Teaching critical thinking skills in Spanish

My personal mantra has always been: I teach kids, not Spanish.

Part of teaching kids is incorporating lessons of empathy and humanity into the everyday. I look for ways to do this while still teaching Spanish, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.

Currently, my 8th graders are studying a daily routine and hygeine. They had tons of opportunity to talk about their own routines, but I also believe that it’s important to expose students to life outside their bubble. I wanted them to be aware of all the craziness happening in the Spanish-speaking world as well. My solution was to create an activity for students to practice their critical thinking skills and use our vocabulary in context. (Click to open in Google Drive!)

In this scenario, we talked about all the natural disasters that had recently occurred and how people lost everything, including basic necessities. (water, soap, toilet paper — lots of relevant vocabulary!)

As a group, students had a budget of $200 to purchase supplies for those in need. They needed to think critically about how to spend that money.

Students spent the period reading through retail websites in Spanish and comparing and contrasting prices for these items. They converted prices to dollars and examined unit prices. Then the group decided what to buy and why, before reflecting on the experience of the whole activity.

Overall, I was happy with the assignment. It asked students think critically about topics like economics, math, and social studies, which also allowed us to use our intended vocabulary in a meaningful way.

Reflections and tips

While this was a meaningful activity, it was by no means perfect.

Not all websites were easy to navigate in Spanish, forcing students to default the the American sites at times.

A lot of the reflecting had to be done in English because the 8th graders just didn’t have enough language to write enough in Spanish. This didn’t bother me because I knew they had done the majority of the activity in Spanish. I don’t care what language the deeper thinking occurs in, as long as it takes place =). However, I could see students in Spanish III and up gaining a lot from this activity. It would also be a good activity for AP Spanish students under global challenges or family and communities as well.

Adapting to modern times

The lead in scenario could be easily changed to reflect the most current world events.

Teaching during Coronavirus: focus on the scarcity of toilet paper. Ask students to research and compare prices around the Spanish-speaking world.

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