This year, I’m at a new school where I have lots of amazing freedom to teach with a CI, TPRS, ADI approach. I love the trust that they have given me, as well as my fellow colleague who has taught me a lot already about how to build classroom community while using SOMOS. Teaching-wise, it’s been a great year already.

I’m also teaching four different levels (2 through AP) this year, the most I’ve ever taught. Managing that has become a whole thing, a whole system for me which I try to improve every day. I’m surprising myself at how organized I have been, but it is only October. Talk me again in March.

I had planned to teach SOMOS 2 my Spanish 3s this semester, but they are proving to be my trickiest level to figure out. If you’ve started at a new school in recent years, you know that curriculum, proficiency levels, etc can vary widely from school to school. Each level (meaning Spanish 1, 2, 3…) at each school seems to face different challenges.

This year, my 3s don’t seem to be all that into SOMOS 2. Or maybe it’s me? We seem to have grown out of it, either way. So, I’m exploring some new avenues. Here is my plan for the next month:

1. Teach a 4 day unit (it’s really 3 days for me, I have one block day in here) on el Chupacabra, including an elimination/mafia style game. (see below!)
2. Teach a week with Sr. Wooly’s Encerrada en la escuela to shake things up. Every time I bring up that Spanish 2 is doing something with Sr. Wooly, my 3s seem to perk up. So, we’ll try that out.
3. Read together Alma de lobo by Verónica Moscoso. This will take us through the end of November-ish.
   • This is my first time teaching this novel and there’s no teacher’s guide, as far as I can see. I’ll likely be posting on this book if I have time, so stay tuned.
   • If you’ve ever taught this novel and are willing to share some resources, please let me know!
   • My plan is to push students to think about how connected or disconnected we are from nature–could we survive now in nature? I’d also like to show at least a part of the Lost Children/Los niños perdidos as an extension of this idea. We’ll see if I have time.

El Chupacabra Elimination (aka Mafia) Game

Anyways, here’s my plan for the Chupacabra mini unit.

1. Day 1: Read this fabricated news story. Feel free to use the template and change/modify to your needs. ChatGPT helped me since I couldn’t find anything for free/that I liked on TPT. I also wanted specific reps of vi que había, se acercó, me di cuenta de que era, llevó (We have gotten through SOMOS 2, units 1-3, so this is based on almost all of those target structures). None of these structures are NEW to my students, so I’m not doing any front loading.
2. Day 2-3 (mine is a block day):
   • Play Elimination “el Chupacabra” style. For complete instructions on how to generally play, see Martina Bex’s explanation here. The set up for this context is the following (for a class of 21):
     • 3 Chupacabras (I’m announcing to the class people in our “pueblo” now think there are several chupacabras) – they “chupa la sangre” from an unsuspecting goat ¡pobrecito!
     • 3 veterinarios (Humans, those who can save las cabras) – they can save the victim goat
     • 3 Testigos (Humans, those who witnessed, or think they did, a chupacabra attack) – they can identify the chupacabra (meaning I nod yes or no to them if they have guessed correctly)
     • The rest: cabras (lol)
   • In the case that the chupacabras “choose” a vetinario o testigo to attack, I will utilize that in my story… the Chupacabra is now attacking humans! You decide if you want to reveal that the person is “human or cabra”
   • After the “cabras”/town wakes up, I’ll tell the story of what happened using as many reps as possible of all of our target structures listed in Day 1 from our text.
   • My only negative of this game is for the few kids who are eliminated right away. They’re out and then the interaction is obviously limited. Last time I did this I had some sort of listening comprehension activity for them to do during the game… I still need to work on that. I know it will be something to do with listening to the witness statements I am giving during the game. Maybe draw it out?
3. Day 4: Instagram post assessment. Feel free to modify as needed. Students will use target structures to tell the imagined story when they “witnessed” the Chupacabra. The elimination game the day before will get TONS of reps in for “Vi” “Me di cuenta de que…” etc as I’ll be telling the stories of all of the witnesses as we play.

Why play Elimination?

It’s often my students’ highlight of the year whenever we play! Students simply love it and they absolutely forget that they are in Spanish class… it’s one of my favorite ways to give them input because they don’t even realize how much they are acquiring.

In the past, they have loved it so much that it inspired me to find a way to get it into my Spanish 3 class now. I originally have played it through Carrie Toth’s Huellas curriculum. I believe it’s in the Medicina o Cura unit, which we will do later this year in Spanish 3… but I just couldn’t wait. This way, when we get to the Huellas unit in Semester 2, they will already know how to play!

Have you taught el Chupacabra this way? Got another idea/theme to try for Elimination? I’m all ears. Comment below and let me know!