4 Engaging Hispanic Heritage Month Activities
Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the contributions that members of these communities have on the United States and American culture. While we spend a lot of time celebrating current Hispanic pioneers who students know and like, it’s also important to take a look back at the history makers who paved the way for their accomplishments and successes.
Today, we’re sharing four primary-source Hispanic Heritage Month activities to help you include more historical content and diverse perspectives in your daily lessons.
4 Hispanic Heritage Month activities to bring diverse perspectives to the classroom
Create engaging Hispanic Heritage Month activities with Formative
4 Hispanic Heritage Month activities to bring diverse perspectives to the classroom
Heritage months can be an exciting time to highlight diverse perspectives in your lessons and classroom activities. They help students understand topics and issues from different viewpoints and see themselves reflected in the content or learn about someone else’s experiences.
We’ve collected four primary sources you can use to incorporate Hispanic Heritage Month lessons into your daily instruction during September and October, or all year long! Each has an interactive activity from the shared Formative Library to engage students and make your lesson planning easier.
You can customize the activity templates by adjusting settings like randomizing the question and answer order, awarding partial credit for certain questions, or tagging questions to additional standards. You can also edit the existing questions or add content for a more comprehensive assessment.
Plus, with a Newsela Social Studies license, sharing primary source texts and interactive activities is easier than ever. Explore speeches, documents, and treaties to help your students learn more about Hispanic cultures and how members of these communities have influenced American society as we know it today:
1. The 1828 Mier y Terán Report
In 1828, the Mexican government sent General Manuel Mier y Terán to investigate political and social affairs in Texas. The General reported back to Mexican leaders that a revolution was brewing. Many of these observations were catalysts for the Texas Revolution from 1835 to 1836, which resulted in Texas’ independence from Mexico.
Have students read Mier y Terán’s report about the anticipated revolution in Texas due to the influx of American settlers and the prohibition of slavery. Then, check their understanding of the topic using the interactive Formative activity with questions and prompts like:
Choose the primary purpose of the Mier y Terán report.
Select which statements best describe the situation in Texas in 1828.
Sort which topics Mier y Terán discusses in his report.
2. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
On February 2, 1848, the Mexican-American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Per the terms of the treaty, Mexico gave more than half of its territory to the United States, including parts of present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.
Have students read the full text of the Treaty to learn more about the stipulations that ended the Mexican-American War, including how residents of those territories had to choose whether to remain Mexican citizens or become citizens of the United States, effectively making them some of the first official Hispanic Americans by switching their citizenship.
After reading, assign the interactive Formative activity to assess students’ knowledge of the topic with questions and prompts like:
What was the primary purpose of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
Which of the given responses is a condition of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
Choose which questions you can answer with information outlined in the Treaty.
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3. Cesar Chavez’s lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Cesar Chavez was a Hispanic Civil Rights and labor leader. He fought for farm workers' rights, especially for child laborers who often earned less than minimum wage and worked in horrible conditions.
In 1978, Chavez gave a speech in memory of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. outlining how his thoughts and goals for Black activists mirrored those of Chavez’s United Farm Workers union. Both men fought for the rights of their people, with Chavez specifically looking to end exploitation, poverty, and toxic working conditions for migrant workers.
Have students read the speech and compare and contrast Chavez’s beliefs with those of Dr. King. End your lesson with the interactive Formative activity paired with this source and ask students to answer questions and prompts like:
Choose the quote that best states Chavez’s purpose for giving the speech.
Pick examples that Chavez uses to encourage people to follow in Dr. King’s footsteps.
Sort statements from the speech that identify poor labor conditions and dangerous health risks that affect farmworkers.
4. Cesar Chavez’s 1984 address to the Commonwealth Club
As a labor activist, Chavez dedicated his life to advocating for better working conditions and rights for Hispanic workers—primarily migrant farmers—across the southern and western United States.
In 1984, he gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum. His speech was meant to highlight the mistreatment of migrants and rally listeners around his belief that Hispanic laborers were essential to the future of the state of California.
Students can read the full text of this speech to learn more about what life was like for these laborers and understand Chavez’s vision for protecting their rights and increasing their quality of life at work and beyond. Then, as a class, discuss how the working conditions of laborers Chavez describes differ from working conditions in other jobs today.
Finally, assign the interactive Formative activity to check students’ understanding of the source and topic with questions and prompts like:
What was the impact of the United Farm Workers Union?
What statements or beliefs given would Chavez likely agree with?
Sort activities into two categories: Union strategies and grower strategies.
Create engaging Hispanic Heritage Month activities with Formative
The Formative Library has a variety of free, pre-made activities developed by our curriculum experts and educators like you. You can use these templates as-is or customize them to fit your instructional needs. Use the library’s sort filters to browse content by subject, grade level, and even language to find what you want.
If you don’t see a template that matches your instructional needs, create your own! Log into your Formative account and choose how you want to customize your lesson or assessment. You can create brand new slides with various multimedia, including audio and video, import content from Google, or enhance a PDF or doc that already exists.
Don’t have a Formative account yet? Sign up for Formative Bronze for free today to start creating activities for Hispanic Heritage Month and beyond!