Helping students to write more in Spanish

Middle school Spanish students are still learning the habits of writing in English, so it’s really important that we provide them with tools to write in Spanish. This can include providing sentence starters, word walls, or graphic organizers.

In my classroom, students write about their weekend as part of Calendar Talk. For the first month, it’s ok for them to write in basic sentences: I watched TV. I ate pizza. I saw my friends. I played baseball.

At this stage, they are building their confidence as writers in Spanish. Ask students to write for the full five minutes and then call on volunteers to share. Praise their brilliant writing and allow their classmates to ask follow-up questions. This will encourage everyone to listen and help build community.

After a while, when students feel comfortable with these basic writing structures in Spanish, encourage them to expand and extend their writing.

It’s not enough to tell a middle school (or high school) student “please include more detail.” As teachers, we have to model what it means to write in Spanish, or any other language.

Spanish Writing Expander: The Question Method

Present this Spanish writing expander to students. The first version is reminiscent of what they typically write. The next version includes more details and demonstrates HOW to do it.

Next, ask students to rewrite their original weekend update but add in more details following the model. Ask them to highlight their additional details to illustrate their growth.

Finally, ask students trade papers and ask each other 1-2 more questions about their writing. This should encourage the author to include even more detail in their writing.

Spanish Writing Expander: A Moment in Time method

An additional tool for writing in Spanish is to write about one moment in time. Read your example to students and ask them to tell you (in English) HOW you expanded your ideas. In my example, most students will catch on that I explained the plot of the play I saw.

Tell students that if they really truly did nothing that weekend, they could write about a TV show they watched, a book they read, or about the plot of a video game. The goal is just to write more in Spanish!

Setting up expectations for writing in Spanish

It is very important to set up clear expectations for students when they start writing in Spanish. Here are some expectations you can provide for students:

Write for the whole 5 minutes without stopping.
Write in Spanish first! Don’t try to translate your beautiful 7th grade ideas from English. Your Spanish brain is still in 1st grade and that’s ok!
Write now and edit later! Just get your ideas out. No perfectionism allowed.
When you come across a word you don’t know, write it in English and keep going. At the end, everyone will get 2 “¿Cómo se dice?” questions and we will write them on the board for the whole class.

Slowly increase complexity

Once students get good at writing about themselves in Spanish, introduce new structures. Students usually want to write about their friends and family, so providing them with “nosotros” verbs is really helpful. Remember that everyone acquires language at a different level, so it’s always helpful to provide visual aids.