Students enter our classrooms with their own cultures, languages, identities, interests, and experiences already in place. In this post, I reveal the unexpected beginning-of-the-year activity that helps me listen more intentionally, uncover meaningful cultural connections, and design a more flexible, UDL-informed Spanish classroom. You’ll also find practical ways to use what students share to increase relevance, access, curiosity, and belonging from day one.
When teachers talk about bringing more culture into Spanish class, the conversation often turns to music, films, holidays, food, current events, country studies, and important historical figures. I use all of those. I love building lessons around music, authentic stories, cultural questions, and communities across the Spanish-speaking world.
But that is not where I begin.
My first cultural resource of the school year is not a playlist, presentation, or webquest.
It is my students. More specifically, it is the information they share with me through a beginning-of-the-year survey.
Yep–a survey. I survey my students at the start of the year! 👩🏽‍🏫
It may not sound like the most exciting culture resource, but it is one of the most useful tools I have for creating a classroom where culture feels relevant, thoughtful, and connected to the people actually sitting in front of me. We talk about “bringing culture into the classroom,” but culture isn’t something that only comes from the teacher. Students arrive with identities, languages, communities, experiences, perspectives, music, family histories, etc.
✨Students arrive with culture already in place
Students are not empty vessels waiting for teachers to fill them with knowledge. They enter our classrooms with prior experiences, beliefs, languages, traditions, interests, relationships, questions, and ideas about the world. They already have cultural knowledge, even when they do not yet use the word culture to describe it.
A student may speak one language at school and another with family members. Another may feel strongly connected to a particular country, neighborhood, religion, race, or community. One student may have traditions they are eager to share, while another may be unsure how to describe their background. Some may feel deeply rooted in their communities, while others are still trying to figure out where they belong.
All of that is present before we introduce the first cultural topic.
That is why one of the most important questions I ask myself at the beginning of the year is:
Who are the students and cultures that make up this classroom?
We cannot answer that question through assumptions. We have to listen.
✨Why a typical “getting to know you” activity is not enough
There is nothing wrong with asking students about their favorite snacks, colors, pets, or summer activities. Those questions can help break the ice. But if I want to design instruction that reflects student identities and supports meaningful participation, I need to know more than whether someone prefers cats or dogs.
My survey begins with practical information such as names, nicknames, grade levels, and class periods. Then it moves into questions about language, culture, belonging, interests, goals, school experiences, and learning.
I ask students questions such as:
- What languages do you speak or hear at home or in your community?
- Helps you to see if there are any connections you can make with Spanish
- What do you appreciate about your cultural background? Are there customs or traditions you are proud of?
- Helps you to learn about the cultures in your classroom and look into relevant intercultural moments that you can create.
- Do you feel connected to your community?
- Allows you to learn about the identities that your students connect with. Gives you more information that can guide your curriculum.
- What role might Spanish play in your future?
- Allows you to see what students truly want out of the course, continuing to make the curriculum relevant to their lives.
- What music, games, topics, and social issues interest you?
- A great way to find out what students like and to help you make connections through your curriculum.
- Do you feel seen and heard in your classes?
- Can help you see how students generally feel in their classes. You can also learn how (through the eyes of the students) students can feel seen and heard.
The survey is not powerful because it contains a long list of questions. It is powerful because the answers give me a more complete picture of the people I am preparing to teach. It gives me a deeper look at the identities of my students.
✨The survey helps me find meaningful entry points
One of the easiest ways to make cultural learning feel relevant is to connect new material to something students already know or care about.
That does not mean every lesson has to revolve around current trends. It means student interests can serve as bridges into broader cultural learning.
Music is a great example. I ask students what they listen to, which artists they love, and what Spanish-language music they already know. Their answers tell me what feels familiar, what is missing, and where I might build an intercultural connection.
One year, several of my students were deeply interested in K-pop. Instead of treating that interest as unrelated to Spanish class, I started researching. I found K-pop artists who had recorded music in Spanish, along with multilingual performers whose language experiences created natural opportunities for comparison.
When I brought those examples into class, the students were immediately engaged. Afterward, one student told me they had never seen someone from their Korean background speaking Spanish.
That moment mattered.
The students did not simply learn a surprising fact about a musician. They saw a connection between identities and languages that they had not encountered before.
That is what an effective entry point can do. It does not replace the learning objective. It gives students a reason to step into it.
✨Student voice can strengthen the curriculum
The survey also asks about belonging, social issues, and students’ experiences at school. Those answers help me understand what students notice, what they care about, and what kinds of conversations may require more trust or preparation.
I may learn that students are especially interested in:
- Environmental issues
- Immigration
- Language discrimination
- Identity
- Racial representation
- Gender
- Disability rights
- Access to education
This does not mean I discard my curriculum and let students choose every topic. Student voice is not the same as student control over every instructional decision.
It means their perspectives and experiences are not invisible.
When possible, I can select readings, examples, music, projects, and discussions that connect course goals to issues students find meaningful. That makes the curriculum more relevant without making it less rigorous.
✨A survey can support UDL-informed planning
A student survey is not automatically an example of Universal Design for Learning simply because students complete it.
The UDL opportunity comes from what the teacher does with the information afterward.
UDL asks educators to anticipate learner variability instead of waiting until students struggle and then trying to retrofit the lesson. A survey can help us notice patterns related to:
- Engagement
- Confidence
- Background knowledge
- Communication
- Focus
- Technology
- Participation
- Feedback
- Perceived barriers
Suppose several students say that whole-class speaking makes them anxious. That does not mean they should never speak. It may mean I begin with private writing, partner rehearsal, small-group discussion, or recorded responses before expecting public presentation.
