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
1 Comment
Viviana Stokes-Mendoza
10/23/2023 06:03:04 pm
Do you sell your units?
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