The Garcia Romeros

The Garcia Romero’s is a nice family living in Valladolid, a beautiful city in central Spain. The father, Jose Garcia, is a tall, dark haired, friendly character who works at a famous winery. He is married to Teresa, a beautiful woman, with dark eyes and light hair, a teacher of Primary Education. Joseph and Teresa have three children: Susanna, Rebecca and Juan. The eldest, Susan, is 24 years old, she’s a sociologist and works in a NGO dedicated to attending immigrants. Rebecca, a beautiful girl with big dark eyes, is 19 years old and studies Marine Sciences in the Canary Islands The joy of the house is John, a mischievous 11 years old boy who dreams of becoming a great football player. The oldest member of the family is Mary, Teresa's mother, a tender and funny woman who is loved by everyone, especially Juan, for his kind nature (and delicious desserts). We will learn, little by little more about the vicissitudes of each one of the members of the Garcia Romero's as we follow them in their daily life. Along them, we will have the opportunity to learn different aspects of language, Spanish culture and society.

The Project

This project, "The Garcia Romero," is a joint effort of the Fundación para la Difusión de la Lengua y la Cultura Española and the University of Valladolid to provide materials to teachers of Spanish as a foreign language or second language to practice the main concepts and functions which are commonly taught in A-1 and A-2 levels classes according to the Plan Curricular of the Cervantes Institute.

The project includes 20 units; the index can be displayed in "Teaching Units". For each one of them there is a presentation on a specific topic introducing a situation experienced by a model family, specially created, and a with a wide variety of materials to practice such as : listening exercises, reading, writing, games and songs, which vary according to the contents presented. The reading texts are sometimes linked to actual news published on the Foundation's own website and the media. The writing exercises in the "diaries" are published so that all users can use them.

In its first stage, materials are only available for teachers and students of the institutions participating in the project, listed in the "Members Project" list after the test phase, other centers may adhere to it and become registered users. This possibility will be announced before hand and through the electronic news letter on the Site and the electronic newsletter of the Foundation.

This project has been possible thanks to a grant received from the Economic Development Agency of Castile and Leon.

The aims of the project objectives are:

Provide pleasant and diversified materials for on-line practice of concepts and functions presented by teachers in class.
Enable students to use the acquired knowledge independently and at their own pace.
Submit information about life in Spain, especially in Castile and Leon.
Provide a forum where students can share their impressions users, information and questions.

In advance, thank users, teachers and students participating in the project. We welcome your opinions and suggestions at this email: textos@fundacionlengua.es

Description of the material 

The material prepared for this project is not intended to replace textbooks or the education provided by the teacher in the classroom.

This material is intended to support the content being presented in the classroom through the teacher's explanations and the use of printed materials.

The material is divided into 20 units. Each unit contains the following sections:

Presentation of the material

This text presents the situation developed in the unit. The material is used as a reading comprehension. It includes a multiple choice exercise at the end of the text. This online exercise is automatically corrected.

A familiar scene

It's an animation featuring the Garcia Romero’s' characters It includes a narrative showing the time the scene developed and the dialogues between the different characters. These conversations are subtitled.

Interactive games

It offers different types of games: "Turn the cards" is a memory game to practice the vocabulary used in the "Family Scene," the blog game is linked to the sections "Juan's blog" and "Practice from home " materials can be downloaded and printed.

Things to consider:

Grammar presented in the unit. There are exercises to practice this grammar content. There are self-correcting online exercises and print materials to download

Juan's Blog

This is a blog created by Juan, the Garcia Romero's youngest, in which he recounts his impressions of the situation experienced in the unit. It provides extensive cultural information, complete with materials that can viewed or listen online, some of which can be downloaded for use in class or at home. These recordings are comprised of interviews, reports and television news, press releases and other, illustrating the contents referred by John.

Audiovisual materials will be added gradually from unit 6. To access them, simply click on the words appearing in light blue.
Students can write their comments to Juan's notes and see them published in real time. As any other blog, it can also be commented and responded through messages sent by other users.

Didactic Units 

Didactic Units 

Unit 1
Christmas

Concordance
The Present Indicative

Holidays

Unit 2
The House

Be / There
Reflexive Verbs

Housing in Spain

Unit 3
The city

The Present Continuous: be + gerund
The Immediate Future: going to + infinitive

Cities

Unit 4
Work

The Demonstratives
The Present Perfect

The Workplace

Unit 5
Education

The Past Simple

The Educational System

Unit 6
Let's Go Shopping

Pseudo-impersonal Verbs 
Comparisons

Shopping in Spain

Unit 7
At the Restaurant

Imperatives

The Mediterranean Diet

Unit 8
At the Doctor’s

The Past Perfect

Spanish Health System

Unit 9
The end-of-year trip

Using the Past Tense

The Peoples of Spain

Unit 10
The Travel Agency

Give instructions: must / have to / must

Tourism

Unit 11
At the Airport

Prepositions

Transport

Unit 12
The Hotel

Direct Object Pronouns and Indirect Object Pronouns. 

Types of Tourist Accommodation

Unit 13
At the Tourist Office

Ser and Estar

The Festivals of Spain

UNIT 14
Let's take care of the Planet

Relatives, Interrogatives and exclamatory pronouns

The Environment

UNIT 15
A New Friend: Hassan

Adverbs and adverbial phrases

Stories and Games for kids

Unit 16
A Shared World

The Simple Sentence

Latin America

Unit 17
The Birthday

Subordinated Sentences Indicative Substantives 

Family Celebrations in Spain

Unit 18
Festivities

Indicative Relative Sentences

The World of the Bulls

Unit 19
Sports

Adverbial Subordination 1

Football and Sports

Unit 20
Love

Adverbial Subordination 2

Men and Women: Topics