Suppose many students say that visuals and examples help them understand unfamiliar information. I might build in maps, images, captions, short video clips, and model responses alongside text.
Suppose students enter the course with very different levels of Spanish. I may provide vocabulary support, optional extensions, audio, sentence frames, or several ways to demonstrate the same learning goal.
The point is not to create a separate lesson for every student. The point is to design enough flexibility that more students can access the learning from the beginning.
✨Preferences should inform us, not confine students
I ask students how they like to learn, but I treat those answers carefully.
A student may say they enjoy:
- Visuals
- Movement
- Music
- Discussion
- Independent work
- Reading and writing
- Partner or group interaction
Those responses are useful, but they do not box in my kiddos.
I do not label a student as a fixed “visual learner” and decide that they can only learn through images. Instead, I treat preferences as clues. They may help me understand what supports engagement, what increases confidence, and which forms of participation students find familiar.
Then I can design lessons that include several pathways:
- Text and audio
- Images and maps
- Individual reflection and partner discussion
- Speaking and writing
- Movement and stationary work
- Print and digital options
- Structured support and open-ended extension
Students should have opportunities to grow beyond their preferences, but they should not have to overcome unnecessary barriers before they can engage with the content.
✨Think about the curb-cut effect
The curb-cut effect offers a helpful way to understand this kind of design.
Curb cuts were created to improve access for wheelchair users. They also help people pushing strollers, pulling luggage, riding bicycles, making deliveries, or moving carts.
A feature designed to remove one barrier ends up helping many people.
Classroom supports often work the same way.
Captions may be essential for one student and helpful for many others. Clear directions may support a student with an identified disability while also helping students who are tired, anxious, multilingual, distracted, or unfamiliar with the task. Choice in how students respond may remove a barrier for one learner while increasing creativity and ownership for the entire class.
When we provide these supports, we are not lowering expectations. We are reducing obstacles that are not central to the learning goal.
✨Culture itself can become an access point
Culture is often treated as something we add after the “real” language instruction is complete.
I see it differently.
Culture can make learning more accessible because it gives language a context and a purpose.
Cultural content can help students:
- Connect new learning to prior knowledge
- Examine their own perspectives
- Encounter unfamiliar experiences
- Challenge stereotypes
- Develop curiosity
- Recognize similarities and differences without reducing people to simplistic categories
A culturally connected lesson can increase relevance, engagement, empathy, and belonging.
That does not happen automatically. It depends on how thoughtfully the content is selected, represented, and discussed.
But when culture is embedded intentionally, it becomes more than an extra activity. It becomes part of how students access the learning.
✨The most important step comes after the survey
Collecting student responses is the easy part.
Using them is where the real work begins.
I do not expect myself to analyze every answer like a formal research study. I start by looking for patterns.
👩🏽‍🏫 I look for cultural and linguistic patterns
- Which languages are represented?
- Which communities, countries, traditions, or identities appear?
- Are there cultural connections I may not have anticipated?
👩🏽‍🏫 I look for interests
- What music, games, topics, careers, and social issues come up repeatedly?
- Where might those interests connect naturally to the curriculum?
👩🏽‍🏫 I look for possible barriers
- What makes students nervous?
- What concerns do they have about the course?
- What helps them focus or participate?
👩🏽‍🏫 I look for instructional clues
- Do students want more opportunities to collaborate?
- Do they value private thinking time?
- Do they need more visual context, predictable structure, language support, or flexible ways to respond?
Then I choose a few realistic instructional changes.
I may decide to:
- Add captions consistently
- Include both print and digital options
- Give students time to write before discussing
- Build one requested cultural topic into an upcoming unit
- Offer a choice between two response formats
- Select examples that reflect more of the communities represented in the room
- Add maps, visuals, vocabulary support, or sentence frames
- Provide an independent option before whole-group participation
A few purposeful changes are more useful than collecting a mountain of data and doing nothing with it.
✨Revisit the responses throughout the year
The survey should not disappear after the first week of school.
I return to it when I plan cultural units, select music, organize projects, and prepare discussions.
Students also change. Their confidence grows. Their interests shift. Their understanding of culture becomes more complex.
That is why I may check in again through:
- Short reflections
- Polls
- Class conversations
- Exit tickets
- Updated survey questions
- Informal conferences
The beginning-of-the-year survey starts the relationship. It does not complete it.
✨A practical starting point for your classroom
Before planning your first major culture lesson, write down three things you genuinely need to know about your students.
Go beyond favorite colors and pets.
Ask yourself:
- What cultural, linguistic, or community knowledge might students already bring?
- What interests or concerns could provide meaningful entry points?
- What barriers might affect how students access or communicate the learning?
Then design your survey questions around information you will actually use.
You need purposeful questions. A short, thoughtful survey is better than a long survey you never revisit.
✨Make your own survey or snag mine!
Use my questions above to make your classroom surveys OR grab my already made for you survey, which will seamlessly allow you to listen to your students and give you information about their identity, language, culture, interests, confidence, and learning needs.
📽️ See my YouTube video that I uploaded about this resource!
✨The real lesson
My number one strategy for bringing culture into Spanish class is not about finding the perfect cultural resource.
It is about recognizing that students are already cultural beings.
They enter our classrooms with knowledge, stories, identities, questions, and perspectives that matter.
Before I teach them about the world, I want to understand something about the worlds they already know.
That understanding helps me make stronger decisions about:
- Relevance
- Representation
- Access
- Participation
- Assessment
It helps me create a classroom where students do not simply learn about culture.
They recognize that culture is something they already live.
And that is where meaningful cultural learning can begin. ❤️
