MEDIA / POP CULTURE EVENT
"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all love of what you are doing or learning to do."
- Pele
Here are tips to plan an event in which students will learn about the role that media plays in Latino culture. Students will also experience aspects of popular media among Spanish speakers at this media and pop culture event. Students will learn about popular movies, television shows, game shows, sports, telenovelas, commercials, and music. They will have the opportunity to compare and contrast their culture with Hispanic culture through these interactive activities. Any of these activities can be done over several days in Spanish classes or they can be done during a two or three hour media/pop culture event.
To start off this unit, we give our students information to read and comprehension questions to answer regarding Hispanic media, bilingual advertising, telenovelas and sports. They also complete a statistics guessing worksheet about Latinos in the United States.
This event may begin with a whole group activity where the students watch the following video(s) about the increasing role that Hispanics play in the culture of the United States.
Download and print the student note-taking worksheet for all three of the following videos here:
*Watch this amazing video from Univision that shares statistics about the growing role of Latinos in the American market including the media.
*Watch this inspiring video that captures the pride and vibrancy of Latinos living in the United States
(Hispanic Heritage Month).
*This video explains the impact of Hispanics in the US regarding foods (tortillas), traditions, population, etc.
Topics and Activities:
If you have enough teachers or native speakers to have various activity stations, break the students into smaller groups. Here are two example schedules we use with students attending four or five different activities
during a two hour period. We decide the number and length of activities based on the number of students who attend. Any of these videos or activities can be done during
normal classes also.
You may download the activity tickets and room signs that you can use to hand out to students so they will know which activity to attend first. For instance, the activity topics/stations may be Game Shows, Movies, Telenovelas, Sports, Commercials, Music, and Television Shows.
Students can spend 20-25 minutes at each station or
the teacher can do an activity or two each day while teaching a media or pop culture unit.
You may want to hand out boletos to the students from each group that speak the best and then award a small prize to the student with the most boletos at the end of the unit or at the end of the media event.
Game Shows - Los Concursos
Movies - Las Películas
Sopa Operas - Las Telenovelas
Sports - Los Deportes
Commercials - Los Anuncios
Music - La Música
TV Shows - Los Programas de Televisión
***We have many other cultural events that we organize throughout the school year with additional interactive activities that involve music, movies, telenovelas, game shows, holidays, commercials, TV shows, and more. Click here to learn more:
Holiday Event
Game Night
Immersion Day
Conversation Hour