This mini adventure webquest puts students to work compiling information about a Spanish speaking country of choice. I recommend partners and a day in the lab together where you can guide them through the website and help them to form conclusions and comparisons to their own lives in the US. Assignment can be completed in one class period. Allow two more class periods for students to present their findings to the class. Assignment is in English as its designed for lower level or introductory courses but could easily be converted into Spanish for a higher level class, or used for a French class with Francophone countries.

This movie is great for a middle school beginning Spanish class. It deals with a young Mexican athlete who lives illegally in Los Angeles and has a chance to realize his dream as a professional soccer player in England. Dialogue is mostly in English, with some family interaction in Spanish with subtitles. This film works great as a conclusion to a chapter on sports or as an opener to the discussion of the importance of soccer to Hispanic people and around the world. Film is rated PG-13, and contains a couple of swear words, but otherwise is "safe" for a middle school audience. Movie guide contains 29 questions in order of the film and 5 follow up themes for discussion. Movie is available from Amazon, on Netflix or on Youtube.

Working on Imperfect tense and childhood vocabulary? This 25 question grid gets students moving around the rooming interviewing classmates using the imperfect tense. Students ask the questions and try to find one each student can answer. They record their answer and have the student initial the box. First student to get all their boxes signed by different classmates wins. This activity works best if you model how to interview with a student volunteer. Penalty for speaking English if you catch them. All questions are in the imperfect and link habitual childhood activities to imperfect tense. Activity takes about 20 minutes to run in a large class and is best suited to Spanish II or higher who have studied formation of imperfect. You could easily follow this up with a discussion in group asking students to share specific pieces of information (name of favourite toy, what they were afraid of etc)

A four day lesson plan for the short story EL HIJO includes: Pre-reading questions for discussion in small group, chart for drawing the story as students listen to the audio version on the cold read, activity for students to complete as they re-read the story in pairs, 2 essay prompts for students to choose for final assessment, and link to a good version of the story narrated. El Hijo is available on line for free from a variety of sources if you don't have the text, and is best for a level IV class or higher or Heritage speakers as the vocabulary is complex. Lesson takes about 4 days to complete with time in class for reading and discussion. Preview file contains a suggested plan for how to teach this story with my activities. This lesson does not contain an answer key because the students will create their own discussion, reactions, ideas and they will vary depending on how they interpreted the story.

This 90 minute documentary from PBS chronicles the life and career of Frida Kahlo, explains her work and her relationship with muralist Diego Rivera. If you are teaching Mexican art to Spanish students and don't want to show "Frida" because of its R rating and evocative scenes, this film gives all the information necessary to understand Frida's life, love and works, with beautiful up close visuals of many of her greatest paintings. Movie guide contains 30 questions that follow the film and two follow up topics for class discussion or to be assigned as an essay for homework. This film works well for Level III teaching Realidades unit on Art, or AP curriculum as well as for an art or social studies class. Movie will take 2-3 days to complete, depending on if you stop to discuss questions with students ( PBS documentary is available for purchase on Amazon starting at $10 or directly from their website for $24.99)

Roy Germano PhD in poli sci visits small Mexican towns to interview people about why many people risk their lives to leave for work in the US. Germano talks with workers, farmers, spouses, families and municipal employees to discover reasons people leave and what happens to their families when they go. This compelling documentary is 55 minutes long and fits neatly in 1 class. It is an excellent companion to one of the many movies about undocumented immigrants and their journeys to the US. Most of this film is in Spanish w English subtitles and works well with any level high school Spanish or Social Studies where you have spent time discussing the immigration. This film is very well made, not rated, and has won awards at film festivals, available on Netflix or for purchase on Amazon. Movie guide contains 22 questions that follow the film. I divide students into small groups and assign each group sections to answer, then share out. Questions included in Spanish and English.

Fictional film based on true events, the Bolivian Water Wars of 2000 when the govt tried to privatize the water supply, raising rates 300% making clean water inaccessible for a large sector of population. A Spanish director filming a movie about Columbus conquest in Bolivia is an interplay between scripted scenes where the Spaniards exploited the Taino under Columbus, and Bartolome de las Casas defends them, while in modern day scenes villagers are exploited by the government and even by the film makers, until one man helps them mobilize and stand up for their rights. An excellent movie, It opens discussion for how little has changed for indigenous poor in much of Central & South America and parallels between the initial exploitation and modern day inequities. Best suited for older/higher level high school students studying the cutural aspects of Latin America as well as language. Contains questions, answer key, topics for discussion and a list of topics for follow up research.

