Teaching with Garbanzo: You Say Tomato, I Say Tomatina

How I start the year with Tomatina using The Comprehensible Classroom and Garbanzo.

In this post you'll learn:

🍅 How I kick off the school year with La Tomatina
 📖 How I pair The Comprehensible Classroom lesson with a Garbanzo story
 🔤 How I use a free Alphabox printable to get students rereading naturally
 🗣️ How the Alphabox turns into a whole-class retell (without students even realizing it!)
 💡 A simple bell ringer that uses the same activity the next day

Free Download: Alphabox printable + Google Slides template

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Naysa Altmeyer and I'm a middle and high school Spanish/ESL teacher in a rural school district in western Pennsylvania. I just received my schedule for the year: three sections of Spanish 1 (with my largest class clocking in at a whopping 27 students!), two sections of Spanish 2, one section of Spanish 3, an eighth-grade exploratory rotation, and one period each day at our elementary school providing ESL services. This year is going to be a doozy! I’m definitely going to be leaning into Garbanzo for both language acquisition and sanity reasons. 

Throughout this school year, I'll be writing a series of blog posts about how I use Garbanzo in my classroom. My hope is that these posts feel relatable and give you practical ideas you can adapt to your own classes—whether you're using Garbanzo stories or any comprehensible stories throughout the year.

The Context

My school year officially begins on Friday, August 21, and students arrive on Wednesday, August 26. That date just so happens to coincide with one of my favorite cultural topics to start the year with: La Tomatina, the world's largest tomato fight, held each year in Buñol, Spain.

For the past several years, I've kicked off my Spanish classes with The Comprehensible Classroom's Tomatina lesson plans (get them here!). The readings are thoughtfully leveled, engaging, and perfect for easing students back into the target language after summer break. We even have a “tomato” fight and a salsa cook off!

Where Garbanzo Fits In

Since it's the beginning of the year, students will first need to create their Garbanzo accounts. Our district uses Canvas as our learning management system, so for my students, everything lives there. I always pin a "Start Here" module to the top of the course that includes the syllabus, class join codes and links for Garbanzo and Sr. Wooly, and our Google Meet link in case we end up with a snow day. (Did I mention I teach in western Pennsylvania?) 

Because this is students' first experience with Garbanzo, I want to make it a good one.

More than anything, I want to set the tone for how we'll use Garbanzo throughout the year. It's not a torture device designed to ruin their lives. It's a language-building tool—a place where they can read, listen, interact with stories, and, perhaps most importantly, get a break from listening to me talk for an entire class period while still receiving comprehensible input. 

First impressions matter. If students leave their first Garbanzo assignment feeling successful and confident, they're much more likely to approach the next story with curiosity instead of dread. That's the mindset I want to build from day one. Here’s how I’m going to do it! 

My First Garbanzo Activity: Alphaboxes

For this first story, I don't want students to jump straight into answering comprehension questions. Instead, I want them to interact with the language in a low-stress way while they read.

One of my favorite activities for this is Alphaboxes.

If you've never used one before, it's exactly what it sounds like: students have a box for every letter of the alphabet. As they read, they look for words or even short phrases from the story that begin with each letter and record them in the appropriate box. Some letters (I'm looking at you, X and W) can be a challenge in Spanish, and that's okay! Students don't have to fill every box.

This activity encourages students to slow down and notice language instead of racing to the end of the story. They're rereading naturally, scanning for vocabulary, and making connections without feeling like they're "studying." The Alphaboxes are not a vocabulary worksheet, but a story outline disguised as a vocabulary activity. 

I've included this free printable Alphabox template that you can download and use with any Garbanzo story.

What It Looks Like in My Classroom

There are a multitude of ways to use Alphaboxes in the classroom, but I think the most important thing at the beginning of the year is to model the activity. I display the Google Slides version (open it here) of the Alphabox and complete a few examples with students while narrating my thinking as I choose words.

"I'm going to write Buñol for B because that's an important place in the story. I could write bonito if I saw it, but Buñol will help me remember what happened."

This quick think-aloud helps students understand that the goal isn't to fill every box—it's to collect language that will help them remember and retell the story.

Now it's time to assign the Garbanzo!

I will assign the students the Tomatina Garbanzo and have them login to their computers. As student read through the story (and reread it...more input!), they'll add words to their printed Alphabox worksheet as they read. Some students like to complete a box before moving on, while others read the entire story first and then go back to fill in their chart.

Pro tip: The final slide of every Garbanzo story contains the full text. Students can use that page to revisit the story and hunt for any letters they may have missed. I'm happy with either approach because both require students to return to the text, giving them even more exposure to the language.

Here's an example of what a completed Alphabox might look like after students complete the Tomatina Garbanzo story.

The Sneaky Retell

Once students have completed both the Garbanzo story and their Alphaboxes, you have several options. They can turn and talk with a partner to compare their words, or you can move directly into a whole-class retell—which is my favorite.

Project the Alphabox on the board and ask students to contribute words for each letter. This is where you can either ask students to expand their language or provide the expansion yourself, depending on their proficiency level.

For example, if a student offers "agosto," I might respond:

"¡Muy bien! La Tomatina es en el mes de agosto. Clase, ¿La Tomatina es en septiembre o en agosto?"

Students respond:

"¡Agosto!"

Then I continue:

"Sí, es cierto. La Tomatina es en agosto."

As we work our way through the alphabet, students provide words while I guide the conversation into a natural retell of the story. We're getting repeated exposure to the same high-frequency structures, but it feels like we're simply reviewing their Alphaboxes.

If students miss an important detail, I simply prompt them.

"Hmm... clase, nos falta información importante. ¿Qué día de la semana ocurre La Tomatina?"

Students eventually answer:

"¡Miércoles!"

Then I add:

"¡Exacto! M es para miércoles. ¿Es el primer miércoles de agosto o el último miércoles de agosto?"

Without ever asking students to memorize the story, we've revisited the most important information multiple times through meaningful interaction.

Notice that at no point did I ask students to "retell the story."

 Instead, the Alphabox serves as a scaffold that naturally supports the retell. Students feel successful because they aren't starting from a blank page—they've already collected the language they need. For novice learners especially, that little bit of support can make all the difference. For my upper-level classes, this activity is also a great confidence builder. Instead of focusing on what they forgot over the summer, students leave class thinking, "I didn't forget as much Spanish as I thought!" Perfect way to kick off the school year with confidence. 

Don't Throw It Away!

One of my favorite things about Alphaboxes is that the activity doesn't end when students finish reading.

The next day, the completed Alphabox becomes the perfect bell-ringer. Students pair up and use the words on their sheet to retell as much of the story as they can remember. At lower levels, the retells are usually simple:

"Hay tomates. La gente tira tomates."

But as students gain confidence, they naturally begin adding details from the story and connecting ideas with longer sentences.

Sometimes I'll have partners take turns adding one sentence at a time. Other times, students write a quick summary using only the vocabulary they collected. Either way, the Alphabox transforms from a reading activity into a speaking and writing scaffold.

It's a simple routine, but it's one that students quickly become comfortable with—and we re-visit it many times throughout the year! 

See You Next Time!

September is right around the corner, which means Hispanic Heritage Month! In my next post, I'll share how I use Garbanzo stories to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in a way that goes beyond famous people and flags—while keeping students reading, talking, and engaging with the language.