When I was in high school, the series Extr@ had just come out and I have vivid memories of watching it in both my French and Spanish classes. My classmates and I loved it, so much so in fact, that Sam even made it onto our French Club t-shirts! Now, over 15 years later, my colleague and I watch Extr@ every spring with our Spanish 2 students. Honestly, every year I get a little nervous and think “This will be the year when kids don’t like the show anymore,” but every year I know I was wrong when I hear them laughing and talking about the characters and story. Yes, the show is dated, but my students can actually understand it! And what’s more, they become invested and want to know what happens next! It is hard not to be sucked in when everyone else around you has bought in and embraced the silliness.
By the time spring rolls around, my students and I all need a change of pace, which is why I show Extr@ in April and May. Each week we watch one episode, usually on Fridays so it gives the students something to look forward to. Since I don’t show the series until the end of Spanish 2, my students already know the majority of the vocabulary, so the series serves as a review. We always watch the series in Spanish with Spanish subtitles, so my students are focused on input rather than just reading English subtitles. After each episode I usually ask students to summarize what happened with 5 sentences in the preterite, using this basic summary sheet. Also, depending on time, I ask them to have small group conversations centered around questions like ¿Quién es tu personaje favorito? ¿Por qué?. I do not assess my students on Extr@, rather I see it as an opportunity for them to see how much Spanish they know and realize they can watch series in Spanish and enjoy them!
I’ve had to change my use of Extr@ this year since my school is doing remote instruction. Thankfully, you can find all the episodes on YouTube with a variety of subtitle options. I chose to use this playlist because they have Spanish subtitles. In the past I’ve shared this playlist with my students so they can rewatch or catch up on episodes they miss. I could have just shared the playlist with my students this year, however I wanted to add an accountability piece, which is how I decided to use Edpuzzle.
The concept of Edpuzzle is pretty simple, you search for videos from YouTube or other sites either by name or URL, and then add them to your Content. Once you’ve done that, you can trim the video and add voiceover and questions throughout. For episodes of Extr@ I inserted multiple choice questions throughout the episodes to clarify vocabulary or main plot points. I decided to use multiple choice questions because I wanted the questions to be quick check-ins throughout the episode that provide students with instant feedback. For every question I added the “feedback” option so I could tell the students what the correct answer was and why. This way they knew everything they needed before continuing with the episode. To check overall understanding I also added a question at the end of the episodes where students rate their understanding of the episode and another where students can give me feedback about what would make the episode easier to understand. As a teacher, I love that I can choose to see each individual student’s responses or break the results down by question. Edpuzzle also has a gradebook option so I can see each student’s score from each episode, so it is easy to keep track of who is completing them and who isn’t!
So far, the response from my students has been phenomenal! They are completing the Edpuzzles the first day they are assigned, most of them are getting almost every question right and they feel like they are understanding the plot and dialogue really well! I am also excited that I will have this resource ready to use in future years for absent students or for those that want to rewatch an episode.
You can see my Edpuzzle videos here.
For more ideas about how to use Extr@, check out this Facebook group .
