podcast is for thecreative world language teacher
like you who's ready to ditchthe overwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
(00:42):
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy.
Instead of adding to your plateWith practical, authentic and
down-to-earth strategies thatdon't require reinventing the
wheel or more training, we'llwork together towards the magic
(01:03):
of a community-based,target-language-rich classroom,
rooted in the power of communityand comprehensible input.
Let's go of the PracticalProficiency Podcast.
This is a special series ofmini-sodes where, those times
(01:27):
when you're looking tobrainstorm for ideas for your
next unit, these episodes haveyou covered.
We'll be talking about waysthat you can take the activities
that you already have forcommon things that you're
teaching or thematic units thatyou're diving into.
Today's will be about a specialcultural topic and ways that
you can make it more excitinghave some new things to add to
(01:50):
your toolkit and some reallycool ways to explore the really
common things that you'reteaching every year.
It's like having a littleteacher brainstorm session right
in your pocket so you canlisten to it while you're doing
lunch duty or car duty or onyour way to work all that good
stuff.
So let's get started withtoday's mini-sode unit idea deep
(02:10):
dive, which is y'all.
It's carnival season, which ismy favorite season to be a
romance language teacher.
I used to teach Spanish andFrench and I had the best time
ever with this because I taughtFrench and Spanish.
So I would have that beautifultransition that everybody hates
(02:31):
of French one and then my secondprep would be Spanish two.
But one of the ways that I madethis weird transition work and
still had actually a lot of funwith it was connecting some of
the cultural themes and tiesthat these two global languages
have in common, which is theever popular global celebration
(02:54):
of Karnaval, which has so manyties between these two languages
that we have so much that wecould dive into with this, and
it was also a really easy thingfor me to do.
That would reduce a lot of prep.
For me, if you're in the sameboat as me as both a
multilingual teacher, butespecially if you teach both
Spanish and French.
(03:14):
This celebration is equally asraucous in both Francophone and
Hispanic Latina cultures, soyou'll have a lot to work with
and there's a lot of stuff thatyou can reuse between this time.
So, if you've never doneCarnaval, it's amazing to me
that this celebration inparticular, even though it's
wildly popular across both ofthese cultures, that we don't
(03:38):
actually spend a lot of time onit in the classroom, like not as
much as you would hear about,like Dia de Muertos, for example
, in Spanish class, which, ofcourse, like yeah, we're going
to give that its due time, butCarnaval is actually a huge
missed opportunity, so we'redoing a deep dive in it today.
So let's get started with someideas.
First of all, if you've neverworked with Carnaval before,
(04:00):
here is the reason I loveCarnaval.
When I was a French major, wetalked a lot about Carnival,
through the lens, of course, ofMaldigra, which is the Carnival
celebration that we have here inthe US, but also through the
various Carnival celebrationsthat happen, like Carnival du
Québec, or all of the Carnivalcelebrations that happen across
(04:22):
Francophone Europe, like inSwitzerland.
Literally every country has one, anywhere that there's any kind
of Catholic history.
There is going to be a carnavalcelebration because it's deeply
tied to the history ofcolonization.
Treasure trove of ways that youcan talk about mixed culture
(04:43):
and cultural interactions withcarnaval, from the ways that
it's celebrated in europe, fromits origin, from its origins in
that catholic culture of fattuesday, all the way up through.
How did this celebration becomean expression of new world
identity, with the way that itmixes indigenous cultures,
(05:03):
african cultures, as well asrepressed, enslaved cultures and
the Catholic culture that wasbrought in from Europe at the
time.
So how are these things beingmelded together and in what ways
were repressed peoples duringthe time of colonization using
Carnaval to express themselves?
Because that's really whatCarnaval is about, at the heart
(05:25):
of it.
So there's so many things thatyou can do with this holiday.
I would say that first, one ofthe things that you can explore
is this idea of freedom ofexpression.
Carnaval is one of the mostenduring holidays that we have
because it's hella fun.
When I was studying abroad, inthe Dominican Republic, this was
(05:45):
a month-long celebration.
It was every single weekendduring Carnival season and it
was huge.
It took over the whole countryand it is amazing to be a part
of.
So that was one of my firstexperiences like really seeing
and living what a carnivalcountry is like.
But it also has to do with whatare all of these ways that,
(06:07):
through these celebrations thaton the surface can look like
this is just party, these arefun.
All this, that and the other.
