Spanish Language Learning Resources

The following links contain resources for a wide range of Spanish proficiencies.

• DuoLingo: A free language-learning site appropriate for grades 6-12. Activities are online and independent, and could serve as homework assignments or an optional study resource for students.
• Español Abierto (University of Texas at Austin): A collection of language resources compiled by the University of Texas at Austin. This site includes a selection of resources devoted specifically to heritage learners: see Listos and Heritage Spanish.
• Mis Cositas: A collection of language-learning resources, including worksheets, short stories, lesson plans, video and audio, and realia. Most content is appropriate for younger learners, including heritage learners.
• Procomún (Ministerio de Educación de España): Procomún is a database of open-access educational resources, including interactive activities, lesson plans, presentations, and other classroom materials. You can sort resources by subject area, content type, and grade level.
• Recursos educativos abiertos (Ministerio de Educación de España): This site offers lesson plans and projects grouped by grade level (from preschool to professional development) and subject. Most content is project-based and allows students to develop different language skills as they work on portfolios, exhibitions, or other individual or group projects.
• SpanishListening.org: This site offers thousands of video interviews with native Spanish speakers. You can filter interviews by difficulty level, interview topic, country, and grammatical concept. Each interview is accompanied by a transcript and a multiple-choice listening comprehension quiz.

Online Content

• Aprende y Diviértete con Don Quijote (Ministerio de Educación de España, Instituto de Tecnologías Educativas)
  • About: This site introduces Miguel de Cervantes and his novel Don Quixote to Spanish-language students through engaging interactive activities. The novel is adapted for young viewers in brief animated videos narrated in Spanish. Students can use the site independently to play literacy and mathematics games. The site’s Guía Didáctica offers ideas for incorporating the videos and interactives in the classroom.
  • Audience: Young native and heritage speakers; intermediate Spanish learners.
  • Ideas for using this resource: Develop aural comprehension by listening to the story videos in class, pausing to identify new words and check comprehension. The literacy and mathematics activities can be completed independently once students have learned to navigate the site. As students proceed through the story, ask them to create lists of adjectives to describe Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. These lists can then be used to practice writing complete sentences describing the characters.
• Cuentos y Leyendas Ilustrados por Niños (Ministerio de Educación de España, Instituto de Tecnologías Educativas)
  • About: This is a highly interactive site using children’s stories and illustrations to teach vocabulary, grammar, and arithmetic. Students read and listen to stories and complete interactive or printable activities based on what they see and hear.
  • Audience: Stories and activities are grouped by intended age range: 3-5, 6-8, and 9-11. The content can be adapted to meet the needs of both native and heritage speakers and Spanish learners.
  • Ideas for using this resource: Students can listen to the recorded stories and follow along in the provided text versions, developing aural and reading comprehension skills. After reading and listening to a story, ask students to draw a new chapter for the story, or use the story’s characters to start a new adventure. Older students can write several sentences explaining their drawings.
• El caracol Serafín (Ministerio de Educación de España)
  • About: This site for young learners tells the story of Serafín the snail through animated video and rhyming narration. The animation is accompanied by both audio and written versions of the narrative.
  • Audience: Beginning to intermediate young learners, including heritage speakers.
  • Ideas for using this resource­: This activity can be extended in a variety of ways.
    • As they watch and listen to the story, students might be asked to identify:
      • Unfamiliar words and phrases
      • Characters in the story, what animal they are, and their physical characteristics
      • Dangers faced by Serafín on his adventure
      • Pairs of rhyming words
      • Places Serafín travels and what he finds there
    • Students can create a storyboard or comic strip of Serafín's next chapter: what happens after the story ends? Older or more advanced students can write rhymes to accompany the narrative they create.

