AP Spanish Language and Culture

Maria Elizabeth Squibb

AP Spanish Languag Language and Culture Curriculum  (This class is 90 minutes long. January to May).

AP Spanish Language and Culture is a college-level course intended for students in their fourth year of study of Spanish language and culture.

 At the beginning of this four years of study, the students have already learned the structures necessary to communicate in Spanish on a variety of topics. This course emphasizes the reading, writing, speaking, listening and culture.

This AP Spanish Language and culture course is structured around six themes: global challenges, science and technology, contemporary life, personal and public identities, beauty and aesthetics, families and communities. This course is conducted exclusively in Spanish with rare exceptions when a brief explanation or clarification is required in English, students are encouraged to communicate in Spanish as well.  AP Spanish is designed to prepare students for the AP Spanish Language and culture examination.

 

Course outline and planner

January

Las identidades personales y públicas.

 

· Students will brainstorm vocabulary words related to alienation and assimilation, personal beliefs, historical heroes. They will make a list of cognates.

· Analyze judgments students might have about their own and other nationalities.

· Students will discuss other ethnic groups and how they can contribute to society.

· Discuss and analyze how language and culture influence everyone.

· Read and discuss “Las redes sociales pueden cambiar la autoestima de los jovenes” by Amanda Enayati.

· Selfesteem. The influence of social media.

· Students will write an article comparing the immigration or racism in the United States and Latin America.

· Students will watch Cortometraje: El espia”. Created by Argentinan, director Juan Bautista Stagnaro.

· AP Speaking practice: Describe the qualities of a national hero.

· AP Listening practice. Short movie.

· Grammar: Present tense of regular and irregular verbs. Reflexive verbs, preterite and imperfect tenses.Possessive adjectives,

· Demonstrative adjectives.

· Keep the daily journal up to date.

Assessments:

- Interpretive communication: oral and graphs.

- Written interpersonal communication. Email reply, essays writing. Journal entries.

- Audio, visual and audiovisual interpretive communication. Multiple choice answers. True/false, Short answers, matching.

- Spoken presentational communication. Timed conversations. Debriefing. Share with a partner.

- Written personal communication. Students describe the influence of social media and their self-esteem. Students compare national heroes in America to heroes in their own culture.

 

 

 

Febrero/

Marzo

 

La vida contemporanea.

 

· Study vocabulary related to education and careers. Discuss autonomy and independence. Technology in the future.

· Read magazines in Spanish about education in Latin America and careers.

· Analyze and discuss technology in the future. Nanotechnology, robotics, flying cars. Each group will research and present their analysis to a topic.

· Brainstorm characteristics of private and public education with which they are familiar. Students are asked to present orally their comparison, to participate in a debate.

· Students will compare the American educational systems to their own.

· Students will describe various aspects of sports, traveling, hobbies and professions. Discussion: What role do these aspects play in their lives?

· Students will create a blog of their favorite sport.

· Create an email for a college of their choice asking for information about their courses and scholarships.

· Discuss: La copa mundial. Pros and cons.

· Interpersonal writing: E-mail reply.Students will receive un an email giving them information they had requested about doing an internship in Mexico. Students will reply to this information.

· AP Listening practice. The news Televisa, Univision.

· Grammar: Formation of adverbs, the comparative and superlative of adjectives and adverbs.The future tense, conditional.

· Students will complete a Venn diagram to illustrate some of the global problems and in their community.

· Keep the daily journal up-to-date.

 

Assessments:

- Interpretive communication: oral and graphs.

- Written interpersonal communication. Email reply, essays writing. Journal entries.

- Audio, visual and audiovisual interpretive communication. Multiple choice answers. True/false, short answers, matching.

- Spoken presentational communication. Timed conversations. Debriefing. Share with a partner.

- Written personal communication. What constitutes a family in different societies?

 

 

March

Desafios mundiales.

 

· Study vocabulary related to environmental issues, health and nutrition, human rights, peace and war and economy. Make a list of cognates.

