Tips for Starting a French, Spanish, or Italian Club
If you’re thinking of starting a World Language and/or Culture Club at your school, this blog post is for you! I’m going to share some tips for how to get started, including things you may want to consider before proposing the idea to your supervisor or building principal. And if you’ve never considered starting a language club at your school, maybe you’ll find some inspiration here that will make you reconsider!
Why start a World Language Club?
Starting a French Club, Spanish Club, Italian Club, or Multicultural Club is a great way for you to provide your language learners and larger school community with an opportunity to explore the target language(s) and culture(s) in a deeper yet perhaps less “academic” way. After all, club participation is voluntary, and so you know that students who sign up to be a part of your club are genuinely curious and have a desire to learn more outside of their usual class times.
Additionally, starting and maintaining an extracurricular club is a great line to add to your teaching resume, end-of-year teacher brag sheet for summative evaluations and conferences, and there may even be some money available in your district’s budget to offer you a small stipend.
Things to consider before you pitch your club to admin
Before you share your proposal with admin—assuming your school does not already have a language club, and you’ll be starting a brand new one from scratch—it’s important to keep a few things in mind. Here are some questions I would like you to think about before you begin drafting your proposal:
Will you need any co-advisors?
Which students will be eligible to join?
How often will your club meet?
What sort of monetary support, if any, will be needed in order for your club to run successfully?
What are three-four initial activities/projects that you have planned? [We want admin to get an idea of what types of activities students will be participating in, so that they understand the value and utility of your club.]
Tips for sharing your proposal
Whenever I am pitching a new idea to admin, I make sure to create a brief Google Slides presentation (3-4 slides max) that I share with them in advance of our meeting. I bring my laptop to the meeting and present my slideshow as I talk. A few things you’ll want to keep in mind as you share your ideas with admin:
Keep it brief. They are very busy, and they don’t have all the time in the world.
Focus on impact. You know the intrinsic value of your club, but admin probably do not. Show them how your club will make a difference in the school community.
Share sample activities/projects. As I mentioned before, it’s a great idea to show admin what you will be doing it, how you will be doing it, and why it matters.
Be confident! You are going above and beyond to positively impact your students and the larger school community. Your admin will most likely be receptive to this, so show up to your meeting with the confidence that your proposal will be well-received.
Now it’s time to begin planning!
Once your club has been approved by admin, it’s time to start planning and preparing. How exciting! First, I want you to consider your target audience for the club: is it freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors? Is it 7th graders or 8th graders? Will you open the club up to specific students only? (For example, only Italian students are allowed to join the Italian club? Or will it be open to any student with an interest in Italian language and culture?) Be clear about your ideal student population.
Next, I want you to consider how you will communicate with and organize club materials for your club members. I recommend using Google Classroom and creating a specific class for your club, and then inviting all participating members at the start of the school year (or whenever your club begins).
After, it will be important to determine how often your club will meet. I think it’s important to start small and reasonable: once a month sounds very manageable, and ensures that students have the flexibility to participate in multiple clubs aside from yours. Adding these meeting dates to the calendar will be an important step in staying organized and ensuring everyone is available for club meetings.
Put your first meeting date on the calendar. It’s a great reminder that A) you’ve still got work to do to get your club up and rubbing and B) that all of your hard work will pay off, as there will be students in attendance at your first meeting!
Tips for Promoting Your Club
Having a solid French, Spanish, or Italian club where there are many great ideas, activities, events, and projects…all of that is wonderful, but it won’t make much of a difference if none of the students in your school know about your club!
Be sure to make announcements in your classes about your club, and spend some class time talking about all of the great things you plan on doing in your club. You’re essentially “selling” your club to your students, many of whom will likely want to participate, especially if you teach higher grade levels and students consider extracurriculars to add to their college applications. Invite them to pass along the information to their friends who may also be interested.
If you know for sure that you have a few students who have already signed up and promised their participation, ask if they would be open to helping you create, print, and post flyers around the school. If you have the time and expertise, you can create a short promotional video, upload it to Youtube, and share the QR code on your flyers!
Consider making several announcements over the PA in which you talk about your club and share some basic information.
You may also want to schedule an info session at the beginning of the year where students can get a better sense of what the club would be like, the benefits of joining, and some basic logistical information (such as how often they will be expected to attend).
Ensuring that your club starts off on the right foot
Student clubs, in my opinion, should be run and managed primarily by students. Sure, as the club advisor, you have an important role in leading and guiding the way in which the club runs and functions, but I think it’s so important to offload most of the work to students. Why? Because when students have ownership and agency in their club activities and projects, they feel much more compelled to participate long term and they develop a deep, vested interest in seeing the club succeed.
Consider electing a club president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Perhaps you can have students volunteer for these positions, since your club will most likely start off relatively small. Alternatively, you can have elections if your club is large enough.
Once your club gets up and running, it’s important to develop meeting norms: what types of activities will you engage in during every meeting? For example, maybe you start the club meeting off by sharing a random cultural fact about the target culture. Maybe you start the club meeting off with a “word of the day” in the target language. There should be an agenda and a sense of purpose behind each meeting. Maybe you decide each meeting will cover a particular theme (e.g. holiday, famous singer, actor, politician, etc.). Perhaps you will have a “movie day” once every marking period.
I think it’s best to let students generate ideas and brainstorm, because again, I think it’s in the best interest of the club’s success and longevity to allow students to take the reins. Remember: they are not required to participate in your club, and so if they feel like it is boring, or that it feels like a “chore” to show up, they will stop attending. But if you let students take control—within reason, of course—you are more likely to see students engaged and active in their attendance and participation.
Hope these ideas help you get started with your French Club, Spanish Club, Italian Club, German Club, or Multicultural Club! Let me know down below if you have recently started a club in your school. How’s it going so far? I’d love to hear your experience!
Happy language teaching,
~ Michael
