A sweet movie that lasts 2 class periods, rated PG. Best suited for students in the first years of Spanish study, and appropriate for middle or high school students. This movie works well with "Under the Same Moon" as it looks at a relationship between an undocumented single dad and his American born son. Topics explored include limited work options, inability to report crime, temptation to join a gang and drop out of school. Middle school students loved this film, and I was able to use it to explore how the US handles undocumented workers with a fictional storyline. Movie guide contains 19 questions that follow the film in chronological order and three topics for discussion. Takes two class periods to show, or three with time for discussion and questions. Movie guide and most of film are in English. Movie Guide: A BETTER LIFE by Barbara Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This is my favourite story to teach to higher level Spanish classes (4, 5, AP) Lesson download contains vocabulary charts by paragraph to help students identify and define tricky vocabulary, I have enclosed two versions, one with English answers so you dont have to look them all up either! Lesson also contains comprehension questions and a link to download a free PDF of the story. I have numbered the questions to correspond to the download, so just print the story, make copies, have students number the paragraphs and you are ready to go. Story takes about 3 days to read and discuss in a level 4 class. Students love the story bc it has such a spooky ending. Chaac Mool Carlos Fuentes Reading Guide by Barbara Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This project has pairs of students investigating a major event in the history of a Spanish speaking country. Options include: Social issues, terrorism, crime, wars, dictatorships, civil wars, natural disasters. Students work in pairs to research a big event and create a presentation to educate the class. Students also design a creative activity to include in their presentation to help peers understand the big event. Activity can be conducted in class (need computer lab internet access) or as independent research outside of class. Students can work individually, in pairs or small groups on a topic of their choice. Lesson includes project outline, rubric,list of potential topics, questions to guide students, and a brief brainstorming activity to introduce the concept. Lesson works best with high school students who have had at least one year of Spanish, and is excellent for higher level classes to do their entire presentation in the target language. Also suitable for homeschool students.

This movie guide follows the journey of an American school bus as it heads to Central America to be transformed into a vibrant, colorful method of public transport. Documentary contains interviews with drivers, passengers and the people who renovate the repurposed bus. Documentary takes about a class and a half and is available for purchase on line. Beautiful and informative, this documentary works well with AP classes studying the themes of beauty and global challenges.

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 activity works well for AP Spanish IV or V students, or Heritage Language learners working with the concept of identity. This project has students choose a specific age from their childhood and then guides them through how to create poem about how they were at that age. Allow at least one day in class to work, one day to help students proof their rough drafts and one day for students to present their poems to peers.

This one page worksheet has students tracking relationships of characters in the second episode alongside a brief summary of what happened between pairs of characters. This assignment works best for a class of Heritage Learners who can fully comprehend what is happening in the episode.

This short powerpoint has 10 Sesame street characters that you can use to practice adjectives and colors with beginning Spanish students. Warm up activity takes about 15 minutes and works best for a beginning Spanish class or as a quick review of adjective agreement.

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.

This worksheet accompanies students watching the telenovela "EL INTERNADO" about a mysterious boarding school. (Available on Netflix or from Ebay for $14.99) My students love to watch this Spanish series, it is really well made, teen centered and has subtitles in Spanish. EL INTERNADO is excellent for a level IV, V AP or Heritage language speakers class. I use their episodes to study literary components like plot, conflict, actions/consequences, and predictions. Each episode runs around an hour and takes two class periods to complete if you stop for discussion.

This worksheet accompanies students watching the telenovela "EL INTERNADO" about a mysterious boarding school. (Available on Netflix or from Ebay for $14.99) My students love to watch this Spanish series, it is really well made, teen centered and has subtitles in Spanish. EL INTERNADO is excellent for a level IV, V AP or Heritage language speakers class. I use their episodes to study literary components like plot, conflict, actions/consequences, and predictions. Each episode runs around an hour and takes two class periods to complete if you stop for discussion.

