Teams:

Teams may consist of up to 6 students. All 6 students may participate in all events.

Students are allowed to "play up." For example, a Spanish 2 student may play for the Spanish 3 team. Students are not allowed to "play down." For example, a Spanish 3 student is not allowed to play on the Spanish 2 team.

Heritage Speakers:

In order to make the competition fair for schools that do not have heritage speakers, we wanted to establish some guidelines for the inclusion of heritage speakers in the competition.

Because the term “heritage speaker” can be used to describe students with a wide spectrum of language skills, heritage speakers are not necessarily banned from competition. Decisions will be left up to the individual teacher. Here are some guidelines to help teachers decide whether or not to include their heritage speakers on their team.

• The student must be legitimately enrolled in the Spanish class for the level that they are competing. No independent studies, classroom helper, etc.
• If the heritage speaker has a lot higher proficiency than their peers and most students at their level, we would ask the teacher to not include them on the team.
• If there is a tough situation and the teacher would still like to bring a high proficiency heritage speaker, they could be the 6th teammate and participate in the skit, but sit out on the trivia, music, and storytelling stations.

Stations/Activities:

• Activity 1 (20 pts.): Interpretive Reading (read short text, answer comprehension questions in English)

• Activity 2 (20 pts.): Readers Theater (prep beforehand)

• Activity 3 (20 pts.): Trivia Questions (culture, geography, current events)

• Activity 4 (20 pts.): Music (identify genres, cloze listening activity)

• Activity 5 (20 pts.): Storytelling: write a story related to the theme given by judge

Interpretive Reading

Each team will be given a level appropriate, short text in Spanish. As a group, they will read, interpret, and answer comprehension questions in English.

Readers Theater

Students will prepare a 3 minute Readers Theater. There is no required theme this year and it can be from the Spanish or English speaking world. Each team should prepare and practice a 3 minute Readers Theater before arriving. Each group should also bring 2 printed copies of the script to give to the judges. Props and costumes are not allowed. After much debate and asking for the opinions of the teachers and participants, we feel that this forces students to focus on the language. Students may pantomime items. If a team uses props, they will receive a 5 point penalty.

Trivia Station

Students will compete in a head to head quiz against other students of the same level. A powerpoint slide with a question in Spanish will be projected and read for 1 pt. each. It will be related to Cultura (La Comida, La Literatura, El Arte, Los Deportes, Las Celebraciones), Geografía (Banderas, Capitales, Moneda Nacional), Noticias, La Historia, La Gente (Hispanohablantes Famosos, Grupos Indígenas) and El Idioma. Students will collaborate and write their answer on a whiteboard.

Las Reglas:

1. Students will have 10 seconds to write a legible answer on their whiteboard.

2. Students may collaborate, but may wish to do so quietly to avoid giving the other team the answer.

3. When time is called, students must hold up whiteboards.

4. The reader will acknowledge which answers are correct.

5. Each team will be awarded 1 point for each correct answer. There will be no penalties for incorrect answers.

6. All decisions of the Reader are final.