They're actually very intenseexpressions of people's identity
, people's culture and somethings that they might not, at
the time, have been allowed tosay or express.
(06:28):
And I'm going to share with you, at the end of this episode too
, one of my favorite places tobring French students to study,
carnaval, which is Mardi Gras.
Of course, we're going to talkabout Mardi Gras, but in
Martinique there was a reallyinteresting event that happened
that brings through this modernexpression of.
This is how we show who we are.
(06:49):
This is us as a people, andwe're coming together to
celebrate who we are as a people.
In Martinique there was aspecific event that happened
during COVID that really broughtthis whole perspective to light
.
So it is a Carnaval is abeautiful way where you can take
those easy to grasp on productsand practices, like the things
(07:12):
that happened during Carnavalthe defile, the masks, the
costumes, the celebrations, themonth-long debauchery and
wonderfulness that happens inthe Dominican Republic.
It's not just debauchery, ofcourse, but there's it's all
kinds of like fiestas and familycelebrations too, but just the
month-long atmosphere of partythat happens.
There is easy to talk about,but there's actually a lot going
(07:34):
on under the surface.
So let's get into some of theways that you can do this
tangibly in your class.
I would say first, withcarnaval, some of the things
that you need to know about itis that it's going on right now.
If you're listening or watchingthis episode, then Carnaval is
currently occurring.
It is one of those celebrationsthat is roughly around the time
(07:57):
of quote-unquote fat Tuesdayaround the world.
So you can look to Mardi Grasin our own country to see when
that's going to be.
But Carnaval is different ineach country and region that
celebrates it, so their FatTuesday usually is the jump off
point.
But there's many places likethe.
The DR does it for a wholemonth, the in Mardi Gras it's
(08:21):
technically like a one weekendor one day celebration, but
people who live in New Orleansknow that it goes on for much
longer than that and but thereare official celebrations that
happen on these specific days.
Carnival de Barranquilla, rightnow, is going on through March
8th, so it's all about lookingat what each country's different
(08:44):
versions of celebratingCarnival can look like.
If you're an Italian teacher,this is also a big thing.
The Carnival in Venice and allthroughout Italy is a whole big
deal in here.
So Carnival goes on fordiffering amounts of time, but
it is about the same idea inmost places.
(09:04):
That has this central tyingtheme, which is that this is a
time to feast, celebrate and getout all your excesses before
you have to be real tied in andrestrained during the spring
season.
So, with those dates in mindand what the whole celebration
(09:24):
is about, you have a lot ofoptions here.
I used to do a big deep dive onthis with my classes, because
it's something that you canreally go down a rabbit hole
with your students on.
Or you can also just show acouple clips from different
places around the world and say,hey, this is what's going on
right now.
Let's focus in on this one areaand do a group focus on one
(09:46):
specific place, if you want to.
So there's lots and lots ofdifferent ways that you can do
this, but I would say one of theimportant things and themes to
explore is, of course, what isthe folklore that's being
expressed in each city's regions, countries, different versions
of Carnaval.
What are the things that theyare saying are?
(10:06):
This is me, because that's oneof the reasons I believe very
strongly that Carnaval is ahugely important celebration.
To emphasize is that it's sotied to what countries believe
to be like.
This is us, this is who we are,this is what we're about, which
is a great way to showcasenational identity, cultural
identity, to your students.
(10:26):
So I would say, look at thatand see how many different ways
can your students explore anddive into different expressions
of identity within a specificculture through this celebration
?
There's also it's a nice,tangible way to look at it with
carnaval, because people willmake giant posters, they will
(10:48):
make paper mache costumes, theywill make all kinds of masks and
different things that relate towhat their area is, their city
is their region and I would say,too, like very much the region.
Like in haiti, every city has adifferent version of what they
make for Carnaval, and so doesthe Dominican like.
If you go to different citiesduring Carnaval, you will see
(11:11):
different masks that representdifferent important aspects of
that identity.
It's kind of like I'm from thePhilly area and it's like the
mummers parade, which is alsokind of part of that whole like
idea of Carnaval, where in onJanuary 1st every year in Philly
we do a big mummers paradewhere each neighborhood has a
different version andrepresentation of what their
mummer looks like.
(11:32):
Another fun thing to deep dive.
So let's get into some projectideas for what you can do for
this.
Something that I used to do forCarnaval is a student-led
inquiry discovery type project,for Carnaval is a student-led
inquiry discovery type project,a little bit like PBL, and if
you do project-based learning,this is a great way to explore
this.
