Sneak Peek: A free lesson plan that gets students to think about how soccer connects us to our cultural identity!
There’s no doubt that combining students’ interests with educational skills is one of the best ways to engage learners. When students are excited about the topic, you’re going to have more buy in. In Linaje Year One, our curriculum for middle school heritage Spanish, we focused a unit on the most followed (and beloved) sport in the Spanish-speaking world—el fútbol.
Below is an overview of a lesson from the eleven day unit.
Lesson Plan: Tu estrella de fútbol favorita
Learning Objective:
Students complete a project that connects a soccer team, club, or player to personal traits or cultural heritage.
Materials:
- Markers or colored pencils
- Mi perfil de campeón (free resource linked below)
- Tu estrella de fútbol favorita worksheet (members only)
Prep:
Print enough copies of the worksheet, one for each student. If you prefer to have students complete this digitally, upload the Google Slide version to your learning management system.
Remind students to bring colored pencils or markers to class if you don’t have a classroom set available and aren’t using the digital version.
Your students may need access to the internet to research facts about their favorite team, player or club they have selected to use for the project, though some may have enough information memorized.
Duration:
This lesson is designed for a 57 minute class period. If students take longer to research or add artistic pieces, you can assign it as homework or allow more class time the next day.
Teacher instructions:
- Begin by showing the students the project template and explaining its structure.
Discuss how each section of the hexágono can represent a unique aspect of a soccer team, club, or player.
Examples: favorite player’s values, cultural ties of a national team, or personal connection to a local club.
Explain that they should be making personal connections to the aspects they chose.
- Distribute the worksheet and supplies. Guide students as they:
-
- Choose a soccer team, club, or player.
- Fill in each section of the hexágono with relevant connections to their personality or cultural heritage.
- Decorate their hexágono creatively.
- Students take turns presenting their hexágonos to the class.
Encourage them to explain their choices and how their selections reflect their identity or heritage.
- Provide positive feedback on creativity and depth of connection.
- Reflect briefly as a class by asking students to make further connections with one another after hearing the presentations.
I absolutely loved having students share these hexágonos. The more you can get students interacting and listening to one another, the stronger their relationships will be. This is the best way to create a safe environment that encourages personal growth and learning. Year after year I think you’ll find this unit to be one your students will be excited to do!
As an extension, students could write a letter (or email) to their favorite soccer player or club, expressing their gratitude for all they have given to the sport and the impact they have had on them!
Note: It can be hard to find personal emails for the players, so your best bet would be to look for the PR page with a contact button, or through a social media fan page.
If you enjoyed this sample lesson and want to know what the rest of the unit contains, read on!
After kicking off with a soccer-related vocabulary lesson that ensures all students know the basic aspects and elements of the game, students will learn learn the spelling rules for the often-tricky letters for heritage speakers of ‘h’, ‘b’, ‘v’, ‘c’, ‘z’ and ‘s’, plus they’ll play interactive games and do some cultural readings.
Additional lessons in the unit:
- Soccer Vocabulary Terms (members only)
- The Silent ‘H’ in Spanish (members only)
- The History of the World Cup (members only)
- Orthography: The Use of ‘B’ and ‘V’ (members only)
- Argentinian Culture (members only)
- Orthography: ‘C’, ‘Z’, and ‘S’ (members only)
- The Story of Lionel Messi (members only)
- Lionel Messi Color-by-Number (members only)
- Tu estrella favorita de futbol (the lesson highlighted in this post) (members only)
- Yerba Mate (members only)
- Final Assessment (members only)
* All materials that accompany each of these lessons are available when you join Linaje Year One inside the Heritage Spanish Club!
Bonus:
Free Download:
Students imagine they are a soccer star, design their own jersey and invent their special abilities.
Looking for more information about teaching heritage learners? Check out this blog post: Lowering the Affective Filter in Heritage Spanish Class. It will help you understand common barriers to language learning unique to heritage students, and ways to increase student confidence.
If you are ready for all of your lesson plans for heritage class done for you, join us in the Heritage Spanish Club!
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