AP Spanish Language & Culture: Summer Syllabus
Señorita Katie Harrington
kharring@pasco.k12.fl.us
*Nuestra viaje empieza…ahora*
Course Overview (taken from The Collegeboard)
In today’s global community, competence in more than one language is an essential part of
communication and cultural understanding. Study of another language not only provides
individuals with the ability to express thoughts and ideas for their own purposes but also
provides them with access to perspectives and knowledge that are only available through
the language and culture. Advanced language learning offers social, cultural, academic,
and workplace benefits that will serve students throughout their lives. The proficiencies
acquired through the study of languages and literatures endow language learners with
cognitive, analytical, and communication skills that carry over into many other areas of their
academic studies.
The AP Spanish Language and Culture course engages students in an exploration of culture
in both contemporary and historical contexts. The course develops students’ awareness and
appreciation of products, both tangible (e.g., tools, books) and intangible (e.g., laws,
conventions, institutions); practices (patterns of social interactions within a culture); and
perspectives (values, attitudes, and assumptions that underlie both practices and products).
When communicating, students in the AP Spanish Language and Culture course
demonstrate an understanding of the culture(s), incorporate interdisciplinary topics
(Connections), make comparisons between the native language and the target language
and between cultures (Comparisons), and use the target language in real-life settings
(Communities).
At the core of the AP Spanish Language and Culture course are six groups of learning
objectives identifying what students should know and be able to do across the three modes
of communication. These objectives outline expectations of student abilities in the following
areas:
1.Spoken Interpersonal Communication
2.Written Interpersonal Communication
3.Audio, Visual, and Audiovisual Interpretive
4.Communication Written and Print Interpretive
5.Communication Spoken Presentational Communication
6.Written Presentational Communication
¿Por qué tenemos que trabajar durante el verano?
You are being asked to do summer work to familiarize yourself with the expectations
and format of the AP Spanish course while maintaining your Spanish over the summer.
The work you will be doing will keep your listening, speaking, reading and writing skills
active and will encourage you to develop good habits for improving these skills in
Spanish. You will also have the opportunity to maximize your time to take care of the
“details” we may not always have a chance to consider in class (specific grammar &
vocab points). Keep in mind this is a course unlike any other! 
AVAILABILITY: I am available via email or phone at anytime throughout the summer. Students
may contact me through phone call/text at (978) 835-2070
Students are encouraged to stay in contact with me throughout our break. It will be
important that students have an email address that they check. We will utilize email,
Remind 101, Moodle, and EdModo for sharing information, some assignments, and
updates.
General Directions: There are 6 components to your summer work.
Please do all activities completely and to the best of your ability. I will be using this work to
assess your skills upon starting the new school year. You will receive a grade for this work.
Some parts will be due throughout the summer on Moodle.
DISCLAIMER: Any indication that work is not original by each student (including using
translators, plagiarizing, having other students write for you, etc) will result in an automatic
zero. Take your time, use your old notes, do not cheat.
Part 1: ENROLLMENT: Please enroll yourself to the following accounts no later than June 5th.
Remind101: Text the message @newap to the phone # (786) 766-7470
Moodle: On the Mitchell Moodle page, click “Foreign Language”, then “AP Spanish
Language”. The enrollment key is “APSpanish”.
EdModo: Visit the site edmodo.com You will register for an account IF YOU DO NOT
ALREADY HAVE ONE. If you already have an account, login, and add the AP class. After
creating an account you’ll be ready to enroll using the group code:
agad3k
Please complete these three enrollments as soon as possible. Contact me
with any issues you are experiencing.
Part 2: Moodle Assignments- MOODLE ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE COMPLETED By August 19th
You will complete ten assignments on Moodle throughout the summer. I
have set “due dates” on Moodle, but they are not official. The most effective
way to complete your Moodle assignments would be to follow the proposed
dates I set, but I understand that because of summer plans, Moodle access is
not always available. Your first assignment will be opened as of June 10th.
Please enroll in AP Spanish on Moodle before then. I will give you feedback
through Moodle and email, so it is important you access your email throughout
the summer.
Parts 3, 4, and 5: Please keep in the same notebook or folder. Please use
something inexpensive, or reuse an old notebook or folder, as you won’t get it
back for awhile!