Open-Access Textbooks and Lesson Plans

• De colores (EDSITEment)
  • About: In this lesson plan, students learn the colors in Spanish through music, listening, and reading comprehension activities. They will be able to identify the colors of common objects and form complete sentences describing an object’s color.
  • Audience: Beginning younger students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: To extend this lesson, the resources in the free textbook Juego y Aprendo con mi material de preescolar (Segundo grado de preescolar) provide images, mosaic tiles, and hands-on crafts students can use to reinforce their knowledge of color vocabulary.
• La familia (EDSITEment)
  • About: This lesson introduces students to the daily lives of families in Mexico, Spain, and Puerto Rico through multimedia resources covering architecture, holidays, food, art, and pastimes. Students will also learn vocabulary to talk about family members in Spanish.
  • Audience: Beginning students
  • Ideas for using this resource: This lesson plan helps students think critically about the diversity of Spanish-speaking families by comparing and contrasting family life in Mexico, Spain, and Puerto Rico. It might be used to introduce research projects about culture and traditions in other Spanish-speaking and Hispanic communities, including those in the United States.
• Juego y Aprendo con mi material de preescolar (Segundo grado de preescolar) (Secretaría de Educación Pública de México)
  • About: This is an online activity book for the second grade of preschool in Mexico, with visual resources for teachers to use for student activities. Covers basic household vocabulary, colors, shapes, people, and a visual history of Mexico. Pages 75-82 contain suggestions for teachers to use the materials in the classroom.
  • Audience: Beginning younger students (preschool to grade 1).
  • Ideas for using this resource: This book contains a variety of printable crafts that students can complete in class or at home. Most of the activities are interactive, asking students to cut out shapes, scenes, or puzzles, and practice basic Spanish vocabulary. Possible extensions of the activities described in the textbook include asking students to identify colors, shapes, and everyday objects in the classroom; creating their own mosaics from colored paper and identifying colors and shapes in Spanish; and drawing instructions for an activity they like to do and explaining the steps involved.
• Juego y Aprendo con mi material de preescolar (Tercer grado de preescolar) (Secretaría de Educación Pública de México)
  • About: This is an online activity book for the third grade of preschool in Mexico, with visual resources for teachers to use for student activities. Pages 39-42 contain suggestions for teachers to use the materials in the classroom.
  • Audience: Beginning younger students (preschool to grade 1).
  • Ideas for using this resource: This book contains a variety of printable crafts that students can complete in class or at home. Most of the activities are interactive, asking students to cut out shapes, scenes, or puzzles, and practice basic Spanish vocabulary. Possible extensions of the activities described in the textbook include having students draw the sequence of their morning or evening routine and describe the steps involved; create their own characters by mixing and matching body parts and narrating stories about the figures they invent; create their own shadow puppets and working together to put on a show, narrated in Spanish.
• Educación Artística (Primer grado de primaria) (Secretaría de Educación Pública de México)
  • About: This online textbook provides textual and graphic introductions to the visual and performing arts. The book is organized into 28 lessons that include independent and group work.
  • Audience: Advanced beginners to early intermediate students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: This resource would be especially valuable in a bilingual context in which students take art classes in Spanish. The lessons in the book can be used as self-contained activities or a complete curriculum.
• Español (Primer grado de primaria) (Secretaría de Educación Pública de México)
  • About: This online textbook offers instruction in basic literacy and aural and reading comprehension. The book is organized into five sections meant to be used sequentially.
  • Audience: Advanced beginners to early intermediate students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: This textbook is appropriate for students who are beginning to learn to read and write. While organized into a series of five sequential chapters, many of the activities, including those for which there are printable materials in the back of the book, can be used on their own.
• Español (Segundo grado de primaria) (Secretaría de Educación Pública de México)
  • About: This online textbook offers a project-based approach to Spanish literacy. Divided into five chapters with two to three projects each, students build reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills through individual and group work. The projects are designed to encourage students to connect literacy with daily life, as they create posters, write news articles, and prepare foods from recipes in Spanish.
  • Audience: Early intermediate students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: This textbook is appropriate for students who have developed beginning reading and writing skills. The project-based approach allows students to pursue topics of interest while continuing to develop their literacy and communication skills. While the book is organized into five chapters meant to be taught sequentially, the projects and printable activities at the end of the book can also be used as standalone lessons or assignments.

Online Content

• ¡Azúcar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz (Smithsonian Institution)
  • About: This interactive site showcases the life and art of Cuban-born Pop singer, Celia Cruz, with documents, photographs, and video and audio clips of her performances.
  • Audience: Intermediate to advanced students.
  • Ideas for using this resource:
    • Create copies of lyrics to some of Celia Cruz’s songs, omitting key words. Ask students to listen to the songs and fill in the blanks.
    • Have students create a timeline of Cruz’s life, using images from this site or from outside research.
    • Ask students to research one of Cruz’s most famous songs and explain its cultural referents and resonances, using this site and outside research to understand the historical and cultural context for Cruz’s work.
• Museo del Prado Video Exhibits (Museo del Prado)
  • About: Videos of exhibits and famous artworks in the Museo del Prado help students develop listening comprehension as they learn about art history.
  • Audience: Intermediate to advanced students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: Students may use these videos as part of research projects about artists or major works of art.

