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Lola y las mascotas: novice-level cultural exploration about pets

Recently I participated in an AATSP event about creativity and joy in our courses, and it was such a fun evening to learn from others (lots of great games, which I loved!) and also share a few ideas. When I was thinking about what idea I might share for the event to spark a bit of joy in the classroom, I immediately thought of the Twitter account @LolaAventuras for Lola from Sésamo. Lola's Twitter is full of color, smiles, nostalgia, and novice-friendly topics. Lots of joy and opportunities to be creative!


One of the ideas I shared at that event was using Lola's tweets for cultural investigation. This week, we talked about pets in the first-semester course I teach--another topic that brings me joy! 

My family's Mini Schnauzer, Gracie!

We did a little cultural exploration about pets using a few of Lola's tweets and the responses she received from her followers. In the tweets, Lola asks about her follower's favorite pets and for them to share photos with their favorite furry friends. 







Using ACTFL's 3 Ps framework for culture (products, practices, and perspectives), I focused the task that I wanted students to complete with the tweets:  
  • Cultural products: What pets are mentioned in the tweets? 
  • Cultural practices: How do people talk about their pets in the tweets? 
  • Cultural perspectives: What is the attitude of the people who tweeted toward their pets? What role do their pets have in their lives? 
Here is the graphic organizer that students used to learn about the cultural products, practices, and perspectives in the tweets. If you want to use this activity, please feel free to make a copy of the Google doc here. 


After students completed the graphic organizer, we debriefed as a class on some of their findings. 

We observed that most of the responses talked about dogs and cats, which matches another source that students read explaining that the most popular pets in Mexico are dogs and cats. 

We also made a list together as a class of the frases de cariño that students observed: 
  • mi bebé
  • amo a…
  • gatito and perrito (with the -ito ending)
  • parte de nuestra familia
  • favorito/a
  • mi mejor amiga
  • gathijas (gato + hijas) 

Finally, I gave students three options to choose from for the cultural perspective represented in the tweets: 
  • Las mascotas son buenas para ayudar (help) con el trabajo, pero no viven en la casa. 
  • Las mascotas son como miembros de la familia. 
  • Las mascotas son como guías (guides) espirituales.
I also tried to emphasize that this is the perspective represented among the people who responded to these tweets in order to avoid broad generalizations about the role of pets in Mexico. 

Overall, this was a really fun activity! I gave students some time to work in small groups to do this activity, and I loved hearing students' reactions as they were reading the tweets--lots of reactions like "Oh, that dog is so cute!", "Aaaaw!", etc. Truly a joy-filled class! Please let me know if you try it out and/or if you find ways to improve this activity! 





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