Pajaro's Journey
a Middle School
Spanish Language iAdventure
Teacher Page
What is an
iAdventure?
An iAdventure is an interactive website designed to guide student research and informed decision making while progressing through a series of story elements and presented dilemmas.
What content will
be covered?
This iAdventure is designed to support a Spanish language curriculum through research on differing cultures, geography, history and vocabulary.
Grade Level?
Middle school
Time needed?
4-6 forty-five minute periods using the computer lab including 2 days to design and create the final project.
Resources needed?
One computer with internet access for every student, copies of the Research Guides for every student.
Summary:
Site Map of Pajaro's Journey of Self-discovery:
Here is a site map of the iAdventure. There are links to each page for you to preview all pages just as students will progress through the iAdventure. Each page has a button link back to the previous page. Internet links are set to open a new window for student exploration. When students have finished with the internet link they should close by clicking the X at the top right. This will return the students to the previous iAdventure page.
Background Information
Curriculum Standards
Evaluation of Student Projects
Pajaro is a Guatemalan middle school bird. His class has been assigned a Family Tree Project during their study of Guatemala's Spanish Colonial Period. Pajaro discovers that during this period of history, Guatemalan society operated on a caste system. Further, he discovers that his ancestors are of Mayan, European, West Indies and African decent. Never one to skimp on research, Pajaro sets out on a journey to discover his origins.
This project is designed in such a way that Spanish Foreign Language teachers can increase the difficulty dependent on student level of Spanish language acquisition. Students may be expected to present their family tree Prezi completely in Spanish instead of just identifying each family member using Spanish familial relationship nouns and nationalities, for example, to significantly increase the rigor of this assignment. Therefore, I have included all Missouri Foreign Language Standards in the following table as all may be applicable dependent on individual teacher direction.
Like Pajaro, students will create a Prezi of their own family trees to culminate their iAdventure experience. Students will research their own origins, detailing where their families originated, when their families settled in America, and what made them decide to emigrate to America. Students' Family Tree Projects are expected to be very similar to this exemplary project where the author discovered her Eastern European heritage.
Students will identify family relationships using familial relationship and country of origin or nationality Spanish vocabulary. These student projects are guaranteed to be authentic to students since they are researching and discovering their own origins, perhaps hearing family stories for the very first time. Students will present their projects in class either orally or by Screencast using Jing to add narration. Final products may be posted in the Student Projects page on teacher websites. A printable grading rubric may be accessed here.
