Amy Frederick
Course: Spanish III
Grade Level: Sophomore/Junior
Topic: Puerto Rican Holidays
Lesson Purpose: to inform students about daily Puerto Rican culture including holidays. The primary
instructional method will be lecturing, which will give students information about holidays needed to
complete the assessment, writing a letter from the point of view of a grandmother explaining their
holidays.
Lesson Rationale: This lesson not only teaches students about Puerto Rican culture but is also an
opportunity to practice the holiday vocabulary from the current grammar unit.
Prior Knowledge Required:
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Holidays in U.S.
Taking guided notes
Vocabulary related to holidays—esp. Christmas and New Years
Having eaten bananas or potatoes before
Standards:
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29.A.3: Demonstrate selected customs, manners, and traditions in societies associated with
the target language.
Learning Objectives: Objective 1: Students will be able to answer factual questions related to Puerto
Rico’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, and Carnaval.
Assessment:
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Formative: students will fill out a packet/worksheet as they work at each station.
Summative: students will answer basic questions about each holiday studied during the
stations activity.
Materials and Resources Required:
Teacher: computer, file with intro activity, projector, timer, stations worksheets,
crayons/colored pencils, fried plantains
Student: computer, access to lecture video, pencil, scratch paper, access to YouTube grape
video
Online Component
Lecture Video
11:00
In-class Instruction
Students will listen to a lecture video about Puerto Rican holidays (which
comes from the powerpoint of the original version of this lesson) and fill
out a guided note sheet.
Amy Frederick
Activity/Method Title
Bellringer: Review of
Online Component
Time
Allotted
10 min
Description/Procedure
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Explanation of Day
7 min
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Stations
25 min
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Exit Slip
8 min
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Pull up bellringer doc from blackboard before class and put
on projector
As students enter the classroom, they will pick-up their
portfolios from front table to answer the questions on the
board (a pre-established practice).
Class will have a couple minute warning before going through
answers.
Once students appear to be done, the class will go through
the questions together as the teacher calls on volunteers or
random students.
The questions will review the material discussed in the
powerpoint
As the class goes through the correct answers to each
question, the teacher will review related information to each
question if the class struggles.
Students will get into groups by the month of their birthdays
(same groups as reading groups from previous day)
Teacher will tell each group which part of the room to start in
Stations will be set up around classroom to experience each
holiday discussed in the video—Christmas, Carnaval,
Thanksgiving, New Year
Students will rotate every 6 minutes when timer goes off
Teacher will pass out a guided worksheet for students to do
during the stations activity. It will be collected at the end of
class.
Students will work in groups following the instructions given
at each station. The teacher will set a timer, and when it
dings, students will rotate. During the activity, the teacher
will walk around the room making sure students are on task
and answering any questions.
Stations include:
 Christmas: students will write short letters (2-3
sentences) to the three kings stating what they’d like
for Christmas
 Carnaval: students will color a picture of a carnaval
mask
 Thanksgiving: students will sample fried plantains, a
popular Thanksgiving food and read a short
paragraph about fried plantains
 New Year: Students will watch the YouTube video
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzyKKxYFE3w)
of the place where the eating of the grapes tradition
started in Madrid.
Students will take out half a sheet of paper.
Students will answer the questions that the teacher reads:
Amy Frederick
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 ¿Quién lleva los regalos para la navidad?
 ¿Cómo se dice mask en español?
 Describe un plátano.
 ¿De dónde origine la tradición de comer 12 uvas?
Students will write their name on their sheet of paper, hand it
to the teacher, and are free to go.
Assignment:
Students will complete a packet of questions while completing the stations activity. The questions will
ensure that the students actually complete the activity.
Backup Plans:
If the materials for any station get lost, students should further research the holiday on their
smartphones or laptops and write down two new facts about the holiday. If there is no internet access,
students should use the notes they completed prior to class to discuss each holiday and what they like
and dislike about it.