World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
World Languages Pacing Guide
This course is designed for students who have not taken a foreign language in middle school. The course exposes them to the 5
languages offered at the high school level in WS/FCS. The objective of the course is not to develop proficiency in any one
language, but to expose students to various languages and cultures and the process of learning a language. Through this course,
students will be able to make a more informed decision concerning which language they might prefer to take in high school.
For this reason, this guide does not include the Italian section of the text, since we do not offer Italian in WS/FCS.
The languages covered by the course are Latin, Japanese, German, French, and Spanish. Please note that this pacing guide does
not follow the order of the text. The guide was designed this way so that students are exposed to the languages with typically
lower enrollments before they register for 9th grade courses. Using this guide, the students are introduced to Latin, Japanese,
German, and some French before the high school registration period begins.
It is not expected that the teacher be proficient in all of the languages taught through this course. Training is being offered to
help teachers with each language. Also, the textbook audio program is a helpful resource for pronunciation of the language.
Teachers may choose to work with colleagues in the WS/FCS to help them with units with which they are less comfortable.
Teachers may wish to contact the high school teachers of these languages to see what assistance or ideas they might be able to
provide. Parents can also be a helpful resource. A parent survey could be sent home to see who has experience with the
languages/cultures presented in the course and might be willing to share with the students.
This guide is designed for an A/B day schedule. Please monitor your pacing so that the guide may be revised and updated
as needed.
1
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Theme/
Time
Text Lesson
Introduction
Aug 25-Sept
9
Part 1
Communication
Suggested Activities



Part 2
Languages of
the World


Part 3
Words



Part 4
The Structure of
Language

Resources
Have students make their own
pictographs
Show samples of written
language – have students guess
what they are
Brainstorm gestures – how we
communicate without words
Telephone game – points out
need for listening well and how
language changes as it’s used
Give students a map to color
code and label by language
Brainstorm different words used
in other parts of the
country/other English speaking
countries for same item
Give list of words – guess which
are more recent/oldest
Give lists of words – guess
which are in the dictionary and
which are not
Give samples of oral language
and have students guess the
language
2
Chapter
1
Decades words added to dictionary:
1940’s words: television, snorkel, bikini
1950’s words: hash browns, junk mail, weirdo
1960’s words: hippie, instant replay, space shuttle
1970’s words: diskette, chairperson, video game
1980’s words: emoticon, compact disk, virtual reality
1990’s words: carjacking, scrunchy, web site, bad hair
day (from www.randomhouse.com/words/newwords)
Words in dictionary: threepeat, artsy, blading,
emoticon, jordanesque
Not in dictionary but are used: ginormous, insongnia,
confuzzled, woot, chillax, phonecrastinate, slickery, snirt,
ESPN-onage, polkadodge (from http://mw.com/info/favorite.htm)
Use CD’s from later in the text for oral language samples
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson


German
Sept 12-Oct
27
Part 1
Greeting People




Brainstorm famous Germans

Have students ask peers for
items politely, and the peer
should give the student the item
Have students list the items in
their desk or book bag orally
and/or in writing
Bingo with the classroom items


Part 2
Saying Goodbye
Part 3
Classroom
Objects


Chapter
Discuss how we know the
differences in a
question/statement/exclamation,
etc in English (tone, inflection,
punctuation)
Cognates – give students
cognates from various languages
and have them figure out the
meaning
Recall intro info – is this a
Romance Language?
Why is English similar?
Find examples of German in the
community (music, etc.)
Circle game to practice greetings
Discuss local area with German
roots (Old Salem)
TKL activity
Show a short video on Germany


Resources
3
Circle game: Have students stand in a circle around the
6
room. Model the activity by walking around the circle to p.228
a student, Say “Tag, (student’s name)”. Get student to
say “Guten Tag, Frau___”. You say “Wie geht’s?”
Student says “Sehr gut, danke. Wie geht es Ihnen?” You
say “Sehr gut, danke.” Then the student walks around
the circle and stops in front of a peer. They repeat the
conversation, and will need prompting from you. Do this
several times so that many students have a chance to
practice the dialogue. (“Sehr gut” can be substituted by
the other phrases given in the text.)
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson


