I'm embracing the idea of sharing and posting my unit plans for the 2019-2020 school year. I am well aware that these are anything but perfect. They are loosely based on our textbook and is a curriculum that I won't be teaching this time next year. However I know that a lot of districts start by adapting their textbook to be more proficiency based and if this helps anyone out then I'm happy to do so. The units are: 1. Friendship 2. Daily Routine (Benefits of Travel) 3. Food 4. Celebrations 5. In The Doctor's Office (in development) 6. Technology (in development) I also am well aware that these are topic based and not thematic units and that's why I'm looking forward to my units the following year.
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The fourth unit in our current Spanish 2 curriculum is on celebrations. This is such a broad word and could take so many different routes. Truth be told, I wish this unit had deeper, more culturally rich topics but as we adjust our curriculum for the future I know it will transform nicely.
The unit starts with the idea of self and talks about birthdays and branches out to discuss Quinceañeras, weddings, Carnaval, Inti Raymi, Feria de las Flores, Fiesta de Vendimia and Día de los Muertos. The can do statement for the unit is I can compare how I celebrate life's moments to how groups in the Spanish speaking world celebrate life's moments. Here is the unit template that I plan to use and the student workbook that includes the interpretive resources as well as some interpersonal and presentational tasks. Part 1: I can summarize what happened at a birthday party. The unit begins by focusing on birthday celebrations. We start by talking about their most recent birthdays and transition to discussing the origins/uses of the piñata. From there we learn more about the quinceañera and compare/contrast the celebration to a sweet sixteen birthday party. Our targeted grammar is still the preterite tense and we are introducing the él/ella and ellos/ellas forms of the verbs to talk about what different people did during their birthday celebrations. The assessment for this part of the unit is an interpretive reading. Students read an article about gifts for a quinceañera and answer interpretive questions to identify the main idea, supporting details and allow for some cultural comparisons. Part 2: I can exchange information about what happened at a family event. The unit continues to discuss weddings which I found to be oddly placed for freshman/sophomores. I found that very few of them had attended a wedding or event thought about weddings. I also felt that this topic didn't seem inclusive to all students in the classroom. I changed the performance assessment and performance indicator to talk about family events so that students could choose whether or not to discuss a wedding, birthday party, holiday party or graduation. Thankfully a lot of the vocabulary was transferable and allowed for students to be able to choose the celebration they felt most connected/comfortable discussing. Our targeted structure was still the preterite tense using all different forms to talk about the las celebration they attended. The performance assessment for this part of the unit is an interpersonal speaking task (TALK). Students are in groups of 4 and talk about the last family event they attended. Part 3: I can explain what happened at a celebration in another country To end the unit we have a common performance assessment that I am required to give. In case you can't tell by my tone, it's actually my least favorite assessment that we give in our department. Students are to watch a video of a Latin American celebration (a quinceañera, a graduation, a wedding, a carnaval celebration or a Día de los Muertos montage) and write a summary of what they saw/what happened in the video. Despite this not mimicking any real-life task, the third part of the unit is to prepare students to be able to complete this assessment. To do so, we learn about different celebrations from Latin America through readings and then apply our knowledge as we watch videos of the celebrations and summarize what happened in them. The targeted grammar is still the preterite tense with some imperfect being introduced as well. Other Information: •I have students create their own vocabulary list as we go through the unit •I do not give vocabulary or grammar quizzes. I may do a "can do check" where I ask students to prove they can do a specific unit can do and I'll collect and assess one or two categories from the rubric which may include vocabulary or grammar. •To help with the preterite tense I do a lot of structured input activities •This unit Is about a month and a half or so (I'd estimate 7-8 weeks) •Weekly we go to the language lab and complete a listening assessment that is an average score for the entire term The third unit in our current Spanish 2 curriculum is on food. Somehow in the year 1 curriculum as it's written our students aren't exposed to food. It becomes kind of an odd mis-match as our performance goal is intermediate-mid yet it's the first time they see food which lends itself easier to novice level tasks.
