One common lesson that all Spanish teachers most likely end up teaching is “personality traits.” With beginner students, we focus on simple adjectives like “funny, nice, patient, etc.” But even with advanced level students, we reinforce personality and identity in many ways. It may be describing a hero, discussing stereotypes, researching famous Hispanics, etc. The underlying element in all of these lessons is personality traits… our students must develop a rich vocabulary filled with descriptive words to describe someone’s personality. Using a personality test for kids will help you introduce and use this vocabulary in context!
Doing typical vocabulary activities, like writing sentences or answering questions with the terms can be boring for students. In order for students to really acquire the language, we need to make the vocabulary accessible, authentic, and relatable. With personality tests, we can accomplish all three of these. Students, heck even adults, love taking quizzes to see what ice cream flavor they are or which The Office character best fits their personality. That is what makes using similar quizzes in Spanish class so relatable and authentic. Students get to answer questions about themselves and get a real result that they will be eager to share with their classmates!
I remember my first year teaching, I was a 6th and 7th grade Spanish teacher. We had an upcoming unit on careers, with 6th graders! I had no idea how on earth I would relate careers to a bunch of middle school students who just cared about their fidget spinners and how many minutes were left until lunch. But then, I realized… they love talking about themselves and their aspirations, even at this age! So I took the Quizlet vocabulary list that I had and turned it into a personality test for kids – What career is best for you? It was a hit! My students were so excited to take the quiz and see their results. They were reading, writing, and then conversing in the target language about their future careers… in 6th grade Spanish! Let me help you use or create a personality test for kids that will enhance your vocabulary lessons, just like my career personality test did for me!
4 Ways to Use a Personality Test for Kids in Spanish Class
The Classic Version
Which ___ are you? This is the type of personality test we are used to seeing on sites like Buzzfeed. I have trouble passing by “Which Friends character are you?” or “Which cheesecake flavor are you?” I have to know that I’m some sort of chocolate! Just like you, your students will love finding out their personality type using these style of quizzes. They won’t even realize they are reading in Spanish or using the new vocabulary because they will be so engulfed in the responses!
Here are some of my favorite personality quizzes for NOVICE level students to take. You can purchase them below or keep reading to learn how to make your own personality quizzes for your students!
Printable Quizzes with Discussion Questions & Project – SPANISH versions
- Which career matches your personality? – This is perfect to use when learning about job vocabulary like chef, athlete, teacher, lawyer, etc.
- Which animal represents your personality?
- Which food are you based on your personality?
- Which color are you?
- Which alebrije are you? – perfect for watching Coco or during Day of the Dead
- Which shoe are you?
- Which famous Hispanic person are you? – great for Hispanic Heritage Month!
- Which candy are you? – Perfect for Halloween!
- For the English versions, click here for Bundle #1 and here for Bundle #2.
Online Spanish Personality Quizzes
Feel free to share any links to your favorite personality quizzes in the comments below!
Social Emotional Learning
You don’t have to just incorporate personality tests during a “personality unit,” but are also great for tying in social emotional learning to your everyday lessons. Use them as a bellringer or get to know you activity. If your school is implementing any school-wide social emotional initiatives, this is the perfect activity for keeping students in the target language as they learn about themselves, their personalities, their emotions, and how they react in various situations. The discussion questions you pose can be as in-depth as you want.
If you have a great relationship with your students, then dig a bit deeper into their responses. Ask them if they like the result they got. How have they seen themselves in this role before? What are their favorite qualities about themselves? Sometimes, we need to break from the target language to do check-ins with our students. This is one of the best ways to do this! Of course, your more advanced students can easily have these conversations in the target language.
You can also find English versions of my Personality Test for Kids here for SEL activities, ESL classes, or for elementary students.
Find the image that matches your personality
For this type of personality quiz, you will show your students a series of 6-9 similar images. Take a look at the example below. You could show students 9 different types of trees or 9 different types of shapes. Make sure that each image is numbered clearly. I suggest projecting them onto the screen in front of your classroom and giving them about 30 seconds to really look at these images. Ask students which image they feel called to or which image best represents themselves.
