This 83 minute academy award winning documentary chronicles the journeys of children and adolescents as they risk their lives to come to the United States. Its an excellent video and students can identify with the main characters as they are all children close to their own age. A great way to open discussion about illegal immigration or just give students something to think about the hardships these people leave behind. 24 Chronologically ordered questions and 5 topics for follow up. Movie takes two days with a little time at the end of each hour for student questions and answers. Film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

This is a semester long out of class project for students of exploratory, elementary or first semester Spanish I. The project is desigend to create an awareness in students to the presence of Spanish in our everyday lives and products. Beginning students who have completed this project tell me that ever after they can't stop reading labels in Spanish. It's a very easy project to do and grade and is best for younger learners and absolute beginners. Lesson includes directions and a blackline master of artifact sheets you can copy and give to your students to label their items and get the most out of the assignment. This lesson is written for teachers to give to their Spanish students, but could easily be adapted for other languages.

This activity starts class every day, as students take charge of the warm up by asking their classmates to complete a variety of challenge questions and practices. Takes about 5-10 minutes of class time, so you can take attendance and catch up absent kids while a student leads the rest of the class. It works best with students who have at least had 1 semester of Spanish but can be used through every level as you switch up the difficulty of tenses and vocabulary. Download includes directions, blackline for students of questions and answers to complete, extra questions for mid year, and a sign up template to keep track of who is "in charge". This review actually aids in retention of material covered in Spanish I and keeps students practicing interrogatives, numbers and other useful skills every single day. A great daily review for them, while you settle in to each day's lesson!

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.

My Spanish IV students asked me to prepare them a review grid of tenses (present, preterite, imperfect, future, conditional and subjunctive) for most commonly used verbs. There are no conjugations on this grid, but its a useful template if want to give students extra practice or a review before they start creating or narrating a story. No answer key for this one, but its free for anyone who can use it. :)

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.

Take your students to the computer lab for an hour to learn about Day of the Dead. Webquest guides students through important vocabulary and provides links to video links for students to observe Day of the Dead traditions and to respond with their own reflections. Lesson takes one class period to complete and is appropriate for level III or higher where students have some comprehension of Spanish.

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.

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

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.