The unit essentially is getting at the idea of a restaurant experience while incorporating cultural information about Spain and Latin America. I organized this unit around the can do statement of I can exchange information about some memorable restaurant experiences. Here is the unit template that I used to plan and the student workbook is a work in progress that will include the interpretive resources as well as some interpersonal or presentational tasks. Part 1: I can select items to eat from a breakfast menu. The unit begins by focusing on breakfast foods and building vocabulary around this meal. We investigate breakfasts from around the world and view breakfast menus from the Spanish speaking world. I also do a lot of structured input activities at this point where students are exposed to the preterite tense in the yo/tú forms of common verbs (not just regular verbs because who speaks in only regular verbs). The assessment for this part of the unit is an interpretive reading. Students read an infographic about breakfast and answer interpretive questions to learn about the main idea and some supporting details. Part 2: I can describe what I ate at a Spanish or Latin American restaurant. The unit continues to discuss lunch and dinner foods and we really begin our cultural exploration here. I introduce the concept of tapas and we explore tapas through photos and menus and I sometimes will make some at home and bring them in. We also talk about typical food of Puerto Rico and we really explore the difference between Spanish and Latin American food. Our resources vary from pictures of school lunches to menus from Spanish or Latin American restaurants to reading Yelp and Trip Advisor reviews of restaurants in different countries. In terms of language structures we continue working with the preterite tense and realistically we only stay in the yo/tú forms as more verbs are introduced. They are also working with the words era/estaba/había to describe food. The assessment for this part of the unit is a presentational writing task. Students write their own Yelp review of a local Spanish or Latin American restaurant that they went to and describe what happened and how the food was. Part 3: I can compare snacks in the United States to snacks in Spanish speaking countries This is a quick part of our unit where we talk about snacks and desserts through looking at pictures and describing what we see and explaining our preferences in terms of snacking (salty vs sweet vs healthy). Students work briefly with comparatives and superlatives to compare dishes. There is no performance assessment for this part of the unit. Part 4: I can have a conversation about the last restaurant experience I had To end the unit we focus on having conversations about restaurants to bring everything together. Through lots of conversational activities such as Ask Ask Switch, Give One Get One and role plays we work on that back and forth of a conversation to ask about people's past restaurant experiences. The continued language structure here is the preterite tense with continued emphasis on the yo/tú forms. The assessment for this part of the unit is an interpersonal speaking task. Students are in groups of 2 and ask questions to learn more about their last restaurant experiences with the goal of picking a restaurant that they can go to in the future together. Post Unit: Following this part of the unit we have our mid year reflection. This is a time where students go to their portfolios and choose two pieces of interpersonal or presentational work where they've shown a lot of growth. They also answer some reflection questions and set a goal for semester 2. Other Information: •I have students create their own vocabulary list as we go through the unit •I do not give vocabulary or grammar quizzes. I may do a "can do check" where I ask students to prove they can do a specific unit can do and I'll collect and assess one or two categories from the rubric which may include vocabulary or grammar. •To help with the preterite tense I do a lot of structured input activities •This unit Is about a month and a half or so (I'd estimate 7-8 weeks) •Weekly we go to the language lab and complete a listening assessment that is an average score for the entire term The second unit in our current Spanish 2 curriculum is based on the daily routine. To be frank, I have always found this unit to be anything but proficiency based. Yes you can find all of the authentic resources that you want but in reality this unit is typically written to teach reflexive verbs. It's never good to go into a unit with grammar as your driving force but for a lot of us...this is our reality at the moment until we change our curriculum. End tangent lol.
Our school has a lot of exchange programs and often host students from different countries. With that in mind, I organized this unit around the can do statement of I can discuss the benefits and challenges of experiencing another community. Here is the unit template that I used to plan and here is the student workbook that includes the interpretive resources as well as some interpersonal or presentational tasks. Part 1: I can have a conversation about the benefits of traveling abroad. To start the unit we look into the benefits of traveling abroad and taking vacations. We discuss what different kind of vacations people can take and why they are beneficial to people as a whole. The main resources used in this part of the unit include a video discussing the benefits of vacations and an article explaining why studying abroad is beneficial. The main language structures for this unit continue include the present tense to continue describing their ideal vacations and also looking at double verb constructions like puedo + infinitive, voy + a + infinitive, debo + infinitive, quiero + infinitive. The assessment for this part of the unit is an interpersonal speaking (TALK). Students will be in groups of 3-4 and ask questions to learn more about each others' ideal vacations. Part 2: I can list items that I need while studying abroad. The unit continues with the study abroad/vacationing theme and looks now at what you need when going on vacation. A lot of this vocabulary would have been introduced as part of the daily routine but this context makes more sense and is more interesting than talking about the bathroom. I also chose to have our class engage in a pretend exchange program with