For world language teachers working with middle school students, finding the right balance between structure and flexibility, grammar instruction and acquisition-based activities can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Transform Your Middle School Spanish Curriculum
If you’ve ever felt the unique challenges and incredible potential of teaching this age group, and are looking for an effective middle school Spanish curriculum, you’re in for a treat. Today, we’re diving deep into the world of middle school Spanish curriculum with Brooks, co-creator of Sonrisas Spanish. Brooks shares the creation behind Sonrisas Spanish, their foundational methodologies, and how they’ve crafted a comprehensive K-8 curriculum designed to bring joy and genuine acquisition to every student.
Listen to the Podcast Episode here :
or watch the interview with Sonrisas Spanish on youtube here:
From Bilingual Ed to Building a K-8 Elementary and Middle School Spanish Curriculum: The Sonrisas Story
Must-Dos for Middle School Spanish Curriculum:
Brooks and his wife, the masterminds behind Sonrisas Spanish, began their journey in the public schools of Austin in the early to mid-90s. Trained as bilingual education teachers during a significant movement, they honed various methods for teaching ESL. A serendipitous opportunity to teach after-school Spanish programs for a local school sparked a realization: these effective ESL techniques could be seamlessly translated to Spanish as a Second Language (SSL).
“After a year of doing that, word got out, and we had other schools start to call us and say, ‘Hey, could you do something similar at our school?'” Brooks recounts. This organic demand led them to take a leap of faith, leaving their public school jobs to establish Sonrisas Spanish. Initially, they brought their engaging, play-based classes to elementary schools and preschools. This hands-on experience, deeply rooted in teaching, allowed them to refine their methodology and structure, eventually leading to the groundbreaking decision to publish their curriculum in 2002.
For years, teaching remained their core, with publishing as a growing “side gig.” Around 2010, they intensified their focus on expanding the curriculum, adding levels and supplementary materials to create a comprehensive elementary Spanish program. This natural progression ultimately led them to develop their celebrated middle school Spanish curriculum, a topic we’ll explore further. Brooks’ layered experience, from immersion tactics in dual language environments to teaching at the Austin Waldorf School, has profoundly shaped the holistic and effective approach that defines Sonrisas Spanish today.
The Core Tenets of the Sonrisas Spanish Curriculum: Comprehensible Input, Play, and Emotional Connection
When it comes to working with young learners, Sonrisas Spanish is built on a few key pillars. Brooks emphasizes that while young learners are indeed adept at language acquisition, it’s not simply “natural absorption.” Instead, it requires intentional planning and methodology.
A significant influence on their approach stems from their bilingual and ESL teaching backgrounds, particularly Total Physical Response (TPR), developed by James Asher. TPR, which puts language into a physical context, creates “language-body conversations” that are incredibly effective for both young and older middle school learners.
Another monumental influence is Dr. Stephen Krashen’s research on acquisition-based and comprehension-based learning. Every Sonrisas lesson thrives on the principle of comprehensible input, ensuring learners understand the language they hear by placing it in context. This is coupled with ample opportunities for communication.
Play-Based Instruction for Elementary Language Students
For younger learners, play-based instruction is paramount. Brooks stresses the importance of being developmentally appropriate, which for elementary students, means no explicit grammar instruction. Instead, they gain an inherent understanding of grammatical concepts through immersive, playful activities.
Perhaps one of the most intriguing influences comes from the Waldorf foreign language approach, which focuses less on explicit meaning and more on the emotional content of language. Brooks explains, “young learners are really able to connect to the language just through the sounds and the feeling and the emotional content of it.” This approach embraces verse, rhyme, and music, allowing children to connect with the language’s beauty and sounds even if they don’t fully comprehend every word. This resonates deeply with children’s natural inclination towards rhythm and song.
The Power of Structure and Routine: Making Language Learning Safe and Fun
A common challenge teachers face, especially with elementary learners, is the hesitation to consistently use the target language. Brooks and Sonrisas tackle this head-on, advocating for at least 90% target language use, a recommendation from ACTFL. Their lessons are specifically designed to make this achievable through comprehensible input and, crucially, structure.
Middle School Routines: Engaging, Blended, and Student-Centered
“Essentially, what you’re doing when you have a consistent structure is you are making the learner feel comfortable and feel safe in their learning environment,” Brooks states. This safety is vital for students to take risks with language.