· Analyze and discuss: Who is responsible for solving global challenges? What is being done? What can we do? Write an essay answering to: ¿Cuáles son los desafíos sociales, políticos y del medioambiente que enfrentan las sociedades del mundo? ¿Cuáles son los orígenes de esos desafíos? ¿Cuáles son las posibles soluciones?

· Students will watch Pecera, short movie about the ocean, by Carlos Bouvier.

· Students will present an oral description of unemployment, firing people without cause, working in unsafe places, abuse to the workers, unfair salaries.

· Students will write an essay about their own conclusions about job opportunities in their area, effective laws, and salaries.

· AP Listening practice

· Grammar: Verbs followed by a noun or an infinitive. Verbs followed by a preposition.

· Add entries to the daily journal.

 

Assessments:

- Interpretive communication: oral and graphs.

- Written interpersonal communication. Email reply, essays writing. Journal entries.

- Audio, visual and audiovisual interpretive communication. Multiple choice answers. True/false, short answers, matching.

- Spoken presentational communication. Timed conversations. Debriefing. Share with a partner.

- Written personal communication. Effects of technology on self and society.

 

Abril

La belleza y la estética.

 

· Brainstorm vocabulary related to architecture, beauty, literature, music, visual arts, performing arts, theater terms, food and restaurants. Make a list of cognates.

· Students will listen to different Latin American singers like Shakira, Vicente Fernandez, etc.They will compare the different types of music. Students will explain a song of their choice, and give a short biography of the artist. They will write a blog about the song.

· Analyze and discuss the famous painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso.

Students will give causes of bombing of Guernica, and analyze and interpret the mural.

· Students will send an email to a friend telling him/her about their favorite food, explaining how it is made.

· Qualities of beauty. Definition of beauty.

· Fashion and design. How does fashion influence your personality and behavior?

· Fragment. Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez. Students will analyze the main characters, giving the characteristics and examples.

· Grammar: the subjonctive.

 

Assessments:

- Interpretive communication: oral and graphs.

- Written interpersonal communication. Email reply, essays writing. Journal entries.

- Audio, visual and audiovisual interpretive communication. Multiple choice answers. True/false, short answers, matching.

- Spoken presentational communication. Timed conversations. Debriefing. Share with a partner.

- Written personal communication. How do ideals of beauty and aesthetics influence daily life?

 

April/May

La ciencia y la tecnología.

 

· Study vocabulary related to computer technology, emailing, texting, cell phones, etc. Make a list of cognates.

· Analyze and discuss: Alternative medicine.

In groups students will describe and interpret the words: excepticismo, medicina alternativa.

Students will listen a fragment of an interview made to Dr. Lisandro M. Carnielli.

· Science and ethics. Students will discuss and analyze ethics in science.

· Short movie, Un atajo, un camino, by Mariana Flores Villalba, México. After watching the movie and discussing the solar, nuclear and wind energy, students will create an advertisement for the television about the importance of renewable, sustainable and clean energy for the future of our planet.

· Discuss: How technology has changed teaching at schools? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

· Discussion: Kindle. Students will read an article and will discuss the probabilities of replacing the books.

· Presentation: How technology has changed our personal relationships with family, friends, and teachers?

· AP writing practice: Students will write an essay answering to: Should we limit teenagers the time they spend playing video games, or on their phones?

· AP Listening practice

· Grammar: Signos de puntuacion.

· General review of grammar for AP exam, including, listening, writing.

· Add entries to the daily journal.

 

Assessments:

- Interpretive communication: oral and graphs.

- Written interpersonal communication. Email reply, essays writing. Journal entries.

- Audio, visual and audiovisual interpretive communication. Multiple choice answers. True/false, short answers, matching.

- Spoken presentational communication. Timed conversations. Debriefing. Share with a partner.

- Written personal communication. How do developments in science and technology affect our lives?

 

Las familias y las comunidades.

· Las tradiciones y los valores.

·

 

Learning objectives:

Provide students not only with the ability to express thoughts and ideas but offer social, academic, cultural and workplace benefits that will assist students throughout their lives.  The course offers students with various opportunities to demonstrate their proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening Spanish through the three modes of communication (Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational) defined in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century are foundational to the AP Spanish Language and Culture course.  The course will be presented through the six themes to integrate language content, and culture into an interrelated series of lessons and activities.

