If you’re a Spanish teacher, your dream is to hear your students speaking Spanish in your class. If you’re actually a Spanish teacher, you know that sometimes that dream seems FAR from reality. I’ve written about these before, but I am back and adding a few more activities to the list!
It doesn’t have to feel this way!
I am going to be totally honest here- my students do not speak Spanish 100% of the time in my classroom. Why? Because when they are having side conversations with their classmates, they fall into their normal practice of speaking English.
I can become frustrated by this and feel like I am failing, or I can challenge myself to think outside the box and find more ways for them to engage with each other in Spanish.
In choosing the latter, it’s important to be purposeful when lesson planning and choose activities that will promote interpersonal speaking skills. Below, I am sharing a list of activities that you can use in your Spanish class to get your students speaking more Spanish.
Starting from lowest stakes for students to highest stakes:
This or That
Who doesn’t love “Would you rather?”- they are impossible to ignore. Your students love them too! This is a great way to provide a lot of input for students, practice key phrases or vocabulary and create excitement around something.
Simply project two options on the board, for example, Vanilla or Chocolate?- then invite your students to choose. You can have them physically move to one side of the room, hold up one or two fingers to represent their choice or share their opinion with a small group/partner.
So how does this get students to speak more? This comes from the questioning you will do after. Inquire about their favorite ice cream shop. Find out if they like another flavor better. This will not only get them speaking more but it will create great classroom community.
These are LOW stakes- your not asking for too much from your students but you are building that confidence and trust which is super important.
You can check out my Back to School This or That here or Holiday Version here.
Find Someone Who
Find Someone Who is a classic activity where you give your students a descriptor and they must find someone in the class who fits the criteria. For example, “has two sisters”. Students go around asking their classmates in Spanish if they have two sisters.Once they find someone who does, they write their name in the designated spot.
You can also change these out for verbs – find someone who has visited Barcelona.
These are great for providing support to students while also encouraging conversation in a low stakes environment.
Turn and Talks
Turn and Talks are a great way to engage your students from the start of class. You need an engaging question, statement or photo to begin the conversation and then you invite students to participate with a partner.
Modeling is important in this activity so that your students know exactly what you expect from them. It is also helpful to project the question on the board for students to see.
This is a little more high stakes because students have to speak on the spot BUT they are participating within the safety of their partnership so they should feel more comfortable than speaking in front of the entire class. If your students are lacking confidence this is a great time to provide them with Chat Mats, a Reference Sheet or an Anchor chart.
You can read more about Turn and Talks Here.
Descríbemelo
This is one of my favorites! This game is designed like the popular Board Game Taboo. Your class is split into teams and each team is trying to get their teammate to say a word or expression that is projected on the board. They have one minute to get as many “points” as they can. They may only use Spanish to do this and may not use gestures.
This is definitely more high stakes as they will need to depend on more language. Does this mean you can’t do this in a Level 1 or 2 class?! No!
This just means you need to give your students more support in the form of ready-to-use vocabulary.
Socratic Seminars
One of the most high stakes activities that we can plan for our classes is a Socratic Seminar. It is an authentic and spontaneous conversation that students cannot memorize language for.
You give your students a list of questions or an article (better for more advanced students) and some time to prepare independently. On your set date (at least 2-3 days in the future) your students must come to class prepared to participate in a class discussion.
Your role is passive. Your students will lead the conversation and ask each other follow up questions.
Again, like with anything this will take practice and a clear explanation of your expectations but once you get them going, they are truly awesome! Check out some of my Socratic Seminar Questions here.
Socratic Seminars can sound overwhelming and impossible but they are not! Click here for more info on making them accessible in your classroom.
The key to getting your students speaking more Spanish is building them up to it. You cannot expect that your classes will be holding full conversations in Spanish on day one. You have to build in opportunities for your students to practice and become comfortable with speaking Spanish.
You can totally do this! Take it step by step and have fun with some engaging and community building activites.
If you want to learn more about Socratic Seminars, make sure to get your free guide below!
