Students walking into Spanish teacher Stephanie Marks’ class are met with posters of Spanish culture from all around the world. Those taking her Spanish 3 or Spanish 4 Honors class not only learn about the reading and conversational pieces of Spanish, but also current events that affect Spanish-speaking countries around the globe, such as tariffs or deportations, through lessons and videos from news sites like ABC and YouTube.
Marks believes that to learn Spanish, students must gain an understanding of the cultures of different Spanish speaking countries. A few years ago, Marks began covering current events after she realized how important it was for students to learn what was going on in countries like Mexico and El Salvador.
“It’s important to relate the subject students are learning to their real lives. A connection like that helps students learn better and makes it more interesting for them,” Marks said.
For students in Marks’ class, lessons on current events step out of the norm. As opposed to a regular note-taking class with lectures, students are treated to interactive activities, involving their fellow classmates and the events they are learning about.
“I think that Mrs. Marks teaches us current events to keep us informed about what’s going on in the world, and it definitely gives us a better understanding of the culture and why we’re learning what we’re learning,” junior Lily Jiang, a student in Marks’ Spanish 3 class, said.
In Marks’ Spanish 4 Honors class, she taught multiple lessons on how Trump’s presidency, especially his immigration and deportation policies, is playing out in Spanish-speaking countries. She often puts a list of keywords on the projector and sends students on a webquest to read more about what’s happening.
“Her teaching updates us on how tariffs and deportation affects Spanish speaking countries around the world. It’s nice that she connects the class to relevant things in the world,” junior Elli Kline said.
Marks’ ways of teaching provides students with not only a new way of learning, but new things to learn. From Trump’s new Gulf of America designation in place of the traditional Gulf of Mexico to history about the Panama Canal, the wide variety of material allows students to learn the language through many different avenues.
But beyond helping her students learn the language more easily, Marks hopes that her current events lessons inspire students to make a change somewhere in the world.
“I hope that teaching about these events will ignite something in students to maybe go volunteer or study abroad, using their Spanish and helping in some situation that Spanish speakers are in,” Marks said.