Open-Access Textbooks and Lesson Plans

These textbooks, produced by the Mexican Secretaría de Educación Pública, provide a wealth of activities, projects, and lesson materials across a variety of subjects. While each book is ordered in a series of sequential chapters, many of the projects and lessons can be used as standalone activities.

• Spanish Textbooks
  • Español (Cuatro de primaria)
  • Español (Quinto de primaria)
  • Español (Sexto de primaria)
• Art Textbooks
  • Educación Artística (Tercero de primaria)
  • Educación Artística (Quinto de primaria)
  • Educación Artística (Sexto de primaria)
• Social Studies and History Textbooks
  • Geografía (Quinto de primario)
  • Historia (Quinto de primario)
  • Geografía (Sexto de primario)

Note: These resources may be helpful for students enrolled in both AP Spanish Language and Culture and AP Spanish Literature and Culture.

Online Content

• BBC Mundo (BBC)
  • About: Students can read world news in Spanish on BBC Mundo.
  • Audience: Advanced to Advanced Placement students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: Below are some suggestions for using BBC Mundo to develop students’ reading comprehension in Spanish.
    • Challenge students to read or listen to three news articles a day in Spanish, keeping a record of new words and phrases they learn. These words can become the basis for a class vocabulary list.
    • Ask students to find an article of interest on BBC Mundo and an English-language news article on the same topic. Ask them to compare the coverage of the event in each source and use this analysis to write a paragraph (in Spanish) about the differences and similarities between the two sources.
    • Ask students to curate a selection of articles about a particular topic, writing an introduction giving an overview of the topic and creating a glossary of important vocabulary words and phrases. These annotated articles could become a resource for other students curious about the topic but with more limited Spanish proficiency.
    • Using BBC Mundo articles for guidance, have students write their own news articles about events in the school or local community. They should create strong, attention-grabbing headlines, conduct research, and model their writing on the articles in BBC Mundo. For an added challenge, ask students to write news articles about the Spanish-speaking community in your area, conducting at least two interviews with Spanish speakers. Students’ articles can be compiled into a Spanish-language newspaper.
• Lecturas Paso a Paso (Centro Virtual Cervantes)
  • About: Lecturas Paso a Paso offers a selection of excerpts from Spanish books, classified by complexity. Each excerpt is accompanied by a glossary of vocabulary words and idioms, pre- and post-reading exercises, and information for instructors about the difficulty of the material and learning objectives for the lesson.
  • Audience: Intermediate to Advanced Placement students.
  • Ideas for using the resource: The readings in Lecturas Paso a Paso are substantial, so students should have ample time to read them and look up unfamiliar words. The pre- and post-reading activities can be completed independently or in groups in class.
• Radio Ambulante (NPR)
  • About: Radio Ambulante is a Spanish-language podcast that offers narrative episodes about current events, culture, and history in Latin America.
  • Audience: Advanced to Advanced Placement students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: Radio Ambulante is an excellent resource for developing listening comprehension skills while learning about history, culture, and current events in Latin America. The content of the podcasts is engaging and complex, inviting high-quality written responses and class discussions. The site also includes interviews with educators who use Radio Ambulante in the classroom. Extension activities may include:
    • Ask students to select a podcast episode and work in small groups to present the context for the episode, its content, and questions for discussion and debate (Professor Alberto Bruzos Moro offers resources and additional suggestions).
    • Ask students to work independently or in small groups to create Spanish-language podcasts, incorporating interviews with Spanish-speakers from the school or local community.
• Spanish Proficiency Exercises (University of Texas at Austin)
  • About: In these videos, native speakers complete various language tasks (for example, talking about their first job, favorite foods, and so on). For each such task, there is a simplified example in which the narrator speaks more slowly, along with several examples of native speakers from different countries. All videos are accompanied by Spanish and English transcripts, which can be turned off. Along with the videos, the site provides a glossary of useful vocabulary words and sentence structures, as well as a brief explanation of the grammatical concepts used in the video. The videos are sorted by difficulty level.
  • Audience: Intermediate to Advanced Placement students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: These videos can be used to develop listening comprehension, as well as to help students become more comfortable discussing different topics. You might use them to introduce and model grammatical concepts and vocabulary that students will be expected to integrate into their own speaking or writing.
• Voices of the Hispanic World (The Ohio State University)
  • About: Voices of the Hispanic World offers hundreds of videos of native speakers from throughout the Spanish-speaking world. In addition to Spanish, indigenous languages such as Quechua and Aymara are represented in the video archive. You can filter videos by country, conversation topic, and linguistic feature—a unique feature that is helpful for introducing students to nuanced pronunciational differences between various Spanish dialects or between English and Spanish.
  • Audience: Advanced to Advanced Placement students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: This resource is a wonderful tool for increasing students’ awareness of the diversity of Spanish dialects, and for developing their aural comprehension of these many dialects. Listening to multiple speakers with different dialects speaking about the same topic would be a particularly instructive use of the source, allowing students to compare not only what the speaker says but also how they pronounce different words and sounds. Videos may also be viewed to help students with particular linguistic tasks, such as the pronunciation of “b” and “v.”

