¡Hola profes! Has this happened to you? You are finished with your unit – you’ve introduced and practiced all the concepts and themes, and you feel pretty confident that your students understand. So, you give them a related writing prompt or a series of questions and ask students to respond. But then…you look at their answers and you realize that your students are struggling to form written responses. Perhaps your novice-high or intermediate-low students are only producing fragments, or are failing to include many details, or maybe it is difficult to understand the intended message at all.
If this sounds familiar, I don’t need to tell you how demoralizing it can feel. After all, being able to communicate in writing in Spanish is one of the main goals of teaching the language, right? We want our students to be able to write well enough to convey comprehensible messages in Spanish, and it can be upsetting when our students are struggling to do so. I completely understand because I’ve been there too!
But, there is good news, profe! There are activities that you can incorporate into virtually any unit to help improve students’ writing skills and, ultimately, improve their chances of being able to write in Spanish in real-world situations outside of our classrooms. Here are 4 writing activities that will help your students develop their writing skills and, perhaps even better, that your students will enjoy doing!
#1: Preguntas Personales
One thing that I have found about teaching high-school students is that the majority of them like to share about themselves. The Preguntas Personales add a personalized aspect to our units that make students feel more connected to the content, as they can see how it relates to their lives.
Here’s how I use Preguntas Personales: I’ll usually post 2-3 questions pertaining to our unit on the board, or I’ll give each student a slip of paper with the questions. I try to vary the subjects of the questions – one is usually “tú,” one is usually a friend or family member, and one is usually “ustedes.” This gets students in the habit of understanding that they sometimes need to change the subject in the answer. I collect students’ responses and give them feedback. Since there are only a few questions, they are quick to grade, and students can see what they are doing well and where they can improve.
Sometimes, I add a speaking component to Preguntas Personales by having students ask the questions to a partner. Students record their partners’ responses. For upper-level students, I may have students first answer the Preguntas Personales themselves, then interview a partner, and write a compare/contrast paragraph. Not only is this a great way to practice writing, it allows students to get to know their classmates and helps build a strong classroom community.
Want to grab some ready-to-use Preguntas Personales to use in your classroom? Check out some of these resources:
#2: Email/Message Reply
If you read my post on AP-exam readiness, you know how much I love email reply writing activities! However, email and message replies are beneficial for ALL students, not just those who will go on to take AP Spanish. It is very likely that, if our students use written Spanish in authentic situations outside of the classroom, they will be writing or responding to an email or other written message. If we want our students to be successful in this area, we have to ensure that students practice. Email/message replies are great because they allow us as the teachers to see how well our students can communicate at the sentence level, and if they are able to connect sentences or strings of sentences.
Here’s what I do: I write an email to my students based on our unit topic, and ask my students to respond. I usually include some parameters, such as length requirements or certain vocabulary that students should include. Sometimes, I will have a “text message” conversation with students, where I provide them with a shorter message and expect a shorter, less formal message back from them in response. Then, I reply to students to continue the conversation, and they respond again. This can go on for a few exchanges, and I find that using technology is very helpful! Alternatively, you could have students write and respond to each other, giving them feedback on their messages along the way!
Scroll down to see some ready-to-print email replies, including a FREEBIE!
#3: Story-Telling Projects
If I had to pick, I would say that my students favorite way to practice writing is through story-telling projects. Students really enjoy that they can be creative with their Spanish and have fun! Truly, some of the stuff my students have come up with is HILARIOUS!
With story-telling projects, I like to give my students a scenario and some parameters, and…well, that’s it! I try not to structure them TOO much because I want to allow them to create with the language within the context of our unit. I usually have my students use construction paper to make posters or booklets of their stories. Sometimes, I use chart or easel paper, although I find that this is less durable than construction paper and more difficult to save for longer periods of time. With story-telling projects, I do require that my students include pictures to accompany their projects. I find that this is especially beneficial with novice students, as the pictures add a visual component to help convey their messages.
This is an example of a story-telling project that I use to practice describing emotions. Students describe how various people are feeling and explain why! This project is perfect for novice-high and intermediate-low students. Click below to grab the printable directions, digital template, and editable rubric from my TpT store!
If you’re looking for digital options, Charlala and MakeBeliefsComix are super fun and engaging platforms that your students can use to tell stories! Limited features of Charlala can be used at no charge, and MakeBeliefsComix is 100% free! My students really enjoy the fun options that MakeBeliefsComix has to offer.
#4: Cultural Comparison
The cultural comparison is a great writing task for students! Whenever you study culture with your students, you can quickly have them compare and contrast what they learned with their own cultures. Like the email reply, the cultural comparison is an AP-test task and if you start incorporating this task early on, your AP-bound students will be well-prepared! But your students don’t have to be on an AP track in order to benefit from the cultural comparison. Developing cultural appreciation and awareness is beneficial for all our students!
If you are concerned about your students’ current proficiency levels and their abilities to compare and contrast in the target language, don’t worry! You can modify the cultural comparison so that it is appropriate for students of any proficiency level. For example: in your lower-level classes, have students make bullet-point comparisons of individual similarities and differences in a Venn diagram. In upper-level classes, have students write a cohesive paragraph (or more!), including details and transition words.
The beauty of a cultural comparison is that you can make it as formal or as informal as you like. It could be a class work activity, a reading comprehension analysis task, or even an assessment. The possibilities are endless!
I hope this was helpful! Do you have any writing activities that you use in your classroom and would add to this list? Leave me a comment and let me know! Have a wonderful week, profe!
Señora Q 