Calico Spanish Curriculum is a robust elementary Spanish program containing over 365 lesson plans ranging from the pre-novice low proficiency level up to the novice high proficiency level. With so many lessons to teach and choose from, we find that the most popular question asked is “How will I make it through a level a year if I only teach one day a week?”

The answer isn’t cut and dry but we will do our best to give you some options in this blog post.

Often times we find that elementary Spanish programs have goals for learners that may be a little too advanced for learners who are only meeting once a week with their Spanish teacher. If you are only meeting once a week for 25 minutes, you may need to consider what you really want learners to accomplish in one year. Here is a hint: if it involves identifying the gender of a noun, it is probably too advanced for the reality of your situation.

For a once-a-week Spanish program, we recommend that you keep your class full of movement and communicative activities that are input-rich. We want learners to have as much comprehensible input in their 25 minutes of Spanish a week that they can get. The more input they have, the better!

For learners who are able to read and write on their own, we recommend giving the activity sheets in the program as an optional practice activity for learners to do at home with their families. We also recommend that you share our Games & Videos page with families so learners can interact with the language at home.

Teaching Spanish to Preliterate Learners

Here is what our CEO, Erica Fischer, has found beneficial with her pre-literate learners.

“I have to do some adapting of the program in particular because my little learners are preliterate, so we have been moving through the program at about 3 weeks per Unit, doing about 3 lesson plans per meeting.  This means that we’ll nearly finish Level A in this school year.  With your learners, though, depending on what they are able to accomplish at home, you may well move faster than that.  This also depends on what they already know, and will change if they move to Level B, where the lesson plans require a little more time.

It will probably be helpful to explain a little more about what I mean with “3 lesson plans per meeting.”  If you look at the lesson plans, you’ll see that children are asked to watch the Video Story in each lesson, sometimes twice, or once plus one viewing of the Dialogue Video.  So when I say we move through 3 lesson plans, I don’t mean that we follow the plans exactly and end up watching the Video Story five times.  Rather, I look at the content for three days and streamline it into the one time that I have. “

Condensing Lessons

Here at Calico Spanish, we are realistic about the realities of teaching in the 21st century. We know that there just isn’t enough time to do it all. If you find yourself teaching elementary Spanish just one day a week to a class, we recommend that you condense the Calico Spanish Curriculum to include 2-3 days of lessons into one. Like our CEO mentioned above, we don’t mean that you watch the Video Story as many times as it appears over the course of 3 lessons. What we mean is that you identify the unique activities that appear over 3 days, consider what the Can-Do statements are for those lessons, and the goals of your program.

Be Purposeful in Planning for Elementary Spanish

Our curriculum director, Haylee Ziegler, has a few more ideas to share and things to consider when planning your lessons.

1. Consider the age of your learners and how long it takes you do get through the core components of the curriculum.
2. Keep your end goal in mind! Be sure to consider the daily Can-Do Statements in the program as you are crafting your lessons.
3. Consider when and how you want to assess your learners.
4. Always start with input.
5. Always include movement and a genuine conversation.
6. Going slow is always better than going too fast.

Here is what that can look like for a 25 minute class session with elementary Spanish learners who meet once a week.

1. Start with a song. (2 min)
2. Review unit vocabulary (2 min)
3. Watch the video story (4 min)
4. Practice the unit dialogue (5 min)
5. Play a game or do a whole class activity (5 min)
6. Watch the video story (4 min)
7. End with a song (2 min)

Need more support? We offer professional development on this topic specifically! Reach out to support@calicospanish.com for more information regarding our personalized training sessions.