Researching Famous Hispanics

Looking to add a bit of culture to your class with famous Latinos and Hispanics from the Spanish Speaking world? Check out the projects and resources below.

Notable Hispanic Americans Infographic Project: Research a Hispanic America with this template that includes space for name, title or profession, photo, date of birth and death, Hispanic country of origin, and a list of accomplishments, awards, etc. 

Includes a list of over 50 Hispanic Americans to choose from.

Famous Hispanics, Spanish Adjectives Review Game and Research Project

Review Spanish adjectives, professions, age, tener, ser, estar, etc., while learning interesting facts about famous people and famous Hispanics. This game can be used for advanced beginner, intermediate, or advanced students. Includes descriptions and pictures of 30 people in total (17 Americans and 13 Hispanics).

Famous Spaniard Project: Research a famous Spanish person for an essay and oral presentation. Students include basic demographics, historical/current context of the famous person's profession in Spain, important events in their life, their childhood, how they became famous, etc.

Check out the Spanish 1 version about a famous Latino.

Hispanic Leader Task Cards and Game:  40 task cards contain clues about different Latino and Hispanic Leaders. These leaders may be explorers, politicians, entertainers, sports heroes, etc. A few are even characters in TV shows or books that have influenced us. These leaders may have been born in the United States, but have Hispanic parents, or they may have been born in Latin America or Spain

First Week Lessons and Activities in WL Class

SpanishPlans tells about how to hit the road running by using the Target Language on the very first day. His lesson lets students know that the teacher's job is to make class comprehensible for the students and that they students can be successful in class without needing English. Read more in... Spanish From Day 1. 

SpanishMama wants students to understand 3 things on the first day: 1)The target language is spoken as much as possible. 2) The teacher cares about you and you are in a safe environment. 3) The teacher is there to make the class comprehensible. To accomplish this, she offers 10 games and icebreakers that take out the anxiety and make students feel comfortable. Read more in... 10 IceBreakers and Games for the Language Classroom.  She also gives a great outline of her first two weeks of lessons here.

La Profesora Frida will tell you that establishing a good rapport with your students the first week of school will pay huge dividends the rest of the year. She gives some great ideas on how to get to know your students and creating a safe environment for language learners. Read more in.... The First Week of Spanish Class, Part 1. 

Ellen of MinutebyMinuteSpanish explains her first day's lesson using a Daily Tech Guide which provides visual support for her students to make the language comprehensible. You can read more about it in.... Spanish 1 Day 1 Lesson Script for 90% TL. 

Carolina of Fun for Spanish Teachers makes a book about herself to share with students. You can read about it in... An Idea for First Day of School. But she has also used a Prezi, played games, and used exit tickets, which you can read more about in...My First Day Back to School.

Allison of Mis Clases Locas, shares a detailed look into her lesson plans, which include music, persona especial, the Super Siete, and more! Read more in... 1st Week of Spanish Class using CI. She even has a "Can-Do statement" for each day: in this post about the first week of Spanish Class.

Profe Oxana shows us how she uses a song to practice names of students. (Nombre) se comió el pastel que le hizo su mamá. (Quién yo?) Sí, usted. (Yo no he sido). Quién fue? (nombre). Watch it in action here.

Mundo de Pepita uses pictures of words that are already part of our language to show students that they already know some Spanish words. 

M&M Bilingual has students fill out a Back to School book where students share information about themselves and also gets them started right away using her word wall. 

Sra. Cruz focuses on relationship building, with the Patch Adams philosophy,  and offers some fun activities and games in the TL including The Name Game, Would You Rather, Ball Activity, Two truths, one lie, and more in the First Days of Spanish Class post.

Free Resources:

-Have students fill out a profile that looks like a Facebook Page lets students tell you about their interests. Great way to get to know your students.

-Or have them fill in this document with information about themselves.

-Have students create a banner with their goals for the year.

-Students will write about class expectations in Spanish in this mini book.



Check back for more free resources for the first day to be added!

Creating a classroom library in world language class

Want to get your students excited about reading in the target language?  

