Maritza Toro: Engaging Students Through Role Play

As an AP Spanish teacher, I am always looking for new information and different activities to use with my students. Using Introduction to Central America, I took several of the people included in the lesson and assigned them to each student. They were to look for information about them and later on “represent” this person.

They loved the idea and worked very hard to get the best grade.

The one story that impacted the most was that of Oscar Romero: this student came to class dressed as a priest and told his story and it was awesome.

I also included the song El padre Antonio y su monaguillo Adres from Ruben Blades, which tells the story of this priest. I modified the lesson to be all in Spanish information and they did great. —Maritza Toro, high school language teacher, Bradenton, Florida