Story asking is a teaching strategy that can be applied in the classroom with zero to low preparation. It involves the teacher asking a series of questions in the target language to help students collaboratively create a story.
To implement story asking, the teacher begins by introducing a theme or topic for the story, such as “Los animales” (Animals). This establishes a framework for the students’ storytelling. The teacher then proceeds to ask the students questions in the target language about the setting, characters, and plot of the story. These questions can vary depending on the students’ proficiency level and the desired language skills to be practiced. For example, the teacher might ask questions like “¿Qué animal es?” (What animal is it?), “¿De qué color es?” (What color is it?), or “¿Cuántos años tienes?” (How old is it?).
As the students provide their answers, the teacher can write them down on the board or a piece of paper to visualize the evolving story. This visual aid helps students see the progression and coherence of their collective narrative. The teacher can also ask follow-up questions to deepen the students’ ideas and encourage further development. For instance, if a student mentions a cat, the teacher might ask, “¿Cómo se llama el gato?” (What is the cat’s name?) or “¿Qué le gusta comer?” (What does it like to eat?).
Once the story has been co-created, the teacher can read it back to the class in Spanish, incorporating details provided by the students. Once the story is ready, the teacher can ask questions about the story to engage the students further and assess their comprehension. The results with elementary students are usually a few paragraphs.
Story asking not only promotes language acquisition but also fosters important skills such as collaboration and active listening. By working together to construct a story, students learn to value each other’s contributions, build on ideas in the target language.
Incorporating calendar time into your classroom routine provides ample opportunities to engage and educate your students. I typically begin introducing the calendar in my first grade classes, focusing on numbers one to thirty-one, days of the week, months, and weather. As students progress to second and third grade, we expand our discussion to include temperatures in our school’s city and other places worldwide, not just Spanish-speaking countries.
At the start of each school year, we establish a “birthdays of the month” routine, assigning different days on the calendar for students with summer birthdays. Additionally, we add school events and holidays and discuss who is being honored or recognized each month.
What sets my calendar routine apart is that I allow my students to put their unique spin on our classroom calendar. At the beginning of the year, students decorate the calendar, which they enjoy seeing come to life.
While it’s essential to incorporate different parts of the calendar routine into your lessons, it’s not necessary to do everything in every class. It’s okay to skip certain parts occasionally, such as discussing the weather.
Here are some examples of how you could incorporate calendar time in an elementary Spanish class:
Counting in Spanish: Begin by counting from one to thirty-one in Spanish. This can help students learn the numbers in Spanish and practice pronunciation.
Days of the Week: Teach the names of the days of the week in Spanish. You could have students recite the days of the week in order, and also discuss what each day means or represents.
Months of the Year: Teach the names of the months in Spanish. Similar to discussing the days of the week, you could have students recite the months in order and discuss what each month represents or what holidays fall within it.
Weather: Discuss the weather for the day and week in Spanish. You could ask students to describe the weather in Spanish, or ask them to guess what the weather might be like in different parts of the world where Spanish is spoken.
Holidays and cultural events: Incorporate holidays and cultural events that are celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries or holidays that are important for your students and school community. You could discuss the meaning and significance of these holidays, as well as traditions that are associated with them.
Seasons: Discuss the different seasons of the year in Spanish. You could have students talk about what they like to do during each season, and discuss how the weather changes throughout the year. You can also talk about weather and seasons in other parts of the world.
Birthday Celebrations: Discuss how birthdays are celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries. You could ask students to talk about their own birthday traditions or share stories about how they’ve celebrated birthdays in the past.
Poem of the Month: Incorporating a monthly poem into your elementary Spanish class is a simple but effective way to introduce new vocabulary, improve reading comprehension, and teach cultural significance. By selecting a poem that relates to the season or a particular holiday, you can engage your students in a fun and educational activity that helps them improve their Spanish skills.
I hope these examples have given you some ideas on how to incorporate calendar time into your elementary Spanish class. Remember to make it interactive and engaging for your students, and tailor it to their Spanish proficiency level.
Looking to grow your library with easy readers? Here is an idea!
