How to Help a New Spanish 1 Student Who Joins Midyear

You’re halfway through unit 3 when a new Spanish 1 student joins your class. They’ve never taken Spanish before, and everyone else has been learning it for 3 months. 🫠

So now you need to teach today’s lesson AND somehow catch one student up on everything since August. Preferably without cloning yourself. 🙃

You can’t ignore them and hope they figure it out. But restarting the curriculum for the whole class isn’t an option either.

The goal is to help them participate in what you’re teaching now while gradually filling in the vocabulary and grammar they missed. Here are 3 ways to do that in a middle or high school Spanish 1 classroom.

1. Call on the new student often and help them answer

It’s tempting to leave your new student alone during whole-class questions because you know they couldn’t possibly know the answer. You taught those words 2 months before they arrived!

But they need opportunities to hear and use Spanish throughout the lesson. If you wait until they’ve caught up before including them, they’re missing more practice every day.

Keep the expectation that they participate, and give them the support to do it.

When they don’t know a word, teach it right there. You can:
✨ Point to a picture as you say the word.
✨ Offer 2 choices and show what each one means.
✨ Model the answer and have them say it back.
✨ Write a short phrase on the board for them to use.

For example, if you ask what color something is and they don’t know the colors yet, point to something red and say rojo. Model the answer, let them respond and then continue with the class.

A few questions later, come back to rojo so they have another opportunity to recognize and use it.

You already know they missed the lesson. The question gives you a chance to teach them something and then help them practice it.

They don’t need to know everything before they can start answering.

2. Use what they missed as review for everyone

Your new student needs to learn earlier vocabulary and structures, but you don’t have to turn every gap into a separate lesson.

Work familiar language into the new topic so the whole class has a reason to practice it.

Let’s say you’re teaching food vocabulary, but your new student also missed me gusta.

You can teach that phrase while asking about the foods you’re introducing. Model “Me gusta el pan,” explain what it means and ask the new student whether they like bread.

Then circle through related questions:
✨ Do they like bread?
✨ Do they like bread or rice?
✨ Does another student like bread?
✨ Who likes rice?

Keep the meaning clear with pictures, gestures or a written model so the new student can follow the questions.

Your new student is learning me gusta for the first time. Everyone else is using a familiar phrase with new food vocabulary.

You’re filling in something the new student missed while continuing the current topic. And the rest of your class gets another opportunity to practice, because having taught something in September does not mean every student remembers it in November. 😂

You can use the same approach with other earlier learning. Colors can come back when you teach clothing. Numbers can come back when you talk about prices. Adjectives can come back when students describe family members.

Look for the earlier language that naturally belongs in today’s lesson and make it accessible as you go.

3. Arrange afterschool help if possible

Some gaps need more attention than you can give while teaching the whole class.

If your schedules allow it, arrange for the student to come after school so you can work together without also managing everyone else.

Start with the current assignment and identify what they need to understand it.

Where are they getting stuck? Is there a vocabulary word they missed, a direction they don’t understand or an earlier grammar concept that the assignment assumes they know?

If they need subject pronouns to make sense of today’s verb practice, start there. You don’t have to cover every missed lesson in order before helping them with what’s happening now.

For example, you might:
✨ Explain the subject pronouns used in the current assignment.
✨ Work through a few examples together.
✨ Have them try a similar example while you’re there to help.

Keep the focus manageable. Giving them every worksheet they missed since August leaves them with a pile of work that they may not understand how to do.

Help with the current work, fill in a specific gap and build from there.

If staying after school isn’t possible for you or the student, look for an available support period during the school day. The point is to find time for focused help when your schedules allow it.

They won’t catch up on 3 months of Spanish in one afternoon. But they can leave understanding something that will make tomorrow’s class easier to follow.

Want more practical Spanish teaching tips?

Join my newsletter for classroom tips and ideas for teaching middle and high school Spanish, including ways to keep students participating when they need different levels of support.

Help them take part while they catch up.

A new Spanish 1 student who joins midyear needs a way into the lesson that’s happening today.

Include them in your questions, support their answers and use the current topic to revisit earlier learning. Then use focused help, when possible, to work on the gaps that are making class difficult to follow.

You can keep moving through the curriculum while helping your new student become part of the class.