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  • 1.  Scenes in Spanish

    Posted 02-08-2022 17:24
    Hello Fellow educators!  I have a sweet 6th grader with minimal English language skills. He sits with a bilingual student. I would like to give them a short scene with Spanish and English. Know of anything appropriate?  All the resources I have found are for high school and up.

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    Lesley Ruzon
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  • 2.  RE: Scenes in Spanish

    Posted 02-09-2022 05:41
    I have the same situation but with a student that only speaks Portuguese. I have been using Google translate to give her things in her own language.

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    Amy MacCord
    Musical Theatre Teacher
    Westwood Middle School
    FL
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  • 3.  RE: Scenes in Spanish

    Posted 02-09-2022 09:10

    Depending on how many billingual students you have, or your population in general, I often have a student translate a scene (or a worksheet or whatever) for me if they finish with something early or ask for extra credit or anything like that. Sometimes I also have them correct it from a google translation. Then at least I know what I'm getting is right and I can talk to them about specific things.

    Based on those conversations, I've been surprised at how good of a job Google Translate does most of the time. You can upload full documents for it to translate pretty well.

    If you're just looking for something one off, or something already done, Theatrefolk has a few of their vignette shows that have been translated to spanish. I've bought copies of the english and spanish so I know what to give them. Depending on how much they care about reading for a male or female part, there's usually something I can give my groups that have or are full of minimal-english speakers.

    The Box by Lindsay Price
    https://www.theatrefolk.com/products/la-caja
    https://www.theatrefolk.com/products/box

    Look me in the Eye
    https://www.theatrefolk.com/products/look-me-in-the-eye
    https://www.theatrefolk.com/products/mirame-en-los-ojos

    Anxiety is Orange
    https://www.theatrefolk.com/products/anxiety-is-orange
    https://www.theatrefolk.com/products/la-ansiedad-es-naranja

    I also have some open scenes (ambigous scenes, contentless scenes, whatever you call them) that I've had my billingual students translate.



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    Andrew Walker
    Osceola High School
    FL
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  • 4.  RE: Scenes in Spanish

    Posted 02-10-2022 13:44
    Lesley, do you have a relationship with a local high school?  Students in upper-level Spanish classes were extremely helpful to me when I needed translations.  Translating a scene would probably be an enjoyable task for a couple of Spanish III or IV students.

    There are scenes written by the Spanish Golden Age writers, such as Lope de Vega and Calderon, in Spanish on gutenberg.org, but I can't imagine those being appropriate or accessible for a 6th grader. 



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    CJ Breland
    Retired Theatre Arts Educator
    NC
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  • 5.  RE: Scenes in Spanish

    Posted 02-11-2022 06:55
    A quick search on Dramatic Publishing with a middle school filter turned up 11 titles (though I'm not sure one really is bilingual):
    https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/browse/bilingual-titles/performing-group/middle-school?m-layered=1

    The only one I've seen is ¡Bocón!, but I've also heard good things about Mariachi Girl, Tomás and the Library Lady, and Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans.  Definitely most of the titles look middle-school-appropriate.  

    I worry sometimes that so many are about immigration and coming from "terrible situations," which is certainly true for some, but also certainly not for all of my Spanish speaking students.  My school is thinking a lot about providing "mirrors" right now ... 

    Some of these titles are more in English than Spanish (and one is not Spanish at all), but combined with the translation options others mention, they could be some good options for scenes for a sixth grader.

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    Kristin Hall
    Pronouns: she/her/hers
    Drama Director
    Lincoln MA
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