Written by AnneMarie Chase, Spanish Teacher

What Is a Tea Party Pre-Reading Activity?

In my Spanish 2 class next week, we’ll start reading Robo en la Noche by Kristy Placido. This week, we had a blast getting to know the characters during a “Tea Party,” and I am delighted to share this activity with you! “Tea Party” is a pre-reading strategy that allows the characters of a reader to interact, allowing students to figure out how the characters are connected. It is a great way to build excitement and intrigue before beginning a reader, not to mention a lot of fun! In fact, one sweet sophomore boy questioned, “Why don’t we do this every class?! It is so fun!” (Sorry to break it to you, kid: if we did this every day, you wouldn't love it!) 

My dear friend and author of Libertad, Rita Barrett, first introduced me to Tea Parties and graciously wrote a guest post over on my blogcito, explaining the details and how to create one based on any reader, TV series, movie, or historical event.  

Read on for all the resources you need to throw a Robo en la noche themed Tea Party: 

Before Class: Prep Your Materials

Copy the Character Cards back-to-back and cut them apart. Ensure that the names on the front of the card line up with the corresponding biography. You’ll need a card for each student, but each student does not need a unique card. It’s totally ok (and even preferable) for there to be 3 McKennas and 3 Dr. Parkers, etc. Just make sure you have an entire set of cards before adding another set. (So, make sure you pass out all 9 unique characters before you start doubling and tripling up characters.) 

You can pass out the cards as they are, but I like to slide them into name badge holders so students can wear them during the Tea Party, and we can reuse them for multiple classes. There’s just something about wearing a nametag that helps you get into character!  

Make copies of the Interview Notes handout, one copy per student.  

You can really lean into the Tea Party theme and serve tea and cookies…but I assure you it is just as fun (and waaaay easier) without drinks and treats. Totally up to you! 

During Class: Introducing the Tea Party

Project this slideshow and introduce the Tea Party. Students will need a bit of background knowledge, which you’ll find on Slide 2.

Step 1: Group by Character

Pass out Character Cards to each student, then have the students group with students who have the same character. (They should take their pencil with them!) You might have 3 Juan Carlos sitting together in a group, and 3 Margaritas in a different group. Together as a group, they should read their Character Cards and make sure they understand the details about their character.  

Pass out Interview Notes and have them complete sections 1 and 2, working together with the students who share their character.  

Step 2: Go Over the Ground Rules

Before they start chatting with other characters, Slide 3 has some ground rules. Make sure everyone is clear of the expectations! If you want to adjust the rules for your group of students, you can grab a copy of the slideshow here to edit.  

To support them to stay in the language, see project Slide 4, go over it quickly and then get started!

Step 3: Interview Other Characters

Have everyone stand up and start chatting with a different character, while jotting notes onto their notetaker. Once they wrap up a conversation with a character, they move on to another character.  

As the teacher, I always take a Character Card as well and participate with the class. It’s fun to chat with students in Spanish!

My students stayed engaged for a good 15–20 minutes interviewing each other (with just a few “¡En español, por favor!” reminders). Once it felt like everyone had interviewed at least five characters, I pulled them back into their character groups to compare interview notes. A few kids completed their interviews quickly, so I asked them to interview a few more characters and add those notes into the margins.

Step 4: Compare Notes and Make Connections

Together with their character group, after comparing notes, they completed Section 4, sharing any new info they learned about their character. It was SO GREAT to listen to them making connections: “I think Inés is my girlfriend!”, “Hey Mrs Chase, So and So and I are ops!”, “Hey, Joey, are you my dad?!” Did this happen in Spanish? Unfortunately, no, but they were so invested in figuring out the puzzle, it was well worth our time! 

After a few minutes, I sent them to the back of the notetaker, where they worked on a map of connections, drawing out the relationships they had pieced together—family tree style.  

Step 5: Predict What Will Happen

Finally, still working in their character groups, they finished their interview notes handout by making predictions about what they think is going to happen in the story. The classroom was buzzing with energy, and their interest was piqued! One class wanted to start reading right away, even though there were only a few minutes left in class, because they wanted confirmation on the relationships they had figured out.  

Friends, this was a WIN in all four of my Spanish 2 classes, and I think your students will love it too! If you’ve got Robo en la noche in your reading lineup this year, you’ve got to give a Tea Party a try!