Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Edpuzzle
Looking for the best videos to highlight Latino heritage this month and every month? Let Edpuzzle help you.
Illustration by Edpuzzle Staff
Hispanic. Latino. Latinx. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different answer. Like any community, people of Latin American descent don’t think and act the same.
But as the largest minority group in the U.S., Latinos are a defining part of American identity. Educating students about their impact on history, in both the past and present, is crucial. So what better time to start than now?
At Edpuzzle, we’ve put together a collection of videos that will help you include more Latino voices and stories in your class. Whether you teach elementary, middle/ high schoolers or even other teachers, you have the potential to create an awesome video lesson.
Introduce Students to Hispanic Heritage
Looking for some context to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month in your classroom? Check out our Edpuzzle Original video, available in English and Spanish, to give students an overview of the history behind this special month and what it means to be Hispanic:
Video in English:
Video in Spanish:
Flexible Student Projects
Having trouble finding videos for Hispanic Heritage Month that fit the specific needs of your class? You can have your students create them!
Student projects in Edpuzzle are great because they can be used for any grade level or subject. You could ask students to prepare a book review for ELA or do a biography on a Latinx person of their choice for Social Studies.
How does it work? Students are able to find and edit videos that have already been created on YouTube from sources like National Geographic, PBS, TED Talks, etc.
With Edpuzzle, the student becomes the teacher. They can add their own comprehension questions and notes to make their presentation even more dynamic.
Assigning a student project teaches your students something new and gives them more agency over their learning. It’s a win-win situation!
Story Time with Elementary Students
We know nothing can replace the classroom read-aloud experience, but technology is making it easier every day! A lot of authors and publishers are making their content accessible in ways that make the storytime experience more engaging than ever.
Julián Is A Mermaid tells the sweet story of an Afro-Latino boy who dreams of being a mermaid. The illustrations are beautiful and the message of being yourself will resonate with any student.
If you teach at an immersion or bilingual school, you might want your students to hear a story in Spanish. Scholastic has a YouTube playlist with a wide variety of books that have been translated. We like this classic about a Mexican-American family:
Listening Materials for Spanish Class
If you’re a Spanish teacher looking for authentic language content, there are plenty of options to choose from. But what’s the most delicious way to engage your students? Food, of course!
YouTube has a variety of recipes from all over Latin America. Check out this video from a Mexican grandmother who went viral for her delicious cooking and charming character.
If you’re looking for a YouTube-friendly sitcom that’s also appropriate for your students’ language level, you’ll love the Extra Spanish series.
Want to give your students some extra language support? Some YouTube videos are subtitled in different languages. When you assign your video lesson, you can select the option to "Turn on CCs" to enable closed-captioning. That way nobody gets left behind!
Class Discussion in History or Government Class
Considering how much misinformation exists on Latinos and immigration, this month is an ideal opportunity to practice having thoughtful and respectful conversations with your students.
If you teach about the civil rights movement, consider including a shoutout to the farmworkers’ movement that happened around the same time. Learn about the famous activist, Cesar Chavez, who advocated for farmworkers’ rights along with Dolores Huerta, with the Edpuzzle Original video in English or Spanish:
Video in English:
Video in Spanish:
This video looks into the United States’ changing demographics and the influence on current politics.
When editing the video, make it your own by adding reflection questions or comments throughout. Then use Edpuzzle’s Live Mode feature to watch it together as a class.
As your class watches the video, students’ responses to your questions will be displayed anonymously. Take advantage of these pauses for questions or to start a class conversation and have students share their perspectives.
Teaching students how to respectfully have a dialogue is a life skill that will benefit them enormously and will help you to create a more inclusive classroom environment.
A Different Take on Professional Development
As adults, we’re also always learning. Consider how you can incorporate videos that go over identity and representation, like this one that discusses the term Latinx:
Videos in Edpuzzle are a great addition to PD because they are interactive and self-paced. Teachers can complete their credits whenever is most convenient for them! Try an Open Class and train your staff without making them log in to the platform.
If you’re looking for an engaging and informative course your staff can work through during Hispanic Heritage Month, check out Edpuzzle’s Diversity and Inclusion Certification.
Ideal for professional development, this online course is made up of video lessons with modules about how to support English Language Learners and how to implement principles of culturally relevant pedagogy.
We hope you’re feeling excited to try out new features in Edpuzzle and diversify your curriculum this Hispanic Heritage Month and beyond.
Make sure to let us know on social media how you adapt Hispanic Heritage in your own way. Happy teaching!