Part 4
Counting



Part 5
Speaking
politely


Part 6
Telling Time




(use pictures on the cards, not
English words)
Pictionary game on board
Now you see it, now you don’t
(tell/write what is on the table or
overhead after having a minute
to look at items)
Math activities – do problems in
German
Exchange rates with euro/dollar
Cost of classroom items
Set up a pretend restaurant in
class – have students role play
ordering/being a waiter – use
pictures of food or plastic food
to give the students their order
Bring in various types of wurst
for students to try
Paper plate game
Around the World
Time Bingo
Pop Up
Resources
Flashcards
Teacher made sheet that shows classroom items and
prices for each (use numbers they have learned). Ask
how much particular items cost; give a budget and have
them figure out what items they can buy – have them say
what they will buy and how much it costs
Paper Plate game: Make about 15 clocks with different
times out of paper plates. Make sentence strips with the
corresponding times written out in words. Place the
“clocks” on the floor, spacing them out to allow for
movement. Have 15 students (or half the class) stand
over a plate (not on it, or they will rip the plate). Walk
around the room having the rest of the students pull a
sentence strip out of a bag or envelope and read the time
sentence. Whichever student is standing over the
corresponding plate has to sit down. Count down from 5
4
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Resources
(in German) to allow the remaining students to move
around to a new plate, then have the next seated student
pull a sentence. Continue until 1 student is left standing,
then allow the groups to switch so that all have a turn to
stand over the plates.
Pop Up: 2 teams, write times on index cards. Each
person has a card, teacher calls out time in German, first
student to stand up and say time in German gets point.
Part 7
Days of the
Week


Part 8
Months/Seasons


Part 9
Weather



Part 10
Who I am and
Where I’m

Use a calendar to ask on what
day various dates fall (say the
dates using German numbers)
Have students tell favorite day of
the week
Have students tell their birthdays
in German
Classify the months with
corresponding seasons, holidays
Copy a weather report from the
newspaper – ask the students
what the weather is like in
various towns/parts of the
country; also ask temperatures
Have students give typical
weather for the seasons/months
orally and/or in writing
Have students convert temps C
to F
Have students choose a German
city/country to research. Have
them present the information
5
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
From


Japanese
Nov 3-Dec 2
Part 1
Introductions
Part 2
Greeting People




Resources
Chapter
pretending they are from that
place.
Role play being at Oktoberfest
and meeting crowds of people.
Have the students say where
they are from as they meet the
other people.
Circle game – use the circle
game from Part 1, but have the
students ask and answer where
they are from.
Begin class as they would in
Japan – students stand until
teacher greets the class and the
class responds, then they are
allowed to sit (cultural – shows
the politeness and respect shown
in schools)
Have students design kimonos
Circle game (as described in
German unit) Be sure to include
bowing
Provide model conversations –
have the students decide whether
the 2 people have seen each
other recently and what time of
day it is
6
7
p.264
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 3
Saying Goodbye


Give students the English
Alphabet in Katakana table at
right – let them write their
initials in Japanese (note that this
should only be used for initials,
not spelling names since that is
done with phonetic symbols in
Japanese)
Allow students to translate their
names using the website listed at
right and then write their names
in Japanese (katakana)
Resources
Chapter
As Japanese is a language of syllables, it is not easy to translate letters.
The translation must be done based on the pronunciation, as in the chart
below. The odd thing is that a single letter such as "W" takes five
syllables to pronounce, and would be written [phonetically] in Romaji
as: daburyu.
(table and info from
http://www.takase.com/Names/HowToWritePart1.htm)
To translate names to Japanese:
http://www.japanesetranslator.co.uk/your-name-in-japanese/
7
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 4
Classroom
Objects