Circle Time, Story Time, Art Time: Consistent Classroom Routines for Elementary Spanish
For their elementary classes, Sonrisas lessons adhere to a consistent routine: circle time, story time, and art time. Within this structure, there’s a rich diversity of activities – music, role-play, games, authentic Spanish literature, art projects, and drama. This multi-modal approach ensures all learning styles are addressed and keeps students engaged. As Devon highlights, “if you’re switching activities every 15 minutes and doing something like first we’re going to do a storytell with this cute stuffy and then we’re going to play dress up… they have so many visuals to work with… they’re just here to play and if you’re requiring that they play in Spanish, they’re going to be right there along with you.” This playful immersion means “students don’t really even think about that they’re learning Spanish. They’re just having fun.”
Storytime, in particular, is a “huge part” of Sonrisas’ lessons. They employ a shared reading method, where a fluent speaker uses tone and expression to bring the story to life. More importantly, the story serves as a tool for extending interpersonal communication. Teachers pause to ask clarifying questions about illustrations and text, differentiating questions for various proficiency levels. Sonrisas carefully selects storybooks with “vivid illustrations that convey the meaning of the text, text that includes verse and rhyme… text that is repetitive, and stories that have familiar themes for young learners.” This attention to detail alleviates the common teacher struggle of finding appropriate authentic texts.
Acquire, Develop, Learn with the Sonrisas Middle School Spanish Curriculum
The transition from elementary to middle school learners presents a unique set of challenges. Brooks recognized that their elementary curriculum, while effective for younger children, didn’t quite resonate with fifth and sixth graders who perceived it as “little kiddie stuff.” This insight spurred the development of Sonrisas levels two and three, designed specifically for middle school Spanish.
Brooks’ personal experience teaching high school Spanish, where he was introduced to TPR Storytelling, was a lightbulb moment. He realized this engaging method could be perfect for older elementary and middle school students, leading to the adaptation of his high school experience into the Sonrisas middle school Spanish curriculum. The dream of a full K-8 scope and sequence, where students spiral through language acquisition, was becoming a reality.
The Middle School Quest for Identity & Important Learner Transitions
Middle schoolers, characterized by “hormones” and a quest for identity, benefit immensely from structure and a sense of safety. While they still want to have fun, they’re ready for a more concrete and intellectual learning style. This means they’re prepared for the “how and why” of grammatical concepts they may have implicitly understood from earlier grades.
This led to the development of Sonrisas’ unique acquire, develop, learn methodology:
- Acquire (Level 1): Students naturally acquire Spanish through age-appropriate, fun games and activities, much like their first language. There’s no explicit grammar instruction.
- Develop (Level 2): Building on acquired language, Level 2 introduces more complex performance targets and a “partner time” segment, fostering peer-to-peer interaction. Still no explicit grammar.
- Learn (Level 3): This is where explicit grammar instruction is woven in. Students begin to “learn the how and why of many of these concepts that they already understand from levels one and two.”
The Core Tenets: Comprehensible Input, Play, and Emotional Connection
When it comes to working with young learners, Sonrisas Spanish is built on a few key pillars. Brooks emphasizes that while young learners are indeed adept at language acquisition, it’s not simply “natural absorption.” Instead, it requires intentional planning and methodology.
A significant influence on their approach stems from their bilingual and ESL teaching backgrounds, particularly Total Physical Response (TPR), developed by James Asher. TPR, which puts language into a physical context, creates “language-body conversations” that are incredibly effective for both young and older middle school learners.
Another monumental influence is Dr. Stephen Krashen’s research on acquisition-based and comprehension-based learning. Every Sonrisas lesson thrives on the principle of comprehensible input, ensuring learners understand the language they hear by placing it in context. This is coupled with ample opportunities for communication.
Request a free sample of the Sonrisas Spanish Units
For younger learners, play-based instruction is paramount. Brooks stresses the importance of being developmentally appropriate, which for elementary students, means no explicit grammar instruction. Instead, they gain an inherent understanding of grammatical concepts through immersive, playful activities.
Middle School Routines: Engaging, Blended, and Student-Centered
While Level 2 continues the familiar circle time, story time, and art time with the addition of partner time, Level 3 transforms the structure entirely. Gone are the “little kiddie” routines, replaced by thematic units. Each unit comprises 10 lessons that follow a consistent sequence, providing comfort and predictability for learners.
The Level 3 unit structure is designed to be comprehensive and engaging:
- Cultural Introduction: Each unit begins with a cultural theme, often with a reading and guiding questions for discussion, frequently conducted in English for ease of deeper discussion.
