Lesson author: Wilson Juncaj

Topic- Dia de los muertos en el mundo hispanohablante (Day of the Dead in the Spanish-speaking
world)

Grade Level- Spanish 3 (10th grade)

Big Ideas(s)- Death is viewed positively by the people of Latin America as they believe that there
is life after death.

Learning Outcome(s)- By the end of this lesson, students will be able to discuss when and where
this holiday originated from and the importance of this holiday.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to compare and contrast how this holiday differs
from one Spanish-speaking country to another.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to identify the different artifacts that appear on the
ofrendas (altars) of people’s homes and explain the symbolism behind the artifacts placed on the
ofrendas.

By the end of the lesson, students will have the opportunity to create their own virtual ofrenda
commemorating a family member, friend, pet, or celebrity that has perished with artifacts that
represent important aspects of this individual’s life.

Content Standards- 2.1.M.RI.b Describe the role of the family within the target culture.

2.1.A.H.a Explain how cultural beliefs, values and perspectives serve as the basis for the practices
associated with civil, religious, and personal/family holidays or celebrations.

2.2.A.C.a Explain how cultural beliefs, values and perspectives serve as the basis for the use of
products associated with civil, religious and personal/family holidays or celebrations.

3.1.A.a Acquire new content knowledge about unfamiliar topics through the target language.

Michigan World Language Standards

Time Estimate- I anticipate this lesson lasting 3 days, about 50 minutes per class period.

Formative Assessment(s)- Formative assessments are given multiple times a day in foreign
language classes to assess student’s understanding of the concept at hand. First, students will be
given a formative assessment at the beginning of the lesson via an admit ticket where students will
have a picture of an ofrenda (altar) created for Day of the Dead and they are to write 2-3 sentences
telling me what they already know about this holiday from previous Spanish classes, if they’re not
familiar with this holiday then they are to state what they think this holiday is about based on the
visual. After a couple of minutes, students will share with their compañero (partner) for a minute,
then we’ll come together as a whole and I will ask for a couple of volunteers to share their thoughts
or knowledge of this holiday.

During the lesson, students will receive another formative assessment via a twitter like post of 140
characters or less on Nearpod where students will discuss key takeaways or information that they
learned about Day of the Dead or how the celebrations differ from one Spanish-speaking country to
another. Students will be given the choice as to what they want to contribute to our Nearpod
discussion.

At the end of the lesson, we will discuss what students contributed to our class Nearpod page and I
will introduce the summative assessment or end of unit project that students will be required to
complete.

Summative Assessment- Students will receive a summative assessment about Day of the Dead
at the end of the lesson. Students will use Google Draw to create their own virtual version of an
ofrenda commemorating a family member, friend, celebrity, or pet who has perished. In this project
students are required to include at least one photo of the individual they’re recognizing, artifacts
that represent important aspects of this person’s life (e.g. baseball bat, deck of cards, books, video
games, etc.) as well as objects that are included in traditional Mexican ofrendas such as sugar
skulls, religious images, water, food, etc. Students will be given a day in-class to work on their
artifact. On the following day, students will present their ofrenda to the class explaining to whom
they dedicate the ofrenda and the symbolism behind the objects that were chosen for this
individual’s ofrenda.

Review and Anticipation Set- In the first few moments of class, I will have students complete an
admit ticket which will give me a sense of how much they already know about Dia de los muertos
and also as a means of promoting active learning and engagement during the lesson. Students will
be provided with an image of a traditional Mexican altar created during Dia de los muertos and they
are to tell me everything that they already know about this holiday. Foreign language students get
very excited when they are given opportunities to learn about culture as it is very fascinating, which
is why I anticipate that my students will be engaged throughout the lesson, especially towards the
end when they are to create their own ofrenda. This project promotes higher levels of thinking in
Bloom’s Taxonomy such as create, apply, and analyze which are often overlooked in foreign
language courses.

Instructional Activities- The instructional activities of this lesson include whole class discussion,
modeling of what a typical Mexican ofrenda looks like and the symbolism behind the objects that
are placed on these ofrendas, explaining the summative assessment and the things that I am
looking for with this assignment, and a bit of lecturing.

Learning Activities/Tasks- Learning activities include a group discussion about Day of the Dead,
a 140 character Twitter like post on our class Nearpod page, and their summative assessment
where students will create an ofrenda on Google Draw.
Review and Closure- In order to see the progress that my students made, they will be given a
formative assessment before the lesson starts to see how much prior knowledge they have about
Day of the Dead, during the lesson students will compose a tweet on Nearpod summarizing what
they have learned about this holiday either from a video they will watch or from a presentation that I
will create, then at the end of the lesson students will be given a summative assessment which
enables me to look at the progress they have made from the beginning to the end of the lesson and
it helps me measure how much knowledge my students gained from the lesson.

Independent Practice/Homework/Extension Activities- Students will complete the Nearpod

post, their admit ticket, and the ofrenda projects on their own, which will help to reinforce the
learning outcomes of this lesson.

Materials & Resources- I will need a smartboard and a class set of laptops.

Lesson on Nearpod:
https://share.nearpod.com/VvXbwIQoT1

Possible Modifications- The modern language department has to share the computer cart of
Chromebooks. If I can’t check out the computer cart for my students because another teacher
requested it first, then I can always have students either participate with the activity via the usage
of their smartphones or we could always do the activity together as a class. For example, my
students can always watch an Edpuzzle video together at the same time via the smartboard or
students could contribute to my Nearpod class page via their smartphones if laptops are not
available to them.