From “Deer-in-the-Headlights” to Confident Speakers in Middle School Spanish

Today, I’m excited to introduce you to someone who has been answering that question for over 34 years. Meet Marilyn Pichardo from New Jersey, the creative mind behind Perfect Spanish Plans by Marilyn. She teaches grades 6–8 and brings a huge amount of experience, creativity, and practical wisdom to the classroom.

Let’s dive into her story and her classroom strategies for engaging Spanish activities for middle school that get students speaking, moving, and genuinely using the language.

From a Spanish Teacher Shortage to a 34-Year Passion

Every teacher has a moment that brings them into the profession, and for Marilyn, it came right after college during a time when there was a real shortage of world language teachers in her area.

With a deep connection to her heritage and a passion for language, she decided to step into the classroom. What started as an opportunity quickly became a lifelong career in teaching Spanish to middle school students.

Decades later, she’s still doing what she loves most—teaching Spanish and creating Spanish teaching resources for the next generation.

And her passion doesn’t stop at her own classroom. Marilyn is just as committed to supporting other teachers. Marilyn retired in June 2026 but says is she still very involved in education—mentoring teachers and creating Spanish teacher resources to help others bring language learning to life.

The Secret to Game-Based Spanish Learning

When it comes to introducing new grammar or vocabulary, many teachers reach for slides or worksheets. Marilyn takes a different approach: Spanish classroom games.

She often introduces new content through games—even when students are completely new to the material.

As she explains:

And she’s right. Something shifts when students are learning through game-based learning in Spanish class. The pressure of “getting it wrong” disappears, and engagement takes over.

If you're looking for some high energy games your students will love, read all about setting up high school Spanish trashketball for a fun classroom review day!

Marilyn's Go-To Middle School Spanish Games: Why She Loves Gimkit

If Marilyn had to choose one tool for interactive Spanish review games, it would be Gimkit.

It’s a simple but powerful tool that turns vocabulary practice into Spanish digital games for classroom learning.

Students join with a code, answer questions at their own pace, and earn in-game currency for correct answers. They can then buy upgrades and power-ups that keep them engaged.

What makes it so effective is the independence it gives students. Everyone is doing Spanish vocabulary practice activities, but at their own speed—fully engaged the entire time.

It’s one of the best examples of gamified Spanish learning tools for middle school.

The 15-Minute Spanish Lesson Plan: Quick TPRS Storytelling Ideas in a Pinch

Between morning duty, endless staff emails, and unexpected chats (let's call them meetings), school life and teaching admin have a way of completely eating up your planning time. When you find yourself with exactly fifteen minutes before the bell rings and zero time to print worksheets or build a slide deck, Marilyn’s emergency go-to is a Total Physical Response Storytelling activity.

The beauty of Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS) is that it requires very little prep but delivers high engagement.

Here’s how she builds a quick TPRS Spanish lesson plan:

• Choose one main structure. Pick a single target phrase (like tiene que, quiere, hay, or va a) and build a simple story around it.
• Select three key vocabulary words. Keep them visible for repetition—essential for Spanish language acquisition through storytelling.
• Add simple gestures. Pair language with movement for comprehensible input strategies in Spanish class.

When the story begins, tell it slowly and bring a few student volunteers to the front to act it out while you guide the action. Keep asking simple, repeated (circling) questions to build understanding and engagement.

Because students helped create the details and gestures, they’re instantly invested in what happens next. The rest of the class will naturally join in with gestures, one-word responses, or short phrases.

The goal isn’t rigid planning—it’s a flexible story structure you can easily adapt and play with as the lesson unfolds.

Setting Up a Classroom for Active Spanish Class Conversation

We’ve all walked into classrooms that look beautiful but feel more like a museum than a space for learning. Everything might be neatly arranged, but it’s not always set up for real interaction.

Marilyn’s advice is simple: if you want students to speak Spanish, your classroom needs to support conversation—not just decoration.

