3 Easy Tips for Teaching Spanish Vocabulary in Context | Miss Señorita

3 Easy Tips for Teaching Spanish Vocabulary in Context

 

Let's assume you have a list of 40 food vocabulary words you have to teach your Spanish 1 students in a Food Unit.

Let's plan out how to do that in context!

Step 1: What context would they use those words in?

They'd use food vocab in a restaurant. 

They'd also use them at home saying what they like, what they want for dinner, what foods they prefer, etc. 

Pick a context that makes sense for you, your students, your curriculum, etc. 


Step 2: Now let's divide up that vocab list. 

Please please please don't give your students 40 words to learn in one day unless absolutely every single one of them is a cognate. Even then it might be a lot. 😂

Food words can be easy to divide up by meals - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

I aim to teach 10-14 new words in a lesson. 12 is my ideal number. 

So in this scenario, I would teach 40 words over 4 days. I'd push it and teach 13-14 words every day in 3 days if I had to or if I had especially motivated students. 


Step 3: Match each day's vocab list with a grammar context that will make sense. 

Maybe Day 1 you only want to teach yo & tú forms of querer. Then Day 2 will be all forms of querer, Day 3 will be all forms of preferir, and Day 4 will be all forms of pedir. 

Pro tip: include Day 1's vocab words in Day 2's lesson. Include Day 1's and Day 2's vocab words in Day 3's lesson... etc. That way students don't immediately forget the previous vocab. 🙂


Next steps

I'd make animated powerpoints teaching the vocab words with clipart in the context of the grammar topics I chose. 

Then I'd come up with a variety of listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities to teach those vocab words in context for that unit. 

Et voila! Your unit is all planned out with your vocab words in context!

Share in the comments how you plan and teach vocab in context! 👇




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