Enrich your students' cultural immersion and language learning through videos, news articles, and songs.
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As a world language teacher, you know that teaching a new language can be a rewarding but challenging experience. You have much to juggle and coordinate, from preparing lessons and materials to evaluating student progress!
Fortunately, tools and resources are available to help make your job more manageable, and iCulture is one of them. You can use this multimedia toolbox to curate high-quality content in the target language, so you can focus on what only you can do: helping your students reach their proficiency goals with personalized attention and passion.
iCulture is a comprehensive library of multimedia cultural content, including videos, articles, songs, and more, all related to the cultures and countries where the target language is spoken. And the best part? It's constantly updated, so you'll always have access to the latest and greatest cultural content.
With iCulture, you'll have everything you need to make cultural learning an integral part of your language instruction. Each piece of content comes with various activities designed to provide opportunities for your students to practice and extend their language skills. Whether they're writing prompts, discussions, or interactive quizzes, these activities encourage your students to actively engage with the cultural content and apply their language skills in meaningful ways.
Available for Spanish, French, and German, iCulture is one part of a comprehensive language learning journey, offering ample opportunities for language input in a cultural context.
With iCulture, you can help your students engage with cultures in the target language to build interculturality and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their role in the world.
Why use iCulture as a teacher to save time and simplify your job? Here are the top five reasons to get iCulture for your classroom:
iSongs is a powerful tool teachers can use in their world language classrooms to help students improve their listening, speaking, and reading skills in the target language. The collection of classic and contemporary songs provides a wide range of genres and periods, allowing students to experience the diversity of the culture and language they are learning. And they’ve all been expertly curated, so you don’t have to worry about explicit words or themes in the lyrics, saving you hours of vetting time!
Teachers can use iSongs in the classroom by incorporating them into listening and speaking activities. The karaoke format of the songs allows students to sing along, which helps to improve their pronunciation and intonation in the target language. The thematic prompts included with the songs can be used as a basis for conversation and discussion, helping to build students' vocabulary and fluency.
iSongs can also be used as a reading comprehension tool. The lyrics in the target language and the difficult words and phrases identified in the karaoke versions allow students to practice their reading skills and understand the language and culture of the country or region where the language is spoken.
Teachers can also use these songs in a writing exercise, asking students to analyze the lyrics, themes, and context. They can compare and contrast these with their native language or songs in the collection, promoting intercultural understanding.
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The use of current events in the target language in the world language classroom can be beneficial for various reasons. For one, news articles in the target language expose students to real-life examples of the language in a relevant and timely context, helping them gain better comprehension and reading fluency. Students can also learn about the culture and society of the target country by discussing current events in the target language.
News articles about different places and regions can give students a unique perspective and introduce different customs. By doing so, they gain a deeper understanding of the target language and culture, which is valuable both inside and outside the classroom.
But how much time does it take to regularly find news articles that are level-appropriate and interesting to students? If you're doing it manually, the answer is too much time. With iCulture, hundreds of usable articles are a click away.
iNews within iCulture is an excellent resource for students to engage with current events in the world language classroom—and build speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. One way students can use iNews is by reading the Basic version of a news article and completing the comprehension-based activities included. The activities include answering questions about the article's main idea, details, and vocabulary. Students can work individually or in small groups to complete these activities, which will help them better understand the article and its current event.
As a language educator, you know how hard it can be to uncover interesting and genuine materials to use in your classes. That's why the iVideos from iCulture are so useful! They provide a wide selection of content, from mini-documentaries and skits to cooking videos delivered by native speakers of the language you're teaching..png)
One of the biggest benefits of using iVideos in your classroom is that they provide students with authentic language exposure. Hearing the target language spoken by native speakers is crucial for language development. These videos allow students to listen to the language spoken in various contexts and with different accents, which can be especially beneficial for students who may not have the opportunity to interact with native speakers outside of the classroom.
Another great thing about iVideos is that they offer a wide range of topics and formats. Whether you're teaching Spanish, French, or German, you'll find videos that align with your curriculum and interests. The cooking videos, for example, can be used as a fun way to teach vocabulary related to food and cooking. In contrast, mini-documentaries can be used to introduce students to different cultures and historical events. And the skits can be used to teach the language interactively and to practice interpretive and interpersonal skills.
Lastly, by using iVideos, you can also save time and energy; you can use them as a warm-up, a break, or a closure for the class, and you will be able to use them to review the language and concepts already seen.
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Virtual tours, such as those provided by iPassport, are valuable in the world language classroom because they vibrantly bring faraway places and cultures to life without your students leaving their seats. Students gain a deeper understanding of the culture, geography, customs, and landmarks by watching footage of actual locations narrated by native speakers. Even better, iPassport’s virtual tours include activities like comprehension checks and internet research prompts, so your students actively engage with the content and improve their language skills.
Using iPassport in the classroom can also help overcome traditional language instruction's limitations. For example, it can be difficult for students to experience the target culture firsthand because of financial or logistical constraints. iPassport's virtual tours provide an alternative way for students to immerse themselves in the culture and gain a deeper understanding of it.
Students who don’t respond well to traditional forms of instruction may also benefit from using iPassport virtual tours in the classroom since those who need extra support with reading or vocabulary can benefit from transcripts in the target language with definitions for difficult words and phrases.
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You've found the perfect song, video, or news article to use in your classroom: it's in the right language, covers a topic your students are interested in, and doesn't need to be reviewed since it's appropriate for school. Then you realize that you need to build an accompanying activity since your students finished the built-in activity too quickly, or you feel that they need reinforcement. iCulture's graphic organizers can help with that.
These customizable downloadable activities, ranging from a mind map to a flowchart, provided in iCulture can be extremely beneficial for both educators and students. These graphic organizers allow you to easily incorporate engaging and interactive materials into your lesson plans, expand current knowledge, and even open a gateway for deeper discussions.
For students, the customizable graphic organizers in iCulture can provide a variety of opportunities for learning and growth. Using graphic organizers can help students structure, organize, and retain their ideas and thoughts. Also, graphic organizers help students to construct their own visual representation, shifting the intellectual responsibility to them, leaving room for more independent, targeted learning, and actively engaging with the material, stimulating critical thinking and creativity.
Whether through a Venn diagram or t-chart, iCulture’s graphic organizers make your job easier when fostering a more dynamic and meaningful language learning experience for your students.
Whether you're looking to save time, personalize learning, or enhance engagement, using technology in the language classroom can help simplify your workload and improve student outcomes. iCulture provides a wealth of tools and resources to assist you in planning and implementing effective lessons and assessments and tracking student progress.
Want to experience iCulture? We'd love to give you a tour! Let our team and software take on the heavy lifting so you can be the teacher you want to be. Learn more about iCulture when you request a demo of World Language Immersion, which also includes a library of eReaders.
A former Spanish teacher who is currently based in the Washington DC metropolitan area. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Language and Literature from la Universidad del Zulia and a Master's degree in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her interests include SEL education in the world language classroom, theater, and finding ways to make the world a less scary place.
Explore more related to this authorWith iCulture, you can help your students engage with cultures in the target language to build interculturality and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their role in the world.
Natalia Álvarez-Morillo, Spanish Teacher
