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Spanish 2 Class Activities
by Ruth Taylor
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Overview
Second-year Spanish class advances beyond the basics of introducing oneself and holding limited conversations. Students become more comfortable with different tenses, in addition to deepening their cultural knowledge. Continue reading for classroom activities that will help develop listening and speaking skills, as well as reading and writing abilities in Spanish.
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Use Technology
You do not have to have the latest in technology to integrate its use in your Spanish 2 class. The following suggestions can be used for a simple classroom or a high-tech one. Your goal will be to motivate your students to use Spanish both inside and outside the classroom.
In the classroom, using age-appropriate Spanish language songs from popular artists is an effective listening and speaking activity. Some modern classrooms are outfitted with wall-mounted, fully interactive computers alongside the whiteboard. In that case, look for video clips that have the lyrics translated so your class can sing along. You can also do this with a CD player and an overhead projector, projecting the lyrics. First, have students listen to the song two or three times without seeing the lyrics. Each student should write down in Spanish the words he recognizes or what she thinks the song is about. Share your ideas, and then post the lyrics so that all can see. Practice the song until the students are confident that they know what they are singing, and try singing without the lyrics posted. Few, if any, students will wish to sing alone, so this is definitely a group activity.
Have your students send you short emails in Spanish or phone messages if your school has an answering service. At the end of the class period, give your students a short assignment that they should investigate either on the Internet or by interviewing a native speaker. For example, "How long is a normal school day in Argentina?" Give the students a day or two to investigate, and email you or leave a voice message with the answer. As students become more proficient, give them longer topics to investigate and report back.
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Integrate Multiple Intelligences Activities
Multiple intelligences is a theory outlined by Howard Gardner to help educators recognize different learning styles. For example, two of these styles are visual/spatial and kinesthetic. If you get your students up and moving in Spanish activities, you will help them to learn more creatively, reinforcing new concepts.
An activity that applies these two styles, and also involves reading and writing, is cooking. Have students work in small groups of three or four and assign each group to investigate the cuisine of a Spanish-speaking country. If your school allows classroom cooking, assign a day for each group to bring in the ingredients and demonstrate a cooking class, in Spanish, for the rest of the class. If your school does not allow cooking, encourage students to try the recipe at home.
A follow-up activity would be for each group to make a colored poster, including the recipe in Spanish, the country of origin, and some facts about when or how the food is eaten. Then display the posters on the classroom walls so that other classes can see how creative your students are. Again, as your students' Spanish abilities advance, you can increase the difficulty or length of each activity.
