This 30 minute podcast from Radio Ambulante tells the story of how a detained migrant died in a US detention center. Was it a suicide or was he killed? Radio Ambulante interviews his family, doctors and fellow prisoners to try and determine the plight of a detainee. This podcast is excellent for Heritage Learners or AP Spanish V that are studying the challenges of immigration. Radio Ambulante has a visual transcript that accompanies the narration to this episode to facilitate comprehension while students are listening they can read what is being said. Listening guide contains 19 questions that accompany the podcast and a follow up topic for students to respond to after completing the activity. Takes one full class period to complete, or play the podcast twice and assign the prompt as homework. Answer key also included.

This 17 minute podcast is one of my absolute favourite Radio Ambulante Episodes that recounts the story of a woman who winds up in jail for having extended her help to a pair of orphaned children. The worksheet contains 15 questions that accompany the episode in chronological order and a short essay topic for reflection upon completion of the episode. Radio Ambulante episodes work best for Heritage Learners that can comprehend Spanish for sustained periods of time. This activity could also be used with an AP Spanish V class if you are prepared to repeat it a couple of times or stop it periodically so students can catch up to what they understood . Play the podcast as a whole group or send students to the computer lab to listen at their own pace. Lesson takes one class period to complete. Answer key is included.

This wonderful Netflix movie tells the story of Ramon's immigration to Germany and how little by little he begins a new life with the help of Angela a retired nurse. The movie is entirely in Spanish and German with English subtitles and would be suitable for either language class. There is one slightly mature scene so its best suited for high school students, as there are suggestions of innuendo. This film addresses the challenges people face both in their home country and assimilating to a new country and is very enjoyable, fluctuating between serious and light hearted scenes. Movie guide contains 19 questions in chronological order. and is available in both English (for lower level or German classes) or Spanish. Film takes two class periods to show. I have marked one question with an asterisk as it pertains to that specific scene if you wish to eliminate it. I showed this film to my Heritage Language students and they really enjoyed it as it was a film with which many Mexican immigrants could identify.

This 12 paragraph news article discusses the dangers of listening to music at high volumes for prolonged periods of time: http://bit.ly/1Rptva6 Lesson plan includes a word doc format of the article and an in depth lesson plan that guides students through reading a text critically. Lesson begins with a brief survey of student listening habits, followed by 7 youtube sound effect links you can play in class for students to measure decibel levels on their smartphones (fun and free) Students read article and mark text (AVID strategy) and then reflect on what they read by completing some sentence starters based on the text. Lesson also includes key vocabulary with space for student definitions and an answer key for you so you don't have to look them up. Lesson is best suited for AP Level 5-6 students or a Heritage Learner class who is preparing for the AP test. Article falls under theme of Science and Technology and is relevant to students daily life choices about how they listen to music. Takes one full class period to complete.

This 17 minute broadcast tells the story of some Colombian musicians who were kidnapped and forced to play music at a paramilitary birthday party in the middle of the jungle. 10 queestions in chronological order that follow the podcast and an essay topic for reflection aftewards make up the guide that follows this program. This lesson is best suited for a Heritage Learners Spanish class or a Level VAP where students can follow sustained spoken Spanish for a period of time. You may wish to break the episode down into smaller segments or repeat the broadcast several times for students who do not speak Spanish outside of your class. Lesson takes one class period to complete. Answer key is included.

With Cuba in the news more and more this article is a great read for Spanish Heritage Speakers or Level V AP students who are proficient at reading newstext. Lesson download includes a copy of the article formatted to word.doc, and a guided reading lesson with useful vocabulary/matching to definitions, 10 predictions for the pre-read to get students ready to watch for details and a grid chart to complete comparing what they read about Cuba to Mexico (or their home country) and the US. There are follow up questions for think/pair/share and a place for students to respond based on what they learned. This lesson takes two class periods to complete if you give time for sharing out at the end, or you can start it and assign the writing prompts as homework. Great information about all the benefits that Cubans get, plus all the restrictions imposed on them by their government. Excellent launch piece if you want to teach students the basics about Cuba today.

With Cuba in the news more and more this article is a great read for Spanish Heritage Speakers or Level V AP students who are proficient at reading newstext. Lesson download includes a copy of the article formatted to word.doc, and a guided reading lesson with useful vocabulary/matching to definitions, 10 predictions for the pre-read to get students ready to watch for details and a grid chart to complete comparing what they read about Cuba to Mexico (or their home country) and the US. There are follow up questions for think/pair/share and a place for students to respond based on what they learned. This lesson takes two class periods to complete if you give time for sharing out at the end, or you can start it and assign the writing prompts as homework. Great information about all the benefits that Cubans get, plus all the restrictions imposed on them by their government. Excellent launch piece if you want to teach students the basics about Cuba today.

This 17 minute broadcast tells the story of some Colombian musicians who were kidnapped and forced to play music at a paramilitary birthday party in the middle of the jungle. 10 questions in chronological order that follow the podcast and an essay topic for reflection afterwards make up the guide that follows this program. This lesson is best suited for a Heritage Learners Spanish class or a Level V AP where students can follow sustained spoken Spanish for a period of time. You may wish to break the episode down into smaller segments or repeat the broadcast several times for students who do not speak Spanish outside of your class. Lesson takes one class period to complete. Answer key is included.

