A tea party is an interactive experience and the perfect way to hook your students on any novel, show or story that has several characters before beginning to read (or watch) it. I first learned about doing a tea party from Rita Barrett at AATSP and was charmed off the bat, as I’m sure you will be too! I would be much better letting you read about it from Rita herself in this guest appearance on Sra. Chase’s blog.
Since we were about to start watching a telenovela on NBC.com called Silvana sin lana, I thought a tea party would be a perfect way to introduce it to them – and I was right! Since these are my IB Spanish students, I really didn’t want to have an English name for the activity. I chose to call it a tertulia, since it seemed like it fit best.
I first had to create the cards for my students to assume an identity. On one side was an image and name and on the back was a description in Spanish of them and how they are connected to others. This took me the most time because there are so many characters in Silvana sin lana. Usually there aren’t so many characters in a book.
Each student receives an identity. They are to read their card so thoroughly they practically memorize it. I also have them fill out the top of this sheet with the information about their character before starting. This gives them time to ruminate, “become” their character and get ready to meet the crew! They will NOT be reading from this sheet during the speaking part, but filling it out helps them remember the information about their character.
When everyone was ready, we went over the instructions for the tertulia on slide 3 of this slideshow originally created by Rita Barrett.
They must speak only Spanish and look their classmates in the eye. They will introduce themselves and make small talk to learn more about one another’s characters. I *always* have kids who think they can sit and let everyone come to them any time we do a speaking activity, but that is not allowed!
Then they were ready to go! They were to display their character so others could see the face/name, but they should not have to read their card anymore, nor were they to show it to anyone. I did not have them this time, but bought badges on lanyards for $20 on Amazon to use next time and am excited to try it that way! I like them being able to be “hands free” with their character card and display their name/photo for the other members of the tertulia. It kind of reads like a name tag at a mixer, which I love.
I’ll bet you’d like to see it in action! Here is some footage of my students from last year. Their Spanish is far from perfect, but they were really getting into it and discovering the connections their characters had to one another!
UPDATE:
I used the badges I bought and they were so fun – really made it feel more authentic and let the kids be hands free displaying their picture and name. I’m including some more video here with the badges.
Will you try it? Let me know what you think!
Storytime con Sra. Jensen 
Hola Theresa!
I absolutely love the Tea Party (Tertulia) idea. I’ll be reading Caras Vemos soon with my Spanish 3 class, and I’d really appreciate your advice. I have 25 students, and since the book has only a few characters, I’m wondering how you would adapt the activity for a larger group. Also, do you happen to have an audio version of the book? I have a student with dyslexia, and it would be wonderful to offer them extra support.
Thank you so much for your work!
Mariem
P.S. I posted this when I clicked comment, but I am not sure if it went through. I hope it will not be repeated
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Mariem, thanks so much for your comments! You are honestly making it clear to me it’s time to update my Caras vemos teacher’s guide! I DO have Caras vemos in audiobook form, which I will share with you via email (pretty sure I have your email). I also have created a few other visual aids for a couple chapters which I will share as well. I might work on a tertulia/tea party for Caras vemos – will keep you posted!
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Theresa,
Yay, this is wonderful news! I already have the teacher’s guide, and I’m excited to listen to the audiobook and explore the visual aids. I really hope the Tertulia/Tea Party comes to life—let me know if there’s anything I can do to help make it happen. 😉
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