Teaching Spanish IV, which in my district consists of mostly students in their Junior year, is a magical experience for me as an educator. I feel the class can be a great turning point for students in terms of their proficiency growth as they approach proficiency levels of Intermediate-Mid and High. During the year we build language by delving into topics and themes such as Belonging and Personal Beliefs, Fusions of Culture and Religions, Injustices and Human Rights, Global Citizenship, Sustainability, Personal Relationships, and Interconnections of STEAM topics: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. 

Balancing Serious and Fun with Upper-Level Story-Asking  

Over the past few years of developing these units, I often find that they can all be highly academic and in many cases too serious. Yes, I would incorporate fun, circumlocution games like Bryan Kandel’s Hot Seat (teacher or students describe words in target language and others guess the words) but I still believe that fun could happen in other ways and here is how I balanced these impactful topics with some fun. Many of the units I have developed come from the support and resources provided by Voces Digital’s Nuestra Historia Level 4. Click here for a free trial of all of the amazing virtual text series for Spanish (high school, middle school, and elementary), French, German, Italian, or ESL/ELL. 

For me, I have had a working relationship with the editors of the Our Story Series for the past five years and often have the great pleasure of helping make the Nuestra Historia series even better. Last summer I wrote Story-Scripts to accompany each of the amazing stories in the level IV Spanish series. In no way do my story-scripts replace the brilliantly crafted and culturally relevant stories that are in the text and my students love, but my story-scripts are additional stories or contexts that help guide a teacher in the story-asking process that was missing in my level IV classes.

For my students and me, adding these story-asking days into the rotation made a big difference in lightening the mood and, more importantly, how students acquired language at this level because the story-asking process can be so powerful. It really allowed me to emulate more of the experiences that my students have been having successfully in lower levels because the scripts provided the vehicle to actively engage students in the story-asking process while communicating in a fun way.  

Balancing Proficiency Exam Preparation 

I have written about the STAMP Proficiency Tests in the past. My students take this exam during this year to determine who could possibly earn the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy or the Global Seal of Biliteracy. To earn the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy, Juniors or Seniors must demonstrate a proficiency level of Intermediate High (scores of 6) in three or four of the proficiency skills of reading, writing, listening, or speaking (an Intermediate Mid score of 5 can be scored in one area). With regard to our program, my Spanish IV class’ goal is for students to earn scores in the Intermediate Mid range (scores of 5), which can earn students a Global Seal of Biliteracy in Functional Fluency through the International Global Seal Program. Each year, I am then also able to use my students’ results and my students’ semester two feedback to help improve my instruction for the following year. 

So during the summer of 2022, I realized I wanted to incorporate shorter infographics with quick interpretive questions that I could project in class and use as quick reading tasks. Often I only had students reading long stories, novelas, or articles in class. Last summer, via Facebook and Instagram, I just followed many people, organizations, or groups who would post infographics and pictures that I would then use in class. My favorite infographics to use this year were those found on social media from Mexican artist Roy Gallardo monos. In creating questions, I relied on this document that I had created based on the types of questions I had found based on the AP Spanish Language and Culture Courses and Exam Description’s skills and an analysis of various sample test questions (these are the same for French, German, and Italian):

9 Types of Interpretive Multiple-Choice Questions:

1. Main idea/purpose/message/argument of the source  
2. Key details that are obvious and ones that must be deciphered by context: Who, What, Where, When, Which, Whose, Why, How, How many/much? To whom?  
3. Viewpoint/perspective/attitude/opinion/tone of the author/speaker or intended audience  
4. Summarized statements as they relate to the whole text or sections  
5. Relationships and connections that could be made from the text 
6. Inferences that could be made from the text 
7. Hypothetical connections to other sources/titles that could be referenced that relate to the same topic/theme of the original source
8. Cultural perspective and context  
9. Meanings of words/idiomatic language/culturally authentic expressions as they pertain to the context provided                                                 RESOURCE: http://www.garydibianca.com

I also knew that my students needed exposure to longer authentic articles and news report style audio or videos. For this, students had to find articles or videos on a variety topics as they relate to current events. I have always done some form of this activity at this level, but this year I started it during quarter 1 and consistently had students do the assignment five to six times each quarter. I used Bethanie Drews’ wonderful resource as the template that students had to complete for each of their current events (her blog Aventuras Nuevas is an amazing wealth of resources for all world language teachers). Also as a quick follow up activity, I required each student to talk for one to two minutes in small groups about their sources and what they learned. 

All of my students reported that these activities were helpful in preparing them for the reading and listening section of the STAMP proficiency test. In addition, many of this year’s students also reported that I should incorporate more non-graded listening activities with questions like I defined above. So during 2023-24, I will work to incorporate more of these types of activities. Last year, I often had students write multiple-choice questions like those that I defined above, knowing that I could use the questions in future activities while training them how to deconstruct questions; it looks like I will be doing that many times throughout the year with audio and video sources this year so I continue to build a working library of sources and questions that I can then use with my students. 

This year’s STAMP scores were the best we have had for our Spanish IV students. 91% of students earned the Global Seal of Biliteracy’s Functional Fluency earning 5 or higher on all sections (Intermediate Mid). 68% of the students earned the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy earning all 6s (Intermediate High) or three 6s and one 5.

Balancing Memorization and Active Usage 

Last year, I posted this blog about my use of Mastery Verb Quizzes. This year’s students almost all reported that the quizzes were beneficial, helped them review and learn new verbs and tenses, and helped their proficiency overall. The main recommendation coming from students was that they would have liked (well perhaps not liked) me to have more tasks or practice that required them to use the verbs more in context instead of just completing a quiz writing the words Spanish to English and Spanish to English. So during next school year I will incorporate more retrieval practices like I wrote about here as well as other interactive task-based activities that require students to focus a bit more on intentionally using the verbs in more contexts. So even though I am always using these high frequency verbs throughout the year, perhaps requiring my students to actively use them in their output might help their sense of mastery, which is the ultimate goal. 

Balancing for the Future 

Overall, I was so happy with the design and flow of my Spanish IV course last year. It was a pleasure watching the growth and development in all of my students and their abilities. If you did read this post, I hope you were able to glean something useful. As a teacher, I always strive to do better and push myself and students in new directions. This year, I want to remind myself (and others) that I have a lot of amazing pieces and parts to this Spanish IV course. I need to rely on that and those resources to help me have a great year and not feel I must reinvent the wheel and create all new materials (which I love to do). In circling back to my title of balance, I must remember the great pieces and additions from this past year, add some new tasks as I defined above, and then focus my attention and strength on teaching a section of Spanish 1 (which I have not taught since 2019-20). More on Spanish 1, as we start the school year.