My Top 3 Go-To AP Spanish Activities

It seems like every teacher has those go-to activities when they don’t have energy or time. But what about go-to AP Spanish activities? Those might seem harder to come by because planning for this course and finding appropriate materials is so time consuming! But after a decade of teaching AP Spanish, here are my top 5 go-to AP Spanish resources!

Go-To AP Spanish Activities #1

Need an activity that involves everyone and requires about 5 minutes or less of planning? Try a class conversation!

Planning requirements: 1) a class list 2) 3-5 questions focused on recent topics in class

How To: 1) ask students to form a circle to facilitate communication. 2) Explain that the expectation is that everyone participates. You will be typing a summary of their answers into the chart next to their names. Everyone will receive a grade based on participation and/or depth of contributions.

I like to create a typed class list chart at the beginning of the year, because I use this activity often. Then all I need to do is make a copy and change the questions at the top!

Why? a) almost no prep b) an easy grade for the gradebook- no correcting! c) everyone is engaged! d) students can view the questions and their responses to keep track of their own participation. This method also allows you to correct mistakes with vocab or grammar subtly so students won’t be shy to participate! e) these kinds of discussions could go on past a regular 45 minute class period most times… so that’s an option for your next class too!

Go-To AP Spanish Activities #2

Find an article about….

Of all of my go-to AP Spanish activities, this one covers a lot of bases. Students must find their own article online, prepare a note card so they can give an oral summary to a small group, prepare about 3 questions for their group to check their comprehension, and then either write or record the summary.

Pick a topic related to your current unit.

You can have them find the article and read it in class or at home. I usually have them do these parts at home. **This comes with the risk of having students unprepared for the lesson plan on the due date. If this happens, you can shuffle kids around to different groups so that the number of students with a summary to share is about even in each group. I ask students to take notes and answer the comprehension questions on a generic chart I have a pile of copies of in my classroom.

You can enter a participation grade for the notes, a reading grade for the annotated article and a speaking or writing grade for the summary! I find that this takes about 1 45 minute class period if students are summarizing to their groups. It would take at least one more if they were going to find and annotate their article in class as well.

Again, at the beginning of the year, I print out a generic set of instructions. I fill in the topic and the due date with pen before I copy them each time. And the same with the note-taking charts. I copy a bunch and have them handy in my room! But in a pinch- not even those things are necessary!

Go-To AP Spanish Activities #3

Another problem we can run into as AP Spanish teachers is getting them prepped for the AP Exam. In my opinion, this needs to start happening during the first month of school. If I’m being honest, my favorite resource for this comes from a Test Prep Workbook by José M. Diaz that the district bought for me. I see it online for about $11. WORTH the investment!

However, if you don’t want to invest money, we have an amazing resource at our fingertips with AP Classroom! There are videos to explain parts of the test and strategies for doing well. And there are also lots of practice activities that you can assign through AP Classroom. Some of them are self-correcting and will even give feedback to students!

You can search through to find a topic on one of the 6 themes, you can add or subtract questions as you see fit, and you can set due dates. So, this is one of my go-to activities when I don’t have the time to create my own AP Exam style questions and prompts. Students can work on this in class or at home. In short, it’s another one of the go-to activities when you’re short on time, but not willing to sacrifice quality activities for your students to participate in!

I hope this helps, colegas. This course requires a lot of its profes, but it’s such a beautiful thing to watch what our students can achieve!

Resources

The resources above are free and easily made by you! But sometimes it’s easier to have it all done for you! You can find everything from 1 activity to your entire year of curriculum in my TPT store. Here are some customer faves!

AP Spanish Unit 5: Class Discussion Questions about Work