In the United States, Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates Spanish-speaking communities' history, culture, and traditions. The annual observance began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week, but in 1988 it was expanded to one month to celebrate Hispanic heritage.
For Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15th through October 15th, we have put together three activities to help your Spanish language students become more aware of their cultural heritage and encourage them to explore other cultures.
Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates Latinos' contribution to American society. Spanish learners benefit from learning about this significant event together. Many students feel more connected to their classmates and gain pride in their heritage during this time. If you are looking for ways to engage your students during Hispanic Heritage Month, You can't go wrong with these three suggestions!
Run a Garbanzo Scavenger Hunt of Important Latinx People.
This is an activity that students can complete throughout the week if they are early finishers or if you want to dedicate a block just for reading biographies and establishing some healthy competition amongst your students. You can time it and run this activity in teams or individually. The goal is to find the answers to the questions of the printable by reading the six biographies.
Before starting, you must assign the following biographies for your students in Garbanzo:
DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE SCAVENGER HUNT HERE
Students will have to peruse the stories to find which person did which action. Since most of the verbs are in the preterit, with English translations on the side, you might want to do this activity with Spanish 2 and above or with a Heritage class.
Do A Movietalk With Hispanic Animations.
If you are teaching using comprehensible input, you are probably familiar with MovieTalk. MovieTalk is a fun, engaging way to teach your students vocabulary. It's perfect for differentiated instruction and helps them learn when they can understand.
These four short movies we selected have great qualities for a MovieTalk:
They have almost no dialogue.
They show the main character making decisions and taking recallable actions.
They are all school appropriate (albeit better suited for 8th grade and up).
You can select the core vocabulary you want to use for each video from @garbanzoapp's Vocabulario Importante lessons. Type Vocabulario importante on the search bar, and you will see lessons that cover the basics.
Read the summaries of each short film in this post.
Get access to the short movies:
1) Alike
2) El gatito
3) El empleo
4) La bruxa
Use An Interpretive Listening Exercise Related To Hispanic Heritage Month.
If you want to keep things simple due to time constraints (after all, the beginning of the school year has a lot of material to cover), you can take some time to use this interpretive listening exercise we prepared for you. There is no prep, except for having Garbanzo open on your computer or whichever device you have connected to your classroom board.
This listening exercise will require you to go to slide 14 of the lesson ¿Qué es el Mes de la Herencia Hispana? before distributing the printable. Download the printable here.
Take This Month To Build A Sense Of Community In Your Classroom
Hispanic Heritage Month can be a significant opportunity for Spanish language educators to bring their students closer together through one joint event. The more everyone participates, the merrier! And remember, if students feel like they are part of a community, they are more likely to embrace the culture.
Do you want to exchange ideas with other teachers using Garbanzo? Join our Teaching with Garbanzo Facebook Group to share ideas and insights!
