If you follow me on instagram (@Loca_Language_teacher), you know that for the first time ever, I participated in the Manía Musical de marzo music bracket. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! I’ve loved every second of it! Because of this, I’ve created a Latin Music Award Show project that you can use with your Spanish classes!
How the project came to life:
I teach 7th and 8th graders, therefore before beginning the music bracket for the first time, I reviewed each song to guarantee that each was appropriate. My students became fully invested and shared how much they listen to the songs outside of school. I mean….AMAZING!!! As the final rounds of the bracket were rapidly approaching, I didn’t want the music to simply….end. At this point, we’ve spent three weeks listening and voting on songs and I didn’t want it to all of a sudden be over. Therefore, I began brainstorming a project that would essentially “finalize” our music experience.
The idea came to me to host our very own Latin music award show!! I thought about how cool it would be to nominate the songs we’ve become to love to win different awards. I imagined students presenting the nominees and giving thank you speeches all in SPANISH! So…I began to WERK! To explain the project, I will break it down into what I (the teacher) did…and what the students did each day.
Day 1: NOMINATIONS
The teacher: I began by creating 7 awards for our show. Examples of awards are best love song…best music video…best collaboration…best male/female artist…etc. For me, it was easier to provide my students with the awards, however if you teach a higher level, students can definitely create the awards themselves.
The students: Students separated themselves into groups and were responsible for completing a “nomination sheet.” To do so, students used laptops to rewatch and listen to the 16 songs of the bracket and nominated three songs and/or artists for each award. Students then handed in the nomination sheet for me to review.
The teacher: When all the nomination sheets were collected, I reviewed them, tallied up nominations, and created the official 3 nominations for each award.
Day 2: ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES
The teacher: I displayed on the board all of the artists we have been listening to. Then, together as a class, groups were assigned specific artists to “represent” during the award show. For each artist they represented, they had to create an acceptance speech given that their artist won an award. If their artists wins an award, this is the speech they will say to accept the award. I provided sentence starters and ideas in English to provide guidance.
The students: Students were encouraged to use their knowledge of Spanish and wordreference.com to create an acceptance speech for each of their artists. Depending on class size, groups had 2 to 3 artists to represent.
Day 3: AWARD PRESENTATIONS
The teacher: I displayed on the board the awards that will be given out at the award show. We then determined which groups would present which award at the show.
The students: Once assigned an award to present, groups had to create a script which included announcing the nominees and winner.
Day 4: VOTING AND FINISHING TOUCHES
The teacher: Using the official nominees from day 1, I provided each student with a ballot to vote for which song and/or artist they wanted to win each award. I also provided students with index cards on which they would write their speeches and scripts.
The students: Each student was responsible for voting and handing in a ballot. Students also finalized their speeches and scripts and wrote them on index cards to use during the award show.
Day 5: PRACTICE!
The teacher and students: Together, we practiced and walked through the award show. Students presented the awards and walked through the steps.
Do you want to be extra like me?! Then you should do the following!
- Assign students to be hosts of the show!
- Book the auditorium or little theatre in your school to host the show.
- Create a slide show with the music videos of each song to play after each is announced as a nominee! (Like a real award show!)
- Put the winning songs/artists in a black envelope for your students to open to announce the winner.
- Buy little awards to hand out!
- Have your students use microphones!
- Invite other classes to come watch!
- Encourage students to dress up!
Has this project been a lot of work? YES!!! However, my students are so into it and I know it’s something fun that will be remembered for a long time!
Do you have any questions? Leave a comment to ask me!
Can you send me examples in Spanish of what your award show looks like? This is such a great activity