This project is my brainchild of 10 years of teaching. The Cultural Investigation Portfolio contains 101 different activities linked to various aspects of Hispanic culture, organized by interest (music, culinary, historical, artistic, etc) These student led projects start my class every day for the first 5-10 minutes as the 1-2 students of the day present their project and findings show- and-tell style. Because there are so many different activities, there is something for everyone in the room. Often one project leads to another, as a student is inspired by a classmate to pursue a topic further or connect it to another. I love this portfolio because kids have so many different choices, and most will select projects that showcase their individual talents in other areas, so you and the class learn about each others artistic or musical abilities. Many of these adventures are designed to send students into the Hispanic community to interact with local employees and business owners...

This is one of my favourite lessons to do and one I am most proud of. I received an award for this lesson at the state level in a teaching lesson contest. Students work in small groups to replicate, research and interpret a mural by Diego Rivera. I never cease to marvel at how well their work turns out and everyone learns a ton about Diego Rivera. Great end assessment for a unit on art, or as prep for AP/IB programs this lesson is suitable for Spanish III students or higher. Includes commentary on how to execute the project, detailed student explanation, helpful weblinks and readings, list of murals that are suitable for research, helpful thematic vocabulary for students to prepare their written portion.

an excellent book for young readers and has won many awards. It is probably best suited for 8th-11th graders. It does contain a few swear words, but for the most part is appropriate for young readers. Reading guide has 115 questions in chronological order, organized by chapter with pages. Also included are 6 follow up discussion questions. If you are reading the book for the first time with the students, these will be useful to you as well as your students. An excellent book if you have a multi-cultural classroom or students that come from impoverished backgrounds as they will be able to identify with the narrator. Creative Commons License The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Barbara Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Octavio Paz writes about El Pachuco, who is the Mexican who is not American nor Mexican. Octavio's essay opens the door for some great discussions with students of Hispanic origin about Pachuchos, the Zoot Suit riots, discrimination against Hispanic Americans on the West coast and if the Pachuco still exists today. (Great discussion topic for students about how Cholos are similar/different than Pachucos.) This reading guide contains some questions to help students direct their focus and some key vocabulary that could give them trouble. Essay is appropriate for a Heritage Learner Class or an AP level V class where students have good comprehension skills and arent afraid to navigate some new vocabulary. Octavio Paz El Pachuco y Otros Extremos Lecture is available on line for free through a variety of websites.

One of my students favourite projects, the murder mystery project is excellent for 2nd year students finishing up preterite vs imperfect usage or for 3rd year students as a review of the concept. Students create their own powerpoint murder mystery where they present the victim, 3 suspects and the crime scene. Using preterite and imperfect they include motives, locations, descriptions, personality characteristics in a creative and unique presentation. I assign this project in pairs but a student could easily complete it alone. Students present their mysteries to classmates in powerpoint and peers can make their guess to arrest before the last slide gets revealed. This project won an award as a Missouri Best Lesson Showcase project. Project instructions are in English, model examples in Spanish, project could be easily adapted to Passe Compose/Imparfait usage in French.

This is a kind of spooky little short story from Puerto Rico about a girl who has a crayfish stuck in her leg. (Magical Realism) It has a surprise ending and lots to talk about in how the characters treat each other. I taught this story in my Heritage Language Speakers class this year but it would also work well for a level IV or V class with older students who are willing to work through the vocabulary. My students enjoyed the story and creepy surprise ending.

These questions accompany the short story CAJAS DE CARTON by Francisco Jimenez. There are T/F statements, general questions and essay prompts for students to complete after reading the story. This activity is best suited for a level IV or higher Spanish class and takes 3-4 days to complete the story and the questions.

Students research a famous Latino musical artist and create a powerpoint to present their artist to their classmates. Presentations are around 3-4 minutes in length and work best for a level III class or higher who already has some prior practice speaking in the past tenses. This lesson also works great for Heritage Learner classes who are already conversant in Spanish as a means to gain some practice public speaking with a topic they are comfortable . Download contains requirements of project with guiding questions for students and a long list of famous Latino musicians for students to choose one of interest. Plan at least 2 days of computer lab time and about 6-8 presentations can be seen per day.

This one hour fifteen minute NETFLIX documentary covers internet privacy policies and how our personal data is harvested and sold, sometimes used by our government to spy on people. It is an excellent film for high school students studying internet usage and abusage, or as a homeroom assignment to get kids thinking more carefully about what they choose to share or post on the plethora of popular social networking sites they use today. This documentary was excellent at educating us as to how our information can be used against us, as well as the size of the digital footprint we create for ourselves and the lack of confidentiality around our digital lives. Movie guide contains 27 questions in chronological order to get kids thinking about the ethics surrounding the sharing of personal data and a full page of topics for discussion followup in small and large group or journaling assignments. Lesson takes two class days to view with some time to share out answers.

This partner practice is best designed for a level one student who is working with larger numbers in Spanish and has some basic vocabulary knowledge of clothing and a couple of other gift items. Students take turns asking each other prices of gift items in a store and answering as if they were the sales clerk. Partner practice takes about 15 minutes in class to run. You can ask students to go over the answers afterwards in large group for additional practice.

This partner practice reviews big numbers with food items. Students take turns asking about prices of items in a supermarket. Works best with students in Spanish I who have been studying fruits, vegetables and other basic food items. Each partner has 8 items to inquire about and 8 items to record. Takes about fifteen minutes in class to complete and is a great review or a warm up before a quiz.

Partner practice for students to take turns asking a classmate how long people have been doing actions. Each partner has 8 people to ask about and 8 people to give answers to their partner. Practice takes about 15 minutes to run in class and practices using the formulas Hace + time + que and Cuanto tiempo hace + que + action. Works best with Spanish II students who have had some basic leisure time activity vocabulary.