Spanish teachers face many challenges in the World Language classroom. Therefore, proposing to add anything to the proverbial “teacher’s plate”– including more diverse and inclusive topics to the curriculum, could seem as much as a herculean feat. On one hand, language proficiency levels can vary widely in one class, making it hard to teach and differentiate within a single lesson. Furthermore, keeping up with the base curriculum can be an ongoing sprint for a teacher, never allowing for significant student growth in areas outside of grammar and vocabulary.
How does one include themes of diversity in their curriculum when confronted with challenges that work against their good intentions?How can we make sure that our Afrodescendientes, in particular, are seen and heard?
🧘🏽♀️ Start within yourself
Ask yourself if including and diversifying culture is important to you and if you have the resources to teach it. While we are all weary teachers with full schedules, there’s always an opportunity for self-education, self-awareness, and knowledge sharing with your students. Culture is one of the Five World-Readiness Standards, yet it’s often neglected or relegated to an end-of-chapter status. Culture plays a vital role in language learning, helping students make language associations and become well-versed in the languages they study.
If you have apprehensions about teaching about Afro-Latinos in the Spanish classroom, for fear of being culturally insensitive or not being knowledgeable–look up some YouTube videos, ask friends, go on Instagram, search this increasingly small world, and connect with others so you can bring an authentic experience to your kids. Below is my authentic experience with Afro-Latinidad from my YouTube channel. I know some teachers who play some of these videos in class during Black History Month! It’s a cool start to learning and preparing for creating a more diverse curriculum–your inner work.
🙋🏽 Let your students have some say
Conduct polls or surveys during the school year to understand your students’ interests, backgrounds, and preferences. This information can help tailor your curriculum to their needs, making it more engaging and relevant. I ask students what ideas and topics are important to them. I ask them if they speak languages other than English at home. I ask: “What is your favorite style of music?” I get a taste of their favorite activities, hobbies, likes, dislikes, etc! You can make your own survey or grab mine below! When you download it, just make sure you make a copy first and edit as you see fit.
✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼 Letting student diversity influence your curriculum choices
What does diversity truly mean? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, here are their two top definitions:
Diversity
1)the fact of many different types of things or people being included in something; a range of different things or people:
2) the fact that there are many different ideas or opinions about something
We are truly living in an age of increased diversity, all across the United States. This diversity includes a vast spectrum of family structures, family income, thoughts, opinions, gender identities, religions, races, ethnicities, and more. See the images below.
Some ways that we can think about diversity for our students across age groups, K-12.
Analyzing US Department of Education Data, we have found that between Fall 2010 and Fall 2021, the number of White students fell from 52 to 45 percent–making up less than half of all K-12 public school students. The percentage of public school students who were Hispanic went up from 23 to 28 percent. The number of Black students stayed somewhat stable. Students of two or more races as well as Asian student numbers are rising.
For many of us, our classrooms are becoming ethnically, culturally, and linguistically more rich. How can the students contribute to your lessons–by informing how you adjust your cultural curriculum. Do note, that regionally, your numbers may look different.
Use observations, anecdotes, and student data. Talk to your students. Survey them with the above survey linked here. See how you can incorporate different cultures in the curriculum whether or not they are represented physically in the class. Remember, you are the curator of your cultural curriculum and part of your job is to take what they know and to expose them to new things too.
My Real Life Example & Activity Idea: I have had classrooms, integrated racially but not mentally. My African American students felt no connection to the language and furthermore, felt that Spanish was for “them” (read: “Hispanics”), not them. This very narrow view was a symptom of the local culture and mistrust between the communities. So one day, I played snippets of this video in class during #BHM:
This video sparked so much conversation! My Latino students made so many self revelation, my African American students felt a kinship to my Latino students, and one student was visible moved and upset by the racial trauma throughout the centuries.
-Allison
➡️ Find resources that will work to uplift and affirm your students’ diversities while at the same time trying to introduce them to new and wonderful aspects of the target culture. This will keep students interested for sure!
❓ What can you actually do
The short answer: If you’re short on time, consider incorporating multimedia in the classroom to expose students to diverse faces, accents, and places. Use warm-up activities as opportunities to introduce people from around the Spanish-speaking world who break stereotypes & misconceptions of Afro-Latinos during Black History Month. For those with occasional pockets of time, encourage students to research a person of interest in the Afro-Latino community. For a more extended commitment, let students do immersive projects that connect them with the Hispanic culture, such as the Afro-Latino Project.
For more of a deep dive, read below:
“I have no time in the pacing guide”
If you are short on time, I recommend incorporating more multimedia in the classroom so that the students can see diverse faces, hear different accents, and learn about different places or history. This can be accomplished by:
Playing music every day when students walk into class and letting them see who is singing it. Of course keep in mind what is considered school-appropriate, however, “Cabello Bello” by Robe L. Ninho is not to be missed!
Use your warm-ups as opportunities to introduce people from around the Spanish-speaking world who break stereotypes. Then use the assignment to incorporate what you are learning at the time. See an example here. You can focus on one Afro-Latino a day!
Mix Musical: El Orgullo Afro | Afro-Latino Music-Black History Month & Beyond
-A fun and unique daily warm-up music activity that you could use in a variety of ways! LINK HERE
“I have occasional pockets of time to do an activity of my choosing”
For Black History Month, for example, if you have pockets of time, why do you consider letting the students look up a person of interest in the Afro-Latino Community. They can work with a friend or a group and find out information about the person they chose. The assignment is perfect for all levels of Spanish and can even be translated into English.
Famous Afro-Latinos Biographies Fill-In Printables in Spanish | Posters
-Students study Afro-Latinos; appropriate across all levels of Spanish. LINK HERE
“Girl, I run this class: What can I do long term?”
I highly recommend allowing students to do immersive projects. Projects can include going out into the community, recreating a work of art, deep-diving into the history of a famous Hispanic person, and more. One of my projects that I do every single year is my Afro-Latino Project. Granted, you have to prep: decide when you will notify the students of the project and the final due date. When they come in a few weeks later, they will have glowing presentations of an Afro-Latino of their choice as well as an artifact that grounds them to the person. At the end of the year, my students say that this is one of their favorite projects during the year: hands down!
Afro-Latino Heritage Research Project: Student Essay + Presentation | Bios
-A great long-term project for students to get invested in the culture
Hi! My name is Allison Perryman. I have taught Spanish for over a decade and enjoy exploring diversity within world language communities. I am passionate about inclusion, Afro-Latinidad, and diversity. I founded The Cultural Classroom to help other teachers integrate authentic culture into their curriculum. I have presented at various conferences and was the Keynote speaker at The Fellowship of Language Educators of New Jersey (FLENJ). If you have any questions, feel free to email me at theculturalclassroomtpt@gmail.com!
