Supporting Documentation
Although I have designed this approach myself, it is not without precedent or support.
In Europe, there is a method known as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). A similar method is content-based instruction, and of course the best known method is immersion. Immersion classes have proliferated around the country in recent years, but seem to be more common in elementary schools than at higher levels.
The scholar Milhaly Csikszentmihaly is well known for his theory of "flow," According to this theory, we learn best and accomplish the most when we are so caught up in a task that we lose track of everything else. For our class, this means that as we use authentic materials to discuss different issues, we talk about what is available to us, and don't even think about the fact that it is in Spanish, not English.
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Along similar lines, Dr. Sugata Mitra has done experiments in India in which poor children are given access to a computer, and then teach themselves how to use those computers with little or no formal instruction. Unlike Dr. Mitra's students, our students will have instruction, of course, but it will be much more hands-on and less formal than traditional Spanish class instruction.
In their book Make it Stick, authors Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel claim that we actually learn things better and therefore remember them better when we have to put more effort into learning them. They argue that challenges actually increase learning; our efforts to overcome those challenges are what matters most in the long run.
Many scholars and organizations have also claimed, and common sense would agree, that we learn more when we are motivated. We have all heard someone ask (or asked ourselves), "When will I need to use this?" By studying real-world issues each year, students will always inherently understand the real-world application of what they are learning, and I think that will be inherently motivating to them. This is especially true of students who may be considering fields such as medicine, finance, economics, politics, law, missionary work, or anything else related to the themes of our class. Our themes will help students prepare for the real world, but also find ways to help people who need help, and that is very motivating for teenagers, who often want to make a difference in the world.