Ruth Hoff: Using Environmental Justice and Freshwater Resources — Spanish Adaptation at Wittenberg University

Unit 1

• I followed the order of activities as indicated but I ended up covering the material over two days instead of one. This allowed for more time to discuss the PowerPoint material, gave students additional time with the "Comparison of definitions," and allowed us to complete the two optional activities in the assessment section. These two optional activities really helped clarify the distinctions between different definitions of environmental justice.
• At the end of Day 1, I assigned the "comparison of definitions" activity and the "minute paper" as homework with follow-up discussions the next class period.
• Toward the end of class on Day 2, I introduced the homework assignment for Unit 2 (La huella del agua) so that students were clear about the instructions and goals for the activity.
• On Day 2, we also spent time introducing a new grammar topic with practice and explanations from our grammar textbook. Whenever possible I would bring back the grammar practice to the context of the module. In the case of this particular grammar lesson, distinguishing between "ser" and "estar" offered opportunities to practice defining terms such as environmental justice and the vocabulary in subsequent units ("ser") vs. conditions ("estar") and locations of the environment, water, etc.

Unit 2

• We completed the activities from Unit 2 in one class period quite comfortably.
• I opted not to do the optional additional activity for longer classes.
• Students estimated their water consumption for the "water footprint" exercise with varying degrees of care and accuracy. Even so, they were intrigued by the numbers. Informal comparisons and discussions in class raised awareness about their personal water use in the context of US and global averages. Due to time limitations, I found it helpful to focus on the bigger picture with rough estimates for personal water use rather than getting too caught up in exact calculations. I believe it is also important to not overly "shame" anyone about their water consumption in class. I tried to avoid this by having students share results with small groups and then volunteer responding to questions as we talked as an entire class.
• The pair work to label the water cycle and describe the terms went very well. Students were sufficiently familiar with the components illustrated in the water cycle diagram and able to recognize many Spanish-English cognates from the list of terms, which enabled them to successfully identify and describe much of the illustration. Any gaps were filled in (often by individual students) during the class follow-up discussion with the PowerPoint images.

Unit 3

• The concepts in this unit proved to be challenging for students. I spread the activities out over two days to provide more time for students to both clarify and absorb the material. On Day 1, we stopped at the end of the gallery walk and I assigned as homework the question "Why do some dams cause more flooding than others?" making available the corresponding Google Earth files. I also assigned the assessment questions as homework. Day 2 we continued with the rest of the activities and discussion of the homework for this unit. This also gave me time to review grammar concepts introduced earlier.
• When assigning the "pre-class" activity, it would be helpful to introduce the illustration at the top of the page. Some students had difficulty imagining it in three dimensions or understanding which direction the river is flowing. Pointing out the elevation of the surrounding hills and that the blue river in the center is flowing toward the bottom of the page should help them better visualize this image. The investigation of terms which follows is designed to help them better understand watershed components so it is important when introducing the image to not provide too much detail.
• Students responded very positively to the image comparisons of the Grand Canyon and the Marañón River as well as the material on the asháninka.

Unit 4

• My students were captivated by the events and circumstances which culminated in the political protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2000. For the context and significance of these actions to really come alive, however, they needed to see the film También la lluvia. The emotional drama of the film enabled them to more fully comprehend the value of their previous work on rain shadows and various models of supplying freshwater. I highly recommend setting aside time to show this film as an extension of the materials for this unit. Because we included the film, we covered this unit over two days of discussions plus a writing assignment tied to the film.
• For the jigsaw activity to succeed, it is critical that students complete the pre-class activity carefully. Since access to the Google Earth files is a fundamental part of the assignment, students should either be familiar with Google Earth and/or they should be given alternative access to the activities. As much as I tried to prepare my students for this assignment, inevitably, some students would not be able to access some or all of the activities through Google Earth. The video interview embedded in one of the place markers seemed to work for some students and not for others. I highly recommend making the text, images and links provided for instructors available to students as a back-up if they have trouble accessing the activities through Google Earth.
• Covering this unit in two class periods also gave us time for grammar practice. In this case, we were working on possessives which we tied directly to the Cochabamba water war protest slogan "El agua es nuestra carajo."

Unit 5

• My students responded well to the striking visual images, compelling cultural perspectives, and controversial legal history of the Chevron-Texaco case study. We covered the material over two days to provide extra time for the assessment activity and a mock trial as described in the "Teaching Notes and Tips." The mock trial offers excellent oral practice for students and also brings out many issues related to environmental justice.
• The science concepts of soil permeability and water table levels were received well initially but students struggled to apply these concepts to the assessment activity. I would recommend presenting and discussing the PowerPoint slides that address these concepts on Day 1 and then allowing students to start their discussion of the assessment activity in small groups with the understanding that they will be able to spend more time on the activity as a homework assignment. I believe that making the PowerPoint slides accessible as part of their homework allows students to revisit the unit ideas at their own pace and rethink the assessment activity at home. Day 2 allows for follow-up small group and in-class discussion of this assignment.

Unit 6

• We completed the material for this unit in one class period.
• Some students were more successful than others in finishing the pre-class activity primarily due to technical difficulties with the website or their own lack of familiarity with working with data in this format. When assigning the small group discussion of this activity, I arranged it so every group had at least one student with a printout of their findings. The next time I teach this, I may do a walk-through demonstration of the activity in class before assigning it. I may also create some of my own printouts for comparison purposes.