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.

PBS American Experience has an excellent episode on the Freedom Riders and the Montgomery bus riots in the struggle to disband segragation in the deep South. The program is just under two hours and could be cut apart over the course of several days with opportunities for students to discuss in pairs and larger group some of the ethical dilemmas and risks that the Freedom Riders risked. This movie guide contains 40 questions in order of the program with opportunities for "think pair share" and several follow up topics for after the program for students to journal or discuss with classmates. PBS American Experience is available for free through PBS Website or streaming through a Roku/Chromecast. This lesson works best for high school aged students studying the Civil Rights movement in their social studies classes.

This A-B partner practice is designed for students to practice conjugating reflexive verbs, differentiating between reflexive and non-reflexive actions and reviewing telling time. Students first complete their own answers, then take turns with a partner exchanging information to complete the grid. Activity takes about 15 minutes to complete in class. Great for a warm up before a quiz or after having a few days of practice with reflexive verbs.

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.

We all have stories of migration or immigration that brought members of our families to this country. I created this project for a level IV class with a mixed population of recent arrivals and long time residents of our city. Students share out either their own personal story or one of a family member in a 3 minute oral presentation. Download includes directions for students, guiding questions to help them interview a famiy member, grading rubric for you (and them) and a listening activity for students to take notes on their friends family stories. Students will need a couple of days to work on the presentations and you should budget to hear no more than 7 a day in class. Worked great in levels IV and V. Also suitable for a Heritage Language learner class if students are comfortable sharing their stories.

This is a practice sheet for numbers in Spanish 0-100. They are grouped in sections of 20 (0-20, 20-40 etc) so you can assign them as students knowledge grows or altogether as extra practice or review. None of the math problems are super difficult, but they are all written out so students are forced to look at the words as they work the problems.

15 slide powerpoint of famous people in a wide variety of clothing. Put the slides up and have the students tell you what everyone is wearing. Good warm up for clothing and colors and to reinforce adjective agreement. Last four slides are personally directed at students to solicit responses for different weather and locations.

Cautiva is the story of a teenage girl who suddenly learns that she is not the child of her parents, rather the daughter of disappeared activists who were murdered by the Argentine Govt during the dictatorship of the 1970's. Cristina has to figure out who she is and what she believes as she begins to unravel the mystery around her own identity. If you have always taught Desaparecidos with LA HISTORIA OFFICIAL, this is a really nice movie with a teen protagonist around the same theme. Students enjoyed the film despite the difficulty of the subject matter. This film is best suited for an upper level Spanish class who has some prior knowledge of dictatorships and the disappeared. It is an excellent launch point for further discussion around the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and their efforts to reconnect with the children of their disappeared relatives. Movie and movie guide are both in Spanish.

This webquest is designed to get students thinking and talking about the concept of beauty/aesthetics which is one of the themes the AP Spanish test focuses on. It takes one class period working with a partner to complete the webquest and you may wish to complete the first page as homework the night before so students already have some thoughts on the topic as they enter the lab. Webquest takes students through several different sites as they examine what is beautiful today and years ago, followed by an article on plastic surgery in Spanish that they read and respond to. Lastly, there is an exit survey around their own attitudes about beauty Lesson works best for a level IV, VAP or Heritage Language learner class where students already have a high level of comprehension of Spanish .

This 50 verb conjugation quiz is useful for a higher level Spanish class where students have already learned all the irregular verb forms in the preterite. I give this quiz several times to students over the course of a week and then let them choose which score to take for credit. Quiz should take no longer than 15-20 minutes since students have multiple opportunities to better their scores. I do not return any copies of the quizzes until the last day when they choose which one to submit. Download contains an answer key and I allow students to check their own work as fixing the errors helps them to unlearn bad patterns.

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.

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.

My students "asked" me to make this for them to get extra practice handling preterite -IR verbs that take a stem change. No rocket science here, but it is helpful for getting used to where to make the spell change. Hope its helpful to your students too.

How many times have you typed this box out for students? Learning verbs? Possessives? Reflexives? A new tense? Pronouns? This is a blank template you can run 1000 copies of and keep on hand for every time you want to introduce material that goes in the 6 box chart. There is room for a few rules, exceptions on the sheet too, so kids have an easy reference. Enjoy!

How many times have you typed this box out for students? Learning verbs? Possessives? Reflexives? A new tense? Pronouns? This is a blank template you can run 1000 copies of and keep on hand for every time you want to introduce material that goes in the 6 box chart. There is room for a few rules, exceptions on the sheet too, so kids have an easy reference. Enjoy!

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 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.

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