I have 34 occupied desks in my small Spanish classroom and no extra space for lessons that involve more than the whiteboard, the students' desks, and their books.
Spanish 2 and Spanish 4 students in my classroom are lucky to be in Northern California.
There are many opportunities to practice Spanish outside of the classroom! Luckily, my students are enthusiastic and inspired to take advantage of those opportunities. Our school is ethnically diverse, and most of my students speak a language at home besides English. They use these language skills to hone their Spanish, they make connections between their home language and Spanish, and they appreciate the value of communicating with everyone in our community, not just English speakers.
My Project
With a folding table, I have the occasional space I need for a mobile museum. The museum exhibit might be Molas from the San Blas Islands of Panama, with art supplies displayed next to them so that students can create their own Molas. The exhibit might be authentic Ofrendas and Calacas for Day of the Dead, with the goal of students making their own Calacas to display the following days. No trip to a museum is complete without a little snack. When I make a Paella with Spanish 4 students, we need a place to prepare our ingredients. Spanish 2 students take a virtual vacation to a Spanish-speaking country. One of the best parts of this unit is the potluck that follows. After having researched and studied a particular country, then making a PowerPoint and presenting to the class everything that s/he did on vacation (in the past tense of course!), the Spanish 2 students bring in a meal from their "country" that they have prepared. How wonderful to have a potluck with an actual table!
I like to make the curriculum joyful and full of interesting experiences: singing songs, doing art, dialogs and plays with props, and activities with realia that I bring from home.
I stay more organized and on-task if I don't have to worry where my materials are, if everyone can access them, and I'm more likely to enhance the lesson with extras if I have somewhere to put them.
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