We are really focusing on the past tense with my Spanish 2 classes. We started with a Weekend Chat / Card Talk style activity to focus on the word ‘fue’ (went), which you can read about here.

Teaching “said” in Spanish class

Moving on from ‘fue‘, today we started focusing on the high frequency word ‘dijo’ (said). To begin, I had each of the students write an imaginary rumor in Spanish on a small piece of paper, and write their own name on the paper as well. I made sure that all students understand that the rumors were to be silly, fantastical, and completely baseless–nothing that anyone else would be offended by. Some examples that my students came up with were “The entrance to Narnia is in Spanish class”, “X went to the zoo and kissed a monkey”, “X is a robot”, “Mrs. Bex likes speaking French”, “X is the President of Cuba”, etc.

Share the rumors

I told students to write down their rumors and to keep them TOP SECRET! They could not share what they were writing down with any classmates. When they finished writing, I collected them. I stood in front of the class and read each one silently to myself as I received it, and I acted very shocked at what I read. Once I had most of the rumors, I began sharing them one at a time with the class. I picked creative rumors and the ones that I knew would not offend. To share a rumor, I simply read it aloud (making small changes for accuracy and comprehensibility). I repeated it a few times and asked a few clarifying questions to make sure that all students understood what the rumor was saying.

Identify the source

Next, I asked students, «¿Quién lo dijo?» (Who said it?). It was their job to guess who the author of the rumor was! I accepted their guesses, and we eventually figured out the source for each rumor by voting for each suggestion and then interrogating the accused parties.

Is the rumor true?

Finally, it was time for LOTS of fun! We continued discussing the rumor as a class, deciding whether or not it was true. If the class determined that the rumor was NOT true, we also discussed the source’s motivation for starting a false rumor. Of course, nothing that was shared was actually true; so this was all just a marvelous exercise in imagination. We had a total blast, and the rumors (like our Narnia closet!) stayed with us for the rest of the year!

Super fun and very easy to prep! This could be done anytime as a game, even if you are not intentionally focusing on the high frequency word ‘dijo’.

Use the verb "said" as the basis for an often-hilarious class discussion that your Spanish students will love!

12 replies on “Rumors lesson plan

      1. One deep (and I mean deep!) rumor was that someone had a married friend, who also maintains a dating profile! Luckily, no names were involved. Most were the usual “so-and-so is dating.” One of the funniest was that a student who lives right next to the school actually lives under a bridge.

        I did come across a version of Adele’s Rumor Has It in Spanish (El Rumor Dice). I played it as they were walking in, and most were able to start singing along with “el rumor dice…” as it continued. Might be a great addition if you or others further develop this lesson.

      2. Martina! My students LOVED this activity! So much so, we played “Teléfono” the next day using the rumors. It was great fun! Thank you.

  1. Since I teach middle schol (6-8) and have some SUUUUPER sassy kids, I felt that rumors about other students was a can of worms I did not want to get into, so I changed it to “There is a new student in our school….this student hears rumors about the different teachers….what are these rumors?” SO FUNNY.

    My favorite: “Mr.H has a collection of bunny slippers.”

  2. I took the suggestion of creating rumors about teachers which was awesome!

    Favorite rumor: Our English teacher doesn’t know the alphabet.

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