Syllabus: AP Spanish Language

Transcription

1 Syllabus: AP Spanish Language Course Description: The AP Spanish language course is structured to follow the Indiana State Standards and the course description designed by the College Board for AP Spanish Language (Course Description for Spanish Language and Spanish Literature, May 2007, May 2008). Students who enroll in the course have successfully completed basic instruction in the language and are ready to challenge themselves in the most advanced course at our school, an experience equivalent to that of a third-year college course. The course is taught almost exclusively in Spanish and the students are expected to speak entirely in Spanish as well. Students begin speaking entirely in Spanish during class in the level before AP and therefore are accustomed to this expectation. Students are provided opportunities to develop in the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking using authentic materials. Course Plan/ Organizational Structure: Throughout the year students acquire new vocabulary and grammatical concepts through the context of short stories and poems that are presented in Encuentros Maravillosos. With each story students also listen to authentic lectures (conferencias) about the authors, the reading selections and themes. The themes are then the basis for class discussions and writings. Theme Sueños o realidad? La pérdida de un ser querido Las idiosincrasias personales La belleza Las experiencias que nos definen El realismo mágico Los conflictos Las supersticiones La solidaridad y la soledad Reading El Otro fragmento de El libro de arena, Jorge Luis Borges Un perro ha muerto de Jardín de invierno, Pablo Neruda Viajes de Historias de cronopios y de famas Julio Cortázar Nada menos que todo un hombre fragmento, Miguel de Unamuno El niño al que se le murió el amigo de Los niños tontos, Ana María Matute La peste del insomnio fragmento de Cien años de soledad, Gabriel García Márquez Como agua para chocolate, fragmento, Laura Esquivel Romance de la luna, luna de Obras completas, Federico García Lorca El ahogado más hermoso del mundo de La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada, Gabriel García Márquez

2 SKILLS/ASSIGNMENTS Reading Skills: In addition to the stories and poems from Encuentros Maravillosos, students read from a variety of sources. Throughout the entire year, students are reading from a novel that they read outside of class: They choose between Esperanza Renace, Carnaval en Canarias, Caperucita en Manhattan, Don Quijote. All students read Lazarillo de Tormes and selected stories from Historias de la Artámila. Students identify and summarize the main points in their readings, state opinions or raise questions all in Spanish writing their reactions in their journal. We have class discussions about the novels and stories, but most of the reading is done outside of class. We will occasionally have FVR (free voluntary reading) time when students can choose from many authentic sources in class to read (children s books in Spanish, magazines and newspapers). In order to further develop students reading skills, the class reads from a variety of authentic sources every other week. o La Frontera, a weekly Spanish newspaper from Fort Wayne, Indiana. o Selected articles from the magazine, People en español o News articles found on the internet; for example, AP practice tests are used for reading selections and multiple choice assessments. Students research for an oral presentation by reading sources in Spanish. Listening Skills: In addition to listening to the lectures about different authors in the Spanish-speaking world, students have other opportunities to develop their listening ability. They watch the movie Ganas de Triunfar in Spanish. Class discussion and journal entries follow on the topics of determination and racism. They view several episodes from the PBS series, The American Family, in Spanish and clips from the series El Espejo Enterrado by Carlos Fuentes. These videos not only are all in Spanish, but they relate to the culture and history of the Spanish-speaking population providing for class discussion on practices and perspectives of cultures. Students respond in journals and with class discussion about the main ideas and cultural perspectives. Students also practice listening to prepared broadcasts and conversations with the opportunity to take notes or answer questions about what they comprehend. These selections come from Triángulo, cuarto edición, Barron s How to Prepare for the AP Spanish Advanced Placement Examination, 3rd edition and websites such as Students listen to authentic songs in the target language that have unique structures that they are studying and discuss their use in the song. (For example, A Dios le pido by Juanes and Ojalá que llueva café by Juan Luis Guerra to practice subjuntive.) Presentations by native speakers each semester give the students the opportunity to listen to native speakers and learn about the culture of a Spanish-speaking country. (This year so far our guests have been from Puerto Rico, Honduras,

