One way I practice the future tense is with the game MASH. It is a game I have fond memories playing growing up and many of my students are familiar with. By the end my students are always laughing about the futures that have been created for them while using the targeted future tense. I set aside about 45 minutes to complete this entire activity because I don’t want to rush the steps or run out of time for the interpersonal portion. The first step is having students write in 4 options for each of the categories. Since the letters of MASH don’t translate well into Spanish, I really just…
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Cielo grande in the Spanish classroom
Last year, I started to look for a new series to show my Spanish 4 students. I was looking for something that came from Latin America since there is a Spanish series shown in Spanish 5. After trying out a few different ones, I found Netflix’s Cielo grande, also known as Secrets of Summer in English. The series takes place at a struggling Argentinian hotel that the characters are working hard to keep from closing. To bring in more income they’ve reinstated their summer wakeboarding competition and are reopening their karaoke bar. One of the wakeboarders coming to compete is also there searching for secrets about her past. The first…
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Guided Grammar Notes
While I don’t often give verb conjugation assessments or assessments where students have to choose the correct verb tense, I want them to know how to form verbs in each tense and when to use each one. So many students benefit from having that information and want to have a place to keep track of their thoughts on a verb tense. In recent years, I’ve been using guided notes sheets for my students. We don’t have a textbook at my school so these packets of notes become their text book and provide us with a common reference point. I create skeleton notes for students and then a matching Google presentation…
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Vidas paralelas
If you haven’t seen the video Vidas paralelas, watch it here first. You might even need to watch it again, just to make sure you don’t miss anything. Now, after you’ve maybe felt a strong wave of emotions, let’s talk about what an awesome video it is for students! Not only is this an authentic resource, but it is a beautifully put together video that challenges stereotypes and our preconceived notions. My favorite part is when my students realize the ending of María and Sofía’s stories, it is one of those lightbulb moments we teachers dream of. Originally when I found this video I was searching for videos for my…
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Create Your Own Room with Jamboard
This jamboard activity is similar to my virtual paper dolls, but is focused on household furniture and prepositions of place. I use it as a review of prepositions of place and furniture vocabulary with my Spanish 3 students. I focused on the basic furniture from their vocabulary list and made all the furniture available on every frame. However, you could make separate jamboards just focusing on the bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc. Although I recommend you use .png images so the images don’t have a background. I wanted my students to choose from all the available vocabulary which is why I put it all together. There is also a…
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Online Student Support Documents
I never thought I would teach fully online Spanish classes, but then a friend connected me with an online education company and my school district needed online teachers. Both programs come with pre-made curriculums, so my role is to grade and provide feedback and support. The self-paced independence that comes with fully online learning is so great for certain students, but it can be hard to get them to actually engage with the language and culture. So I’ve considered it my goal to get them using the language as much as I can. This has meant that I’ve made adjustments to the programs I use, I rearranged materials so I…
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Virtual Paper Dolls
During hybrid instruction, when my clothing unit began I wanted my students to practice this vocabulary and colors, but wasn’t sure what the best option was since I couldn’t use my whiteboards. I thought of the idea for virtual paper dolls early on and eventually motivated myself to do it and the results are pretty cool! I used Jamboard because I wanted to see all the students’ progress in one place and only have one link to share. Jamboards only allow 20 frames though, so depending on class size you might need two. When creating the “doll” I quickly discovered that I couldn’t use the actual outline of a person…
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Día de los Muertos and Sugar Skulls
When I became the Spanish Club advisor, I wanted to do something different to celebrate Day of the Dead. My students spent a lot of time learning about Day of the Dead in Spanish 1 and even created digital ofrendas. But for Spanish Club I wanted something unique from what we did in our classes, something that students could create. So I decided to try the sugar skull molds from teacher’s discovery. Before the meeting, I used the molds with candy melts to make fun colored treats for my students. I also enlisted the help of my Spanish 5 students to create the sugar skulls with me, so they had…
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Beginning of Year Spanish Grammar Review
After the ups and downs of the last year and half, I wanted to provide my students with some resources they can use to review verb conjugations and tenses from last year. While we still introduced a lot of the normal course themes, they just didn’t get the same in class practice with the tenses so they need some additional support. The first site I’ve been recommending to them is conjuguemos. My department actually paid for the upgraded version of the site last year, so my students are familiar with the format and this year they have added even more games! There are grammar, vocabulary and listening activities all housed…
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Jamboard and the Present Progressive
I’ve always enjoyed teaching the present progressive to my students because it comes as a breath of fresh air after focusing on the preterite and imperfect. I never spend a lot of time on it because it is more rarely used, but the unit is always a nice break from the complications of other verb tenses. During in-person instruction, I love to practice the tense by using fun, crazy pictures. Students get super creative when building their sentences and it is a great way to review verbs. My students always enjoy searching out the strangest things happening in the pictures and feel accomplished after describing them. This year though, I…