It’s much easier and cheaper than you’d think to create a reading library in your World Language classroom.  By creating a library of children’s books in the target language,students can peruse books whenever they have free time (after quizzes and tests, if they finish projects early, etc.).  It’s a great way to increase their reading proficiency, vocabulary, grammar, and overall fluency.  This article will give you ideas of how to pay for the books, which books to pick, and SIX WAYS TO USE BOOKS in your classroom and/or department.   Read more at  http://theworldlanguagecafe.com/create-a-reading-library-in-your-world-language-classroom/ 

5 Ways to Implement Technology in the WL Classroom

Technology has been on the rise in all facets of life and has easily made its way into the modern classroom.  Language teachers need not fear and should embrace it as much as possible as its pros definitely outweigh the cons.  Keep reading to find five ways to implement technology in the World Language Classroom.

1.  Create A Profile of Your Classes

In order to use technology with your students, you must first find out who has access to what and when they have the opportunity to manipulate those resources.  For some this will be an easy situation as the school provides technology for students.  For others this may pose a problem.  Start by surveying the students to ask if they have access to the internet, an iPad, iphone, desktop or laptop computers.  This can be as simple as adding the following question to your first day information sheet:  "List the equipment you have to use technology both in and outside of school." 

2.  Obtain a Student Use Permission Form

After figuring out student access, the next step is to obtain permission from guardians for your students to use the technology in class.  Do this by checking with your school district to see if a form already exists that you can send home and have completed.  If not, a quick search via a search engine can provide examples.  Create your own and have your administration sign off on it.  

3.  Lay the Ground Rules

Using technology in the classroom can pose problems as students will want to play games, surf the net, or check facebook.  Be sure to create some ground rules for how it will be used in your classroom and provide scenarios for acceptable and unacceptable use in class.  Be sure to go over this with guardians and students and be consistent with consequences.

4.  Assign Activities

Now that you have access, permission, and guidelines in place its time for the learning to begin.  Students can use their devices to contact native speakers via a form of social media and ask a question pertaining to the content and concepts covered in class.  Then they can report back what they have learned.  There are also other unique resources available for you to use with your students.  

For Spanish:

Facebook Profile and Newsfeed

La Familia

La Casa Webquest

For French:

Les Loisirs

French Facebook Project

Faire des Courses

Virtual Trip

5.  Have Fun

Technology can add a whole new dimension to your course work and oftentimes students will associate their final products with the word FUN.  What kind of creative ways have you encouraged technology use in your classroom?

Yearbook Quotes for Spanish Teachers

Looking for an inspirational quote in Spanish to sign in your students' yearbook? Here are a few suggestions:

Fotos from Instagram account: SpanishWorld1

Have a favorite quote? Share in the comments below!

Spanish Summer School Resources

Via TeacherMemes.com

If you are like me, you love your summers. For me, it's an opportunity to travel abroad and immerse myself in the Spanish language culture. For others, it may be a time to spend with family or rest. And for others, it may be an opportunity to earn some extra income by teaching summer school. If that is the case, we'd like to make your summer easier by suggesting these resources to use during your summer class.

We hope these resources engage your summer school students, whether it be an actual academic class or just a fun, camp-like experience.


Summer Spanish Printable Book
This printable activity book contains six activities that children can do over summer break, bringing language and culture to their vacation! The resource also includes a number of links for expanding on the cultural activities. The activities are 1)Recipe for making 'Paletas de fresa, 2) Summer vocabulary word search, 3)Play 'Rayuela', 4)Travel Bingo, 5)How to Make a Paper Mola, and 6)Grocery List in Spanish.


Summer Activity Set
This product includes two fun games and a word search to welcome "el verano" in your classes. Includes a bingo game, and a Yo tengo, quien tiene game. Features summer vocabulary words such as "el buzo, la pala, el sol, el cangrejo, el pez, la careta, la pelota, la paleta, la toalla, las sandalias, el traje de baño, la estrella de mar, los lentes de sol, el helado, el castillo de arena, 
la playa, el bronceador, el flotador, la silla, la sombrilla, la concha  de caracol, el balde, el pelícano, el bote."

Alma MovieTalk Lesson
Use this engaging and suspenseful short animated video to give your students comprehensible input. Includes a reading as well as a storyboard for students to re-tell the story.