Part 5
Numbers





Part 6
Telling Time




Have students ask peers for
items politely, and the peer
should give the student the item
Have students list the items in
their desk or book bag orally
Bingo with the classroom items
(use pictures on the cards, not
English words)
Around the World game
Simple math problems using
Japanese numbers
Exchange rates with yen and
dollar
Go around the room and have
students count off by 1’s
Japanese, and/or by 10’s
Have students write their age in
Japanese characters
Flyswatter game
Paper Plate game (see
explanation in German unit)
Around the World with clocks
(use paper plate clocks or make
cards with digital times)
Match sentence strips with time
written in words to paper plate
clocks or digital clock cards
Resources
Flyswatter Game: Make large paper flies and write
numbers on their backs. Divide class into teams. A
person from each team comes up to where the flies are
spread out, teacher calls out number, first student to swat
the correct fly (with a flyswatter) gets a point. Variation
– write the numbers in random order on an overhead
transparency– project the transparency onto a white
board or wall, have students swat the appropriate place
on the boar or wall.
8
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 7
At a Restaurant


Part 8
Telling
What I
Speak
Part 9
Days/
Months
Latin
Dec 5-Jan 13
Part 1
Greeting People




Set up a pretend restaurant in
class – have students role play
ordering/being a waiter – use
pictures of food or plastic food
to give the students their order
Teach students to use chopsticks
Resources
Chapter
Ask a local Japanese restaurant for chopsticks to use with
your students. They might even be willing to donate
food.
Have students give their
birthdays orally and/or in writing
Show pictures indicating various
holidays – have the students
identify in which month the
holiday falls. Where possible,
have them give the date as well.
5
p.204
Review Romance Languages
info from Introduction – which
ones are they
Discuss/point out differences in
endings of male/female names
(male=us, female=a)
9
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 2
Numbers



Part 3
Talking about a
Person or Thing


Part 4
Talking About
People


Have students write various
dates in Roman numerals – the
year, date, birth date, etc.
Write large numbers using
Roman numerals and have the
students say them in Latin/write
them using Arabic numerals and
the reverse (give them large
Arabic numbers to write in
Roman numerals)
Brainstorm words with Latin
number prefixes, i.e. decade,
hexagon, etc
Have students describe
classroom objects, pictures of
houses, people, pictures of
buildings from Rome, etc.
Have students compare their
house/apt to Roman houses
Have students match Latin
cognates to English words (use
words found in the text)
Show pictures of movie stars,
athletes, etc, and have students
describe them in Latin
10
Resources
Chapter
2
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 5
Word Order


French
3rd Quarter
Part 1
Greeting People


Part 2
Saying Goodbye


Resources
Chapter
Discuss how Latin is used
today/where can we find it (i.e.,
mottos, some words,
prefixes/suffixes, law, medicine,
etc)
State motto (Esse quam videri =
To be, rather than to seem)
discuss meaning, what other
Latin do they know or recognize
from other sources (movies,
etc?)
Identify French speaking
countries on a world map
Teach typical greeting
mannerisms (kissing on the
cheek, men shake hands)
Circle game (as described in
German unit) Add a “good bye”
phrase
Write a simple conversation with
sentence strips. Display the
strips out of order and have the
students put them in the correct
order. This could lead to an
activity where students have to
hold their own simple
conversations and then write a
script for a simple conversation.
11
3
p. 94
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 3
Classroom
Objects




Part 4
Numbers



Part 5
Speaking
Politely



Around the World
Compare/contrast schools in
France/US (see info in text)
Call out items in French for
students to hold up
Have students list items in their
book bag/desk/classroom orally
and/or in writing
Simple math problems in French
See white board activities in
Spanish unit
Show euros – compare/contrast
to German euros (only difference
is in the coins)
Set up a pretend restaurant in
class – have students role play
ordering/being a waiter – use
pictures of food or plastic food
to give the students their order
Brainstorm French foods with
which students are familiar
Have students create a menu in
French and have peers order
from their menus
12
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 6
Telling Time




Part 7
Colors



Part 8
Days of the
Week


Paper Plate game (see
explanation in German unit)
Around the World with clocks
(use paper plate clocks or make
cards with digital times)
Match sentence strips with time
written in words to paper plate
clocks or digital clock cards
Time Zone activity – display or
give copies of a time zone map –
ask students what time it is in
various French speaking
countries
Describe classroom items
(review this vocabulary)
Describe flags from various
French speaking countries
Show paintings by Monet,
Manet, Van Gough, Renoir, etc
and have students describe the
colors they used
Use a calendar to ask on what
day various dates fall (say the
dates using French numbers)
Compare French calendar with
English (week starts with
Monday, not Sunday)
13
Resources
Time zone map can be found at
http://www.worldtimezone.com/
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 9
Months/Seasons