This type of personality test does require a little bit of set-up on your part. Prior to showing the images, you will probably want to post numbers around the room. Let’s say you show 9 images of trees, then you would want to post the numbers 1-9 around the room. At each number you can have the results for students to read. I always printed out the results and either put them in an envelope taped to the wall or just hung a large-print version of the results on the wall. When students are done looking at the images, ask them to move to the number that corresponds with their image. They will go to the number and will read the description. They can discuss the results with students at the same number.
If you like this version, you can purchase a series of 3 Spanish Intermediate Level Personality tests here! This was one of my favorite lessons to do with my Spanish 3 students.
Students Create Their Own Tests
In my more advanced classes, I had students create their own personality quizzes for each other to take. After we took a few personality quizzes that I created or found online, I then asked students to form groups and create their own quizzes. This is taking the authenticity and relatability one step further! When students create the quizzes, I prefer that they make the kind of quiz where we look at 6-9 images and decide which image calls our attention. This saves time, but still gets students to complete the meat of the lesson, which is describing someone’s personality. They will write 6-9 detailed results descriptions.
Here are some of my favorite student created quizzes and questions – I hope they make you smile, too!
What to do AFTER students take personality quizzes?
Once your students have taken the quiz, what should you do to get them talking in the target language about their results? First, have students get together with other students that have the same results. Then, you can do one of the following activities:
- Pose discussion questions to the class, such as “Does that animal really fit your personality?” “Do you agree with the results?” “What is another adjective you would use to describe a person in this career?” Try to keep the questions in the target language so students are conversing completely in the language.
- Have students create a short presentation for the class about their results: what adjectives describe you, what activities do you like to do, is it true/false based on your actual personality? Then, each group will present their results to the class, explaining them in their own words.
- Highlight the vocabulary in the results descriptions. For example, you can have students use a variety of highlighter colors to demonstrate their comprehension of the text and the new vocabulary. Blue could be personality adjectives; yellow could be for actions that this person likes to do, etc.
- Come up with an additional result. Your quiz should have six results, but as a class, have your students come up with one more. They will have to write the description for the answer, including adjectives to describe the person and activities they enjoy doing.
How to Make Your Own Personality Test for Kids
If you want to create the Buzzfeed style quiz where students read a series of questions and then tally their results, follow these steps!
Step 1: Start with the question – What ___ are you? Think about your students and their interests when designing the theme of the quiz. Some fun ideas could be: TV show, movie genre, drink, sport, etc. I would try to gear this towards vocabulary that your students already know or are currently learning.
Step 2: Once you’ve narrowed it down to your one topic, come up with the answer options before writing the questions. Let’s use the example: What color are you? Now, we would come up with the possible answers: blue, red, yellow, green, pink, black. You don’t want more than probably six options, because then it just gets to be too much for both you and the students.
Step 3: Brainstorm what each response’s personality type would be like. Yes, think “Who is red… what are they like?” When I think of red, I think passion, quickly shows emotion, and loud. Blue is more calming or soothing, laid-back, and goes with the flow.
Step 4: Write short descriptions to describe each answer. These will be the “results.” Use language that is accessible to your level of students. Then, assign each “result” a letter from A-F. For example: Red – A; Blue – B; Yellow – C; Green – D; Pink – E; Black – F.
Step 5: Now, you have to create the questions. I recommend anywhere from 8-10 multiple choice questions. Each question will need to have the same amount of multiple choice options. As you design your questions, each letter response should align with the result that matches. So, if we ask the question “What do you like to do on the weekends?” Option A would represent the red response – so maybe “go salsa dancing”. Option B would represent blue – “stay home and watch Netflix” and so on.
Step 6: Assemble the questionnaire and results. Type up your questions, just like a typical quiz and leave space for students to tally up how many of each letter result they got. I would hide the results from them until they have completed the quiz… so don’t type them on the quiz! On a separate page, have the results with the short written description for your students to read after they tally their results.
And with that you have your own personality test for kids!
So no matter if you create your own personality tests, have students create them, or find them online, the main takeaway is that the test should be relatable and comprehensible to your students. If you find yourself having to explain every word on the personality test, then your students will become discouraged. On the flip side, if they are comprehensible and authentic texts for your students’ proficiency level, then these personality tests quickly become one of their favorite lessons!
2 Responses