Una maravilla in Spanish means “a marvelous thing”, and so that is how I refer to this series which I use to introduce the people and cultures of Latin America to my students. The presentations use the techniques of Picture Talk, Movie Talk, simplified readings and Write & Discuss. There are demonstration videos included that show how I use these presentations in my own classes.
Poor readers tend not to visualize what they are reading, so the purpose of the first two activities is to create a picture in the minds of students, preparing them for the reading. Do not worry if students do not understand every word of the video; the video prepares them to visualize the reading, which is written to be slightly above their independent reading level. If you follow this with an assessment, base your assessment on the Write & Discuss which reveals what students truly understood. For a detailed description of how these Maravillas are constructed please read the blog post.
The Maravillas are embedded in my online platform. You do not need to download any software, but you will need internet access to use them in class.