Giant Board Game- Basic Spanish Questions
Turn your classroom into a GIANT Spanish board game while helping your students practice basic questions in Spanish.
This product includes 50 printable spaces and both teacher and student instructions for game play. Also included are EDITABLE spaces where you can add additional prompts or questions to target specific units or areas of weakness for your particular group of students.

Spanish Greetings and Intro Conversation
Practice greetings, introductory conversation, and small talk with this mini-unit containing 32 task cards. Simply print them out, hang them around the room or use stations to get your students engaged and creating conversation!

Spanish Animal Vocabulary
Missing Letters Animal Vocabulary Game is a fun way for students to learn and memorize animal vocabulary in Spanish without any prep (unless you want to cut the 1/2 pages puzzles in two parts!!). Students will read the clue about the animal, look for the missing letters in the oval, and unscramble them to reveal the animal! 

Spanish Speaking Country Coloring Set
Color by number flags for all 21 Hispanic countries.
Have students color these flags to make decorations for your classroom or for their rooms at home. 

End of the Year Activities

The end of the school year is in sight. The weather is getting warmer and the students are getting more restless. You need a good lesson to engage your students. We've got some great options for you for class projects and activities to get you through this!

Mundo de Pepita has this Printable Yearbook for Elementary students called "Un año entre amigos". Have students write fun messages to each other in Spanish to recall the fun times they've had in class.

Spanish Sundries uses this Giant Board Game to review for a final exam. This is a perfect lesson for those students who are always begging to play a game, while practicing answer questions at the same time.

SpanishPlans likes to have his students create and describe their own SuperHero at the end of the year.

Angie Torres uses this activity to set up 8 stations where students become the teacher to ask their peers questions to review themes from the school year.

SpanishMama talks about 10 amazing end of the year games. Whether, it's "Serpiente", "Bracket", or "Steal the Apple", these games and activities will make your students wanting more!

Emily Miller  tells us how her 2nd graders complete two year-end writing prompts: "Espero que en tercero..." (best response: "los niños aprendan a portarse bien!") and a prompt to give advice to next year's second graders. You can have your students write advice on how students can be successful in class or what to expect during the year.

Sol Azucar tells us about how she celebrates her students with End of the Year Awards. If you are looking for other ways to celebrate your students check out an earlier post.

What are your favorite end of the year activities? Share in the comments section below.

Spicing up Valentines Day

Do you have the winter blahs in your classroom?  Well, Valentine's Day is coming up soon and it's the perfect moment to re-engage your students with a few new activities.  Here are 10 Ways to Spice Up Valentine's Day in Your Classroom so that every kid leaves feeling the love.  We're language teachers, so we can teach whatever we want as long as the kids are using the target language.  Take full advantage of this and teach the kids some cheesy pickup lines, have them serenade another class, or try some speed dating.  Guaranteed good times!  To read all 10 ideas, click here.

SpanishPlans posts of the year

A great 2015 has come to a close. We started the year in South America and have since gone back to our classroom in Chicago teaching 8th grade Spanish. We highlight 5 of our top posts that we wrote in the past year that had the most views.

5. Top Reasons for and against Spanish Names:
Due to an earlier blog post, we re-opened the debate on giving your students names for Spanish class with this list of reasons for and a list of reasons against this practice. This was probably one of our most commentated posts of the year as well.

4. Spanish Webquests:
With more schools going 1-to-1 or the extended use of mobile devices, readers were interested in engaging their students with authentic websites to navigate. This post includes a web quest for clothes, food, house, soccer, and using an online dictionary.

3. Spanish Instagram:
We posted 40 authentic Instagram accounts for the Spanish classroom including accounts that post beautiful pictures from the culture, Spanish Memes, and famous accounts, among others. The use of this social media is growing as you can find many Spanish teachers on IG these days.

2. My Favorite Lessons:
Posted in the last days of 2013, this post talks about our five favorite lessons and how you can incorporate them into your class.

1. English Pop Music in Spanish
Seems like our readers certainly enjoyed finding covers of pop music including Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars translated to Spanish.

Closing: Encourage users to subscribe to your blog and what to look forward to in 2015.