Author: ProfeJDK

La Oreja de Van Gogh has been making pop-rock hits in Spain since 1996. This video is a bit vintage, but I think it holds up pretty well. The story behind the music and video is really interesting, and I encourage you to familiarize yourself before presenting it.

In 2004, a terrorist attack in a Spanish train station caused the death of more than 190 people. It’s commonly known in Spain as 11-M. As you might suspect, it was a Thursday. The song JUEVES tells the fictional story of a young woman riding on a train, trying to catch the romantic attention of another rider whom she sees daily on her commute. The budding love story is interrupted by the attack. (To be clear, both the song and the video are free of gore). The video shows clips of survivors of the attack and their family members, and the proceeds of the song benefitted the 11-M survivors fund.

There are many possible teaching angles here. There are many present tense verbs, descriptive adjectives, and parts of the body mentioned. Any of these would be appropriate for Spanish 1. I couldn’t resist the historical angle, so I made my Bellringer for a late Spanish 1 or Spanish 2 audience, with a little basic background information and a focus on global listening comprehension. Find my Bellringer here.

Trepando Paredes is pure pop and will be stuck in your head the rest of the day. You’re welcome! These artists, Diego Torres and Miranda! are all Argentinian, and there is a little taste of the Argentinian “vos” in here that I like to point out to students. Most of the song is in the present tense, and there is a good mix of regular and irregular verbs. It’s also clearly sung and relatively slow, so a great song for Spanish 1.

The video is pretty clean but does contain a few shots of Diego Torres in very silly, Bugs Bunny-type drag, so be aware of that if you have a particularly conservative student population. Here’s my Spanish 1 Bellringer. Give it a try!

#Spanish1 #Present #Verbs #Vos

I know you’re tired of teaching the subjunctive with that Juanes song. Or you’ve already rolled it out and you’ve still got two more weeks in the unit. What now?? I’ve got you.

Funambulista and La La Love You are two Spanish rock groups who have teamed up for this catchy tune. Don’t skip the video! It’s cool, and there’s a little surprise ending. It’s full of present subjunctive and a few interesting Spanish expressions, which I also highlight in my Bellringer. It focuses on subjunctive conjugation. I would use this in Spanish 3.

#Spanish3 #Spanish4 #subjunctive

Bambiel is a Salvadoran Youtuber, rapper and Anime artist. Apryl Ardans, the female vocalist on this track, is from Argentina. This is a song about coming out of an emotional funk. I think the anime-styled video will appeal to a lot of students. It has quite a few indicative present, future verbs, “tú” commands, and infinitives. I decided to focus my Bellringer on the “tú” commands in first rap verse. It goes fast, so I made a word bank. They are all regular, affirmative commands so this is an easy activity for Spanish 1 or a review for Spanish 2. Instructions are in English. Find it here.

Teaching note: I’ve had a lot of students with mental health struggles. While I think this is an appropriate song for a middle school or high school classroom, I would probably skip it if I knew of any students suffering from an acute depressive episode because I think it might be a bit on-the-nose for them. I tried to tread carefully in the worksheet so as to not wade too deeply into social-emotional themes, but of course there is a lot to dig into here if it fits with your curriculum and comfort level.

#Spanish1 #Spanish 2 #commands

Ramito de violetas- Miguelichi López is a Spanish “cantautor” (singer- songwriter). This is a recent cover of an older song. Ramito de violetas was originally written by Spanish songwriter Cecilia in the 1970’s. It has been covered many times, famously in Mexico in “banda” style by “Mi Banda El Mexicano”. 

In this song, a married woman receives flowers and a card from a “secret admirer”, and wonders who it might be. (Spoiler: it’s her husband!) I think it’s such a good song for listening comprehension because it is so well written. We want our students to get grammatical concepts and vocabulary but also to be able to understand a cohesive narrative such as this one.

I’d use this in Spanish 3, Spanish 4 and up. My Bellringer focuses on listening comprehension with some future speculation highlighted.

Macaco is a Spanish singer who’s been around forever, and he is joined by several other Spanish artists, many of them flamenco musicians. In the background, you can hear the “palmadas” and “quejíos” (cries) typical of flamenco music.

This is an easy-peasy song for Spanish 1. It has several examples of the “nosotros” form in the present tense, which is one of the harder forms to find in authentic materials! It has a fun modern video and a catchy beat. Find my super-easy, super-affordable Bellringer worksheet here.

#Spanish1 #nosotros #present

Ojos color sol is a gem of an international collaboration between Puerto Rican rap group Calle 13 and Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez, with Mexican actor Gael García Bernal acting in the video. Preview alert: the video, though not inappropriate for school, features many long close-ups of the two actors kissing. I would probably avoid the video in a middle school class or anywhere you might get immature reactions. 

This song has a ton of references to nature, animals, and celestial bodies (sun, moon, constellations). I created a Bellringer worksheet for Spanish 1 using some easily “gettable” vocabulary. Find it at my store for the price of a Snickers!

#Spanish1 #animals #nature

This is a fun but challenging song! L-Kan is an electropop group from Spain. Their lyrics are often humorous and off-beat. This is literally a song about bread! Many Spaniards eat bread with every meal, so this would be a great intro to a cultural lesson on Spanish cuisine.

The vocabulary is surprisingly difficult, so I created a pre-reading section of my Bellringer with glossary and cognate recognition section. I would use this song in Spanish 3 or 4, or even AP. It could be a great introduction to a cultural reading/ audio lesson like one based on this resource: https://www.cope.es/programas/la-tarde/noticias/olvidada-costumbre-espanola-hora-cortar-pan-las-comidas-acuerdo-cuando-era-pequeno-20221028_2369858

Here’s my cheap Bellringer. I hope you like it!

#Spanish3 #Spanish4 #APSpanish #Food #Spain #Culture

This is a very fun song about love on Twitter from Venezuelan salsa musician Oscar D’León. It’s pretty accessible even to lower levels of Spanish due to the high number of cognates (including “plisss”). It gives some great examples of commands vs indicatives with pronoun placements “sígueme, que yo te sigo”, but could also be used with a technology-based chapter with focus on vocabulary.

I went the grammar route with my worksheet, with emphasis on commands and pronoun placement. It’s cheap and available at my store!

#Spanish2 #pronouns #commands #socialmedia #twitter #technology

This song is just full of pronouns! It would be a great teaching tool for Spanish 3 or any class in the thick of the direct, indirect and reflexive object pronouns.

An important note- This video is a little bit spicy. There is a woman in lingerie and Enrique Iglesias is being shot at from a helicopter for some reason. I always encourage teachers to preview any video before showing it, as you may find it inappropriate for your particular class. The lyrics themselves are pretty tame, so you can always do audio-only for this.

You can focus on one type of pronoun here but I made a worksheet for you with all three. It’s free at my store.