Is speaking the biggest challenge you face in your Spanish Class? Do you always feel like you are doing all of the talking and your students are just grumbling one or two words answers “en español” because you forced them?! Let’s change that with some FUN activities to get students speaking Spanish in your Spanish class.
In this post, I am going to run down my top three activities that you can use in your Spanish class to get your students speaking. These activities can be leveled up or down for any class and are always in my back pocket for when I need to switch things up.
1- You Describe I Draw
This speaking activity is as simple as it sounds. The prep for you is minimal. You need to find two images that your students can describe.
I suggest finding something related to the unit you are studying so that your students are practicing relevant vocabulary but you can always just do this for fun at any time so you are not stuck with one topic.
After you find two compelling images, you partner up your students. One student faces the Smartboard or project where you will project the image. This student does not have anything in their hands. Their partner, whose back is to the board (and their classmate), has a blank sheet of paper and a writing utensil.
Decide on a set amount of time (depending on the complexity of the image and your students proficiency level this can be 3-6 minutes). Start the timer and have the first student describe the image to the second student. The most important rule here is: SPANISH ONLY.
What if they don’t know a word? Have them describe it to their partner using circumlocution. For example, if they forget the word for apple, they can say “a red fruit that is from trees, teachers eat them, they are healthy”, etc. Wait until you see how creative they are with their descriptions!
Adaptation: If you are still uncomfortable using paper or having students move around, you can simply have them work with a person near them and just physically turn their bodies away from the board. The student drawing can complete their drawing on Whiteboard.fi (a free whiteboard your students can draw on digitally)
If you are virtual, you can send a link to the image to certain students, send them to breakout rooms with their partner and have them describe OR, only share the image with 5 students and they have to collectively describe it to the rest of the class who has to draw.
2-Descríbemelo
This is a game I created based off of my all time favorite board game- Taboo.
I was playing this years ago with my family and honestly, I was just CRUSHING it. They were all like “Why are you so good at this?!” and I realized it’s because it is exactly what I do all day when I am teaching. I use strategic words or phrases that I know my students will recognize to get them to understand. It’s the same concept!
So, I love this game and wanted to bring it to my classroom. It’s something we play in almost every unit and my students BEG me for it often.
This game requires some prep ahead of time. You have to have a Slideshow with words and pictures for your students to describe. I use Google Slides. I put one word or image on each slide.
You’re going to want to make a lot of these because the game can move quickly!
Split your class into two teams. You need a place to keep score and a timer.
You call one student from one team to the front of the room. His back needs to be to the smartboard or projector where you will share the words/images.
This student is in front of the board for ONE minute. His teammates have one minute to describe to him as many words as they can. One word equals one point. If the student is stuck or does not know the word he may pass however the other team gets the point.
Two super important rules. Teammates may ONLY use Spanish to describe the word/picture and they may not use any physical movements. If English or physical movements are used to describe the word, the other team receives the point.
As the student in the front guesses the word, you keep moving through the slideshow until one minute is up.
This is one of my secret weapons for getting my classes comfortable speaking Spanish. They are having so much fun in the game they do not even realize that they are speaking in Spanish. You will be blown away by how they describe words or pictures and it is a perfect opportunity to remind them how much they know!
If you have a lower level class, they can absolutely do this- you may want to give them a Reference Sheet to help them work past common words they may need and not know.
Adaptations: If you are virtual or hybrid or whatever other weird situation we may encounter, you can switch this up a bit. I did this during virtual learning- I would send one student a private message on Zoom chat with 5 words. They then had to describe them to the class who had to guess the word in the chat. A little different but the same idea and a way to make it work during virtual learning.
3-Socratic Seminars are my jam
If you know, you know….I am the biggest advocate for Socratic Seminars in language classes. They have been the most transformational tool in my Spanish classes because they give students a space to discuss, question and share with each other.
This can be a low prep activity as you only need to find an article or provide students with discussion questions ahead of time. I recommend the discussion questions if you are just getting started so that your students can develop a norm of what a Socratic Seminar looks like before moving into the more challenging article analysis.
Once you give your students some independent time to digest and think over the questions, you will have a student-led discussion based on your prompt (questions). Students will run the discussion and will ask follow up questions or respectfully share their opinions. It is a great way to allow students to take control of the conversation, discuss what is interesting to them and further develop authentic conversation skills.
Your students will definitely need some kind of support- I recommend either a Reference Sheet or Chat Mats and will need to fully understand what this looks like before doing it the first time.
If you’d like to learn even more about this, download my free guide to get started today! I even included some done-for-you discussion questions that you can use in your classes!
If you want to learn more about Socratic Seminars- you can read all about them here!