Part 10
Weather


Part 11
Telling Who I
am

Have students give their birthday
orally and/or in writing in
Spanish
Graph the number of birthdays
in each month, then use the
graph to ask the students various
questions about the
numbers/months
Classify months into seasons
Show pictures of holidays – ask
them to give the dates (day and
month) and what season they’re
in
Copy a weather report from the
newspaper – ask the students
what the weather is like in
various towns/parts of the
country; also ask temperatures
Have students give typical
weather for the seasons/months
orally and/or in writing
Circle game – use the circle
game from Part 2, but have the
students ask and answer their
names along with how they are
doing.
14
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 12
Telling Where I
Am From


Part 13
Telling What I
Speak
Part 14
Telling What I
Like

Part 15
Describing My
House



Use sentence strips to write parts
of a conversation. Have the
students order the strips to make
the conversation correct. Use
questions and phrases learned
throughout the unit.
Show pictures of various people
and what country they are from –
have students say their
nationality
Create class graphs based on
students’ answers to questions
about what subject the like/don’t
like – use the graph to ask
questions about the number of
students who like which subjects
Have students tell what times of
the day they would be in various
rooms on various days (weekday
v/s weekend)
Have students design the interior
of a house and name the rooms
15
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 16
Describing My
Family


Part 17
Talking About
My Pet



Have students bring in pictures
of family members and tell who
they are in French.
Use a large visual of the interior
of a house and place visuals of
family members in various
rooms. Ask students where the
family members are, which
family members are in the
various rooms, and have students
place the family members
according to instructions you
give.
Have students complete a graph
by asking peers “Tu as un
animal?” (Do you have a pet?)
and marking answers according
to what their peers say, such as
“Oui, j’ai un chat. Or Non, je
n’ai pas d’animal.”
Play animal sounds and have the
students say what animal it is in
French
Charades – have the students act
out various animals
16
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 18
Sports


Part 19
Clothing



Charades – have students act out
various sports
Have students complete a graph
by asking their peers “Quel est
ton sport favori?” (What is your
favorite sport?) and marking
their peers’ answers, such as
“J’aime ___”
Bingo (use pictures on the cards,
not English words, and call out
the French word)
Have students describe
themselves/their peers’ clothing
– what they’re wearing and what
color it is
Play “I Spy” Describe a
student’s clothing in the room
and have students guess about
whom you are talking. After
practice rounds, allow the
students to do the describing to
lead the activity.
17
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
Spanish
4th Quarter
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 1
Greeting People




Part 2
Saying Goodbye
Part 3
Classroom
Objects





Locate Spanish Speaking
countries on a world map
Circle Game (as described in
German unit)
Use puppets to have
conversations
Explain cultural greetings
(kissing on cheeks rather than
shaking hands) What language is
this similar to that we have
already learned about?
Brainstorm famous Hispanic
people – identify what country
they are from
Around the World
Call out items in Spanish for
students to hold up
Compare schools in Spain/Latin
America with US
Compare/contrast Spanish
classroom vocabulary with
French vocabulary – why are
they similar?
18
Resources
Chapter
2
p.28
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 4
Numbers




Part 5
Speaking
Politely




Compare these numbers to
German, Latin, French – what
are similarities/differences?
Simple math problems in
Spanish
Provide students with white
boards and dry erase markers –
call out a math problem in
Spanish, they write it and hold
up their board to show their
work quickly
Cost of classroom items (see
German ideas) – pick a Spanish
speaking country and use their
monetary unit
Brainstorm foods from Hispanic
countries with which they are
familiar
Explain differences in foods (not
all is spicy, Spain is very
different, etc
Create a menu – have students
order what they would like (use
words from the text and
cognates)
Ask a local restaurant to donate
menus or food for use in class
19
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 6
Telling Time