- Grammar Concept: Lesson two introduces a grammar concept, taught in a more “old school direct instructional style” in English, followed by practice exercises.
- TPR Storytelling (Lessons 3-8): The heart of the unit lies in TPR Storytelling. Here, students apply the grammar in a fun, engaging, and collaborative way. Brooks raves about its effectiveness: “it’s super fun… it’s really engaging because the students are coming up with the details to the story, so they start to take ownership… it’s really good for retention of vocabulary and phrases and concepts because it’s their story.” Students love creating “crazy stories,” playing with the language, and taking ownership. The lesson plans provide a script for the story, allowing teachers to focus on facilitating student creativity.
- Communication Strategy: Lesson nine focuses on a communication strategy, bridging language and culture (e.g., getting meaning from context, cognates).
- Consolidation and Communication: Lesson 10 brings everything together with a whole group reading activity (La Lectura) in Spanish and a partner time activity, where students engage in peer-to-peer interpersonal communication, often with a presentational component. This ensures all three modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational) are addressed.
Additionally, Level 3 lessons begin with an introduction that includes optional calendar routines, traditional TPR for warm-ups, and even a spelling activity. Brooks humorously notes students’ surprising love for spelling in Spanish, which fosters phonetic awareness and familiarity with the alphabet.
This structured yet flexible approach is a direct contrast to the “too much” and overwhelming nature of many big publisher textbooks. Sonrisas prioritizes user-friendliness and simplicity, allowing teachers to get into a rhythm and confidently leverage their own creativity.
The Blended Approach: Meeting Diverse Learner Needs
The Sonrisas Level 3 curriculum is a true blended approach, acknowledging that middle school students have diverse learning preferences. While elementary lessons lean heavily into immersion and acquisition, Level 3 integrates more concrete and intellectual learning for those ready for rules and grammar.
“You’re going to have those students that they want to learn by learning the rules and learning the grammar and doing some practice with that. But you’re going to have other learners that are still ready to just like immerse themselves and be in that acquisition and communication mode,” Brooks explains. By incorporating cultural discussions in English, direct grammar instruction, and immersion-based activities like TPR and TPR Storytelling, Sonrisas caters to the full spectrum of middle school learners. Even total beginners can use Level 3, as TPR Storytelling pre-teaches vocabulary, and the blended approach provides multiple entry points.
This flexibility is crucial in a middle school classroom, where students’ needs and readiness can fluctuate daily. As Devon aptly puts it, “students change every day as they’re in the classroom and need different things… you need something that’s going to serve all different levels of where they’re at, and rigidity is just not going to work.”
The #1 Tip for Middle School Teachers: Be Open and Honest
When asked for the most important advice for middle school teachers, Brooks emphasizes being open. “Being open to exploring different ways to teach and exploring different ways to have your students interact with the language, and just being open to trying different methodologies.” He champions TPR Storytelling, seeing firsthand its power to create connection and retention.
Beyond methodology, Brooks stresses the importance of being honest with students about language learning. Create a safe space where taking risks is encouraged, and mistakes are not mocked. Share your own language learning journey – your struggles, your triumphs, and the effort it takes. “They’re all so on edge. They feel like they’re getting judged. They’re maybe judging themselves,” Brooks observes about middle schoolers. By setting an expectation of fun, risk-taking, and the joy of opening up to a new world, you empower them. “This is something totally different from your math class and from your science class. This is language. We’re going to have fun.”
Connect with Sonrisas Spanish!
Ready to bring the joy of language acquisition and the magic of a K-8 comprehensive program to your classroom? You can connect with Sonrisas Spanish and explore their innovative curriculum:
- Visit their website Sonrisas Spanish – Here, you’ll find a wealth of information, including their blog with practical articles on middle school Spanish, comprehensible input, and TPR storytelling.
- Request a Free Sample: Look for the prominent “request a free sample” buttons on their website. For their Level 3 curriculum, they offer a full unit including the teacher manual introduction, allowing you to experience their approach firsthand.
Thank you, Brooks, for sharing your passion and expertise. It’s clear that Sonrisas Spanish is dedicated to providing teachers with the tools and support needed to foster genuine language acquisition and create classrooms where students are not just learning, but thriving, playing, and connecting with a new language and culture.
What aspects of the Sonrisas Spanish approach do you find most appealing for your classroom context, and what’s one thing you’re excited to try?
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