Curriculum That Reflects Our Students: 3 Easy Ideas

One of the ideas I’ve been grappling with in recent years is how to be a culturally responsive teacher who offers curriculum that reflects our students. I am fortunate this year. I have the experience of a veteran teacher, and the pleasure of working with two brand new teachers. These colleagues are young enough to be my own children, and they are wonderfully reflective and have great ideas. I’m learning so much from them!

We are having great discussions as I try to wrap my brain around what it means to have curriculum that reflects our students as a Spanish teacher. Of course, some of my students are naturally reflected as they come from Hispanic backgrounds. But how do I reflect everyone, and make sure that all of my students see themselves in the curriculum?

Here are my beginning conclusions as my subgroup of colleagues and I work to understand and implement this!

Curriculum That Reflects Our Students and Their Culture

Clearly, our curriculum teaches not only how to communicate in Spanish, but lends itself to learning about all aspects of culture of Spanish-speaking people. So as we introduce products, practices and perspectives of our target cultures, our Hispanic students will feel seen and see themselves. But we can connect this learning to students who are not Hispanic by doing cultural comparisons.

Even in Spanish 1, with scaffolding we can provide the language structures for students to compare what they are learning about to their own experiences. We can ask opinions on what they prefer. Would you rather have a piñata at your birthday or a goody bag? And we can be sure to highlight both similarities and differences, both of which can be celebrated.

Choose Units of Study That Reflect Our Students

One of the interesting things about my district is that we have forgone textbooks. Many years ago, we felt disappointed with the textbook options and found that we didn’t like the order of grammar points, the pace of the books, etc. etc. We decided to write our own curriculum and now, each summer we have the opportunity to re-write or revise our curriculum in a (paid) team.

There are some drawbacks to this; mainly that we have NO resources and we create everything we use for our students ourselves. But the good part about this is that we have chosen themes for each level and each unit with our students in mind. What is part of their world? (By the way, our students take the Seal of Biliteracy test, which focuses on their immediate world! So it works out great!)

So right now in Spanish 3, we are in the unit about Teens, Now and Then. We are talking about what’s important to teens, what their responsibilities are and comparing that to when they were younger (to recycle the imperfect). The unit topic itself reflects our students!

Everything we do and ask can directly relate to their perspective and reality. And when students see themselves in the curriculum, they engage more and find what they are learning to be relevant.

My new colleagues gave me the idea and the courage to ask students to chat and have whole conversations around relevant questions. The best one was: What are some stereotypes about teens?

Here’s another idea: a group writing activity about a variety of teens!

How Else Can We Provide Curriculum That Reflects Our Students?

One of my big ah-ha moments came from my new colleague. He pointed out that culture and belonging do not only refer to one’s ethnic background. Being a teenager is it’s own culture and group. He suggested that we help students see that their identity has many facets, and being a teen is one of them.

We can work in what teens think about just about any topic to make it relevant to them. For example, in Spanish 2, we are working on the unit about daily routine. Yes, they are learning reflexive verbs and talking about their own daily routine. But, we don’t want that to get boring.

Taking the insights I learned from my colleagues, I thought about another way to talk about daily routines in a relevant way to teens. How can we design activities and curriculum that reflects our students?? Ahhh! It’s Hispanic Heritage Month! I wrote short biographies of 6 famous Hispanic people that teens know. (Ex: Shakira, Leo Messi, Bad Bunny). They will read the bios and practice inferencing by creating a probable daily routine for the person of their choice. They base this routine on the bio they read and what else they may know about these people.

It’s relevant to them because these are celebrities that are part of their world. It’s fun for them to imagine what their daily life is like!

Start The Conversation!

I encourage you to start this conversation with your World Language Department! It does not require a complete re-write of curriculum. Start with a brainstorming session. We have X topic. We need to practice Y skill. How can I make it relevant to my students?

Offering curriculum that reflects our students can start with adding or adapting one activity at a time. Don’t be overwhelmed by trying to make huge changes all at once.

Students who are engaged with the curriculum and who are asked about their opinions and viewpoints will try harder and have better learning outcomes. And it’s fun to create and adapt stale activities! Buena suerte!