AP Spanish Language-Summer Initiative Assignment 2015
Congratulations! You have elected to study a great college level course next year. The work is
not difficult but it does demand your best effort to succeed. For that reason you have a summer
assignment designed to maintain and improve your skills in Spanish. Here is an excerpt from the
College Board website to let you know more about the course.
The AP Spanish Language course is designed to be comparable to an advanced college level (fifth-sixth
semester or equivalent) course. This course will include aural/oral skills, reading comprehension, grammar
and composition. Students taking this course have the following objectives:
- The ability to comprehend formal and informal spoken Spanish
-The acquisition of vocabulary and a grasp of structure to allow the easy accurate reading of
newspaper and magazine articles as well as of modern literature in Spanish.
-The ability to compose expository passages.
-The ability to express ideas orally with accuracy and fluency.
This assignment is divided into 4 different parts. Please read through the entire description because you must
complete activities in all four parts. This assignment is due the 3rd day of class – September 10th or 11th, 2015
and will be worth a total of 100 points.
Part 1: Reading / Culture - (less than 5 total hours)
You will read the included culture packet and answer the related questions. You may need to use
the internet to answer some of the review questions (matching and true/false). Completion of
this packet will be assessed through three timed, open note quizzes that will take place during
September. This should take no more than 45 minutes per section to complete.
Part 2: Writing - (1.5 total hours)
You will read 3 articles in Spanish from a Spanish language newspaper or magazine. Each article
must be related to the AP Themes or Subthemes (located on the graphic organizer on pg 3) that
will be covered this year. Each article must be on a different topic. These articles must be
written in Spanish and may not be translations of an article in English. Write a short summary
in Spanish of each article (10-15 sentences). Print a copy of the article and be sure to include the
reference from where you obtained the article. You may want to get your article from the
website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/news/ More websites are listed below. This should
take no more than 30 minutes for each article to complete
Part 3: Speaking and Listening to Spanish - (1.5 total hours)
You will practice listening and if possible, speaking in Spanish. You should complete five 15
minute activities of listening and/or speaking. You may repeat any activity in this part. You must
indicate the activity you did and the date on which it was completed on the rubric in this packet.
a. Interview a Spanish speaking friend, neighbor or family member. Write a brief description of
your conversation.
b. Watch a movie or television show in Spanish. Write a short summary of the plot or action.
c. Listen to the radio in Spanish. Write a brief description of what you heard.
d. Visit the local Latino community. Write about a visit to a Latino restaurant, market, theater,
video store or library program.
e. Volunteer to work in the Latino community. Contact the Hispanic Committee for a list of
opportunities.
Part 4-Review Grammar - (1 hour total)
1. Grammar – you must complete the 5 fanfolds of verb conjugations. This should take no more
than 10 minutes per page to complete.
WWW.CONJUGUEMOS.COM
Practicing with Conjuguemos.com is not required but is highly
suggested. Please create an account as some materials may be
used during the school year.
1. Go to the website to register for it.
2. Register as a new student.
3. Use the school code, 52515, and choose the “Jennifer Mathews” school. When
creating a password and username, choose words that are unique only to
Conjuguemos. You should write this information down, just in case you forget it!
After you log on the first time, make sure that you have gone to the Options page and
selected “Jennifer Mathews” for your teacher. Go to Student Zone. From there you will
see a long list of activities.
Grading of Summer Assignment
1. The summer assignment is intended to give you practice in order to develop reading, writing,
listening and speaking skills. Therefore, the assignment is graded based on content and
completion. Although you should do your best to implement the grammar and vocabulary
learned throughout your language learning experience, points are not deducted due to grammar
mistakes.
2. Quarter grades at the AP level are based on the following language skills and work:
20% Listening
25% Reading
25% Writing
20% Speaking
10% Daily Grade / Homework
All grades for the summer assignment will be recorded in the Homework category (10%)
Below are some websites to assist you when looking for authentic materials to
do your reading and listening assignments.
Fuentes Auténticas
Digital Media Archive
http://larcnet.sdsu.edu/tech.php?page=dma
ABC News (in Spanish) www.abc.com
Authentic Listening Resources
http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/27626.php
http://www.radioformula.com
http://spanlang.stanford.edu/second_year/interpretive12.html
http://www.radionizkor.org/espana/
http://www.radionizkor.org/arg/
http://www.fire.or.cr/audios.htm
http://www.univision.com
http://www.unicef.org/spanish/videoaudio/video_radio.html
http://audio.urcm.net/
Spanish Audio Gazette http://lab.chass.utoronto.ca/rescentre/spanish/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/programmes/programmes_2/?focuswin -- BBC programs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/programmes/estudio_834/ --BBC Estudio 834
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/listening/question1/ - BBC Better@Listening
http://www.studyspanish.com/comps/index.htm - Study Spanish Cultural Notes
http://203.15.102.140/news/languageGroup/lgCurDisp.php3?vlang=Spanish - Broadcasting in
Spanish from Australia
TV
Live TV International
El sitio http://wwitv.com/portal.htm ofrece enlaces a cientos de canales de tele que tienen
"streaming video" sobre el Internet. También hay enlaces a sus sitios.
www.tve.es Live and archived television from Spain.
www.euronews.net
Video and text cover world news from a European
perspective in a choice of seven languages, including Spanish
www.nettvdb.com Links to over 1000 Internet TV stations from 108
Countries.
Radio
Broadcast options from throughout the Spanish-speaking world:
http://www2.jonction.net/~kairyv/radio/index.htm
Broadcasts from Mexico: http://www.mexicoradiotv.com/live.htm
Radio Mitre (Argentina)
www.tve.es Live and archived radio from Spain on six different stations.
www.cadenaser.com
Live and archived radio from Spain.
www.elcastellano.org/radios.html A very complete list of Spanish Language radio stations
indexed by country.
www.comfm.com Links to thousands of radio and television stations from around the world.
Radio Naciones Unidas http://www.un.org/radio/es/
BBC Languages
Ecos Magazine
http://www.ecos-online.de/audio/
ECOS online es la pagina web de la revista ECOS de España y Latinoamérica, publicada por la
editorial Spotlight en Munich, Alemania.
Guisando.org
www.guisando.org/podcast/index.php
El primer podcast de recetas en castellano. Un programa quincenal donde se comenta la
elaboración de un par de platos fáciles y sencillos.
Above sites adapted from a site by GUSTAVO FARES, Ph.D.