But I gave my students someloose parameters.
(11:52):
Put them into groups that theycould self-select or if your
students are not, you know, inthe self-selecting type, you can
also make the groups for them.
But I asked them hey, pleaseselect from this list a couple
of countries.
I gave them a list of whatthose countries were.
These are some famous, easy toresearch popular carnival
(12:14):
celebrations and like there werethere's at least 12 for French,
for Spanish and there's, youknow, there's plenty for German,
there's plenty for Italian aswell, because for German and
Italian, what you could do iswhat specific cities are doing
and things like that.
I would also say, too, that youhave lots and lots of different
options of what you want this,this project, to look like.
(12:35):
I made it like a two-day thingwhere they had some time in the
research library area to look upthings on their own, and I
asked for them to make some sortof final product with it, like
make a PowerPoint with yourgroup, make a Google Slides deal
, make a poster, if you want.
But what I'm looking for isanswer these few questions for
me.
What is the folklore you seerepresented in this?
(12:57):
You're going to have to explainthat question, because they
don't really know what folkloremeans.
What are some of the thingsthat you see are like a big part
of national identity?
And then the way that you canincorporate target language into
this is ask them to describewhen each celebration is, what
dates are they, what times arethe major events?
What do you see in each pictureof the major events?
What do the major costumes looklike and the major themes of
(13:21):
things look like, and ask themto describe things in the target
language If they're not at thatpoint of describing things in
the target language to thatdegree or depth.
You can modify this to be allkinds of different things, but I
would say, put some sort oftarget language emphasis on
there.
If you don't have a lot of timefor a project, you also don't
have to ask your students to getup in front of everybody and
present or anything like that.
(13:42):
Or if you're like me, and manytimes we're just looking for a
last minute thing to do, whatyou can also do is do a simple
picture talk to explore thesedifferent celebrations and
places, these differentcelebrations and places, and I
would say that with Carnaval itcan be as simple as a 10 minute
quick Google search of imagesfor Carnaval in specific areas.
(14:05):
I would keep it to like two orthree specific places, unless
you want to do like a bigoverview of what Carnaval is and
put some of those picturestogether in a super quick hey,
these are 10 slides.
You don't have to put anythingelse on there, no other language
.
If you only have 10 minutes,grab 10 pictures and just start
talking with your students basedon the pictures that you see.
(14:26):
That's a really easy, quick, noprep way to do this.
If you would like to do a morerobust picture talk, then some
of the things that you can do isfind specific pictures where
you're asking for students tolook for more in-depth things,
or you can also make sure thatthey have some language with
them to help with the picturetalk.
(14:47):
But if you don't have any timeto prep, you can do a picture
talk without any prep, exceptfor just finding a few pictures
and write on the board, asyou're talking, the phrases that
you know your students willneed.
What are the things that you'resaying?
More than two or three times?
Those are the ones you shouldput on the board.
I would also say too, anotheridea for you for any of your
lessons for this is Carnaval andany kind of Carnaval
celebration, mardi Gras.
(15:08):
All of that is because it'scelebrated in so many places.
It is comparison city andcomparisons, comparing and
contrasting and finding like,what do I have in common with
this celebration?
Or what does this carnival havein common with this other
carnival that's across the world?
You can ask for a lot ofcomparison language with this,
(15:30):
as long as you help withscaffolding like Venn diagrams
are beautiful for these kinds ofthings, but you can also do it
as a class.
If, especially, one of thefollow-up activities I used to
do is after student groups wouldtake a deep dive into specific
carnaval celebrations, I wouldask them to get together with a
(15:50):
group that studied anothercountry or another city and say,
like what, what was in common,what's the same, that kind of
thing, and you would give themscaffolded structures like los
dos tenemos, things like that.
I would also say one of thebest ways that you can do this
is because this is such a variedcelebration.
You have so many different waysto explore this that this is a
(16:13):
great opportunity to letstudents lead the conversation
and let students studentsexplore.
You want to give them a fewsimple parameters like this is
where carnaval is located.
These are some of the biggerones and these are some of the
things to be looking for, butotherwise you can let the
curiosity of the student groupdrive the conversation, because
it's naturally interesting.
(16:33):
There's so much there to workwith.
Like, there are many times inyour class where you might have
to talk about some things thatare fun for you but are kind of
stuffy, but this one, like this,is a global party.
