Two kids and one pandemic ago, I had the awesome opportunity to accompany our French students to Paris. Chaperoning an overseas trip is an incomparable learning experience for all involved. My department chair and co-chaperone taught me clever tricks like putting scotch tape over their hotel door frames after curfew, and scheduling every second of the day so that there was no energy left for nonsense. Just a short four mile walk to the creperie, no problem!
Now I’m four kids deep, living covid-life, with no room to travel. So how do we engage our students in the rich culture of the languages we teach when you’re grounded?
Fortunately, Google provides us with exceptional teaching opportunities to engage our students. We can explore ancient ruins in a Virtual Field Trip to Mexico with 360 degree views. Better than a flat image, students can navigate in every direction, and zoom to explore glyphs, details and more.
These Virtual Field Trips offer us lots of comprehensible input questions at every level. I ask my novice learners, “What do you like? What do you not like? Where are you?” My intermediate learners tell me if they’d like to visit and can provide a series of reasons why. In my Guatemala Virtual Field Trip, students get to explore Chichicastenango Regional Market, and compare and contrast their shopping experiences. I ask, “What would you buy? How does this market look similar to our local supermarket? What is different?”
Combined with videos, culture comes alive for students. I have them create lists of interview questions about their cultures and communities. Below is a video I use in my Panama Virtual Field Trip (there’s an English version too!).
Make the ACTFL Intercultural Communication standards fun, engaging and real. Novice students will be able to say, “I can identify products and practices to help me understand practices, ” and your intermediate students “can make comparisons between products and practices to help understand perspectives.”
The only downside is that making these lesson plans can be time-consuming. I’m here to help! I have virtual field trips for every Spanish speaking country in English and in Spanish, and even some French options. Get started with trips to Equatorial Guinea in Spanish or in English for FREE!
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