Open-Access Textbooks and Lesson Plans

• Problem-Based Learning (Dr. David Thompson, Luther College)
  • About: This site provides four problem-based curriculum units designed to be used over three to four weeks of class time. The units are structured around debates—for example, the secession of Cataluña from Spain—that ask students to carry out both guided and independent research to propose a solution to the problem posed.
  • Audience: Advanced to Advanced Placement students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: Once students are familiar with problem-based learning and the process they might follow to solve real-world problems, ask them to work together to identify a problem or challenge in their local community or in a Spanish-speaking country. Ideally, students will identify problems in their schools or communities that require the use of Spanish to research. Using the units on this site as models, students can work together to research and propose interventions for the problems they have identified. Depending on the issues they have chosen, they may present their ideas to community members in Spanish and/or English, as appropriate. After they have presented their work, ask students to reflect on the following:
    • Compare the experience of working on a set problem to that of identifying a problem in your own community.
    • What skills do you feel you developed through this process?
    • How did you use Spanish in this project? How has your knowledge of or comfort in the language changed during this project?
• Magical Realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude (EDSITEment)
  • About: This curriculum contains three lesson plans that ask students to work with the magical and real elements in García Márquez’s most famous novel. While the lesson plans are written in English and use the English translation of García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad, students comfortable reading literature in Spanish could work with the original Spanish text, or excerpts of it, and the lessons could be expanded to incorporate several of García Márquez’s short stories. A good place to start is the short story “Los funerales de la Mamá Grande,” which is also set in Macondo and which incorporates characters students will recognize from the novel.
  • Audience: The EDSITEment lesson plans can be used with high school students of varying levels of Spanish proficiency. Advanced and Advanced Placement students may be asked to read sections of the novel in Spanish, or to read a short story in Spanish to extend their study of magical realism in García Márquez’s work.
  • Ideas for using this resource:
    • Working with the first chapter of One Hundred Years of Solitude and the short story “Big Mama’s Funeral,” discuss the portrayal of female authority and agency in Macondo. Consider in particular the titular character of “Big Mama’s Funeral” and Úrsula Iguarán in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
    • García Márquez is known for his remarkable introductory sentences and paragraphs. Before reading the entire novel, conduct a close reading of the first paragraph of One Hundred Years of Solitude. What themes appear? (These can be quite broad, for example: violence, scientific discovery, naming and language, Biblical references, discoveries (scientific and historical), gender relations, and so on.) Ask groups of students to select a theme and trace its manifestations as they read the rest of the novel. Their notes can become the jumping-off point for an extended essay or presentation about the development of their chosen theme throughout the work.
    • A selection of Gabriel García Márquez's archive has been digitized by UT Austin, where his papers are held. The curriculum unit asks students to work with his photographic archive, but students who can read Spanish can explore more of the archive, which includes manuscripts and early printings of several of his short and longer works, scrapbooks, and personal papers. Students can select an item from the archive and do a "close reading" of the document or artifact, connecting it to what they have learned about García Márquez's life and work.
• Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: The First Great Latin American Poet (EDSITEment)
  • About: This EDSITEment curriculum includes two lessons about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a female poet living in seventeenth-century New Spain. Students learn about the historical context in which Sor Juana lived, as well as the Golden Age in Spanish literature. They analyze two sonnets (“A su retrato” and “En perseguirme, Mundo, ¿qué interesas?”), Las Redondillas, and selections from Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz.
  • Audience: Advanced to Advanced Placement students, especially AP Spanish Literature students.
  • Ideas for using this resource: While the lessons in this curriculum could be used on their own, together, they provide a fuller picture of Sor Juana’s life and work. The lessons include a mix of analytical and creative assignments that students can compile into a portfolio or use to create an exhibit exploring the continued resonance of Sor Juana’s work in our contemporary world. They also provide a scaffolded introduction to analyzing complex Baroque poetry and could be used as a starting point for students to work with other poems and authors from the period. In addition to providing genre-specific resources, the lessons help students identify, analyze, and use literary devices in Spanish, skills that are easily transferable to the analysis of other genres of Spanish literature and to students’ own writing.