You can use “story asking” to create the stories along with your students. The sample you see in the video was done with a second grade class. In this case my role was to guide my students with the story. I asked questions such as ¿Qué animal hay? Two students proposed the animals, we voted , chose an answer, and then moved on to the next question. The last part was to come up with a title for the story, which we also did together.
There are different ways to ask your students details to add to the story. You can use images, story dice, story mats, and so on, but the basic way I described above has worked just great in my second grade classes!
Writing the story only took about 10 minutes. I read the final story to my students and then asked questions about it again.
In preparation for the next class I typed the story on different pages and printed it out. I asked some students to volunteer to read the story. Students chose the part of the story they wanted to illustrate.
In this case I only had ten students, but if you have more than ten, my suggestion is to print two sets of the same story and have your whole class illustrate the same story.
I also took a picture of the class, and I added it as the last page of the story which says “Autores,” and each student got to write their name in the picture.
Last, I laminated, bound the story, and added it to our small classroom library.
A quick note! The video is set at a faster speed so I could show you the process.
As World Language educators it is hard to find a single off-the-shelf curriculum that fits the needs of each elementary program. Some programs have less frequent class sessions than others, some are required by their schools (or have the wonderful opportunity) to make strong connections with other subjects, some have more heritage speakers in the student population, and so on! It’s also important to shape a program according to the needs and interests of the community. All this is just to make it clear that I don’t offer a set “one size fits all” curriculum for this reason.
I have shifted to using more stories with my students, but I also supplement them with songs, games, crafts, picture books, holidays, celebrations, culture, cross-curricular connections, clip-chats, and other activities. I don’t teach a unit just focusing on weather, days of the week, months, the alphabet, foods, and so on. I include these topics in our daily routine when we do calendar time. The stories focus on high-frequency vocabulary and expressions as well as vocabulary related to clothing, family members, colors, numbers, and more!
These are some of the stories I use by grade level. It might seem like a lot, but the stories themselves have a lot of repetition and recycle a lot of the same vocabulary. This is also based on the frequency and length of time I see my students. I see my kindergarten students in small groups, once a week for 30 minutes and my 1st through 3rd grade students twice a week for 40 minutes each time. I mostly follow the resources in the order presented and sometimes I recycle stories and use them again the following year to refresh some of the vocabulary and high frequency words.
The first days and weeks of school play an important role in how the school year might go. In this post I have shared a series of practices and strategies I use in my classes.
Find a Signal To Get Your Student’s Attention
I’m a fan of having chimes in different places in my room. I also have them in my bag when I travel from classroom to classroom. Watch the video to see how I use a three-tone chime in my classes. I would love to say that I came up with this idea, but I learned it from an awesome colleague and translated it into Spanish.
Use Call and Response Chants
Yes, sometimes using our chime or clapping our hands doesn’t work! I have found that call-and-responses work magic to get my students’ attention while using the language. Find some that you like and work for your class!
Use Songs As Quiet Reminders and Transitions
Songs are great a way to remind your students what they need to be doing at the moment, especially younger students. You can use songs to remind students to line up, clean up, and so on!
Set Classroom Norms and Expectations
Some teachers like to set their norms prior to the first class, other teachers create them with their students and others piggyback on the norms students created with their homeroom teachers.No matter what you decide, make them simple, talk about your norms and expectation, model them, practice them and also make them part of your everyday routine. If possible place posters in the front of the class to keep them as reminders!
Greet Every Student
If you have a classroom, waiting for your students and greeting them at the door is one of the best ways to set the tone for your class. If you don’t have a classroom, you can still make sure to greet every student in your class. Remember that saying their names when you greet them is important for your students, and also a way for you to remember all their names.
What else would you add to this list? Write them in the comments!
¡Hola! I am Carolina, a Colombian elementary Spanish teacher based in Boston, MA. Fun for Spanish Teachers is the result of my passion for teaching Spanish to children and my desire to inspire collaboration and creativity in a vibrant teaching and learning community. It’s the perfect stop if you are looking for songs, games, teaching tips, stories, and fun for your classes.
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