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! :)

1º British: Historical comic!

Yes! This is your opportunity to show your creativity because the task for this term is... making an historical comic! In can be done individually or in pairs.

You can choose any historical topic related with the syllabus of this year. The story must be "original" and have at least 12 cartoon panels (viñetas). To do this there are several programs, but I recommend Comic Life.

Comic Life is a very simple program to manage: just select one of the templates (pages with cartoon panels already prepared) and start including photos. And where can you get the photos? Here there are many possibilities: you can search on the Internet images, video games or drawings that are appropriate to the subject; or you can take your own photos by using playmobil... or even dress up yourself!

Once that the photos are in, it is only necessary to insert the balloons (bocadillos) that will collect the texts of the characters: dialogues, screams, thoughts...

You can download the program from softonic, but as it is a demo version it will only be available 30 days. In case you need it, you can rewatch the youtube’s tutorial.

When finish, you must save your comic in .pdf format and send that file to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es. As usual, this work is mandatory and you will have the opportunity or earning an extra mark (1 mark) in your final score.  

After correcting and evaluating your "works of art", I will upload them to the blog so that you can all enjoy them. Ready? Steady? Go! :)

4º British: Spain in the 19th century. Travellers and magazines

In the following link from Instituto Cervantes, you can learn about the vision and impressions that many foreign travellers got though their holidays in Spain. Those authors were mainly from the UK, US, Ireland, Canada and Australia and wrote their works between 1750 and 1950. Maybe it can help you for illustrating your twitter activity... They talked about art, popular culture, costumes, stereotypes, territories, etc. 

Besides, you can also visit the archives website from "El Museo Universal" or "La ilustración española y americana", Spanish magazines published between the second half of the 19th and very first years of 20th centuries, that were sold as "Journal of science, art, literature, industry and useful knowledge" and were full of illustrations depicting various aspects of everyday life in Spain and Latin American countries.

4º British: Industrial Revolution - Video Review

Studying the Industrial Revolution?  Do you need a good video review? If so, check out this 7-minute clip from the CUNY School of Professional Studies called "The Making of Industrial Society", Part 1 that reviews the development of the industrial revolution, meanwhile Part 2 examines Marxism and capitalism.

Sources by WorldHistoryEducatorsBlog

1º British: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The named “Seven Wonders” are linked to ancient creations that rivaled in their size, majesty, and beauty.

Ancient civilization constructed some incredible architectural masterpieces. Even when six of the seven wonders no longer stand, having been destroyed by natural disaster or by humans, these wonders continue to amaze our present day historians and archaeologists. Your task will be to share information with the class concerning these ancient wonders.

These is a double-task activity that can be done individually or in pairs:

First: Choose your favourite Wonder  and complete a card guide for it (you can do it with ppt but do not forget to print it into PDF. In any case, it would be much better to use Sway or Prezi! and send me the link by email).  Data you HAVE TO include (please, notice that your information should be as complete as possible, such as the answers in an exam):

a) Name & Location (map, if possible)

b) Author (if known) or Civilization 

c) Year (or century)
d) Motive (Why was it build?)
e) Complete description (and images) 

f)  Why did you choose it as the best one?

You can start by visiting the following image...

... or watching these youtube's video here and here.

Second: Speak! Turn yourself into an historian and teach us all you know about your choosen wonder! Give us a live mini-conference in our classroom. Of course, if you are doing the task in pairs, ALL the members of the team HAVE TO talk. Cooperation and the use of appropiate vocabulary will be also keep in mind. 

When finish, send an email with the file (or the link to your presentation) attached file to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es. 

This work will be part of the score at the end of the term. As usual, if you fail to finish them or you give it out of date, the mark will be a 0 for this work. 

Enjoy the work and good luck! 

3º British: VideoScribe

Your new task this year is to create a videoscribe presentation! 

VideoScribe is a software tool quite easy and intuitive to work with; By visiting its website, you can download a 7-daysFREE version, that should be enough for your task. In case of technical issues, you can also try to download it in softonic.com or using any other similar tool, such as the ones from the following image (but remember that a free version would be enough for an educational purpose and you do not need to pay for a professional suscription):

You can read some basic instructions in this link (in Spanish). It is really easy, you only need to be a bit patient meanwhile the software compile your instructions...

You can do it individually or in groups (maximum 4 people) but in that case ALL members of the group have to speak in the video.

Your videoscribe must talk about Primary sector. Further more, you have to choose ONE of the following topics and explain it into the video. As you can see, there are some additional useful links in each case to start your research about the issue:

• Option A. Vineyard cultivation in France (Global production / map)
• Option B. Cocoa cultivation in Ghana (Sustanaible Cocoa farming / Ghana business news)
• Option C. Tulip flower cultivation in Netherlands (Tulip Festival / Video)

These are the basic technical requirements:

• The final product should last between 5 and 8 minutes.
• At the end of the video, you should include the author’s credits (your names!).
• The video must be in .avi or .mp4 format (compatible with Windows & Android). How? First option is sending the file by email by using wetransfer.com (it's free, easy and fast); the second option is to upload the file to your Youtube's channel (it will convert the file into a correct video format, slowly but automatically) and send me the link by email. 
• Remember the email: acarriles@educa.jcyl.es

This activity is mandatory; remember that, as usual, 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! :)

4º British: Create your Historical Newspaper!

Imagine that you are living in London in the year 1914... 

Your new task is to create the front page of a newspaper.

Choose one template from this zip file (all the templates are in word format), choose a name and... complete it with the monthly news that you consider more remarkable (you can use the examples of this list or search for other real events that happened in 1914 in any part of the world). And something the that you would find very useful: the BBC I World War Archives!

You HAVE TO include a minimum of 4 different pieces of news and 1 advertisement (historically accurate to that year). Besides, there must be at least 2 illustrations (a drawing, an engraving...) and 2 primary sources (eg. Extract from a real speech of a politician or a real satirical cartoon from that year)

You can do this activity by your onw or in pairs. When finish, please convert it to PDF format and send it as attached file to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es. The deadline is Thursday, 10 February

This work is mandatory and will be part of the score at the end of the term. If you fail to finish it, do it out of date, or just copy&paste from a webpage, the mark will be a 0 for this work.

Be creative and enjoy it!

On the image: Newspaper seller 

(The Star was published in Londom from 1788 to 1960)