Cuba to add any resemblance of culture to this unit. The main resources used in this part of the unit include an information sheet on Cuba, a video of daily life on the streets of Cuba, an article about what to do in Havana, an article that gives tips on how to best pack your bag and an infographic that talks about the steps to getting your passport. The main language structures for this part of the unit are continued from the first part with present tense and double verb constructions. There is a non-graded assessment for this part of the unit. Students are asked to list their top 10 most important items for a study abroad trip and justify their reasoning for their top 3. I collect this as a formative check. Part 3: I can exchange information about what I do in the morning and at night. Here comes the daily routine that is required in the curriculum. To continue with the theme of an exchange program in Cuba, I have students imagine they are going to be staying with a host family and need to discuss their living habits with them. The resources include a PACE style lesson on reflexive verbs where they receive an email from their potential family, videos of people showing their daily routines and an article on 6 things you should not do immediately after waking up. The language structure for this part of the unit is reflexive verbs with emphasis really on the yo and tú forms and some exposure to the other forms. The assessment for this part of the unit is an interpersonal speaking task. One student pretends to be the student studying abroad while the other is from the host family. They work together to come up with a plan to share one bathroom with the whole family. Part 4: I can describe elements that make Cuba unique. To end the unit, I wanted to highlight some truly interesting information from Cuba in relation to the religion of Santeria. The main resources for this part of the unit include pictures of the gods from Santeria, a reading describing what the religion is and a song called Mister Don't Touch The Banana. The targeted structure for this unit is the present tense to describe what they see and what people do in Santeria. There is a non-graded assessment for this part of the unit. Students role play a situation in Miami where they run into a Santeria display and one student knows nothing about it and the other one needs to describe the religion to the other person. Other Information: •I have students create their own vocabulary list as we go through the unit •I do not give vocabulary or grammar quizzes. I may do a "can do check" where I ask students to prove they can do a specific unit can do and I'll collect and assess one or two categories from the rubric which may include vocabulary or grammar. •To help with reflexive verbs I do a lot of structured input activities •This unit Is about a month or so (I'd estimate 5-6 weeks) •Weekly we go to the language lab and complete a listening assessment that is an average score for the entire term This is the first unit I teach in my current Spanish 2 course and it is based on the idea of friendship. The unit was originally written as the typical "intro unit" but as the Creative Language Class says you should ditch that review unit and start teaching.
The overall goal for the unit is I can describe what I do with my friends. Here is the template that I used to plan out my unit as well as all of the student workbook that I give my students that includes interpretive activities and some of the interpersonal or presentational ones as well. Part 1: I can explain to someone why I am a good friend In this first part of the unit we are working on classifying characteristics and actions that someone does as either those of a good friend or a bad friend. The main resources I use include a fragment from an article on qualities of a good friend, an online test that tells you whether you are a good friend or not and a video from El Hormiguero that talks about strange things that celebrities like. All of this is combined with the language structures of the present tense with emphasis on the yo and tú forms of regular and some irregular verbs based on what's relevant for the unit. For the assessment students are entering a contest to explain how they are the best friend to someone else and they need to explain their reasoning. Part 2: I can classify actions with friends as positive or negative based on their impact The unit continues with more of an interpretive focus. The main resources include infographics on bullying, the song Échame La Culpa by Luis Fonsi and Demi Lovato and a video that talks about what you can do for a fun night with your friends. For the infographics I am using Leslie Grahn's idea of having a Tiered Text where students read infographics that are at their level. The language structures continue with the present tense and we begin to add in the él/ella forms and the ellos/ellas forms of regular and irregular verbs based on what's relevant for the unit. For the assessment students are going to read a different infographic on bullying and answer interpretive questions. Part 3: I can exchange information about what I do with my friends. I end the unit with students doing a lot of speaking as they discuss what is fun to do with friends. The only interpretive resource I use in this section is a weather website where students investigate the weather in Spain and talk about what they do for fun in that weather (this is because the textbook used to require weather to be reviewed here...). The language structures continue with the present tense and adds in the nosotros forms. The assessment is a required common assessment amongst all Spanish 2 teachers and is an email about a student coming to WHS who wants to know more about the school and their friends. Other Information: •I have students create their own vocabulary list as we go through the unit •I do not give vocabulary or grammar quizzes. I may do a "can do check" where I ask students to prove they can do a specific unit can do and I'll collect and assess one or two categories from the rubric which may include vocabulary or grammar. •To help with the present tense I do a lot of structured input activities to help them focus on meaning and forms •This unit takes me about a month to complete after the first few days of school and a quick review of what a proficiency classroom looks like. |
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