 

Assessment activities:

1.    Speaking

Extemporaneous speech is greatly emphasized daily. Students are paired to maximize speaking time and encourage them to use new thematic vocabulary.  In class discussions are conducted in Spanish and encourage students to perform high-level thinking and analyze key passages for style and grammar and discuss the relevancies to current issues.  Through discussions students can make comparisons between the Hispanic world and their own.  Learners are also assigned different themes for oral presentations; students provide one another with a feedback gaining both presentational and interpersonal practice and develop their listening and speaking skills. Students work also in small groups or with a partner during short dialogs or presentations.  Assessment is done daily in accordance to their participation, discussions and oral presentations.

2.    Reading

In order to expose students to different types of readings including the Mundo Hispano, (Interpersonal, Interpretive and Presentational). Texts are drawn from a variety of authentic sources like excerpts from literary texts, including novels, poetry, and theater.

Readings include magazines, news, online articles, textbooks, newspapers, etc. to offer students the opening to analyze, discuss, and present their point of view and connect to relevant topics.  Function –word fill-in practice from assigned readings, where students are given a paragraph with function words left out. Students will complete comprehension exercises from different texts, excerpts, or articles. In literary readings students are required to understand linguistic and semantic details. Comprehension is measured through in-class discussions, textual analysis, short presentations, questions, quizzes, and cloze activities.  AP Reading passages of released AP Exams are given at least once a week.

 

3.    Listening

To develop listening proficiency, students are exposed to various listening presentations like podcasts, videos, music, interviews, films, excerpts from Radio stations from Mexico, audio and audio-visual media and the eBook listening activities.

§  Listening activities include weekly activities such as, paraphrasing and text completion in order to assess comprehension.

§  Listening activities are accompanied by vocabulary lists, answers to comprehension questions are elicited.

§   Summaries, reaction and commentary are presented by the students.  

§  AP practice exercises of previous AP exams with audio texts and print texts. 

§  Class is conducted entirely in Spanish and students are expected to use only Spanish with one another during class.

 

Writing

Daily, at the beginning of the class, students must update their written journals. The topic will be different each day, starting with simple questions leading to more complicated ones, related to the topic of study.   Written homework assignments are given to students once a week, and after the assignments have been graded students will work in pairs and they will help each other edit their work.  Students will respond to supervised email messages.   In class compositions will be given at the end of the study of a theme, students will not be allowed to use dictionaries, books, or vocabulary lists. These compositions will be done in the AP-style and graded using the AP rubric.  Once the students’ compositions have been graded they are asked to rewrite their work based on the teacher’s comments, concerning organization, development, grammar, vocabulary, and special expressions.  This second face allows students will be allowed to use their vocabulary lists, grammar, textbooks, etc. Students will also write an essay about all the literary works studied in class, either making a comparison or giving their opinions. After students read an article they will write an essay giving their viewpoint.  At the beginning students will read a short article, and will have ten minutes to write their essay, as they have more practice their essay will increase.

 

Primary Textbooks:

Ø  Temas. AP Spanish Language and Culture. Parthena Draggett, Cole Conlin, Max Ehrsam, Elizabeth Millan. Vista Higher Learning, 2014.

Ø  AP Spanih.  Preparing for the Language and Culture Examination. Jose M. Diaz. Pearson, 2014.

Ø  Spanish Four Years, Janet F. Hiller. Amsco Publication, 2016.  This book is mainly used to review grammar.

Supplementary texts and resources

Barron’s.  How to prepare for the AP Spanish Advanced Placement Exam, 2nd ed.; Amiry, Laila, Hauppauge, New York:  Barron’s Educational Series, 2006.  This book will only be used several weeks prior to the AP exam.

AP Spanish Language and Culture. College Board.

Released AP Exams from College Board.

 

Internet: Grammar review, listening and culture tools

 

Audio : Music and video recordings 

Vicente Fernandez

Shakira

Juan Gabriel

Luis Miguel

 

Supplementary reading texts : Magazines and newspapers

El Universal

Las chicas de alambre by Jordi Sierra i Fabra.