After two years of wanting to include some sort of TV show in my upper levels, I finally did it! About 3 weeks ago, my Spanish 4 students started watching Diec18cho, a limited series on RTVE, and we are all hooked! My teacher dream has come true: they are ASKING for more content, hooray!

I had been dragging my feet a bit on choosing a show. All summer, I thought about it. I spent lots and LOTS of time looking for a show that clicked with me. Go! Vive tu manera, Entrelazados, Tierra Incógnita, all three popular shows in Spanish classrooms just made me cringe (sorry!). Too cheesy and not for me… during the summer I fell asleep watching all of them! I would be interested in Gran Hotel, but don’t have access to the show in any way. Thus, I was hesitant to start a series with students that I myself wasn’t excited about showing.

I considered going really slowly with Ministerio del tiempo, but after watching a bit I knew that 1) I’d probably get fired if I showed this (my school is conservative) and 2) the Spanish level was linguistically tough. However, thankfully after that weekend of feeling so defeated, I stumbled upon Diec18cho. Gold!

The synopsis of Diec18cho is pretty simple: it’s set in modern day Spain, Valencia, to be exact. It focuses on a (White) teen girl, Célia, who committed a crime (I won’t spoil what it was) and a Moroccan, Arabic speaking immigrant teen boy, Moha. Their worlds collide and combine for a bit, making for a beautiful, yet challenging story about love, friendship, and identity.

There is so much engaging content here to discuss with teens: classism, racism, immigration, homeless-ness, cultural differences, etc. I teach at a Christian school, so naturally my question to students throughout this series is: how do we truly love all neighbors (not just the ones we choose to call our neighbors)? Tough question, I know, for us as a society right now.

I also am aware that ACTFL’s standards require me to encourage students to examine diverse cultural perspectives. Check, check, check!

Now, if you watch this series through, you will see that not all parts of the series are school appropriate. Most of the show is totally fine, but there are a few scenes that I knew I’d have to skip, however, I was prepared to get kids filled in on the necessary things they missed. I even edited the trailer in edpuzzle (haha) because I couldn’t show the trailer as is! I also give a heads up for a “lisura” here or there or “un dedo malo.” You know your context better than I do, so be sure to preview, preview, preview! I will be soon posting what I did for Episode 1 (and will be sharing resources as I make them!), so stay tuned (or subscribe if you’re up for it. I don’t blog often because life is so busy, but I’m going to try to post for every episode!