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

Project at a Glance :

This project is for 10 grade Spanish Immersion world history students. The project focuses on meeting and interviewing Spanish speaking students (ELL and exchange) in our school and learning about their history - where they are from, what their home country is known for and some its history, and what the student’s life and past experiences have been. Students will use Spanish to complete this. 


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:

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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.

Reflection and Feedback:

Meet the Educator:

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

     "PBL allows students to use and develop skills they have in an authentic, novel, and meaningful way that they do not often get to do in a traditional class routine. It was great for the kids to see they can have a real impact outside their classroom."