Course Overview
The Advanced Placement Spanish Language class will be conducted in Spanish. Students will develop all four language skills- reading, writing, listening and speaking- while studying a variety of topics based primarily on the units from the text, Perspectivas, Temas de hoy y de siempre, sexta edición. Students will complete readings and written assignments nightly, and will be active participants in all class activities and discussions. Students will complete at least one major written project and write one formal essay in class during each unit, and will also make at least one formal oral presentation during each unit. Students will also view several short videos relating to the topics to help develop listening skills. Additionally, students will be required to complete weekly writing, reading and listening assignments outside of class.
Students will develop their language skills, increase their vocabulary, improve their structural accuracy and master complex structures in such a way that they can achieve success on the AP exam given in May.
Díaz, José M. Listening Comprehension Skills for Intermediate and Advanced Students. Longman Publishing Company, 1995.
Díaz, José M.; Leicher-Prieto, Margarita; Nissenberg, Gilda. AP* Spanish: Preparing for the Language Examination (Third Edition). Pearson Education, Inc/ Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
Kiddle, Mary Ellen; Wegmann, Brenda. Perspectivas (Sexta edición): Temas de hoy y de siempre. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1998.
Levy,
Stephen L. Español Esencial 3:
Fundamentals of Spanish.
Supplemental Books (Used regularly):
Jarvis, Lebredo, Mena-Ayllón. Aventuras literarias: fifth edition. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. (With tape program for listening)
Rooks, George; Scholberg, Diana; Scholberg, Kenneth. Conversar sin parar. Newbury House Publishers, 1982.
Video Program* (to accompany Perspectivas): Videomundo. Thomson Learning.
*(The video program has an accompanying “Viewer’s Manual” [Heinle & Heinle, Thomson Learning. 2002]. There are vocabulary building activities, listening comprehension activities and topics for discussion and compositions for each segment.
Audio Programs: To accompany Listening Comprehension Skills (Díaz) and Preparing for the Language Examination (Díaz).
Internet Resources:
Grammar
(Teacher website for grammar review)
Verb practice www.conjuguemos.com
Various teacher activities @ www.quia.com
Grammar, pronunciation and verb review: www.studyspanish.com
Links to some of everything: http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/rsummit/spanish/sp5apvocabgrammar.htm
Speaking:
Directed response questions: http://www.learnalanguage.org/apspanish/
Listening
BBC News (Audio & Video): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/news/
OneWorldRadio: http://es.radio.oneworld.net/
Radio Naciones Unidas: http://www.un.org/radio/es/
La nación: http://nacion.com/
Index-Spanish Newspapers Online: http://www.acu-adsum.org/jlb.periodicos.esp.html
El mundo: http://www.elmundo.es/
Spanish Language magazines: Selecciones del Reader’s Digest, Authentik en español (with listening program)
As the students’ skills develop, they will incorporate more complex structures and vocabularies.
Speaking:
During discussions,
students will be encouraged and expected to use “Useful Expressions for
Informal Speaking” (Díaz: Preparing
for The Language Examination Appendix E).
Listening:
Writing Skills:
As students develop their writing skills, they will incorporate “Words Used to Connect Ideas” (Díaz: Preparing for the Language Examination Appendix D).
Introductory unit: ¿Quiénes somos? A brief review of summer homework, bio-poem, personal opinions.
For all following units, the objective is: Students will develop the language skills and master the vocabulary and structures necessary to allow them to understand authentic materials about the various topics, and produce structurally correct language projects which are increasingly rich in vocabulary and complex structures.
Perspectivas Capítulo 1: La naturaleza (Videomundo segments 6, 9, 10 & 20)
Major Projects:
Perspectivas Capítulo 2: Cambios sociales (Videomundo segments 2, 8, 12, 18, 19, 21)
Major Projects:
Major project: After researching the role of women in a Spanish-speaking country, students will write a short story or a journal demonstrating what life would be like for a woman (women) in that country. They will then present the story, using graphics, to the class.
Major project: Students
will develop an ad campaign supporting one side of a two-sided topic. The campaign will include a TV/radio ad, a
“letter to the editor” and an appearance on a talk show. (Students will take turns playing the role of
host.)
Perspectivas Capítulo 5: Arte y fantasía (Videomundo segments: 1-5)
Major project: Students will prepare for the grand opening of a museum exhibit about their favorite Hispanic artist or artistic style. Students will create a visual/written display- as if it really were a museum exhibit- about the artist or style. Students will also make a one page add announcing the opening of the exhibit, and will create a 30 second radio announcement for the exhibition.
Major project: Students
will assume the role of an immigrant, or the child of one, from a Latin
American country. Then they will prepare
an autobiographical short story/journal that demonstrates some of the issues
and challenges hispanic immigrants encounter,
including why they left their homes.
Then they will give a presentation/speech to the class detailing “their
experience”.
¿Quién es don Quijote?
·
After reading excerpts from the novel, students
will create a modern day character with Quijote’s traits and create a short
story introducing him and telling in detail one adventure/mishap.
¿Cómo podemos salvar el mundo? Un viaje al futuro
Over the course of the year, students will complete all chapters in the workbook Español Esencial 3.
During the year, the following grammatical units will be reviewed/taught in the order presented:
q Over the summer, students will complete chapters 1-5 (all the simple, indicative tenses), and take corresponding quizzes at www.conjuguemos.com.
q Chapter 20: Negation, Interrogatives, Exclamations
q Chapter 15: Nouns and Articles
q Chapter 14: Constructions with Infinitives
q Chapter 10: The Subjunctive Mood in Noun Clauses
q Teacher Unit: Subjunctive in Adjective Clauses
q Teacher Unit: Subjunctive after Certain Conjunctions
q Chapter 8: Ser and Estar; Adjectives Used with Ser and Estar
q Chapter 16: Adjectives and Adverbs; Comparisons: Superlatives
q Chapter 17: Demonstrative Adjectives and Pronouns, Possession
q Chapter 18: Personal Pronouns
q Chapter 13: Commands, Pronouns with commands
q Chapter 6: Reflexive Verbs; Commands with Reflexive Verbs
q Chapter 11: The Imperfect and Pluperfect Subjunctive, Sequence of Tenses; Si Clauses (Teaching)
q Chapter 12: The Subjunctive with Conjunctions, Adverbial Clauses and Adjectival Clauses
q Chapter 19: Relative Pronouns
The final unit of the course is strictly exam preparation. The text for this unit will be the AP Spanish: Preparation for the Language Exam, Third Edition (Díaz, Leicher-Prieto, Nissenberg, 2007) and the accompanying audio program.