Jump into Hispanic Heritage with This 1 Week Unit

Have you wanted to talk about important issues during Hispanic Heritage Month in your high school Spanish class but aren’t sure where to begin? Or maybe you’re just looking for fresh Hispanic Heritage Month activities to celebrate a Hispanic heritage week of lessons? Does September 15th sneak up on you and you feel like Hispanic Heritage Month lessons get crunched during the month-long celebration? With a million topics to choose from in the Hispanic culture AND all of the amazing Latinos, how can I choose just one Hispanic person to highlight? Let me take the guesswork out for you for this year’s National Hispanic Heritage Month! Read on in this blog post to find out which 2 famous Hispanic people I love to highlight and how to make it into a complete 1-week bundle for Hispanic Heritage Month with detailed lesson plans for each day.

Day 1- Essential Vocabulary

Using pre-reading activities ensures that your Spanish students will acquire enough key vocabulary to comprehend the activities. I give them the essential vocabulary with a matching worksheet that they can work on in small groups or as independent work. Then, we make predictions describing what we see in pictures that relate to the unit. So before we even begin talking about Chávez, Huerta, or La cosecha, my students already have a picture in mind of the main themes impacting migrant workers in Latino communities. These activities help them to build the key Spanish words they will need to express their thoughts and opinions on the amazing work of these two Latino Americans!

Day 2- César Chávez

I kick off our discussion about César Chávez with this attention-grabbing trailer from the movie Chávez. My students are fascinated and ready for more! Then, we read this comprehensible letter written from Chávez’s perspective about his life and work with the National Farm Workers Association. They get a ton of background information on his life and work in the United States. Finally, my students answer comprehension questions.

Day 3- Dolores Huerta

Now that my students are geared up and interested in the topic of justice for farm workers, I introduce them to Dolores Huerta with this letter and comprehension activities. She had a pivotal role in the NFWA and made significant contributions to the work of Cesar Chavez and the greater Hispanic community. So this is a great time to highlight a strong female Latina in your Spanish class! These classroom activities build literacy while providing historical context to Huerta’s journey.

Days 4-6- Documentary La cosecha – Modern day challenges with migrant farm workers

Finally, we end the unit by making connections to modern-day farm workers with the powerful documentary La cosecha. I use this movie guide to introduce key vocabulary, check for understanding, and for speaking and writing assessments. In the documentary, kids tell their tales about moving cross country as they follow the harvests. My students empathize with the struggles of changing schools so often in combination with the difficult work. We finish the unit with either a speaking or writing assessment. These additional resources about modern-day challenges for migrant workers bring the work of Chavez and Huerta into perspective.

I love the beautiful diversity within the Latino cultures and the influence of Hispanic Americans in both our past and present is undeniable. So it makes it hard to pick which Latin Americans to focus on during Hispanic Heritage Month! But this is the perfect time to teach your students about Chávez and Huerta, two of the most famous figures in American Latino history, AND also challenge your students to think about how the topics they fought for are still relevant today! Check out this 1-week curriculum bundle for Hispanic Heritage Month. Your Spanish students will be engaged and ready to learn more about migrant farm workers and their rights. This is a powerful way of teaching them Spanish and also encouraging global citizenship. Love these ideas? Share them with your fellow Spanish teachers!