Centers For Spanish Class

Centers for Spanish class are a great way to keep all students engaged at the same time and even to differentiate activities for the varying learning needs and skill levels we have in our classes. Centers are also called stations, and if you’ve never heard of them, here’s a brief overview!

What Are Centers For Spanish Class?

Planning a centers activity means creating multiple activities related to the same theme or topic or skill you’re working on. Usually, students work in small groups of 2-4 and are assigned an activity. Usually, the teacher sets up his/her/their classroom with the different center activities at specific spots in the room. After that, the way in which you run your activities can vary greatly depending on your preferences and your students’ needs.

Let’s look at two examples!

1 Example of Centers For Spanish Class

Topic: Imperfect vs. Preterite

Class: Spanish 3

Needs: I teach both Honors level and non-honors level Spanish 3. My students’ skill levels with reading, writing, speaking and listening vary from Novice Mid to Intermediate Mid. Ay! We are finishing up a unit on accidents and injuries, and students are getting ready for a summative assessment where they will need to produce their own Spanish.

Centers Activity Design Option A

In this design, I will target the specific needs of my individual students. I am going to create activities based on where my students are in their learning, and assign them to specific stations. *As the teacher, I need to know what my students need to work on, and design activities that will target those needs. For example, here are some station activities I might make:

Center 1: Practice conjugating verbs in the context of a sentence. Preterite and Imperfect are separated. Students may use notes on endings.

Center 2: Identify which tense should be used in the context of a story, and say why.

Center 3: Practice conjugating in both tenses in the context of a story (Cloze activity)

Center 4: Read a finished story and correct errors. Justify why you are making each change.

In this example, the teacher tells the students which center they are working on. Centers work best in small groups. So, if you have 8 students that need help with identifying the tense, you could make 2 centers the same so you can divide them up!

Centers For Spanish Class Design Option B

In this scenario, every student does all of the stations. This is a great way to review a little of everything! Usually, I put students into pairs. Then I create enough activities so that all pairs can visit each center by the end of the class period. (If you have large class- say 28 students- you would need 14 stations. (That’s too many- so maybe 7 stations, and you would create 2 of each station and have 2 different rotations going on.)

Print out instructions for each center and tape them to a group of desks. Make sure each station/center is numbered! Create an answer sheet for students. This helps them to stay organized and to know which station to go to next. (Students can also use a blank piece of paper!) Explain to the pairs that they are starting at whatever station their desks have now. When the timer goes off, you will move to the next highest numbered center. Center 7 will find center 1.

Let’s stay with the same topic: preterite vs. imperfect

Center 1: meet at the front table: teacher reads a listening practice

Center 2: Fill in the blank with the correct conjugation

Center 3: Correct the errors in these sentences

Center 4: Partner speaking activity

Center 5: Write an original sentence for each reason we use the imperfect

Center 6: Write sentences with these verbs (you provide them) in both the preterite and imperfect. Translate them!

Center 7: Read this short passage and answer questions (questions could be comprehension based or the kind that asks students to think about and analyze the grammar)

The most difficult part of centers work is trying to get each center activity to take about the same amount of time. However, this is a quick moving and therefore engaging activity for students, and gives them a chance to work together and to move!