Brian Scott
Spanish Teacher
WL Consultant

Unit 4 – La música me mueve y el arte me conmueve

 

Themes – Belleza y estética Desafíos Mundiales, Identidades personales y públicas, Vida contemporánea, Familias y comunidades

 

Essential Questions

 

¿Qué impacto tienen las bellas artes en la sociedad?

¿Cómo nos ayudan a escapar las bellas artes?

 

Topics covered

 

• Landfill Harmonic – Orchestra in Paraguay consisting of impoverished teenagers and instruments made from recycled garbage

• Juanes and his foundation Mi Sangre & Shakira and her foundation Pies Descalzos

• Tango, Flamenco, Mariachi and Salsa

• Guernica and its legacy

• Frida Kahlo

• Mexico’s largest mural in the village of Pachuca

• How Guantanamera and America the Beautiful were already popular poems that were converted into patriotic songs

 

Summative Performance Assessments

 

• E-mail – Volunteer for Fine Arts program for kids at a culture center

• Essay – Should there be equal requirements for Fine Arts and Math/Science in order to graduate?

• Dialogue – Creating a mural for the community

• Cultural Comparison – What role do fine arts have in your comunidad?

 

First Day Hook

 

From the movie Frida I show to the students the bus accident scene, her stay in the hospital and how she is stuck in bed.  Then her father gives her some art supplies.  Students then begin the discussion about how art or any of the Fine Arts can give someone a physical or emotional outlet.

 

 

 

 

Authentic Resources & Activities

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Interpretive Audiovisual – Students view a video about Landfill Harmonic and share their reactions.  This audio probably moves the students more than any other cultural theme during the year.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D9Y4WFFcSw

 

Interpretive Print – Students read sections of Versos sencillos by José Martí.  Students identify patriotic phrases and vocabulary to better understand why the poem and song are so meaningful in Cuban culture.

 

Interpretive Audio – Students listen to an audio about this biggest mural in Mexico in the village of Pachuca. Students take notes on the audio

 

Interpersonal Spoken – Students imagine that they bump into each other at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.  This museum houses Guernica.  They discuss Picasso and the famous painting.

 

Interpersonal Written – Students draft an email to Juanes, Shakira or some other famous Latin Singer asking them to perform at a charity benefit.

 

Presentational Spoken – Students debate which music and dance should be the national representation of the USA.  Ultimately they

choose, present and support why they believe a particular genre (country, rock, rap) should be the one.

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Presentational Written – Students do a Quickwrite on the topic of Fine Arts.  In a designated amount of time they write as much as they can about all the ways that Fine Arts enrich our lives.