It’s that time of year again when Spanish teachers return to start a new school year. Some are excited by the fresh start, new faces, and newfound energy after a summer of recharging. Some dread the daily chores of lesson-planning, classroom management, and numerous challenges that teaching brings. It doesn’t matter which camp you are in. The fact is, it’s go time.
With that in mind, we wanted to give some advice and inspiration as you charge headlong into another school year. In the Sonrisas Blog, you will find many articles related to the implementation of the Sonrisas lessons, pedagogy for world language instruction, and tips for your Spanish classes. Especially at this time of year, we have always felt the responsibility to support our customers with useful and practical information that helps them teach Spanish effectively.
This year is no different, but we have a different take on our beginning-of-the-year support. Instead of focusing on methodologies or strategies, we want to emphasize a big idea which you can carry through your entire school year. Our best advice for your Spanish class is: Have fun.
Right now you might be shaking your head and saying, “No duh.”, but hear us out. First of all, having fun while you teach is easier than it sounds. Second, it may not be obvious how to have fun while you teach. Third, and most important, if you can figure out how to have fun then you will enjoy your job much more, your students will enjoy Spanish class more, and they will definitely learn more.
One of the strengths of the Sonrisas Spanish curriculum is the activities in the lessons are age-appropriate. This means that they are suitable to the development and social maturity of the students. When activities are not age-appropriate students become frustrated, stifled in their learning, and they development a negative connotation with learning Spanish. In other words, they do not have fun.
When students are not having fun, you cannot have fun either. Incorporating age-appropriate activities, in all three levels of the curriculum, sets teachers up for having fun. Let’s take a look at some of the age-appropriate activities from the different levels.
Sonrisas Level I includes singing, role-play, games, storytelling, art projects and drama. Young learners have a strong propensity for these types of activities which are play-based. The beauty here is that when you engage students in these types of activities, learners interact with Spanish in a very natural way. They may not even realize that they are “learning” Spanish.
Actually, students are acquiring Spanish in a play-based, immersion environment in which they have lots of opportunity for communication. The key here is that the activities should feel like play. They are designed that way, so remember that when you implement them, they are meant to be enjoyable. When you approach the activities with this intention, both you and your students will have fun.
Sonrisas Level II continues with the play-based model for activities with the addition of the Partner Time segment in the lessons. In about 2nd to 4th grade, working independently in pairs is age-appropriate. Kids have fun doing this. Partner Time capitalizes on older children’s developing need for social interaction and their ability to work in a peer-to-peer mode. Again, more fun and more learning.
In Sonrisas Level III, students begin to learn the how and why of grammar concepts. This is age-appropriate for learners in 5th grade and above. Level III lessons also use the TPR Storytelling method to build comprehension and speaking skills. The TPRS stories are scripted in a way that allows students to come up with bizarre and funny details for the stories. When they do this, students take ownership of the stories and really enjoy them. This in turn aides them in their retention of the vocabulary, phrases, and grammar which are used in the story.
The Sonrisas Level III lessons also include a daily spelling activity in which students compete to spell Spanish words. We designed these into the lessons because it was something that we always did with our own classes. The thing is, it is surprising, but we found that students loved competing to spell Spanish words. Whether it was the fun of the competition or the novelty of spelling in a foreign language, our student always loved the spelling activity. Once again, more fun and more learning.
Age-appropriate activities facilitate the ability for you and your students to have fun. Each Sonrisas lesson includes a lot of playful content. But there is an element to the execution of the activities which requires performance from the teacher.
In other words, students need someone to lead them in their play. This is part of the teacher’s role. For better or for worse, most academic scenarios are quite serious and rigid. With the Sonrisas lessons, you have the opportunity to lead students through a series of activities which feel like play. The key here is that you lead them. You give them permission to play, and in doing so, they engage with the content of the lesson, and they acquire the language.
This takes energy and stamina. It also takes a lot of intention. Play doesn’t just happen. First of all, you are following a lesson plan. This is the part that Sonrisas has done for you. Second, you plan so that you know how you are going to implement the activities. Third, you set the intention for what the play is doing for your students. The point is not simply to play in Spanish with no thought towards outcomes. The point is that when you play with your students you provide lots of opportunity for communication in Spanish. And this communication is authentic and meaningful because it is rooted in joy.
This brings us to our final point about having fun with the Sonrisas lessons. One of the greatest assets of the lessons is that there is room for joy. Sure, there is structure and routine—this is a big part of the success of the lessons as well. But within that structure and routine there is room for joy.
What this means to us is that when you implement the Sonrisas lessons, you can bear witness to the most joyful element of teaching—seeing learning, or in this case acquisition, occur. This may not always happen within the structure of a routine or activity, but there will be moments when you are engaged in play where your communication becomes something unscripted. You want to find these moments, you want to encourage and motivate them. When you do, you will find that you are communicating authentically with your students. And when you communicate authentically you observe high levels of comprehension and language usage, and it’s a joyful thing.
So don’t be afraid. Play with your students, lead them through playful content, and find room for joy. When you do, you will have fun.
