If you haven’t guessed it yet by some of my recent posts, I am working on a unit about Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo. And, if you can believe it, it is for students in Spanish 1!! Usually, heavier topics like this are not tackled until upper-level courses when students have the vocabulary…
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Desapariciones by Maná
This is a heart-wrenching song written by Rubén Blades and performed by Maná that poignantly expresses the confusion and sense of loss and helplessness felt by those Argentinians whose family members disappeared in the 70s and 80s. Many songs have been written about this moment in Argentina’s history, but I think that this is one…
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Days of the Week
A question came through the #flteach Listserv today from a teacher looking for different activities to teach the days of the week. I have always just taught my students a song sung to the tune of “Frere Jacques” (she uses one sung to the tune of Clementine), and then supported it throughout the year by…
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Franklin Chang Díaz
I wrote this biography of Franklin Chang Díaz (based on the biography on his website) to be used in my El sistema solar unit, which I’ll update once I finish teaching it this spring: Chang Díaz biografía Here is an additional activity that you can do using an interview with him, too!
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La siesta
This is a reading that uses target structures from Hay que estudiar and talks about the tradition of the siesta in Spain, based on information from the Ajuntament de Barcelona website. I have a whole unit on this that I’ll be posting in pieces as I finish editing them…one of these days…
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Las botas picudas
Super sweet blog alert–Srta. Barragán posts songs, projects, and more that can be used in Spanish classes. I’ve gotten so many great ideas from combing through her archives over the past few days! Here is the first lesson of presumably many that I wrote based on materials that I found on her site. THANK YOU!…
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Hotel Save the Beach
I read about this hotel on Achieve3000 and did a little research on my own to write this article. My Spanish 1A students will be able to read it when I get back to school with the target structures basura – trash and pared – wall. Playa would be an important word to teach if your students don’t already…
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Mimes in Caracas
Authorities in Caracas, Venezuela developed a very…interesting…solution to their traffic problem (actually, they copied it from Bogota, Colombia, but that’s beside the point). I wrote this article to use as a reading and discussion activity for my Spanish II’s. It works well with El Nuevo Houdini, since the verb “to drive” and the driving theme…
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Carrie, la perrita bailarina
I have used this video for several years now. Below, I posted the basic lesson plan that I first used for a 45-minute class period. Since then, I’ve expanded it quite a bit by adding more readings, songs, and reading activities. You can download the new plans here. They include four readings, two songs, a reading interview…
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Hispanic Heritage Month Writing Idea
Biography.com has a nice variety of fairly short biographies (written in English) of twelve different people from Spanish-speaking countries. For a writing activity, I had my students choose two and summarize them in Spanish. My directions were to include Where and when the person was born Where s/he lives (or lived) Something about his/her personal…
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