Comprehensible Instagram – Posts from Mexico
At my last school, I had this theory that my students could keep up their Spanish for the 12 months between level 1 and 2 by following me on Instagram. The good news is that the kids at my new school generally only have to go like 3 months between levels, tops, and are even MORE Insta-obsessed than my previous Snapchat-distracted babies. But alas, they do not follow me. I can’t even really incentivize it over the summer since there’s like a 60% chance they’ll have someone else next year.
Still, when I go on vacation in Mexico, I take pictures of things I think they might find attractive or intriguing and write about them in Spanish that’s somewhere between Novice High and Intermediate Low. I am thinking these little texts could find their way into our projects about visiting Charlotte or children’s menus, but more importantly, I think they will make convenient and–dare I say–engaging bellringers to infuse a little curiosity and beauty into our daily routine. And heck, maybe they’ll decide to follow some Spanish IG accounts.
comments from YOU make good input!
If you want to follow @SXTNimpressions, I do always post in that same Novice/Intermediate Spanish (just in case, you know?) But I decided to screenshot all 24 of my recent Mexico posts, in both photo and GIF form (I may be a little overfond of the series post types) so we can always get directly to the Mexico stuff. I didn’t do any narration this time, so this is strictly for reading and intercultural purposes.
So if you’re thinking these might make useful resources for your classes, I’m putting together a TPT set with all of the screenshot files and specific entry-by-entry questions. If you want to just pull up a few to look at through IG–OR use your OWN vacation shots!–consider using these types of questions and activities!
Instagram format
I switched my browser to Spanish to provide not only input, but an opportunity to explore using familiar schemas to interpret. You could ask questions like
- Where is the photo from?
- What is the date of the photo?
- How many photos are there?
- How many comments are there?
- How many people like the post?
- Is that a lot of “likes”? How many is a lot?
- What vocabulary can you see in the hashtags?
(PS I think I’m pretty clever using hashtags as a sort of glossary, posting key vocabulary in both languages.)
Photo questions
These pictures could make good conversation starters for some quick picture talks. As a bellringer, posting the questions you plan to ask so students can write out answers ahead of time could not only keep your little scholars busy during attendance but also make them feel more confident and prepared to respond. Consider these types of questions for novices:
- Yes/no questions
Are there animals/people in the photo?
Do you like the colors in the photo?
Do you want to go to this site? - Multiple choice questions
Is this architecture recent or ancient?‘
Is it hot or cold there?
Do these things cost more, less, or the same in Mexico? - Questions with familiar vocabulary answers
e.g. colors, numbers, time of day, family members, weather
With these questions the input isn’t from the post itself, but rather from giving them the questions in the target language. If appropriate, it can even elicit some writing and potentially interpersonal interaction too.
Text-based questions
You might want a mixture of all of the types of questions to keep the young ones’ brains moving, but you might want to stick strictly to questions that require them to interpret what is written.
- Participants: Who is participating in this activity?
- Opinion:Why does Sra. Sexton like this site?
- Activity: What can you do at this site?
- Social issue: What problem does Sra. Sexton describe?
- Intercultural comparison: How are these stores different from stores here?
- Products: What ingredients can you see?
- Practices: What is an important interaction at this site?
You could also do some comparisons among photos, say the foods, the buildings, or the beaches and have students do more writing/conversing about what they see AND read.
I would love to see your vacation pics in your target culture and hear how you plan to incorporate them! Send me some Instagram links if you’ve got ’em, and don’t forget to check my TPT store later this week for the post-by-post resources!
