We are reading Todo lo que Brilla in Spanish 4 this semester.  It is one of my favorite

books and I am excited to be teaching it!  If you are unfamiliar with this novel, it is about mining in Ecuador and includes great adventure, danger and a romance.  Chris Mercer is the author.  CLICK HERE to order the novel.  The activity masters and DVD are also great.  CLICK HERE to order the chapter activities.  With permission from Chris, here is what I did for chapter 1:

• Pre-teach the vocabulary.  There is a lot of specific mining vocabulary that is important to know for the novel.  There are also some great structures in the first person form.  The teacher’s guide includes a vocab list and assessment.  For the words like pick, hammer, and gold, I just showed a photo of it.
• I had fun with the word cuy (guinea pig).  I showed my class a picture of a guinea pig and told them it was my pet.  They all know that I don’t have pets but it was fun to talk about Chuy (the name I gave him!).
• To practice some of the structures, I wrote THIS STORY . This could also be done as a story script.
• We then filled out this this personalized question sheet and had a great conversation. The questions get them ready for the first chapter and help them connect to the novel.
• I read chapter 1 to them, going slow, and constantly checking for comprehension.  In the part that talks about José seeing a beautiful girl, I asked the boys in my class what would they do in this situation, what would they say, how would they feel, etc.
• After reading chapter 1, I had my students fill out THIS READING CHART
• We then played a game of Plickers, using questions from the teacher’s guide.
• Optional culture extension:  show pictures/video of EcuaVolley and/or even play it!