One way to spark students’ interest in the Spanish language and culture is through the geography of the Spanish-speaking countries.
But how do you teach this topic and still use 90% Spanish language?
Make the geography lesson a comprehensible vocabulary lesson! Many geographic terms are cognates in Spanish, so students can read about geography and learn new words at the same time!
Not sure you have time to add one more thing to your already full lesson plans? Why not add it to your daily warm-up routines? Some teachers have a daily theme for their warm-ups: música miércoles, baila viernes, etc. How about Geografía jueves? Use the first 5 minutes of class for students to read and take notes about one Spanish-speaking country per week. You can watch a video together, or assign the video and reflection for homework.
Geography Warm-ups: How They Work
You can incorporate this activity in a few different ways. I recommend doing the first couple weeks together to show students your expectations. After they get the routine down, you can adjust.
Option 1 : Whole class warm-up
- Project the Spanish-speaking-country-of-the-week geography slide on the board. When students enter the room, they fill in the notes either in a printed packet or on their own set of slides.
- Read the paragraph together as a class. Use the images to point and illustrate key terms.
- Ask the class to chorally read or read to a partner in English to check for understanding.
Lastly, watch the video clip on the next slide and ask students to share an observation or opinion with the class or in writing.
Option 2: Homework
Assign one Spanish-speaking country per week. Students must fill in the notes and complete a write-up after watching the video. This is best if you only see your students a couple of times a week and don’t have a minute to spare. You can ask students to turn in their packet after every 5 countries to check their work, or just go around and check that it is complete.
If you choose this option, tell students ahead of time that there will be a quiz after a certain amount of countries. This will hold them more accountable for completing the work well. Here’s a sample of a quiz I use:
Reasons to LOVE Geography Warm-ups
- Sparks students’ interest in Spanish-speaking countries and travel.
- Builds students’ confidence and increases their motivation to speak more in Spanish.
- Provides comprehensible input- Students learn vocabulary naturally through authentic context.
- Provides repetition and review of colors, directions, third-person plural tense, and the structure “de”.
- Builds cultural competency through cross-cultural comparisons and connections.
Why teach Geography in Spanish Class?
Whenever a student asks, “When am I ever going to use Spanish in my life?”, you can tell them “whenever they meet one of the more than 500 million Spanish speakers living in the world or travel to one of the 22 Spanish-speaking countries.” Spanish is everywhere, including as part of our own culture, history, and traditions here in the United States.
Teaching geography in Spanish class is also a great way to teach useful vocabulary in context and with comprehensible input. Students feel really accomplished when they can understand everything they read. They also get excited to see different places around the world and dream about visiting them. Sometimes they have never even heard of a country, so it’s really good exposure. It also pairs really well with Calendar Talk, another weekly routine. When we discuss the weather, we can look up the weather in our country-of-the-week as well!
How do you like to include geography in your Spanish class? Comment below!
