This is the first unit I teach in my current Spanish 3 course and it is based on the idea of housing. The unit is a bit of a combination of what used to be in the textbook and what we found in terms of authentic resources. While I like the theme itself, I think the grammar doesn't really work in this unit but there's always a work in progress.
The unit can do statement is I can explain the purpose of a home. Here is the template that I used to plan out my unit as well as the student workbook that I give my students that includes interpretive activities and some interpersonal or presentational ones as well. Part 1: I can classify items in the home as either necessities or desires In this first part of the unit we are working with vocabulary related to parts of the house and items in the house and deciding if we really need all of those things in our homes. The main authentic resources I use include an article about what you need when moving to a new house, a video about a group of people living on Las Islas Uros with very little material things and an article called Dónde Duermen Los Niños that talks about childhood bedrooms from around the world. The language structure for this part of the unit is the present tense as we describe what there we see in the home as well as describing what we do in our home. The assessment for this part of the unit is an interpretive reading. Students receive a fragment they haven't read yet of the article Dónde Duermen Los Niños and answer some interpretive questions. Part 2: I can describe how homes used to be in different parts of the world The second part of the unit takes us back in the past to learn more about how homes used to be in the U.S. and abroad. The main resources I use for this part of the unit include an article and video about the Patio Central and videos about architecture of the Mayas, Incas and Aztecs. There is also a PACE lesson here to introduce our grammar structure of the imperfect tense. Students read descriptions of people's childhood homes and match them to the pictures. They then use those sentences to co-construct the imperfect tense and describe their childhood homes. The preterite tense is also used when appropriate to talk about what changed in their home or a specific memory they have of their childhood home. The assessment for this part of the unit is an interpersonal speaking (TALK). Students receive a picture of a home and they will role play pretending that was their home when they were a child. Without showing their picture to their group mates, students will have a conversation to learn more about their homes by asking and answering questions. Part 3: I can explain what someone did to help their hometown. The third part of the unit focuses on the hometown and how people can give back to where they live. The resources for this part of the unit include an article and video on Meghan Markle helping different communities and a video of Shakira helping her hometown. There is also a PACE lesson to introduce our grammar structure of the preterite tense vs imperfect. Students read two different paragraphs talking about hometown heroes and students summarize what these people did and justify whether they are heroes or not. The assessment for this part of the unit is a presentational writing. Students will write a scholarship essay where they choose someone who had an impact in their lives and describe what this person did to help them or their hometown. Part 4: I can explain why it is important to help people who don't have homes To end the unit, we learn about and discuss homelessness to compare what having a home is like in comparison to not having one. The resources include a video differentiating a home from a house, an article talking about the causes and classifications of homelessness, a video about homelessness in the U.S. and an article discussing what Barcelona is doing to help homeless teens. There is also another PACE lesson to introduce the present subjunctive in impersonal expressions. Students read a paraphrased WikiHow article that talks about how to give back to the homeless and they summarize the information. There are two assessments for this part of the unit. The first is a presentational writing in which they have to choose a moment from the past year or so when they volunteered and write a journal entry explaining what they did and why it was impactful. This will be a polished writing task meaning they have access to all materials and can write drafts before turning in a final product. There is also an interpersonal speaking assessment where students discuss whether or not WHS should have a 50 hour community service requirement for graduation. 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 vs imperfect I do a lot of structured input activities to help them focus on meaning and forms •This unit takes me through all of first term and is in total about a 9 week unit. •Weekly we go to the language lab and complete a listening assessment that is an average score for the entire term •I may skip some of the assessments if I feel like they're mastering the skills and don't need to show it for a grade.
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