Los Pronombres Inclusivos

Camila Evans, Afrolatinizamos Cohort 2023

Audience: High school Spanish 1 students grades 9-11

Pedagogical Goals: One of the main goals of this lesson is that students can differentiate between first, second and third person pronouns. Students must understand how to use pronouns because they guide reading conjugation charts, which is a tool for communicating more effectively. 

From a cultural perspective, including el voseo (which is primarily known to be used in Argentina, however, it used in parts of Colombia and Central America as well in place of tú, or in some situations in addition to tú and usted) is more inclusive. I also include vosotros (which many teachers choose not to include in their curriculums because it is “only used in Spain”) because it is also used in Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish speaking country in Africa, and the commonly forgotten Spanish speaking country. 

It is also a goal for students to understand the culture of informality and formality and what pronouns to use depending on your audience.

Moreover, with this lesson on pronouns,  students can reinforce their knowledge of feminine, masculine and gender neutral words in the Spanish language. With such, the ultimate, perhaps most important, goal is to visibilize and normalize gender neutral pronouns by incorporating them in lesson plans across the board, not just on a lesson plan in regards to subject pronouns. 

In this unit, you could do reading comprehension activities in 3rd person about different Afro Latinos and using él, ella or elle to purposely show the diversity of gender and so the students can see how subject pronouns are used. Among the people you expose them to can include a diversity of AfroLatines; they do not all have to identify as using they/them pronoun, they could be a part of the Afro Latino LGBT community or not.  For example, Dr. Alan Pelaez, Ariana Brown, Tyaela Nieves, Graciela Cain, Laith Ashley, and Tessa Thompson. 

Learning Targets: 

1. Students will be able to identify their pronouns in Spanish.

2. Students will be able to replace the subject of a sentence with a subject pronoun.

3. Students will be able to compare and contrast subject pronouns in English and Spanish.

Essential questions: 

• What is a subject pronoun? 

• What do pronouns do? 

• What is gender? 

• What is non-binary?

• What are your pronouns? 

Cuáles son tus pronombres? Responde en español e inglés 

(if you have students respond in a microsoft form, you then have an easy spreadsheet) 

I DO

Review subject pronouns in English.

Introduce subject pronouns in Spanish. Use gestures to refer to 1st, 2nd and 3rd person so the students can follow the direction of perspectives. 

Discuss for 3rd person pronouns, they are gendered, so we have to ask people what their pronouns are. We should not assume. 

In English, some examples of giving pronouns are she/her/hers or she/her/they/them, some people have more than one set of pronouns they identify with. In Spanish, someone could identify with elle, or él/elle. 

Highlight that it is only the subject pronouns that are given as the subject pronouns for él, ella and elle are the same (su, sus).

WE DO

Look at pictures with real people and sentences with the subject underlined. Students write on their dry erase boards the sentence with the subject pronoun. 

For Afrolatine gender inclusive representation, consider: Anguesomo, Ariana Brown, and Dr. Alan Pelaez (instead of assuming based on “traditionally feminine or masculine” names). For additional Black queer and trans writers of Latin American descent, check out When Language Broke Open.  

** Dr. Alan Pelaez has gender inclusive language in their “about me” page such as doctore, une, les, indocumentades, organizadore comunitarie.

You Do:

I. Define first, second and third person.

II. Match Spanish to English pronouns.

1. Elle                         a. I

2. Él                            b. Y’all (in Spain)

3. Ella                         c. You (informal)

4. Yo                           d. They (gender neutral)

5. Vos                         e. She

6. Ustedes                  f.  He

7. Vosotres                 g. You all

III. Identify the pronoun to use for each situation

8. You are talking to a friend from Uruguay: ___vos__________

9. You are talking about your non-binary friend who does not feel comfortable with the pronouns él or ella: _____elle________

10. You are talking to [some person of authority at the school] usted

11. You are talking about yourself ____yo______

12. You are talking about yourself and a non-binary friend ___nosotres___________

13. You are talking about Juan _______(depends on they identify!)_____

14. Vos y vos ___________

IIII. Circle the subject of the sentence and then rewrite the sentence with the corresponding subject pronoun. (students will have already learned about feminine, masculine and gender neutral words when they did colors, etc.) 

15. Dr. Alan Peleaz López es une poeta. (Answer: Elle es une poeta.)

16. Angué es une chique de Guinea Ecuatorial. (Elle es une chique de Guinea Ecuatorial)

17. Mi familia y yo somos de Washington, DC. (Nosotros somos de Washington, DC)

18. Los estudiantes son muy inteligentes. (Ellos son muy inteligentes.)

19. Vos y tus amigos son graciosos. (Ustedes son graciosos)

20. Diomedis es dominicano. (Él es dominicano. ) 

**Teaching Notes**

Ultimately, this will be seen again when they do their 'Todo Sobre Mi' project 

For the assignments I generally do with pronouns, I’ve been finding I have to create my own resources for it to be both culturally inclusive (el voseo) and gender inclusive (elle). 

Other Resources:

School Provided Resources – Descubre 1 textbook (Vista Higher Learning), EntreCulturas 1 (Wayside Publishing), Lingco. All mention the typical subject pronouns, Lingco mentions vos more than the other two. Neither resource includes the gender inclusive & non-binary pronoun elle. 

What Are Your Pronouns (in Spanish)

Afrobrazilian speaking about pronouns in Portuguese (in English)

Anguesomo discussing their pronouns (in Spanish)