World Languages Department

Essential Knowledge and Skills

Advanced Placement Spanish is a full immersion course designed to provide a unique experience for the exceptional student during the fourth level of high school Spanish. Every student enrolled in this course is expected to participate in taking the Advanced Placement Spanish Language Exam in the spring of the respective school year. Thus, as students work to polish their writing and speaking skills, as well as to improve their ability to listen and respond appropriately to both written and spoken prompts, an appreciation for the Spanish-speaking peoples and cultures of the world, their geographical locations, surroundings, and their political influences on modern societies will also continue to pique the students’ imaginations and interests. Students’ written and spoken work will reflect a level of thought and response worthy of a third-semester college level Spanish class.

Indicators of Student Learning

Upon the completion of the course, students will:

• Conjugate learned verbs as necessary to communicate in the present indicative, preterit, present progressive, past imperfect, imperative (formal and informal), future, conditional, pluperfect, and present/imperfect subjunctive tenses.

• Strong knowledge of idiomatic Spanish, including appropriate use of object pronouns both direct and indirect, demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, genderization of nouns and adjectives, and appropriate use of articles.

• Discuss their lives, in spoken and written contexts, daily activities, relationships with friends and family and opinions and observations regarding current events, and public and global issues.

• Be able to read, comprehend and discuss progressively more complex written texts, from the students’ texts, from Latin newspapers and magazines, and from other literature with which they will have been provided, or that they will have been encouraged to seek out and digest throughout the year.

• Express knowledge and interest regarding similarities and differences within various lifestyles and cultures of native Spanish speakers, especially in relation to literary and historical figures, artists, and real and imaginary characters in the textbooks, along with supporting information either studied in class or discovered through student research.

• Understand the importance of continuing to develop one’s bilingualism in today’s world.

• Communicate in Spanish by using the four skills i.e., reading, writing, speaking, and listening during class, and on their own time.

• Students are encouraged throughout the year to seek Spanish-immersion community service projects in order to better fulfill this expectation.

Technology

• Readily access the Internet for Web code assignments and other online resources.

• Research through the internet cultural and geographical information regarding various countries or regions featured within the text, discussed in literature, or presented as topics of research in regard to current events or world affairs, in order to prepare written and oral reports and/or further their knowledge of assigned information as well as in preparation for the Advanced Placement exam.

• Access various practice sites as assigned by the instructor to further develop their ability to conjugate verbs, to memorize vocabulary, or to improve their general oral and written communication skills in the target language.

• Use a tape recorder to record their voices and to practice reading aloud, responding to informal and formal conversational questions (prompts), and generally working on improving and authenticating their Spanish accents.

• Use a video camera to record role-playing, to perform skits to present to the class, and to prepare products to fulfill assignments that require preparing authentic presentations.

• Participate in listening exercises on compact disc, striving to develop their ability to understand and respond to spoken Spanish.

Assessment

Upon the completion of the course, students will:

• Maintain journal

• Spanish will be spoken at all times except for specific reasons.

• Demonstrate competency in reading and responding to quizzes, tests and written exams.

• Essays, compositions and oral presentations on Latin/Hispanic culture that they have not previously experienced before.

• Complete assignments from the student textbooks, as well as weekly composition/essay assignments, which will be handed in for grading in a timely manner.

• Participate in class discussions and round tables on literary topics assigned by the instructor, and as well as any other topics that rise according to the occasion, taken from students’ textbooks or provided in handouts.

• Be prepared to discuss, present, email, or print off any Internet or other technology assignments, as requested by the instructor.

• Learn five new words translated into English every three weeks

• Choose an article from a Hispanic newspaper or Hispanic radio station, in order to write a 60 words summary and a personal opinion about what they read.

• Share information in class through an informal or formal speaking activity.

• Turn in an essay about some aspect of the Latin/Hispanic Culture that the students have not experimented before.

• Spanish will be spoken at all times except for specific reasons. If the students need help they must ask for it in Spanish. At the end of each quarter they will get an effort grade for trying to do so.