Teaching Robo en la noche

 2 Minute Read


I teach a unit practicing the Past tenses with “Robo en la noche”, by Kristy Placido. It’s also available in Present tense, but when it first came out, it was only in Past tense!


It’s one of my students’ favorite books we’ve read, among Agentes secretos y el mural de Picasso, Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto, and La Llorona de Mazatlán.


As a way to introduce the novel, I have students complete a “virtual field trip” of Costa Rica, to get familiar with the country. 

Costa Rica Webquest Spanish and English versions Introduce Robo en la noche


With this Costa Rica Digital Webquest, students research the following (using the links provided):

  • Where the city or landmark is located

  • What is it?

  • What’s the population?

  • Other interesting facts

  • At the end, they find an interesting place or landmark in Costa Rica and write some interesting facts about it

  • I have 2 versions, all English, or all Spanish, so you can choose which one to assign to students based on their level. 


How I Use this Webquest:

  1. I give students a class period (45 minutes) to fill out the webquest

  2. The next day, I project their webquests on the SmartBoard, and have students come up to the board to explain 1 of the 8 places they researched. 

  3. If time allows, I then take volunteers to share the interesting place/landmark they chose to research the day prior. 

  4. If you’re familiar with Google Maps and dropping the “yellow guy” around the 8 locations mentioned in the webquest, it can make it more realistic and interesting to show students these locations from Google Maps. 

Using Google Maps in Spanish class

Dropping the pin on Google maps for Spanish class


After this, students have more familiarity with where Costa Rica is, and how the environment is important to the country. I then use a lot of the teacher’s guide for the rest of the book!


If you’re looking for No-Prep Digital Emergency Sub Plans, check out my blog post!

Popular posts from this blog

No-Prep Emergency Spanish Sub Plans

Image
  2 Minute Read No-Prep Spanish Sub Plans that work for Middle and High School Spanish are super important when you have to call in sick the night or morning before school! What’s tricky about being a Spanish teacher, is that it’s pretty rare that fellow coworkers or substitutes can teach Spanish while we’re gone. Therefore, over the years, I’ve needed to have a few sets of emergency sub plans ready to go at a moment’s notice → and that means something digital! Whether you call them webquests or virtual field trips, the idea is the same –students will discover information in an interactive way with embedded links that take them to websites with reliable information. Have you ever spent a bunch of time leaving detailed sub plans with copies to print, and the sub doesn’t actually read your directions? 🤦‍♀️ I’ve been there! It’s super frustrating, and ends up feeling like your time was wasted, especially when you should’ve been resting up or taking care of your kids, instead of wri...
Continue Reading

Spanish Classroom Speaking, Listening & Writing Activities - Find Someone Who!

Image
Spanish Classroom Speaking, Listening & Writing Activities - Find Someone Who! One of my favorite activities to do in Spanish class that gets students out of their seats and conversing with their classmates, is a good ol’ Find Someone Who activity. After talking with fellow colleagues about what this looks like in their classes, (even math teachers have done this activity!) I realized there’s many different variations of what this can look like depending on the subject, time of year, and grade level. The most common time of year my colleagues were saying they use these activities is at the start of the school year , as an ice breaker activity. That’s definitely a great time to do an activity like this!  However, I’ve used this activity not just as a simple icebreaker activity, but with proper scaffolding & extension activities, it’s a great way to incorporate all 4 modes of communication!  Here’s my general multi-day lesson plan when it comes to using a Find Someone ...
Continue Reading

What does my Alebrije Look Like? - Alebrijes Project for Spanish Class

Image
  What does my Alebrije Look Like? - Alebrijes Project for Spanish Class This alebrijes project is such a fun way to wrap up Día de los Muertos lessons, or after watching the movie Coco in Spanish class. My students love being creative, and getting to hang their projects in the classroom or hallways - something they don’t get to do often being in high school! This project works for all levels: Spanish 1, 2, 3 and beyond! How this project works: Students will take the 10 question “ questionnaire ” which is similar to old-school magazine quizzes, or like those modern day Buzzfeed-type quizzes. It asks them about their personality characteristics, when their birthday month is, and some of their “favorites” relating to vocab often covered by November 1st, in Spanish 1.  Once they answer all 10 questions, they will use the “answer key” to find out what their alebrije consists of (colors, design, and which body parts are made up of which kind of animals). The list of animals consist...
Continue Reading