Part 7
Colors


Part 8
Days of the
week



Part 9
Months/Seasons



Use white boards/markers – call
out times for students to write
digitally and hold up boards to
show their work
Match written time sentences to
clocks
Bingo – have them create their
own boards (using the clocks
shown in the text)
Describe classroom items
(review this vocabulary)
Describe flags from various
Spanish speaking countries
Use a calendar to identify what
days various dates are
Compare the names of the days
to German, Latin, French
Compare Spanish calendar with
English (week starts with
Monday, not Sunday) What
other language does this?
Have students give their birthday
orally and/or in writing in
Spanish
Classify months into seasons
Show pictures of holidays – ask
them to give the dates (day and
month) and what season they’re
in
20
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 10
Weather


Part 11
Telling Who I
Am

Part 12
Telling Where I
Am From


Resources
Have students say the typical
weather for seasons/months
Discuss different school
schedules in Southern
Hemisphere (summer is during
our winter, so school year is
different)
Explain process of acquiring last
names (see information in text) –
What would their last names be
if we used this process?
Use sentence strips to write parts “People en español” would be a good resource for
Spanish speaking people from various countries
of a conversation. Have the
students order the strips to make
the conversation correct. Use
questions and phrases learned
throughout the unit.
Show pictures of various people
and what country they are from –
have students say their
nationality
21
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 13
Telling What I
Speak

Give students a list of commonly
spoken languages – have them
guess to put them in order of
most speakers to least (use
Spanish words if possible for
languages since most are
cognates)
(chino, español, inglés, árabe,
bengali, hindi,
portugués, ruso, japonés, aleman)
Language
Resources
Speakers
Where Spoken
(Millions)
1 Mandarin
885
China, Malaysia, Taiwan
2 Spanish
332
South America, Central
America, Spain
3 English
322
USA, UK, Australia, Canada,
New Zealand
4 Arabic
235
Middle East, Arabia, North
Africa
5 Bengali
189
Bangladesh, Eastern India
6 Hindi
182
North and Central India
7 Portuguese
170
Brazil, Portugal, Southern
Africa
8 Russian
170
Russia, Central Asia
9 Japanese
125
Japan
10 German
98
Germany, Austria, Central
Europe
Table from http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html
Part 14
Telling What I
Study



Categorize classroom items
(from previous lesson) into
classes where they are used
Have students tell what time
they have various classes
Provide students with a class
schedule – ask various questions
about what classes the student
has at what times
22
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 15
Describing My
House


Part 16
Describing My
Family


Have students tell what times of
the day they would be in various
rooms on various days (weekday
v/s weekend)
Have students design the interior
of a house and name the rooms
Have students bring in pictures
of family members and tell who
they are in Spanish.
Use a large visual of the interior
of a house and place visuals of
family members in various
rooms. Ask students where the
family members are, which
family members are in the
various rooms, and have students
place the family members
according to instructions you
give.
23
Resources
Chapter
Theme/
Time
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
Text Lesson
Part 17
Talking About
My Pet



Part 18
Sports


Part 19
Clothing



Have students complete a graph
by asking peers “¿Tienes una
mascota?” (Do you have a pet?)
and marking answers according
to what their peers say, such as
“Sí, tengo un perro. Or No, no
tengo una mascota.”
Play animal sounds and have the
students say what animal it is in
Spanish
Charades – have the students act
out various animals
Charades – have students act out
various sports
Have students complete a graph
by asking their peers “¿Cuál es
tu deporte favorito?” (What is
your favorite sport?) and
marking their peers’ answers,
such as “Mi deporte favorito es
el fútbol.”
Bingo (use pictures on the cards,
not English words, and call out
the Spanish word)
Have students describe
themselves/their peers’ clothing
– what they’re wearing and what
color it is
Play “I Spy” (Veo, veo).
Describe a student’s clothing in
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Resources
For animal sounds, a child’s “See n Say” could be used,
or you could mimic the sounds
Chapter
Theme/
Time
Text Lesson
World Languages
Text: Invitation to Languages
Suggested Activities
the room and have students
guess about whom you are
talking. After practice rounds,
allow the students to do the
describing to lead the activity.
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Resources
Chapter