Current Events Advanced Spanish
Comparison/Contrast
Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the
cultures studied and their own.
With this standard in mind, we will use our current events in a new way this year. Each turn in, you will find, and use,
one current event about, and published in, your Spanish speaking country. You will also use a second one from the
United States. You will focus on one of the 6 main themes Global Challenges, Contemporary Life, Science and
Technology, Beauty and Aesthetics, Families and Communities, Personal and Public Identities each turn in. We will use
the two different articles to understand ways that our cultures deal with situations that are noteworthy enough to be
news topics.
Once the article are obtained, you will create a Venn Diagram analyzing how the information contained
compares/contrast in the areas of the 5 journalistic questions, who what when where why.
After doing a good analysis, you will proceed to write up your current event showing how each question either
compares or contrast.
Identification
Introduction Paragraph
Comparisons- show how the two stories are similar on a particular question before moving to a new question.
Contrast – show how the two stories are different on a particular question before moving on to a new question.
Closing paragraph repeat how the two articles compare and contrast
Current Events are due on the 1st and 15th of the month or the next class day. If we are not in class on the
due date, then you turn in the next class day.
The turn in on the 1st of the month will use a Spanish article from your country and will be written in
English. There will be two grades given, the first grade will be based on the Current event Rubric (200
points). A second grade will be given based on a list of 30 words, people, organizations or events that were
necessary to understand for the article to make sense. Those items on the list are to be translated or
explained in English and are worth 10 points each for a total of 300 points.
For the turn in on the 15th of the month, we will again use one article from the United States and one from
your Spanish speaking country. This time the article will be read in English and the final
comparison/contrast write up will be in Spanish. Again there will be two grades, the first will be taken from
the Current Event Rubric (200 points). The second grade this time will be a Spanish Written Rubric grade
that will assess your use of Spanish in the write up (400 points)
No late work is accepted unless due to an excused absence. Then it is due the next time you are in class.
Turn in Packet Contents
1) Write up in Spanish
2) Current Event Rubric
3) Copy of the 2 articles
Grade
200 points for the Current Event
Write up
Name:_____________________ Turn In Date: __________________ Country: __________________
Publication Date: ____________ Theme: ___________________
Source:_____________________________________________________________________________
Current Event Rubric Spanish III
0
1
Not included
2
Insufficient
3
Basic
Introductio
n
paragraph
Who?
No
Attempt
made
No
Attempt
made
Single
sentence
2 Sentences
3-4 sentences
No attempt at
comparison/
contrast
When?
No
Attempt
made
No attempt at
comparison/
contrast
Where?
No
Attempt
made
No attempt at
comparison/
contrast
What?
No
Attempt
made
No attempt at
comparison/
contrast
Why?
No
Attempt
made
No attempt at
comparison/
contrast
Closing
paragraph
No
Attempt
made
Single
sentence
Attempted but did
not succeed in
making a
comparison/ contrast
Attempted but did
not succeed in
making a
comparison/ contrast
Attempted but did
not succeed in
making a
comparison/ contrast
Attempted but did
not succeed in
making a
comparison/ contrast
Attempted but did
not succeed in
making a
comparison/ contrast
2 sentences
Very simple
statements used in
the comparison/
contrast
Very simple
statements used in
the comparison/
contrast
Very simple
statements used in
the comparison/
contrast
Very simple
statements used in
the comparison/
contrast
Very simple
statements used in
the comparison/
contrast
3-4 sentences
Total points (140)
________
+ Venn Diagram (30pts) ________
+Original Articles (30 pts) ________
Final Grade ___________
4
Detailed and
interesting
5 or more sentences
Thoughtfully and
completely
compared/contrasted
Thoughtfully and
completely
compared/contrasted
Thoughtfully and
completely
compared/contrasted
Thoughtfully and
completely
compared/contrasted
Thoughtfully and
completely
compared/contrasted
5 or more sentences
28=140
27=133
26=126
25=119
24=112
23=105
22=101
21=98
20=94
19=89
18=85
17=80
16=75
15=72
14=70
13=66
12=62
11=58
10=54
9=50
8=46
7=42
6=34
5=26
4=18
3=10
2=5
1=0