3 Venezuela and Ecuador.) Students are required to ask the guest speaker questions during or after the presentations. Some vocabulary and structures are presented and acquired through the use of storytelling in class. Speaking Skills: There are in-class discussions about the students lives and events on a regular basis. We have guided discussion about the topics related to our literature. Students participate in a Show and Tell a couple times during first semester where students explain the importance of an item to the class in a presentation. During second semester students play a game in which they respond orally to personal or thoughtful Spanish questions on cards or they have class discussions regularly about topics that they have chosen to debate. Guided conversations are practiced with prompts from Triángulo. Students practice recording these conversations in the computer lab. Oral presentations are given by the students in response to prompts from Triángulo after having read an article and listened to an audio selection about the same topic. This is practiced in the computer lab with equipment that will be used to record on the AP test and evaluated using the AP Spanish language scoring guideline. Students individually give a 5-10 minute presentation to the class about a topic related to Hispanic culture after having researched it. We play a game with vocabulary where they have to describe the word in Spanish without using the word to work on their circumlocution skills. Students ask questions of native speakers that are guests in our classroom. Writing Skills: Students receive a variety of writing assignments in order to practice writing short and long essays, letters, s and journal entries. This gives them practice in both informal and formal writing. Students keep a journal that they write in several times a week either responding to a reading, an oral selection, or a reaction to a common saying (refrán). Students send s to students at a school in Mexico in order to correspond with a native speaker at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. Students write formal 200 word essays based on prompts from Triángulo after having read an article or 2 on the topic and having listened to an authentic source on the same topic. Triángulo has a wide selection of authentic sources and prompts. Students fill in AP paragraph completion activities in order to work on skill development directly related to the AP Spanish language exam. Students complete 10 minute short writings based on a prompt from Triángulo. These prompts require a variety of registers considering some are formal and others informal. Formal or informal prompts are used every three weeks.

4 Student Evaluation: Students are evaluated in the formal writings using the AP Spanish language scoring guideline. Informal writings are evaluated for proper register and inclusion of details mentioned in the prompt. Students speaking is evaluated using the AP Spanish language scoring guidelines for speaking activities. Presentations are evaluated based on a rubric that scores students on fluency and research (speaking, reading and synthesizing of information). Reading is evaluated through multiple choice activities, tests and journal summarizing. Listening is evaluated through responding to multiple choice activities and in-class assessment of participation in discussions. Evaluations of journal entries attest to the level of listening comprehension of videos and speakers. Students are evaluated on vocabulary, grammar concepts and story comprehension through multiple choice, fill in the blank and short response tests. Resources used for this course: Gatski, Barbara, and John McMullan. Triángulo: A Propósito. 4th ed. Sandwich, MA: Wayside Publishing, Kanter, Abby. Encuentros Maravillosos Gramática a través de la literatura. Needham, MA: Person Prentice Hall, Ray, Blaine. Mírame, Puedo Hablar Muchísimo. Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions, 1998 Springer, Ph.D., Alice G. How to Prepare for the AP Spanish Advanced Placement Exam. 3rd ed. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Services, Inc., READERS: Cervantes, Miguel. Don Quijote de la Mancha: Primera parte. St. Paul, Minnesota: EMC CORP., Lazarillo de Tormes. Madrid, Spain: Universidad de Salamanca Grupo Santillana de Ediciones, S.A., Martín Gaite, Carmen. Caperucita en Manhattan. United States: EMC CORP., Matute, Ana María. Historias de la Artámila. St. Paul, Minnesota: EMC CORP., Munoz Ryan, Pam. Esperanza Renace. New York, NY: Scholastic en español, Uría, Fernando. Carnaval en Canarias. Madrid, Spain: Universidad de Salamanca Grupo Santillana de Ediciones, S.A., INTERNET: El Mundo online news Grammar and vocabulary practice

5 Encuentros Maravillosos online practice refix=jkk&wcsuffix=1000 Radio Nederland: Espanol PERIODICALS: Fronteras a Spanish newspaper supplement published in conjunction with the Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN People en español, Time, Inc. espanol@people.com VIDEOS: Con Ganas de Triunfar / Warner Bros. ; An American Playhouse Theatrical Film; written by Ramon Menendez & Tom Musca. [Stand and deliver].burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, c1988. American Family / mini-series Gregory Nava is creator and executive producer of American Family. Robert Greenblatt, David Janollari, Eric L. Gold and Barbara Martinez Jitner are also serving as executive producers. Jan (audio in Spanish) Espejo Enterrado / VHS Produced by Michael Gill; written and narrated by Carlos Fuentes. Directed by Peter Newington [et al]; Publisher: Public Media Video, c1991 SONGS: A Dios le pido by Juanes Ojalá que llueva café by Juan Luis Guerra Ave María by David Bisbal Tu cárcel by Enanitos Verdes Para alcanzarte by Sin Bandera Dónde están los ladrones? by Shakira