Spanish Class Mascot - Engaging Students & Creating Classroom Community

I attended a session on Creating Class Lore at the beginning of the year and it was just what I needed for my too cool for school 8th graders. 

Getting started - First up, we co-created a character in class. I gave them the choice of a capybara or a llama because those were two animals from the target culture that I had stuffies for. Then we named it, decided how old it was, and what it liked to eat and what sports it played. Somehow both classes picked a capybara and named it Juan so Juan became the 8th grade mascot. 

The second day I pulled out my stuffed capybara and held it during class. The kids got excited and several asked if they could pet Juan. I told students that Juan was sad because he was lonely. He didn't have any friends or family. Then I handed out cardstock with black and white capybaras and told them to decorate them however they wanted and then name and describe their capybara. This took two class periods. 

Exploratory Spanish - What to teach for 9 weeks

 At my school all our sixth graders take exploratory language classes for a quarter. One quarter of Spanish, one quarter of French, and one quarter of Chinese. Then they choose their language to continue with the rest of middle school. This is our opportunity to showcase our classes and what they should expect if they continue on with us. It's also a great time to emphasize the basics so we can hit the ground running when they come back to me. 

So what do I do? 

I do a unit I call My Passport to the World. Students learn how to answer basic questions about themselves, calendar time, the Spanish-speaking countries, colors, numbers, and if there's time clothing. All in 9 weeks! At the end we do a passport control role-play and they take a virtual field trip to a Spanish speaking country. 

Here's the breakdown - click the links for the videos that I use!

Week 1 - expectations, Sí se puede bubbles & proficiency levels, ¿Cómo estás?, and calendar time - months, numbers, days of the week, and weather. 

Week 2 - ¿Cómo estás?, calendar time, ¿Cómo te llamas?, Greetings - Buenos días, Buenas tardes, & Buenas noches, Hasta mañana, Hasta luego

Week 3 - All of the above + Spanish speaking countries, ¿De dónde eres tú?, & ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?

Week 4 - All of the above + colors, Spanish speaking country flags, & ¿Cuántos años tienes?

Week 5 - All of the above + clothing in calendar time, passports & their function, ¿Dónde vives tú?

Week 6 - All of the above + students create their own passports and research countries that have the strongest and weakest passports. 

Week 7 - All of the above + Clothing for different weather, packing lists, ¿Qué necesito?

Week 8 - Passport role play and virtual field trip - students "pack" a paper suitcase that they've drawn their clothing on, "fly" in a paper airplane that they make to their country of choice, "arrive" and go through immigration with me, showing their passport and answering all of our questions, and then "visit" with a virtual field trip. 

Week 9 - It never works out to be exactly 9 week so most of the time by this point we are catching up, playing review games this week. 

Making it work

The trick is to create routines and then each week add on, building their vocabulary while always reinforcing what they have already learned. 

I start with the calendar routine - I have songs for months of the year, numbers, days of the week and the weather. We practice greetings and ¿Cómo estás? by repeating after me and then practicing with our shoulder and face partners, then doing Kagan structures like Hand Up Pair up, and Mix Pair Share. At some point in the week we do listening practice with a video, and we fill in a page of our Spanish notebooks (a stapled packet of all our worksheets for the quarter.)

I repeat that formula for each week. We start class by practicing all the questions we know how to answer. We do a new song for the latest question, Kagan structures and games to practice, listening practice, and a page or two in our notebooks. 

Additional Notes

Students get really good at answering the questions and introducing themselves. Some of them get really good at knowing the countries but it's not something I test them on because labeling a map is not considered an authentic assessment for Spanish class. The same goes for colors. 

I usually do 3 formal assessments in the 9 weeks - a calendar and greetings quiz in week 4. It's multiple choice and on paper. And then two speaking tests - one just me walking around asking questions while they work independently and then our passport roleplay. Unless a student has goofed off all quarter or has a ton of absences, everyone gets an A or a B for the quarter. They also get a feel for my class and when it comes to the first unit in 7th grade we can hit the ground running because they already know how to introduce and talk about themselves. 

¡Sí se puede! 10 years of celebrating students' success

If you've seen me at KWLA or NNELL then you have probably heard me talk about my ¡Sí se puede! bubble system I use to track student participation and to motivate studnets. I've posted a couple of times on my Instagram about it but can you believe it's been TEN years since I first talked about ¡Sí se puede! bubbles? Ten years ago I got the idea from Nadine Jacobsen-McLean and for 10 years it has been a staple in my classroom!

How does it work?

It's pretty simple - for each class that I teach I print out a class list with 10 bubbles out to the side of each name. 

During class when students answer a question, write on their whiteboards, have a conversation with a partner during Turn & Talk, Hand Up, Pair Up, or Quiz Quiz Trade, I tell them "¡Sí se puede! con verde or another color. 