Y'all your kids will have somuch fun talking about this and
getting interested in this topic.
This is definitely one of thehighlights of my students here.
They all loved talking aboutCardinobol, and yours will too,
(16:56):
if you let them lead the thecuriosity side of this here.
So a way that you could do thisis simply just ask them, like
what do they know about, kind ofall, what do they know about
Mardi Gras?
And just let the conversationflow and you can pick up on
where are the misconceptionsabout this?
What's actually going on, andget into some of the other
(17:17):
events.
Another thing that you can do isdive into some short readings.
There are short readings abouta lot of these different events
and places, and this is a greatway that you could spice up some
of the typical activities thatyou have to do, like oh, we got
to get in some reading practice,we got to do some interpersonal
.
That kind of thing is.
(17:37):
Make it about these specificevents and holidays.
Like, if you're doing Carnavalde Quebec, it's a great idea to
find some authentic texts, somevideos about it, because there's
always tons of footage aboutCarnaval de Quebec and ask your
students to just listen to itfor a little bit and see what
they can pick up from it.
What are some things that theycan write about it?
(17:59):
You can do a write and discussall kinds of things.
I would say, too, that one ofthe major things that you could
do which is really, really fun,especially with Mardi Gras if
you're a French teacher is whatcan be a collaboration.
What can you do with otherdepartments around the school?
It sounds like it's a lot ofwork, but it's actually a lot
(18:22):
less work on your part If you doone simple meeting with
somebody in the culinarydepartment or the music
department or the historydepartment and you say yo, I'm
doing a Mardi Gras project.
One year I did it with middleschoolers where we did like a
deep dive on jazz and thebirthplace of jazz being New
Orleans and all that.
We did a collaborative piecewith the music teacher at the
(18:43):
elementary school and he taughtthe lesson.
For me it was awesome because Iwas doing all this work, trying
to research about jazz andthings like that and finding
them a good documentary but youknow like kids don't want to sit
for a documentary.
That and finding them a gooddocumentary, but you know like
kids don't want to sit for adocumentary.
So it was actually a lot better, a lot more interesting and a
lot more fun when you are ableto bring in other experts from
(19:03):
around the school to focus in onwhat is a piece of Carnaval.
That would be really cool forstudents to experience from
another teacher.
So what are some ways that youcan collaborate with them?
The history department wouldalways be down for it.
I'm sure that you can findother departments in your school
that would also be like veryexcited about the cool things in
there.
(19:24):
The culinary department wasparticularly excited during
Mardi Gras when I was like doy'all want to make a galette des
rois?
Like there's all kinds ofthings that you can do With the
art department.
You can make masks, which again, that's like two days of prep.
That's no longer on your plate.
You just have to go down andmeet with the art teacher during
one of your preps and say, hey,do you have supplies for this?
(19:45):
What do you think about puttingsomething together where we can
make a cross-collaborativething going on here?
It's awesome in that way.
The next thing that you can dois keep in mind that you can
always do a really smallcollaboration.
You know you can always havesomething that is small scale
(20:07):
and then bring it into.
Hey, if we have more time nextyear, I'd love to do a bigger
thing.
That's always an option.
Some language specific thingsthat you can do with all of
these ideas is can you do avirtual field trip?
I have tons of those.
I'm going to show you someexamples of what a virtual field
trip can look like if you'regoing through the lens of
carnival.
(20:27):
Can you do a map talk?
A map talk is amazing.
It is a skill taught by anothercomprehensible, input driven
teacher, ben Tendley, and a maptalk is a great way to explore
what are the events of Carnival.
Also, if you have multiple prepslike every French teacher that
(20:49):
I know and many Spanish teachersas well so if you're doing
Spanish two, three and four,four and you want to do
something that actually makessense, where you have Carnival
and Carnival in all itsdifferent forms throughout all
of your classes, then what youcan do is put a different spin
or theme for each of your class.
(21:09):
Maybe you do jazz with yourlevel ones.
Maybe you do food andcelebration with your level twos
level ones.
Maybe you do food andcelebration with your level twos
.
Maybe you do the, the visualsand the arts and everything
that's visual land.
That happens with carnaval withyour level threes and have them
explore some themes of likewhat is what is beauty, what is
(21:30):
art, what is identity expressedthrough visual means, because
they're your level threes andthey'd be able to go a little
bit deeper on that, things likethat.
