Sneak Peek: All the groundwork you need to propose a heritage Spanish course at your school!
Have you found yourself struggling to teach heritage learners who’ve been placed into your language classroom designed for second language acquisition? You’ve seen (and felt!) their struggles, know it would be better if you could use a curriculum designed for their unique abilities, and you’ve got the numbers to teach them in a separate section. Let us help you get the ball rolling on proposing a heritage Spanish course! We love helping teachers be prepared and well-resourced.
The Basics
Schools have a protocol to follow when you want to start a new course, and when teachers are bogged down with lesson plans, grading, and classroom management, it can be easy to let things continue the way they are now. The administrator is going to want to see that you know what you’re talking about and why the new course is needed. In addition to the rationale, you’ll need to provide learning outcomes, a course description, standards and more. Do not let that stop you from moving forward because the heritage Spanish team has got your back!
We’ve created editable templates that will save you hours of time. When the email comes from the district office asking if you’re going to update or change any courses within your department, you’ll be ready.
Planning
Once you know the actual number of viable students for a specific heritage language class you can determine the practicality of running a course, and then access the template that best meets the needs of your school.
If you want to teach a multi-year 9-12th grade heritage Spanish course this is the template:
Free Download:
It includes the basics, along with a course rationale, course description, expected student outcomes, connections to district initiatives, standard alignment, models/frameworks used, prerequisites, placement guidelines, links to resources/materials needed, cost breakdown, curriculum maps for a three year course cycle of Ascendencia Year 1, Ascendencia Year 2, Ascendencia Year 3, benefits to the school/community, and considerations for the teacher.
You can edit the sections, or copy and paste them into the appropriate areas of the form your school requires as the course proposal.
The high school course can be taught as a 9th-12th grade course with all students mixed into one section or a leveled course if you have enough numbers to create two sections. You could divide them by grade or by ability into a Heritage I or Heritage II course.
The Ascendencia curriculum cycles allow you to rotate the curriculum so content does not repeat for students who take the course the following year.
If you want to teach a program that targets middle schoolers, use this template:
Free Download:
Middle School Heritage Spanish Course Proposal Template (FREE)
It includes all of the same information as listed, but it focuses on our Linaje curriculum line that is geared toward middle school. Right now we have one year of curriculum, but the second year is set to be released in the fall of 2026. You can expect to run the course on a two year cycle then alternating between the 7th and 8th graders using Linaje Year 1 and Linaje Year 2.
A unique scenario that may not have crossed your mind is what to do with students who are coming into 9th grade out of a K-8 (or similar) immersion setting. They aren’t true heritage learners, but they do have a different skillset than typical L2 students as they’ve spent years learning in the target language. Students who have attended a Spanish immersion program have developed substantial proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Their immersion experience provides them with a strong linguistic foundation and cultural competence far greater than students enrolling in a traditional Spanish course for the very first time. We do not want them to lose fluency or reduce their enthusiasm for the language with an abrupt change in instructional rigor or content.
Implementing a Spanish for Immersion course for ninth-grade students ensures that the skills cultivated throughout immersion programs are sustained and expanded. This course provides a structured, supportive, and academically rigorous pathway that acknowledges prior learning/skills while preparing them for high school-level language study.
The guidance office may be tempted to put them into Spanish 1 with the rest of the incoming freshmen, but it could be a better option to continue their educational journey with a more appropriately fitting curriculum. We would advise using our Linaje Year 1 with immersion students.
If you want to teach immersion learners in their own section, here is the template to propose it adapted for that subset!
Free Download:
Other Options
If your school is not at the point of being able to offer a heritage Spanish course on its own, you can do the next best thing—unlock access to engaging and empowering lessons that are ready-to-use with your learners by signing up here for the Ascendencia (high school) or Linaje (middle school) curriculum to try it out on your own. We also accept purchase orders from districts.
Our Ascendencia Curriculum has three full years of lessons. Choose Year One, Year Two, or Year Three, or mix and match between them all by choosing All Access.
We also have Linaje, a year-long middle school curriculum, prepared! While this curriculum is designed with middle schoolers in mind, it is also a perfect fit for a high school class that has a lot of students with very early emerging Spanish literacy skills.
If you’re looking for more information about the standards we used to align Ascendencia and Linaje, check out this blog post: The Best Standards For Heritage Spanish Class.
If you are worried that textbooks will be too difficult or not engaging enough for your students, we’ve got you covered with materials that are engaging for students and best practice for teachers.
Here’s what to expect inside this curriculum:
- Content-based Instruction
- Writer’s Workshops
- Social Emotional Learning
- Hands-on Projects
- Identity Work
- Community- Building
- Games
- Printable Readings
- Daily Lesson Plans for the Teacher
- Novel Studies & Literary Circles
- Differentiation for text levels
Here’s a free letter of support template you can use to help you get the materials approved:
Free Download:
Letter of support
Final Thoughts
We know how challenging it can be to teach heritage learners in a mixed level class. We now offer a membership level in Heritage Spanish Club called Differentiation for Spanish Speakers in L2 Classes. This provides you with a library of resources to pull from in order to differentiate for your students who need more of a challenge while you wait for course approval.
We are cheering you on!
Pin for later!