I wrote this mini-lesson for my community service class. Students were studying ethical dilemmas and the consequences and values compromised when making choices. This mini project sends students searching for pop songs of their choice to identify an ethical dilemma. Included are the criteria for an ethical dilemma, some pre-search scenarios to get kids thinking about what comprises an ethical dilemma, a short song list you could present a few songs from to start and parameters for the students choices. Project takes about two days to do in class. One for you, and one for them. This lesson would be good for a Leadership Class, a homeroom activity in character education or as an icebreaker to a contemporary issues social studies class. This mini lesson was not rocket science, but it was fun and students enjoyed connecting the idea of ethical dilemmas to their favourite music.

This amazing 90 minute film about what goes into our food and the effects it is having on people is an excellent way to introduce students to making better choices about what they put into their bodies. This documentary examines what kinds of chemicals are finding their way into our food and the resulting health problems that come from eating these highly processed foods. Movie guide contains 29 chronological questions that accompany the film and an answer key is also included. Follow up link for TED Talk also included. 2 day intro to nutrition, suitable for 7th grade through high school students.

This project is designed for the end of level III or the beginning of level IV Spanish class. Students are introduced to relevant thematic vocabulary and then use it to track the events in a soap opera of their choice for 5 days. Students then have a choice of 2 oral projects to present the main events of the soap and to voice their recommendations to their peers. Great review for preterite vs imperfect while introducing students to the popular culture Hispanic telenovelas. Project includes vocabulary, guidelines, note taking template and rubric.

This worksheet reviews days of the week, months, and seasons for students who need extra practice or are just being introduced to them.

This powerpoint covers step by step negation and other indefinite words. Each slide introduces a different combination and in between there are lots of examples for practice that students can do either orally as a group or on paper. Presentation takes one full class period with time included for practice and checking Best suited for a level II class where students are being introduced to this tricky concept.

This lesson is designed to get students thinking about cultural "norms" and all the different ways good etiquette, customs and rituals are practiced around the world. There are 48 simple statements on a chart for students to ponder in small groups and then guess as to where these practices are considered the norm. Survey is written in English so it will work for teachers of any foreign language, as well as ELL classes. The survey will open up students minds for the wide variety of cultural diversity, and for ELL students give them an opportunity to share out cultural norms from their home countries. This activity would be excellent for the first day of school to open the dialogue and get students interacting. Download also includes an answer key for you to share with students afterwards.

A really difficult very tense for students to integrate into their spoken vocabulary, this A-B partner practice has students asking their partners what they would do under a certain set of circumstances. Best suited for a Level IV or V AP class, this exerise is also fun for Heritage Language Speaker students who seldom get the practice they need in past subjunctive tense. Takes about 15-20 minutes to run in class and you will enjoy sharing out some of their answers large group afterwards to hear how they responded.

This A/B partner practice has students reading short statements about some problems they might have and the other partner makes recomendations on how to resolve the issue using an impersonal expression from the list and verbs in the subjunctive tense. Practice works best for a level III or higher class where students have been working with the subjunctive and are familiar with how to form regular and irregular verbs. Takes about 15 minutes to run in pairs and answers can be shared out in large group following.

This comprehensive unit test covers conjugation and usage of preterite verbs. There are short sentences for completion, trivia on specifics of irregular preterite verbs, an essay with prompts and a rubric and a speaking section where you insert 5 of your own questions to ask students. Exam works best as a conclusion assessment to a unit on preterite verb conjugation and usage at level II or higher. Sentences are not linked to any specific thematic unit and can be easily understood by students. Test takes one full class period to complete and includes an answer key for applicable sections.

The childhood fairy tale becomes the challenge for students to decide if preterite or imperfect verbs should be used. This works best for 2nd semester Spanish II or Spanish III where students have been working with preterite and imperfect in shorter sentences for some time and are ready to transfer their skills to longer texts. The story is familiar so its a good place to begin as students will have prior knowledge of plot. 73 blanks, answer key with reasons for P or I is included. Practice can be done in class together, in small groups or assigned as homework. Answer key also included.

This powerpoint is designed as an introduction to Indirect Object Pronouns and works best for level II where students have already had some experience with DOP's or reflexive pronouns and where placement of pronouns in relation to verbs is somewhat familiar. This presentation walks students through idenitification of IO's and replacement with IOP's in 1 verb and two verbs sentences. It also introduces students to clarifiers and how they are used with IOP's in sentences. Takes about 30 minutes to present and practice in class. Works great with white boards if kids like to practice as you present.

Lots of practice words organized alphabetically for brand new Spanish beginners to practice pronunciation.

More number practice for when your students have learned all the way up to 100. Same idea as the 0-20 version.