¡Y…adios enero! I can’t believe January is gone to be honest… and welcome soon-to-be-over February!
Mental health and energy levels have been rough for me this month but my students and you, my dear profe reader, are what keeps me going in the profession! I am most grateful for you and your dedication inspires me.
Today, I want to share with you a few details of what is on my plan for this month as well as some Día del amor y la amistad classroom activities and ideas for the high school Spanish classroom.
REAL TALK = ENGAGEMENT in our Spanish Classroom
I am still working on connecting the dots for many aspects of my teaching journey, past and present so that I may connect with learners at a deeper and more real level.
I say this to affirm that when we teach about content and themes that speak to students’ lives, allow them to explore history, and get to know the people from the target cultures, our classroom is transformed from mere compliance to full engagement.
I want to invite you to keep this in mind as you select your February teaching content to explore and discover next to your learners.
I know teaching always brings challenges on its own, but we can only shape what we can control.
Not Your Regular Valentine's Day Activities for Secondary Spanish Language Students
As it gets closer to Valentines’ Day in your Spanish classroom, there are many Día del amor y la amistad Spanish class activities that you can do. Looking back, I have done them all, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Stick to what is truly effective and nurturing for your learners, and if something isn’t, know that each year, we can improve and learn to do better.
Here are some suggestions:
1. Provide plenty of interpersonal and vocabulary connection opportunities with the language
Most of our students want to be in school because of the social connections they make with their peers daily. They also enjoy hands-on, collaborative, and interactive activities.
The way I will be approaching this activity is by allowing learners to share their valentine’s day preferences. This way, they will make tons of connections with targeted vocabulary. Then, they will use their results to find out with whom they have the most in common and overall class preferences and unpopular opinions. We can close the lesson by writing a summary of the class’ findings via a write and discuss or they can write their own findings
In 2021, because I was mostly virtual, I conducted this activity via Jamboard and it was a success as well!!! If you purchased it from my Tpt Store last year, then go download it again because the update now reflects the printables in the picture above!!!
The image below is an example of part of the activity. Students enjoyed it so much! The activity includes guiding slides to allow for interpersonal exchanges.
2 - Sprinkle More Social Emotional Learning
In 2021, I created a set of digital SEL Valentine Themed (focused on self-love) Do Nows, but then in 2022 I realized I needed to turn these activities into printables, so I did. Students also received and engaged very well with these as well.
The key to elevating engagement, especially at lower levels is to provide proper scaffolding. For this activity, we completed one per day as part of our DO NOWs.
This is my favorite way to approach acquisition driven instruction…by embedding SEL into everything I possibly can. Everything can turn into a powerful SEL life lesson, we just have to notice the opportunity and take it.
A bonus is that these activities allowed me to make more connections with my learners.
Additionally, I created DO NOWS centered around self-love and gratitude reflections. Why? I remember in my darkest days in high school these activities often given to me by my ELA teachers often brought light to my life.
3- Discover Love Themes with Your Class Using Music from the Target Culture!
What is not to love about teaching with music? My music in Spanish class blogs will give you some ideas as well as some suggestions of possible things to avoid when teaching with songs.
So, maybe you don’t want to dedicate an entire unit to El día de San Valentín then a variety of songs to interact with for 10-20 minutes daily are the perfect solution for you.
I, myself, like to have flexibility with the songs I use with my students. Sometimes, I like to make the most out of a song by building a song unit, but sometimes I just want my learners to enjoy different music genres and a variety of instruments and voices. I talk about this in my course Music to My Ears. This is a course I built with La Maestra Loca where we have shared how we implement music in the world language classroom.
However, for this Valentine’s Day, honoring that not all of my students cared for this holiday, I created a “Rate that Song” activity where the students sampled a variety of songs (old and new).
Each slide has a specific song related to a Valentine’s Day Theme (love, heartbreak, fighting for love, self-love, friendship, etc). Students had to interact with the song and discover the theme. This is what the activity looked like:
4 - Deep Dive with a Song Unit of Your Choice that Celebrates Friendship or Falling in Love
If you’d prefer to work at a deeper level with one song, then I have two perfect songs for this holiday.
Using songs also allows you to engage with blackout poetry. Have you tried it? Read all about it here!
Gracias por los Polinesios - Amistad
This song is great to reflect upon the people who come to our lives and how they make it that much more special
Millones de Camilo - Amor a primera vista
This song speaks about the feelings of love at first sight and taking a risk to talk to a special someone.
All songs for Spanish class in my store have more than 10 activities differentiated for Novices and Intermediate learners.
Here is what teachers are saying about these:
Need More Ideas to Maximize the Song Experience for Your Students?
Then, I want to invite you to check out the recording of my session Maximize The Power of Music in Your Spanish Language Class.
Thank you for reading until the end and I hope that you will consider implementing (or found validation in) one or some of these Spanish class activities for Valentine’s Day!