Join us for the Final 8

Posted on March 10, 2021 by SpanishPlans

If you felt like you didn’t have time to join us for the whole tournament of 16 songs, we are down to the final 8. For the rest of the MusicadeMarzo21 tournament, you could use a modified 4 day or 7 day bracket.

See our modified calendar. You can pass out the full bracket with the songs advancing or just show the final 8 bracket. Both are available for free download here: http://bit.ly/mmm21final8 


Also, for those of you who have been with us since Round 1, what activities have you been using in your classes? Let us know in the comments! 
For more information about the activities see our post on Lyric Activities and Music Video Activities.

Continue reading →

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Music Video Activities

Posted on March 2, 2021 by SpanishPlans

We talked about over 6 different activities you can use with lyrics of a song, so today we want to talk about ways you can provide comprehensible input and use the music video in your lesson.8 things to do with Music Videos

1. MovieTalk

One of the most obvious ways to use a music video is to describe the story in the video in a typical movietalk.  Because of the singing, I might either take screenshots or if I play the video, put it on mute. Although, the video typical includes cuts of the artist singing, so screenshots might be the best option. Depending on the level, get down to the most essential part of the story and narrate what is happening. Use TPRS questioning to provide comprehensible input. If you’ve never done a movietalk, download this FREE “My First MovieTalk” to get an idea.

Here’s a few MovieTalk lessons for songs:
–No te vayas  por Carlos Vives (which is in this year’s tournament)
–A las tres por Los Enanitos Verdes (immigration/migrant worker theme)
–Soy Yo por Bomba Estero: A complete lesson plan and a student favorite

See 5 more other types of activities Continue reading →

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Beyond the Lyrics

Posted on March 1, 2021 by SpanishPlans


So you’ve played the song… You have a copy of the lyrics. But how else can you work with a songTop 6 song activities besides the traditional fill-in the missing lyric cloze activities? This post is all about getting the most of out playing songs in class, which you may want to include during your March Música Madness.

Here are some other activities you can do with song lyrics:


1. Scrambled Lyrics/ Letra Revuelta

One of my favorites is a great listening practice as students have to listen to the song to put them in order. Take a song and scramble the lyrics and put enough space between each line. To save myself time, I have the kids cut them out (which is why scrambling them first is key). Then, as you play the song, students have to listen and find the line. The hands-on of moving the strips is a plus. During remote or virtual lessons, you can perhaps put the phrases on a google slides and have them drag them around.
scrambled-letraSee 5 more… Continue reading →

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Música de marzo 2021

Posted on February 26, 2021 by SpanishPlans

We are a few short days away from the official debut of Música de marzo 2021. The official tournament with online voting kicks off on Monday, March 1. There is plenty of time to join and even if you don’t participate with the national vote, you can still use the tournament in your own classes on a different schedule.

  1. Let’s start with the important stuff: Prizes! Teachers can submit their picks and the teachers with the most points or most correct picks will win some cool prizes. Any Teacher is welcome to participate: https://bit.ly/MMM21TeacherPrediction Also upon completion of the survey (on the confirmation page) you’ll get a link to download a FREE Movietalk lesson.

Some important links to share with you:

Continue reading →

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Diana Trujillo: De Colombia a Marte

Posted on February 20, 2021 by SpanishPlans

By now, hopefully you’ve heard the name Diana Trujillo, the Colombia woman who came to the US at age 17 and is now a team leader at NASA working on the Perseverance Mars Rover.

Her story is one that should be highlighted in Spanish classrooms. If you are already a TPRS teacher, including biographies of important people is something that tends to get overlooked in early levels. While it is difficult to talk about more complex topics at this stage, as we try to build language, we must look for ways to do it.

As I posted an article about her on a FB group, most of the teachers responding were higher level teachers who were ready to talk about her in the AP or upper levels classes.

Here is a FREE novice level text with full glossary:

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March Music Madness 2021

Posted on January 31, 2021 by SpanishPlans

It’s almost that time. One of the most exciting times of the year in Spanish class: The annual March Música Madness tournament hosted by SpanishPlans.

March Music Madness 2021 from SpanishPlans.org

We are currently finalizing the bracket and look forward to bringing your the 2021 tournament (our 8th!!!). Our bracket features hit songs from the past year from various latin artists.

This year, we are kicking things off with a pre-tournament vote: help us finalize the bracket by choosing the song from a specific artist.

We currently have 2 artists up for vote: ChocQuibTown and Carlos Vives. Vote for your favorite song now.

Be sure to check out the MMM21 Headquaters Page for all the necessary information and if you are new to our tournament, check out our FAQ page. Teachers, you can also be a part of our growing group on Facebook to collaborate with other teachers who use our bracket.

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Storytelling Remotely

Posted on November 16, 2020 by SpanishPlans

Despite being completely remote up until this point, I have done my best to continue to use storytelling as my main method to deliver comprehensible input in my Spanish class over our synchronous online Google Meets classes.

I know a lot of teachers are still hesitant about teaching online so I thought I would share some things that have worked well for me so far.

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Illustrating to show comprehension

Posted on October 21, 2020 by SpanishPlans

In search of a quick input-based activity that you can use either in a remote or in-person setting? Have students draw the scenes of a story.

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Drag and Drop Audio with Google Slides

Posted on September 8, 2020 by SpanishPlans

Spanish Drag and Drop Listening Activity on Google SlidesNow that most of us are giving classes virtually, how can we adapt our listening activities to an online format? Even if you are presenting it LIVE as a class over a video Meeting, it’s always best to provide an option for those who were absent or whose connection dropped.

Google Forms is great option – you can upload an image to a survey and turn it into a quiz to automatically grade. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any integration with audio. The only workaround I’ve seen is putting the url of the audio file from google drop into the question that students need to click on which will open a new tab. Yuck! Inserting an audio into Google Slides is easy– but it does need to be an MP3, so if you have it saved as another file, you will need to use a converter site or you can use Online-Voice-Recorder.com to easy record and save audio files to then upload to your Google Drive. Watch our video tutorial below to find out how to create these drag-and-drops on Google Slides.

Anyway, let’s get to the pedagogy of it all. How can I use this in my World Language class? Continue reading →

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Remote Learning: El Tigre Tiene Hambre

Posted on September 1, 2020 by SpanishPlans

Our second week of remote learning is underway and we wanted to share with you what we’ve been up to.

El Tigre tiene hambre for distance learningMy set-up

All my students are working from home. I have the option to work from my classroom and I have my laptop for presenting. I also have the classroom computer logged in to the Google Meet grid view (and projected on the board for me to see my students and what the presentation looks like).

Most of my students have their cameras on (a district mandate that I don’t enforce) but I do tell them that having them react I can tell if they are understanding the story or not. The best way was to ask yes/no questions and have students nod or shake their heads. I would call on students to turn their mic on (using the shortcut of “control+ d” on keyboard is a timesaver!) and answer more specific questions. I used the chat to type in translations of key words that I would normally write on the board or point to on posters in my classroom. I also have these Zoom TPRS labels to hold up. Continue reading →

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