PART 3: Journals: You must keep a “diario” all summer It must consist of 5 journal
entries (one every two weeks). The grammatical focus should be
preterite/imperfect, talking about what you did. Additionally, the entries should
include other topics: what you plan to do in the future, your hopes and dreams
for next year and beyond, your feelings on world events, etc. I will be looking
for utilization of subjunctive, future/conditional, perfect tenses. There should be
a representation of all of the tenses in Spanish. In addition, I expect to see
transition words and pay attention to your noun/adjective and noun/verb
agreement. You should pass this “diario” in the first day of class.
Part 4 (Please refer to News Article Graphic Organizer in the end of this packet
for a model of how to set up each current event entry): Current events: Read
and do the following activities for 5 newspaper or magazine articles (articles
printed off one of the approved cites is acceptable). ---A graphic organizer is
attached to this assignment-please follow the format of the graphic organizer
for steps 2-4
Step 1. Print and paste 5 articles from a real newspaper or magazine in Spanish
into notebook. Read article. (Online sources acceptable, please refer to this list)
http://www.elpais.com (news from Spain)
http://www.consumer.es (general information and human interest stories)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/news/ (general information)
http://www.semana.com/ (online magazine from Columbia)
http://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/interior/index (places in Mexico)
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/ (news from Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.cnn.com/espanol/
www.bbcmundo.com
www.nacion.com
www.elmundo.es/
www.univison.com
www.rtve.es/ree o
www.ecos-online.de/audio
www.telemundo.com
Step 2. Write a list of 10 new vocabulary terms found in the article and define in
English.
Step 3. Write a summary of the article in your own words in Spanish
Step 4. Write a reaction or opinion on the topic in Spanish in a well-developed
paragraph.
5. Highlight all the verbs in the article using a different color/mark for each
tense/mood found in the article and make a key for what each color
represents. See attached example.
Key must include:
present tense-yellow, imperfect- purple, preterit-green, present perfectorange, subjunctive-blue, future-pink, conditional- circle around, imperfect
subjunctive-red box around, past perfect – black box around, commands-,
blue box around. You may choose to use the following websites or find
some of your own. You may also use magazines in Spanish, but don’t limit
yourself to fashion/sports/gossip magazines. YOU NEED TO LEARN CURRENT
EVENT VOCABULARY FOR THE AP TEST.
Part 5: Listening Practice You will find a resource (try one of the websites listed
above) such as a news report, video, podcast, song, etc. in Spanish. Following
the graphic organizer labeled “Listening Log”, you will complete 5 Listening
Logs in your journal. Each listening selection must be AT LEAST 3 minutes in
length. You will recreate the log in your notebook following the model outline.
Part 6: PowerPoint You will be sharing with the class your summer break
adventures. Your presentation does NOT need to be completed by the first
week of school, just the pictures/slides part. We will work on the spoken part on
the second block period of our first week.
Develop a presentation of what you did during the summer, and what you had
hoped to do, but ultimately didn’t. You will speak about what you did, where
you went, etc & also what you hoped to do but did not. You cannot read your
presentation, but you may choose to use a flashcard with key phrases
(approved by me).
You may start now and think ahead by taking pictures of fun or interesting things done during your
summer break with friends of family.
A. Make a power point with a title slide and at least 10 slides with both pictures
and/or photos. You may only have key phrases or labels for your text on each
slide. On the first day of school, I will model what your presentation should look
like.
B. For those that want to get ahead: Practice it ahead of time in order to
present a clean, fluid presentation for the class without reading. You may
check your pronunciation with whomever you’d like.
AP Spanish Language News Article Graphic Organize (5 entries in journal total)
Please complete the following information in SPANISH.
Título del artículo ________________________________________________________________________
Autor ______________________________________ Fecha ______________________________________
Nombre del periódico o sitio web ___________________________________________________________
Parte I. Escribe 10 palabras nuevas que leíste en el artículo y sus definiciones en inglés.
1. ___________________________________
6. ____________________________________
2. ___________________________________
7. ____________________________________
3. ___________________________________
8. ____________________________________
4. ____________________________________
9. ____________________________________
5. ____________________________________ 10. ____________________________________
Un resumen del articulo
__________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ Tu opinión o reacción
__________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ Listening Log Organizer
FECHA: ______________________________________________
SELECCIONAR
TV---- RADIO---- PODCAST & the channel or website, etc
NOMBRE DEL PROGRAMA: ______________________________________________________
Duracion (en minutos): _________________________________________________________________
RESUMEN/COMENTARIOS/OPINIONES
__________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ EXAMPLES FOR PART 3
This example does not follow the exact outline I have provided for the news articles,
however, it should give you a basic idea of how to write each page after each article.