Recognizing and learning about the Spanish Speakers in Our Community 
By:  Travis Sands

Project at a Glance :

This project is for 10th grade Spanish Immersion world history students. This project focuses on allowing my Spanish Immersion students to connect with the native Spanish speaking students from around the world that are in our building, but are not a part of our everyday class routine.


Driving Question:

In our community, how can we celebrate and learn the stories of Spanish speakers and their home regions?

Standards:

• Comparing and contrasting physical, political, economic, and cultural characteristics across time and space. 

Team / Culture Building:

• ​Value Cards​​​

• Hopes, Fears, & Norms

Entry Event:

• Class discussion - What makes you feel welcome in a new place with new people? How can we do that with Spanish speakers in our school?

Stakeholders:

• Spanish Immersion students
• Jenison Spanish Immersion program, including teachers and administrators
• English Language Learners
• Exchange students. 

Empathy Building:

• Stakeholder Map​​

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Students received names, grades, and home countries of the students they would be working with.  They also searched for cultural information specific to the region of their assigned student/country.

Incubation:

• 100 ideas: Students brainstormed 100 questions for their assigned students to get the information missing from the stakeholder maps, and to craft a Spanish interview that they would do with their assigned Spanish speaking students.​​

• Spanish Interviews: Students met and interviewed their assigned student and allowed them to share their thoughts about living as a student in the USA vs. their home country.  They also shared specific details and some regional history of their region.

Checking in:

• Pluses & Deltas

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Solution Building:

• Students used the $100 Test to focus on their best ideas for celebrating and telling the stories of Spanish speakers in our community.  
• Following the $100 Test, students created a Top 4-8 List to use in their presentation, this helped them prioritize their work.​

Critique and Revision: 

• Critical Friends - After students developed their presentation, they shared their ideas with other groups for feedback. The groups shared what they liked, highlights, and possible areas for improvement.

Authentic Audience:

• Students

Final Presentation:  The groups presented their finalized projects to the class with many assigned Spanish speaking students.  This activity helped build a stronger connection between our Spanish immersion students and Spanish speaking exchange students.

Click here for teacher's full project plan.

Meet the Educator:

​Travis Sands teaches Spanish Immersion History and Spanish language at Jenison High School.

     "This PBL was a great experience for my students as they connected with other students that speak Spanish and made connections that they normally do not make. It was fulfilling for them to use Spanish socially as well as academically. Next time I would give a little more time for getting to know the other groups of students, that ended up being the highlight! "