Are you considering a Spanish Class Final Project instead of a Final Exam? What would that look like? How would it be graded? If you’re bored of traditional exams, here are some ideas for project-based assessments you could use in place of a final exam!
Spanish Class Final Project Idea #1
One idea you might consider is asking students to write a story. Give them some choices and parameters. For instance, maybe they’re writing a story for children. It could be a story adapted from a movie or fable they already know. Perhaps the story relates to a particular unit, like natural disasters, or “In the News”.
Be sure that the task you design is feasible for your students’ level. Think about the vocabulary and grammatical structures they will need and be sure they have them.
Another hint could be to start preparing them before the exam period, if that’s how your school works. They could do brainstorming and complete an outline before the day they write. Maybe they might like to do illustrations ahead of time too!
Spanish Class Final Project Idea #2
Another Spanish class final project idea could be to write a letter. Set a purpose for their letter like:
-to a younger student who will be taking the class next year; tell them what they learned this year and what the new student will look forward to
-to a Board of Ed member, telling them what they learned this year and why learning another language is so useful
-to a parent/guardian, explaining their favorite part of the year and how they have grown in their proficiency!
Spanish Class Final Project Idea #3
Another idea I have for a Spanish class final project is for students to design a study guide and activity for practice for each unit. What better way for students to demonstrate understanding than to create guidance and a fun activity students next year could use in your class!
To give a more concrete idea: let’s say you learned about Barcelona this year. Perhaps students could create a teacher guide that has a bulleted list of facts about the city. And then they design a student activity that incorporates something students need to practice or learn related to that topic.
Spanish Class Final Project Idea #4
What about a portfolio? I know there are some schools who have students create a portfolio of their learning for the year as a Spanish class final project. I must admit, I’m not an expert in portfolios, and I’ve never tried them. But in my research, I have found that students include the following information in their portfolios (which of course can be modified to suit a teacher’s preferences).
-an introduction in the target langauge
-student language learning goals, and their thoughts on how they did in reaching them
-evidence of student work, including writing samples, listening and speaking activities they’ve completed, readings and follow-up activities they’ve worked on
Maybe they include a certain number of each, and write a small reflection about why they included that specific work?
They could also include:
-assessments from throughout the year
-reflections on those assessments, how they used their feedback to progress and improve
-projects of any sort
-cultural learning, perhaps with an explanation of why they enjoyed that topic
It seems to me that it would take a lot longer than one exam period to create this portfolio, so you would have to start early. Maybe on Final Exam day, students share one or two parts of their portfolio with the class, and point out their highlights for the year!
Spanish Class Final Project Idea #5
The last suggestion I can offer as a possible Spanish class final project is an Escape Room! I won’t lie. These are time-consuming to design, but they offer students so many ways to demonstrate learning and comprehension, allow you to use many different modes of communication (listening, reading, writing and speaking) and are just plain fun for many students!
An escape room is a game designed so that students must first answer questions about something content-related. Ideally, they use the right answers to figure out a code that you design. (Ex: if the right answers are B, C, C, B, maybe the right code is 2, 3,3,2. Once they enter the correct code, the next puzzle unlocks, and they work on that one.
This would take some planning- you would want to design an escape room that they are sure to be able to complete in their allotted exam time. You can include anything you’ve done in class during the year, and even proficiency-testing things that are not specific assessments of a particular topic.
You can design them so that they are self-correcting, and students need to get the answer correct before they can go on to the next question- so that’s another benefit! Maybe the rubric would include points off if you needed to help students through a particular puzzle?
These are all ideas that have gotten my brain cooking! Let me know if you’ve tried any of these in place of final exams, or in addition. I’d love to know how it went!
Resources
Spanish Slang & Texting Bundle! Fun Resources!
Spanish Escape Room Visit Major Sites of Spain To Catch the Soccer Thieves
Spanish/English All About My Teacher Fill in the Blank End of Year Activity
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