Back to School! An interpersonal speaking activity for the first day of Spanish class

The first week of school is quickly approaching, or there's a chance that you and your students have

already begun! If your first day hasn't happened yet, this blog post is for you! Even if it has and your classroom is already flowing with great conversation in Spanish, this post may give you some more ideas for an engaging speaking activity that reiterates the importance of listening when engaging in interpersonal communication. 

Day 1

You may have read my previous blog post about my favorite icebreakers (if not, read it here)! We usually jump into the airplane icebreaker on days 2 and 3 once we have spent a few minutes reviewing Spanish grammar. However, my students and I spend day 1 reviewing just a few housekeeping items before launching into speaking in Spanish. (My housekeeping tasks are what I deem to be most important like joining my Google Classroom.) I briefly explain a handful of fun things about my life with the hopes of connecting with some students (shout out to any Teacher Swifties in the crowd)! After that, I want to get my students speaking Spanish as soon as possible!

A quick note about my classroom set-up

My classroom is organized in two groups of desk that face each other so that students can look one direction toward the whiteboard and the other direction toward the SmartBoard projector. One side has 12 desks and the other side has 16 or so (this tends to change a little every year, but we are fortunate that our school's cap is 30 students). Students are always paired up with the classmate next to them, and I strategically create a new seating chart every two weeks so students have the opportunity to work with someone new.

A multipurpose interpersonal activity

On day 1, we jump into introducing ourselves and answering some basic questions with partners. Students speak in Spanish with their partners to discuss a few sets of basic questions like, "¿Cómo te llamas" and "¿Cuál es tu serie favorita en Netflix/Disney+/Amazon Prime Video?" These questions, and whether or not you provide any scaffolding like sentence starters (see below), should differ based on the level of students sitting in front of you! An example slide for my classroom can be seen below. 

The next step tends to throw my students through a loop. After I post the first set of 3 questions on the board and let students talk to each other for 2-3 minutes (or longer if connections are being made and the conversation is flowing!), I bring the class back together and tell them that they must introduce their partner and their partner's answer to one of the remaining questions on the board. For example, a student may say, "Mi compañero se llama Jimmy, y su serie favorita es Stranger Things en Netflix." The thing is, especially given the anxiety of the first day of school and the task of speaking Spanish after a long summer where the reality is many students haven't thought about Spanish class, most students didn't actually listen to their partner. After I explain this next step, it's not uncommon for a look of panic to come across their faces...which I quickly follow up by reminding students that Spanish is a language, and the purpose of language is communication. Communication is two-sided, and one could argue that listening is more important than speaking. I then immediately give them another 1-2 minutes to regroup with their partners and actually listen so they are prepared to introduce their partners to the class. 

This activity is a great way to reiterate the role of listening in communication and interpersonal speaking, but also it turns on their Spanish brains by having them hear and interpret their partner's response in the "yo" form, and then be tasked with rephrasing it in the "él/ella" form. Plus, in the best case scenario, students are making connections with classmates right away as they realize that they share the same interests, favorite movies, favorite ice cream shops, and more. Depending on timing, I post a few more sets of questions similar to those above and we review them as a class.

A Google Form questionnaire

If time remains after students introduce their partners, I have my students complete a Google Form questionnaire that outlines some basic information about their lives like any nicknames and their preferred pronouns, if they speak Spanish at home (over 20% of my school's population speak Spanish at home!), what activities they enjoy most in Spanish class, what their hopes and fears are for this school year, if there is anything confidential they want me to know, etc. Regardless of the time that remains, I always leave the last two minutes for the ultimate magic trick - I close my eyes (if I'm feeling extra ambitious, I also turn around backwards), and then point to each student and say their name. Students cannot believe their Spanish teacher not only memorized everyone's names but also where they are sitting! I do have to say though, this magic trick is becoming a bit more challenging the older I get, eek!

I hope this post has provided a new way to engage students in interpersonal communication on day 1 while also beginning to build connections and community in the classroom, and if you're lucky...learn the names of all of your students! Drop any questions or ideas for your day 1 down below! In a future post, I will talk about one of my favorite interpersonal communication routines that has become a staple of my classroom, ¡Conversemos! Check it out here.

Happy Teaching!

- Dana, of Señorita's Spanish Class