Radioambulante.org is an online radio show that does documentary style interviews with Spanish speakers around the world, similar to the program THIS AMERICAN LIFE on NPR. The stories are often incredible, narrated by the people who have actually lived them. Stories vary in length but most run around 15-20 minutes and I use them in my Heritage Speaker Spanish classes this year to promote listening as well as give students a wide exposure to accents and styles of speaking. Each guide accompanies a partibular episode of RADIO AMBULANTE stories and I am certain that when you listen to them you will want to play them all, for your students or just for yourself. This resource would also be good for an AP level Spanish V class to practice prepping for the listening section of the test, although you may want to pause it periodically or replay it a second time to help students comprehend sustained Spanish. To access the episodes go to radioambulante.org and you can search them by title.

This handout reviews Direct, Indirect and Reflexive pronouns as well as placement of pronouns in 1 verb, multi verb and command sentences. It is a good review for students who already seen pronouns or as a notetaking outline.

This worksheet accompanies students watching the telenovela "EL INTERNADO" about a mysterious boarding school. (Available on Netflix or from Ebay for $14.99) My students love to watch this Spanish series, it is really well made, teen centered and has subtitles in Spanish. EL INTERNADO is excellent for a level IV, V AP or Heritage language speakers class. I use their episodes to study literary components like plot, conflict, actions/consequences, and predictions. Each episode runs around an hour and takes two class periods to complete if you stop for discussion.

Every teen seems to fantasize about getting a tattoo, some of my student already have several. This activity is designed to get kids talking about what they would get using the conditional tense. The activity can be given out as homework for the day you introduce the conditional. The fun begins when they bring the assignment back the next day. I have put kids in small groups to share them out, but even more fun is to stick the assignment under a document camera and let kids see what their classmates have drawn. This assignment works best for a level III or higher class where students have been introduced to the conditional tense. There are some guiding questions to help students think about the tattoo of their dreams.

This multi phase project works well for level II students or level I students during the second semester who are learning vocabulary associated with the house. Students must create a classified ad to sell their home, field questions from a prospective buyer on the phone(you) and design a dream home to be built with their lottery winnings. They must also advertise for a maid to keep their dream house clean. Directions for this lesson and grading rubric are in English, with possible phone interview questions in Spanish and French. Lesson is easily adapted to either language as well as German. Project contains written, spoken, listening components as well as one creative component that could be designed as a power point or on paper.

This version of the number game includes all numbers from 0-100 in rounds of five rows each. Good practice for any target language or ESL. You read the numbers, students circle what they hear. Read each row faster to increase the challenge. This is also an excellent bell ringer activity to review numbers for higher levels as most books never practice numbers again after first year.

This movie chronicles three generations of a Mexican American family living in East Los Angeles. Several themes in the film include the importance of the family unit and the cultural differences of Hispanic families, deportation of Mexican immigrants during the Great Depression, discrimination against Mexican workers,and the Pachuco gangster movement of the 50's. My students really enjoyed this film and it goes well with any unit on the family or as a mini lesson. The movie carries an R rating for strong language and one very brief partial nudity scene which could be easily edited out. There are 32 chronological questions in the movie guide. Students will enjoy identifying the cast of characters as there are many familiar faces in this film. This film is also suitable for ESL students of Hispanic origin as the story relates well to challenges faced by previous generations of Hispanic immigrants.

This 96 question reading guide accompanies the book La Línea by Ann Jaramillo. The story is fiction but based on facts she learned from her own ELL students. This story chronicles the perilous journey of two Mexican children heading North to reunite with their parents. This book is in English but is full of Spanish words and would be a great filler activity to read in a lower level Spanish class for a few minutes daily or to use in a middle school classroom or with ELL learners who could connect with the story. The book is highly recommended and positively reviewed. Its a cliff hanger in parts and a tear jerker in others, and should invite students to be introspective about the hot topic of illegal immigrants in the US. This book would also work well with the film "La Misma Luna" or the documentary "WETBACK".

Students create a rock music video by a Hispanic artist that demonstrates their comprehension of the song lyrics and interprets it in an original way. This project was written for Spanish students but includes directions and rubric in English so it is easily adaptable to a French or German class. It would also work really well for an ESL class where students are practicing English. Kids love to watch themselves on YOUTUBE and here is a chance to test their knowledge of Spanish in an artistic interpretation or at the very least provide some comic relief to their peers! This lesson is great for level 2 or higher as it will vary in difficulty with the song you select.