One of the things I work on with purpose in my Spanish 3 courses is how to level up Spanish sentences. We want our students to move from a Novice proficiency rating into the Intermediate range! For some students, this happens more naturally than for others. But there are some ways to to make this process a little faster and more intentional. Keep reading to find out how!
Provide a List of “Sophistication Words”
If your students want to know how to level up Spanish sentences, one important way is to use what I call “sophistication words”. In my mind, this includes three kinds of words/phrases:
Sequencing words: First, Then, Next, etc.
Key Words: These indicate time frame like “now, last year, within 10 years, usually”.
Transition Words: But, also, even though, fortunately
This list of words is one I copy and also post for my students. We reference it frequently, and in our practices, I ask them to incorporate these words. Some weeks, I focus on specific words, and other times I let students choose. I tell them they don’t need to know all the words on the list, but they should know a few in each category. And the goal is to increase the number of words you can use throughout the year! Get it for free in my TPT store!
Teach a Lesson About How To Level Up Spanish Sentences
Create targeted lessons. In those lessons, give students a bunch of examples. Show them similar sentences that have been leveled up! For example, you might show “Me gusta cocinar.” And then, to contrast, you might show “Me gusta cocinar porque mi abuela siempre cocinaba conmigo”.
From here, you could use an “I do, We do, You Do” approach. Tell students what makes the 2nd sentence leveled up. Give several examples. Then, show several more examples. Let students discuss with a partner.
At the end, come back together as a group. Ask students to identify several kinds of strategies that show how to level up Spanish sentences! And of course, you can end this lesson with a self-reflection. Students can choose one or 2 ways that they want to try out to improve their sentences.
If you need lesson plans already made for you, HERE is mine!
How To Level Up Spanish Sentences with Writing
Another way to help students level up Spanish sentences is with a writing practice. Create a paragraph yourself. Then give the following instructions: “This paragraph is grammatically correct, but the sentences are simple and therefore this is Novice-level work. Use the suggestions below to re-write the paragraph to level up the sentences to an Intermediate level.”
Your suggestions can vary, but I often include a number of “sophistication” words, and sometimes a few more vocabulary terms that might go along with our unit. Students will try to make sentences longer by adding detail and linking devices to create strings of sentences rather than simple sentences. Another way to level up Spanish sentences is by adding another time frame. Your suggestion might be to compare/contrast now with before. For example: Now I wake up at 6 am because I like to take a shower in the morning. When I was younger, I used to shower at night.
How To Level Up Spanish Sentences in Speaking
Let’s not forget our other communication mode of speaking! My mind is always on improving proficiency in speaking because for many of my students, this is the hardest skill for them to develop. My students begin trying for the Seal of Biliteracy in Year 3, so I know I need to help them and show them how to level up their Spanish sentences.
My go-to strategy is to have classes dedicated to speaking. The easiest way to do this is to create a simple peer listener rubric. Your criteria will depend on what you want students to work on. You can see mine here.
Next, you create a series of prompts or find a series of pictures. Students sit in pairs, and the teacher runs the activity. Choose some parameters, like, “you have 90 seconds to tell a story about this picture. Try to use both the present and the past.” Another one might be “You have 90 seconds to tell a story about this picture. Try to use the words pero and porque at least once each.” Of course, these scenarios are contrived and don’t reflect how people communicate in real life. But when you are building a skill, it’s ok to target and actively practice a particular area of growth.
I ask the same student to speak for about half of the class. This means they will get 5-8 turns in a row with different scenarios, pictures and parameters. All the while, the other half of the class is actively listening, and giving feedback on how they did. Then we switch roles.
My students always marvel at how much better they get from scenario 1 to the last scenario. They become more fluid and more confident with their ability to express themselves!
Resources
Spanish Writing Prompt Activities Lesson Plans to Build Proficiency
Words That Add Sophistication (Free list of sequencing, key and transition words)
Scenario Task Cards (I have scenario cards for lots of different themes!)
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