I would also say, too, that away that many teachers lean
towards making this uh, doingcelebrations and holidays more
feasible is can you find someshort and I emphasize the word
(21:54):
short videos to make this reallyfun for your students to see,
hear and experience and get moreimmersive into what a lot of
these celebrations look like.
However, something this fun,like this is literally a party.
Something this fun should notbe a 30-minute or a 60-minute
documentary.
This is not the time to do that.
There are other times that youcan do it, too, but I would say
(22:16):
that with something that's thisfun and this vibrant and this
alive and active that adocumentary is really going to
like, put a damper on things,and your kids want to experience
this, they want to absorb it,they want to be immersed in it.
So there's a lot of otherthings that you can do that are
far more tactile.
The last thing that I wouldsuggest to you is with Carnaval,
(22:37):
keep it local and keep itinteresting.
With that I mean that there areso many different iterations of
what these celebrations looklike, and your students will
have so much fun just byexploring the different ways
that people express theiridentity through Carnaval, even
(22:58):
in the same country, howdifferent this can be and what
different celebrations look like.
So don't be afraid to dive into different places, but also
give your students a little bitof freedom to explore what these
different areas are, because ifyou do just the hey, this is
Carnaval.
It's a global celebration, it'sbased off these areas and these
(23:19):
ideas.
It loses the sense of meaning,and you'll get a lot of the
sense of meaning when you givethem the chance to experience it
from more firsthand accountsfrom specific areas and places.
So, without further ado, I'mgoing to show you some ideas,
and if you're listening, you canfollow along too.
I'll describe them for whatsome activities and ideas can
(23:43):
look like for you during thisoutrageously fun season of
Carnaval that we have.
If you're looking for someideas to help you get started
with ways that you can doCarnaval in your class, I have
for you some examples that youcan check out, and there will be
some links as well in the shownotes below so that you can get
these for yourself if you'relooking for an easy way to do
(24:04):
Carnaval.
So this here that I have foryou is a Mardi Gras reading with
high frequency verbs.
It's designed for French 1 and2 and some of the things that
you'll see in here is I havehere the high frequency verbs
that you need to emphasize a lotin French one which are based
off of the super seven and inthis reading passage, what I'm
(24:26):
describing here are just thecommon things that you'll see
around a Mardi Gras celebrationin a way that's really
accessible for students, withlots and lots of great pictures,
and it also has all of thesethings that can be tough to do,
like your glossary is ready togo.
There's tons of pictures andwith this reading too, it's very
short.
It's really really shortbecause the focus is actually on
(24:48):
the activities.
There's a bunch of options thatstudents have to do after
they're done with the very shortreading that describes, like,
what the celebration is, whatit's about, where it comes from
and some cool things they'll see, hear and be all about and what
they'll like about Mardi Gras.
There's a postcard that they'llbe asked to write some of the
(25:10):
things like what are the thingsthat you see or hear about Mardi
Gras?
They can design a mask usingthe colors and the symbols, and
there's also a ghetto de roiactivity where they have to make
a ghetto and design it and tellus a little bit about it and
what's going on.
Here is a writing activity thatthey have to do, and my
(25:32):
favorite part here is doing astoryboard.
So in this one here you have astoryboard that you can do,
where you can read this story tostudents, and it's just about
two kids who go to a Mardi Grasdes Filets and they have the
story and then they get to drawout what's happening in the
(25:53):
story to indicate theirunderstanding of it, and they
can also even write their own orjust draw as well another.
So this is a way that you canthat might be helping you to get
some activities for what youcan do during this mardi gras
season.
A bunch of great activities.
I mean, of course you're goingto have the class party, but
there here are some ways thatyou can really bring in the
language to it too.
If you're focusing onCôte-Nouvelle-du-Québec, there's
(26:15):
a virtual field trip here foryou that might give you some
ideas, too, on how you canexplore this through pictures
and how it really makes thewhole celebration come to life
and be more immersive.
In this virtual field trip, Ihave here for you lots and lots
of pictures, as well as links tosome of the best authentic
(26:35):
texts that I've found aboutCalneval de Quebec, but it also
dives deeply into what are someof the other aspects of culture
in Quebec that they can alsobranch into.
It's a very open-ended resourcewhere they get to choose which
links they want to explore,based on the description or
(26:56):
based on the things that youwant them to see specifically,
but there's over 40 links inhere, so they have a lot of
things that they can choosebetween, and it also has a focus
on indigenous identity andcontributions to Calneval de
Quebec all of the things thatstudents may not know about some
(27:17):
of the origins of some of theirfavorite celebrations, as well
as a lot of celebrations ofindigenous culture in this here,
and it also has for youdifferent ways that you could
focus your Carnaval de Quebeccelebrations and language if you
wanted to focus on the eventsand activities that are in here.
