Melissa Midcap’s A Heroic Death Spanish exam

Melissa Midcap uses our murder mystery games for her Spanish exam finals! She writes:

“I used Una Muerte Heróica (A Heroic Death) as my upper level Spanish exam a month ago. The students had been studying crime and justice so it was a great choice for a game to use as their exam.

“Since it’s a small cast, I had to run a lunch and a dinner. It was crazy but it worked. Unfortunately for the heroes, both times a villain won.

“I’m probably the only teacher who has students excited about the final exam!”

We asked how the exams were graded.

“As for how I grade the exam, I include other components like watching a relevant movie in Spanish, and writing an essay the week after from the perspective of their character. I have to get parental permission since the exam is being held on a Saturday and not in the school building.

“I did a presentation at a conference a few years back about this and a lot of teachers thought it was really cool. I also have vocabulary pages that I have created for the units to go with the games.

“We spend about 2 weeks in class doing activities relevant to the theme. This gets them even more excited for the game and gives them plenty of practice with the necessary vocabulary.

“A funny question that I get from students every year is that they are worried that if they get killed in the game they will fail the exam. I always have to reassure them that I am basing their grade on their Spanish skills, not whether or not they win the game. Which is a pretty good thing because last year I think I had five dead bodies by the end of the pirate game!”

Click here to learn more about A Heroic Death.

A Heroic Death is also available in French (as Les Super Héros (sont bloqués)) and German (as Ein heldenhafter Tod).