By now you have probably heard that there will be changes to the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam for the 2026-2027 school year. I will admit to feeling very flustered and overwhelmed. But after attending an online workshop hosted by Vista Higher Learning and Parthena Draggett, I feel much better, and hope to help you feel better too!
What’s Not Changing
Luckily, the changes to AP Spanish do NOT include any of the themes or units. If you have spent time (or money) amassing fuentes and activities, you can still use them!
Every year I improve or change at least a few things in my AP units, and this summer, I will be spending a lot of time reflecting those updates in the resources I have for sale in my TPT store. But by in large, most things we do day to day in our AP Spanish classes can stay the same.
Changes to AP Spanish: The Exam
The big changes to AP Spanish for next year relate to several sections of the exam. While the MCQ section remains the same as well as the argumentative essay, students will be participating in a long-term individual project. The speaking portions of the exam will reflect their work on the project.
In January, College Board will release the topic and the materials that they provide. In broad terms, here are the basics. Every AP student will have this same topic, but it will be individualized for each student.
-College Board anticipates 15 class periods to prepare (45 min) and they do not have to be continuous
-College Board supplies the topic of the presentation and some common sources for students to read/listen to. Students will write an initial reflection based on what they’ve learned. This is Phase 1.
-From there, each student will choose a specific area of the Spanish-speaking world to focus in on. They will conduct their own research using sources they find. They will be given 6 factors to consider regarding products, practices and perspectives. They will choose 3 to focus on. This is phase 2.
-Phase 3 gives students an opportunity to plan for the presentation they will give as part of the AP Exam in May. They will fill out a guided note-taking sheet provided by College Board. They can get feedback from classmates, and then this note-taking sheet gets uploaded into a spot where students will have access to these notes on Exam day.
-Phase 4 is when students imagine what questions they might be asked about their project. During the AP exam, one part of their task will be to present their project. (They can practice this ahead of time, and on the day of, they can use the notes they uploaded.)
Then there will be a Q & A section. The questions will be recorded, and students will listen and then have 40 seconds to record their responses before the next question plays. These questions will not be released ahead of time, but we know they will relate to products, practices and perspectives. This is where students will show off their deep knowledge of the topic they’ve researched. We also know that one of the questions will likely be a cultural comparison-type question.
We already have access to the scoring guidelines, and those give us quite a bit of information on what College Board wants our students to do. That makes the changes to AP Spanish a bit easier to manage.
Preparing Students for Changes to AP Spanish
Hopefully by now, you can see that in terms of what students need to do on the Exam, the AP Spanish changes are not that great. In fact, it will likely be easier for our students to do well, given that they will know the general topic of the speaking parts and have the opportunity to practice and imagine what they might be asked to do.
During the school year, here are some hints that will make it even more likely that your students do well on the Exam.
-Ask them to do cultural comparisons in every unit
-Build in exploration of the relationship between perspectives and products/practices all year
-Give students scaffolds of vocabulary and phrases for presentations (I will be creating this, so stay tuned!)
-Train students to ask their peers follow-up questions
-Have students use the new scoring guidelines throughout the year to self-reflect
Conclusions
Based on what I understand about the changes to AP Spanish, these are my take-aways:
-much of the exam remains the same
-the oral part of the exam will still require a listen and respond section. The difference is that students will be talking about something they should have deep knowledge of, instead of being surprised.
-given how much class time students are expected to spend on the project, starting in January, I will recommend that my department teach students how to write an argumentative essay starting the year before AP Spanish. In my experience, this is the most time-consuming part of prepping students. Many lack good writing skills in general, and I spend a lot of time showing them and practicing with them how to write a strong introduction, how to use a topic sentence, etc.
Stay tuned for updated resources and more tips and ideas!
Resources
AP Spanish Lesson Plans Unit 1 Familias Digital or Printable Complete Unit!
Spanish 4 Pre-AP Spanish Lesson Plans Influential Hispanic People Unit Plans
Spanish 4 Pre-AP Lesson Plans Leyendas hispanas Hispanic Myths Legends Unit Plan
Spanish 4, Pre-AP Spanish Derechos humanos Lesson Plans 8 week unit Human Rights