(27:38):
There's also a lot of stuff inhere specifically about Carnaval
de Quebec that might be reallyhelpful around singing
specifically in here.
As well as all of the athletestuff, there's a lot of stuff in
here about sports and whathappens during Cal Nouvelle de
Quebec, because it is also a bigsport event and an athletic
(28:00):
thing.
So that is one of the ways, too, that you can bring in target
language into here.
This is one of the benefits ofdiving deeply into a specific
celebration for Cal Nouvelle isthat you'll be able to make the
target language much morespecific and interesting.
This is Martinique, and divinginto Martinique during the
(28:20):
season of Cal Naval.
I love this one in particularbecause Martinique is a small
island that has a lot going on,so there's a lot for your
students to explore and for themto absorb, and it's also very
accessible in terms of the factthat there's Maltenique has a
(28:41):
very visually striking andunique Calnaval celebration that
you can find a lot ofinformation about.
There's also, especially, allkinds of things with the
celebration that emphasizes whatwe were talking about at the
beginning of this episode thatCarnival really is an expression
of a country's identity.
(29:01):
So one of the things that thisis focused on is that during
COVID, when a lot of otherCarnival celebrations were shut
down and people were told not togo outside of their houses,
this is one of the countriesthat decided to ignore that rule
and go ahead and celebrateanyways.
And there's a whole focus onthis, on this celebration of why
(29:25):
people chose to celebratecarnaval anyway and why they
felt that it was important to doso and why it's an important
part of their culturalexpression.
Here it also gets into theAnscafau Slave Memorial, which
is enslaved culture is animportant piece of Calnaval, so
it's a great way to bring in themulti-layered identity of the
(29:50):
places that you're talking aboutin one celebration.
It is completely jam-packed.
What I'm looking at here too, ifyou're listening to this, is
this Calneval virtual field triphas a lot of vibrant pictures,
and you can tell already thatthere's definitely a color theme
with Martinique.
They celebrate their Carnivalall in red.
(30:11):
There are specific colors thatgo with it, and there's also in
all of these pictures.
These are all pictures of realpeople from Martinique, so your
students will get an idea, too,of what does the country look
like, what's going on there andwhat are some of the places,
common themes and scenes thatthey will see.
And the last one I want to showyou is my favorite one, which
(30:35):
is the carnival that I actuallygot to attend.
So this is a virtual field tripto explore the Dominican
Republic, and there's so muchinformation about carnival for
the Dominican Republic you canliterally even you can watch
each carnival celebrationcelebration.
They always film it and do ahuge hurrah around it, so you
(30:55):
can even put on in thebackground what's going on with
each of these big celebrationsand just put it in the
background while students arelooking up other things.
The masks are incredibly variedand beautiful.
People spend all year makingtheir Carnaval masks and they
are a true work of art.
So there's all kinds ofbeautiful things that you can
dive into and get into.
(31:16):
And there's, of course, allthese interesting traditions
with Carnaval that come with it,and each that's my city, that's
Santiago.
So there's a lot of differentways that you can explore and
see how national identity isexpressed, and also regional in
here.
You'll see a lot of differentways that you can explore and
see how national identity isexpressed and also regional in
here.
You'll see a lot of interestingthings going on in here.
(31:38):
So I hope that this gives yousome ideas for how you can make
Carnaval really come to life foryour students in different ways
, that it will feel like you cantalk more easily and allow
students to explore and comparemore easily those things that
are the most important for us todiscuss in a world language
(32:00):
class, which is these are theproducts of a culture, these are
the practices of a culture likecarnaval.
So what are, how do theyrepresent the perspectives of
that culture?
And Carnaval is a really greatentry point to do that.
I hope this gives you lots andlots of ideas that you can do
this in a really low prep way.
If you're listening to thisright on your way to school and
(32:21):
you're like I want to do thistoday, you've got some options.
Or if you want to do a biggerproject, you also have some
starting off and jumping pointsfor that as well.
Thanks so much for being herefor this podcast, for my
favorite celebration of the yearto be a French and Spanish
teacher, and I will see you onthe next Deep Dive, minnesota.
Bye for now.
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