2ºBritish: Spanish America TV News

Here we go with another special task: filming an historical TV News programme! Today, with the daily-use technology is quite easy to do, and that could be a great educational activity, don’t you think so? 

This work should be done in groups. Cooperation and the use of appropriate vocabulary would be also keep in mind.

It’s 8th June 1494. Yesterday, Queen Isabella I of Castilla and King Joao II of Portugal signed the “Treaty of Tordesillas”, with an agreement about the division of the newly discovered lands of America between both kingdoms.

News that you HAVE TO include:

• Opening with the “International News section”: explaining what is the “Treaty of Tordesillas”. Besides the theoretical explanation, you have to include a picture of the authentic document and a map with the division line. It would be also a great idea to include an image of Queen Isabella I giving a brief speech about how happy she is because this positive agreement… Even more, Pope Alexander VI Borgia awarded Isabella and Ferdinand with the official title of “Catholic Monarchs”.

• More news about America: the first European city (under the name of “La Isabella”) was created in the island of “La Española” (now a days, Dominican Republic). And Columbus discovered a new island: Jamaica (name that, in the native language means: “blessed gold”). You can mention both things, including the image of a map and a quote from Columbus.

• Interview with an historical character: one of the members of the team has to impersonate a real historical character (eg. Queen Isabella or Columbus) and answer 3 questions to a journalist

• Culture: Antonio de Nebrija, professor of University of Salamanca and author of the first “Gramática del español” published a complete dictionary of Spanish-Latin. If you want, you can also mention that the German writer Ieronimus Munzer published the first part of his book “Travel through Iberian Peninsula”

• If possible, try to film ONE exterior scene, filmed in front of Avila’s medieval wall.

• The final product should last between 4 and 8 minutes. After those minutes, you should include the author’s credits

• The video MUST be in .avi or .mp4 format.

Besides all those things, you can also include some other things (in the appropriate section), such as the result of the last Mayan ball game; the end of the Medina del Campo commercial fair (with important economical benefits this year) or the new painting of  Hieronymus Bosch for the Isabella’s royal collection (“Jardín de las Delicias”). Do you need more ideas and info? Here you have a full list of usefull links:

• Find out: Facts about the Mayans
• The Maya writting system
• Find out: Facts about the Aztecs
• The Aztec pictogramns (writting system)
• Aztec food (including chocolate & recipes!)
• Find out: Facts about the Incas

Let’s start with some help... In the following document you can learn about the steps of filming a movie and its technical aspects, such as types of shoots (planos) and camera’s angles.

When finish, send the video (and any extra material that you have created) to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es (if the file is too big, remember that you can use wetransfer.com).

As usual, this activity is mandatory; remember that if you don’t do it, or you do it out of time, the mark for this activity will be 0.

Be creative and enjoy the activity. Good luck! :)