Supporting Low Performers in Spanish Class

¡Hola compis! It’s so important to support Spanish students through differentiation.  I want you to have the full picture! If you have time, hop over to this blog post to read the basics of differentiating in Spanish class: Differentiation 101. 

Don’t have time to read another post? No te preocupes, download my free differentiation checklist to keep on your clipboard or stick in your planner.  This will help you easily support Spanish students in class!

Okay, vamos al grano.

Why differentiate for lower-performers? 

When I think of my lower performing students, and I consider how they access Spanish, I know that it looks different for them and they need as much support as I can offer them. While teaching with CI helps them a lot because they can interpret Spanish and acquire language in the same way they acquired their first languages, they do still need additional supports.

Three easy ways to differentiate materials for lower-performers:

1. Provide Fewer Questions
   For example on a 10 question worksheet, you might circle five priority questions you want the student to focus on. You can also encourage the student to choose the five questions that they feel most confident answering. Remember to give them full credit for showing off their best work.
2. Guided Reading or “Chunked” Reading
   Honestly, this is one of my favorite things to do because it allows students to access reading in a really manageable way. Instead of giving students an entire text to slog through, you can break it into paragraphs or smaller chunks to provide shorter passages to look at. I like to embed questions in text so students can see a paragraph and then two questions connected to that paragraph before moving on.
3. Preview the Work
   To support Spanish students, allow them to preview texts and questions at the start of class in order to prepare them for the task at hand. You can also give them a warning ahead of time for their participation; I like to tell students they have a correct answer and I’ll call on them when we review, or to say “I’m going to call on you next,” while walking around during review of an activity.

Next steps for success:

Step 2: Read about challenging and supporting high performers.