The start of the 2026-2027 school year brings us updates to the AP Spanish Exam, and with that, updates to AP Spanish Unit 1 (and all the units, for that matter!) Busy high school teachers who have 100 plus students and more than one course that they’re teaching can feel really overwhelmed. Please, let me help!
Where Do I Start With the Updates To AP Spanish Unit 1?
I think all of us are asking ourselves where to even begin. What changes need to be made as we go through each unit to make sure we’re preparing our students for the new exam?
Let’s start with the essential questions. In some units, the questions have changed a lot in recent years. In other units, there are only minor changes. Here are the essential questions I’m using now to guide the unit.
1. ¿Qué constituye una familia en las sociedades hispanohablantes?
2. ¿Cuáles son algunos aspectos importantes de los valores familiares y la vida en familia en las sociedades hispanohablantes?
3. ¿Cómo experimentan el mundo de hoy las familias y comunidades?
The first thing to do is to find out if these are the essential questions you’re using to design your activities. This will allow you to make updates to AP Spanish Unit 1 more easily!
Major Updates in AP Spanish Unit 1
If you are reading this blog post, you probably know that I create and sell my lesson plans, projects, activities, etc. on Teachers Pay Teachers. You probably also know that I am 3/4 of the way through a 35 year teaching career, and still at it! This summer (2026) I am updating the lesson plans that I use with my students (and sell on TPT) to reflect the new exam.
For me, these are the major updates in AP Spanish Unit 1 needed this year. They all revolve around the fact that the AP Exam will now include a project presentation.
Students Need To Connect What They’re Learning About To the 3 P’s.
Given that we know students will be presenting a project that they’ve worked on, we know that they will be asked recorded questions about their project. Almost certainly, there will be questions about the products, practices and perspectives of the culture.
Therefore, I created some new activities and adapted some of the ones that I already had to focus specifically on identifying the 3 P’s. If you need a starting place, here is a free reading activity with a 3 P’s focus!
Students Need Chances To Research and Report
Another of the updates to AP Spanish Unit 1 I made in my lesson plans is that students need to have the chance to practice researching and reporting what they learn. This can be done with projects, with reading articles and reporting to groups, and in other ways too.
I think it’s important that students don’t feel overwhelmed with the scope of their research. Within each unit, the task should be very focused and not require a great deal of time. They will have plenty of time to do that for the AP Exam project!
This is my revised AP Spanish Unit 1 Traditions Project. It asks students to research, report, consider the 3 P’s and make a cultural comparison.
The Last of the Big Updates to AP Spanish Unit 1
The last update that I think you should focus on is to make sure that students are practicing cultural comparison. Though it’s true that there will no longer be specific cultural comparison task on the AP Exam as there has been in the past, it seems very likely that students could be asked to make a comparison in their recorded Q & A section of the new exam.
That’s why I will be sure to include direct instruction on how to answer this kind of question and ask students to answer at least one cultural comparison question in every unit. Here are the updated direct instruction slides.
Hopefully this will give you a starting point as you think about what changes you need/want to make to unit 1. As always, below you will find helpful resources and other blog posts that may make life easier for you!
Resources You May Like
Updated AP Spanish Unit 1 Lesson Plans (Everything included!)
Soccer Themed 3 P’s Reading activity
AP Spanish Unit 1 Traditions Project