That means making sure the language is visible, useful, and easy to access at the exact moment students need it. If you want to go deeper into this idea, you can also check out my post on functional Spanish classroom decor, where I give you some examples of Spanish word walls and posters you can use to promote communication.

Alongside your usual Spanish classroom supplies, students should feel like the language is alive on the walls every day. Marilyn recommends focusing on a few key Spanish classroom setup strategies:

• Clear word walls and verb charts that students can actually use mid-sentence
• Sentence starters and question prompts placed where students naturally look
• Desk arrangements that make it easy to switch into partner work quickly

As she puts it:

"Language grows through use, not just exposure."

And that doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from designing a space where students can look up, find the phrase they need, and immediately use it to keep a conversation going with a classmate or ask you a question.

Getting Students Talking with Spanish Chat Mats

If you haven’t used them before, Spanish chat mats are simple, structured one-page conversation guides that give students an instant visual roadmap for speaking. They bring together high-frequency vocabulary, useful sentence starters, and clear visual support all in one place—so students always have something to lean on when forming sentences.

Instead of freezing up with that “deer-in-the-headlights” look when it’s time to speak, students can simply glance down at their Spanish graphic organizer and find exactly what they need to keep the conversation going.

What makes chat mats especially powerful is how flexible they are in the classroom.

You can laminate them and keep them in desk groups for daily partner speaking, or use them as scaffolding during writing tasks and structured conversations. Because everything is organised on a single page, they also dramatically reduce those constant “Teacher, how do you say…?” interruptions.

It’s one of those tools that naturally supports the kind of conversational Spanish classroom structure Marilyn swears by—helping students build confidence from day one without feeling overwhelmed.

To make it even easier to try this out, Marilyn also has a beginner-friendly freebie you can print and use right away, without adding anything extra to your planning load.

Once students get a taste of how easy it is to speak using a visual guide, it’s hard not to want to keep that momentum going all year long.

If you’d like to use this approach across different units but don’t have the time to create everything from scratch, Marilyn has put together a complete Novice Level Chat Mats bundle designed to drop straight into your lesson plans.

It’s an easy way to keep that same level of structure and confidence going, while saving you time on prep and giving students consistent support for speaking Spanish across the year.

Behind the Lesson Plan: Rapid-Fire with Marilyn

Marilyn is full of practical, classroom-tested ideas, and you can explore more of her thoughtfully designed Spanish teaching resources over on her Teachers Pay Teachers store: Perfect Spanish Plans by Marilyn.

Before we wrap this up, I asked her a few quick-fire questions to get a glimpse into her personality and learn a little bit more about her teaching style. Here are her answers:

• Tacos or Paella? Paella, all the way!
• Brain Break or Power Through? Brain break! It's her ultimate lifesaver to reset classroom energy.
• Your Go-To for Real-Life Spanish: Music and songs (no videos needed!).
• Where You Get New Teaching Ideas: Tuning into educational podcasts.
• Winter in Argentina or Summer in Spain: Summer in Spain.

Fueling The Middle School Spanish Energy

Middle school Spanish classrooms move quickly. One minute students are fully engaged in a game or activity, and the next their attention shifts somewhere else. That’s why having the right kinds of activities and supports in place matters so much.

As Marilyn shows throughout her classroom approach, tools like Spanish classroom games, TPRS storytelling, and chat mats help keep students anchored in the language while still giving them room to move, talk, and interact. They take the pressure off constant explanation and give students something concrete to lean on while they practise speaking Spanish.

Students stay more engaged when lessons are built around a few familiar, interactive strategies that keep them using the language in real time.

A big thank you to Marilyn Pichardo for sharing her real-world strategies and reminding us that with the right support, our students can achieve amazing things.

Want More Ready To Print Spanish Activities?

If you need ready-to-go activities that keep both middle and high school students engaged, head over to my store Spanish Worksheets and More to grab some fun Spanish games and activities to complement your teaching.