Students go over to the binder where the lists are kept, find their name, and color in one bubble according to what I told them. 

Yellow is for novice low. Green is novice-mid and blue is novice-high. 

Once they fill in all 10 bubbles then I check it off and they get a prize. Right now in middle school they get a jolly rancher or a sticker. In elementary school I had colorful pencils and erasers to choose from.

Why does it work?

Students like getting up and moving. It's like a game - they have to earn points in class to get the prize. I like it because it's both instant and delayed gratification. They get to get up and fill in a bubble which feels like a reward but it takes work to get all 10 and earn a prize. 

The color coding is truly a secret weapon! For students who have taken Spanish for a little bit it motivates them to do more. My 5th graders would ask me how they could get a blue (novice high) and I would explain they needed to add details or write in complete sentences. Some of my 8th graders won't even get up for a green bubble (they don't do mid!) but make sure to ask me a question or add details to get that blue bubble. 

For students who are new to class, feeling overwhelmed by all the Spanish they are hearing, they can still get a yellow bubble. It helps motivate them to jump in and try as well as contributes to them feeling like they belong. They too can be successful!

A few other tips & tricks I've learned in 10 years

At one point I tried to include the success criteria and only give bubbles for what we were working on but that got to be too unwieldy and I wasn't giving out as many bubbles. 

You have to explain the proficiency levels you are targeting and give examples so that students understand what the color coding is for. 

My overachievers are sometimes way ahead of the rest of the class and it does get to be a little messy with all the extra pages or a kid gets irritated with me because I haven't put a new sheet in for them. So every once in awhile I print a bunch of new sheets, go through and organize the binder the best I can. I'll consolidate sheets where I can and take out old ones (I transfer the few kids who haven't made it to 10 on the new sheet). It does take a minute but the extra engagement in class makes it worth the effort. 

Yes, some kids will cheat and try to fill in more than one bubble at a time. It was pretty obvious in elementary school because they would fill in all 10 in one go. Those students would get banned from doing Sí se puede. I only ever had to do that two or three times. They're sneakier in middle school so I put the binder up when I know I'll have a sub and I don't worry too much about it. 

Get a link to the bubble template HERE.

And click HERE to get a free proficiency pyramid poster!

Do you reward participation in your class? How did you get students to level up? Share in the comments below!

Hobbies and Sports - Authentic Resources for Spanish Class & How to Use Them

A staple of every Spanish I class is hobbies and sports and we just started this unit with eighth grade.

This is actually a mini-unit that is a review of last year's content but the challenge is to expand on what we learned last year for students who had me in 7th grade but keep it accessible enough for students who are new to the school and/or didn't have me last year. The solution? Lots of comprehensible input using authentic resources!

First, students filled in a picture dictionary of different after school activities.

I love to have students make picture dictionaries to put in their Spanish notebooks. This helps us to avoid translation and I think it helps them to remember if they have to write it down rather than me just giving them a vocabulary list. 

School Schedules for Spanish class

 I love an authentic resource - it lets students see the language out in the real world and the right one can stimulate good conversations (in the target language of course!) My 7th graders are in the middle of their school unit and we are comparing and contrasting school schedules and talking about our own classes. Here are some of the schedules we're looking at.

From Chile

10 Tips for Communicating With Students' Families

Teaching is my second career. I didn't go to school to become a teacher and spent 4 years in the corporate world working with large accounts doing contract management and customer service. I also spent several years in high school waitressing. Those experiences helped me when I came to teaching. And subsequently, I have had very few bad interactions with parents or families of my students. Here are some tips that have helped me create meaningful partnerships with my students and their families. 

✅Address the problem with the student before you call home. 

I always try to have a conversation with the student, brainstorm some ideas of how I can support them going forward or strategies they can use in class to stay on task. I also let the student know that I'll be contacting home about what we discussed. This means that YOU (and the student) are taking steps to solve the problem. You are not blaming the parent or asking them to fix anything for you. 

✅Do your research.

Read the contact log if there is one. Talk to their other teachers and see if they have talked to the parents. Sometimes colleagues will have a better idea of who to call to get results or if there are special circumstances you should know (ie. Dad is more responsive or they don't speak English so it's better to text rather than call.) And don't forget to update the log for your own contacts!

KWLA Session Slides 2025

 If you were at KWLA conference this past weekend and wanted my slides from my webinar and Saturday session here you go!

From Classroom to Community: Engaging Students as Global Citizens - this was a webinar so if you're a member of KWLA the recording of this session should be available at some point. 

Real World, Real Results: Authentic Resources in Summative Assessments - from Saturday's session. 

As always it was great seeing everyone at conference! Reach out if you have any questions.