 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. Are you afraid that your nutrition classes have lost their zing? Do you sometimes have trouble keeping your participants interested? As an educator, do you feel like you are stuck in a teaching rut? And finally, do you wonder how much your participants are really changing their behavior? Hi, I'm Carrie Bachman, and I'm the coordinator of the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program here at New Mexico State University. I'm also the producer of an exciting video series entitled Long Live La Familia. We've modeled these videos after the Spanish telenovelas, which are so popular on television today. Now, a telenovela is very similar to a soap opera, and so as you might imagine, you won't be finding any stuffy lectures on vitamins here. Instead, these videos will inject interest and lively discussions into your classes. And even if you're not having the problems that I mentioned earlier, you'll still enjoy using the videos with your participants. Let's find out why. Each Long Live La Familia episode depicts a nutrition dilemma faced by a member of the Sierra family. The 10 episodes are individually packaged on their own videos. Each one lasts from 10 to 15 minutes. Now, the videos can be viewed in any sequence, so you're not locked into a rigid format. Every episode is accompanied by its own facilitator guide. The guide includes a complete script of the dialogue of the episode, information about the Sierra family that explains how the episodes relate to each other, descriptions of the New Mexican dishes that are showcased in the episodes, background nutrition information for the educator, and best of all, ideas for leading four types of activities. And I'll talk more about these later. But for now, I'd like to introduce you to the core members of the Sierra family and the 10 episode topics. The family consists of the two parents and their six adult children. We'll start with Grandpa Johnny, who farms chili and pecans in New Mexico. We see him here in the video that deals with nutrition issues faced by seniors. Johnny is married to Grandma Juanita, the Sierra family matriarch. Here she is at the family reunion where food safety is a big concern. Mom, shouldn't those beans be in the refrigerator? No, Mica. No quiero calentar la refrigeradora. I just made them last night. The oldest Sierra child is Vicky. She runs a daycare out of her home and uses the food guide pyramid to help plan the children's meals. Then comes Ricardo, who has left New Mexico for Hollywood and does nothing but work. Working with the stress of cinema is just a problem after another. The third born is Samuel, who is coming to terms with health problems in this video. I'll just have to eat more of this rabbit food. Pass me the ranch. In this next clip, Samuel vents his frustration about his diabetes. No entiendes, Craig. I can't control what I eat. En el trabajo sin darme cuenta me como una caja entera de donas. After Samuel comes Lisa, a single mom doing her best to make ends meet. We can eat something from these leftover beans. In this second clip, she's confused about a date that she's just been on. Pa, did I do something wrong? I was just being myself. The second youngest is Carlotta. She has her hands full as a mother of six and she prides herself on being a smart shopper. That looks good, but at 379 a turn, I don't think so. Están locos. Además, estas salsas nunca pica. Finally, we have Santiago. After the death of his wife, he's finding nutrition a bit confusing. Protein. Well, that's good for you. Protein and candy? Now we've met the eight main characters in the Sierra family. As you noticed, particularly in Grandma's clip, none of our characters are perfect. All of them are facing very real life issues, including diabetes, trying to make ends meet, and growing older. All of this makes the participants identify better with the characters and they're more likely to share their own experiences in class. Another benefit of this approach to the subject matter is that participants identify what they need to know. We, as educators, become facilitators. We don't have to address all of the issues that are brought up in the video. Instead of pouring information into participants' heads, we can really concentrate on what they need to know. As you noticed while watching the clips, each episode includes a mix of Spanish and English. We've intentionally chosen to use words and constructions that are commonly used here in New Mexico. For those of you who don't speak Spanish, the script that comes with the facilitator guide includes translations of all of the Spanish. Every episode is designed to be understandable by both English-only and Spanish-only speakers. Let's take a look at a short clip. Just look at this model. ¡Qué flaca! Quisiera estar así. Joaquín, what are you worried about? Ser tan flaca como ella no es saludable. To me, she looks too thin. Yeah, but guys like thin. Me voy a poner la dieta. I called it for this really cool hamburger diet I saw on TV. ¡Oh! Esa dieta que te deja comer todo la carne que quieras, pero un poquito pan. By constructing the video in this way, we've made it a lot more versatile. When you're teaching a group that includes both English-only and Spanish-only participants, you won't need to show two different videos or find a translator. Also, your monolingual Spanish participants will feel a lot more comfortable participating in class. I'm sure you're getting the idea now that these videos are not of the pop it in and take a break variety. In fact, each episode is broken into three segments, so you have lots of opportunities for interjecting exciting activities and discussions. As you may recall, every facilitator guide includes detailed descriptions of four different types of activities you can conduct specific to each episode's topic. Let's take a look at those four types of activities now. First, we have the hands-on activities. One common type of activity utilizes food models, as we see here in a class on Diabetes where participants are designing their own menus. Another activity uses real food labels. Here, we see participants in the labels class discussing labels on canned beans. Each guide also suggests several food preparation activities. Here, participants in the Kids Can Cook class are making moonballs, a nutritious alternative to candy. Another favorite recipe included in the guides is flour tortillas made here by participants in the Quick Meals class. The telenovela recipes are all quick to repair, delicious and use ingredients that are easily found, including wick and commodity foods. In addition, the recipes are nutritious and we include the diet analysis for you. Finally, all of the telenovela recipes are cheap to prepare. We've costed them out for you and include appropriate comparisons to convenience products. A third type of activity to use with the telenovelas is discussion activities. We suggest that you use large sheets of butcher block paper to lead your discussions. Every facilitator guide includes suggestions for things to look for as participants are watching the episodes. They can then write these things up on the paper. As they get used to the routine, their participation will grow. An added bonus to running discussion in this way is that you have the papers to take back with you to serve as ideas for future classes. Finally, the facilitator guides include suggestions for goal setting activities. At the end of each class, participants can write down goals that they'd like to work toward related to that class topic. When they come back for class the next time, they can report on the progress they've made toward reaching those goals. They can do this in writing or when they become more comfortable, they can also share their progress with other participants. An advantage to using this approach to goal setting is that you get instant feedback as to how participants are doing. It's a great way to help us evaluate our teaching. As you can see, the Long Live La Familia video series can enliven your nutrition classes. By using these videos, you can improve retention of participants, increase behavior change, and re-energize yourself as a nutrition educator. If you'd like more information on how to order these videos, please call 1-888-750-4156 or visit our website at www.leadingobject.com Long Live La Familia! Que viva la Familia Sierra! The preceding was a production of New Mexico State University. The views and opinions in this program are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.