AP Spanish Language
Grade 8
Academic Year 2009-2010
Teacher: Patricia Mendoza
Room 111
Period 3. Hour: 9:40 A.M.- 10:26 A.M.
Conference Time: 8:00 A.M. – 8:46 A.M.
Phone Number: 325-356-5220
pmendoza@comancheisd.net
Syllabus
Course Overview
The AP Spanish Language course is conducted totally in Spanish. During the course, all
students are encouraged to practice the target language constantly with teachers and
peers. Students are expected to use the Spanish language to:
-
Understand conversations, oral presentations, dialogues, interviews, narratives,
and lectures.
Understand different kinds of written texts such as newspapers, letters,
instructions, Internet articles, magazine articles, literary texts, and short stories.
-
Express themselves orally by persuading, arguing, inquiring, and describing in a
variety of contexts and styles.
-
Produce written text using different strategies for different audiences to express
themselves in an appropriate manner through a variety of styles.
Course Outline
To teach the AP Spanish Language Course, our school uses NUESTRO MUNDO
(Curso para hispanohablantes), TRIÁNGULO(Wayside), and AP SPANISH
(Prentice Hall) as the core materials.
NUESTRO MUNDO exposes students to a cultural perspective of the Spanish –speaking
world. In addition, the book provides grammar, reading and writing strategies as well as
activities that require students to distinguish different types of language register and to be
proficient in communicating ideas in different settings.
AP SPANISH (Prentice Hall) and TRIÁNGULO provide students with extensive
vocabulary building and recycling, and a broad selection of materials taken from genuine
sources, presented in the same format as the AP Spanish Language Exam.
I use the essay topics provided in AP SPANISH (Prentice Hall) to ask students to write
one practice essay every three weeks. Students peer edit each others’ work, make
revisions and submit the final essay for a grade, based on AP Scoring Guidelines. I also
use the multiple-choice listening, informal speaking (simulated conversation), reading
comprehension, writing (paragraph completion) practice as well as other free response
sample prompts offered in the book.
For our semester exams, I make a shorter mock AP Spanish Language Exam using
multiple –choice items from past released exams, and creating free-response questions
that are very similar as those for the AP Exam. However, the level of difficulty of some
of the exercises goes beyond what is required on the actual examination. I do this to make
students comfortable when they finally take the examination. In addition, students are
asked to respond one essay question related to the pieces of literature read during the
semester. (See below)
First Semester
Unit consists of:
Chapters from Nuestro
Mundo
Unit 1
1
Unit 2
2
Unit 3
3
Unit 4
4
Unit 5
5
Chapters from Triángulo
1
2
3
4
5
Second Semester
Unit consists of:
Unit 6
Unit 7
Unit 8
Unit 9
Unit 10
Chapters from Nuestro
Mundo
6
7
8
-
Chapters from Triángulo
6
7
8
9
10
Unit 9 and 10: Preparation for the AP Exam
These units are designed to prepare students in a very intense manner for the Advanced
Placement Exam in May. I use the AP SPANISH (Prentice Hall) to practice the four
skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). Students have structured days according
to the sections of the exam and skills required to pass the exam. These units ensure
students are not surprised by anything that may occur during the test or by anything they
encounter on the test. Everything during these units is as much of a simulation of the
sections of the real exam as possible.
Listening Skills
 At the beginning of the year I provided the students with information about TV
channels and radio stations that are conducted totally in Spanish (e.g., CNN en
español, Caracol Noticias, Discovery en español, Telemundo .) I encourage
students to watch and listen to them. Every Wednesday, students share oral
summaries (in Spanish) about the events they have heard during the week. This
provides practice for the speaking portion of the exam and allows students to
recognize cultural aspects of the Hispanic world.
 I bring to class news reports, interviews and other media sources of many regional
varieties of Spanish to expose students to a wide range of dialects from different
parts of the Hispanic world. I select an audio source and give the students the
theme (e.g., The sight and sounds of South America, Las Posadas: A Hispanic
Christmas Celebration, Earth Day, Isabel Allende). The objective is to listen for
controlled information and take notes. After listening, students work in groups of
three to outline the information, complete grids, or use graphic organizers to
extract details versus main ideas. Each group is required to answer specific
questions from the listening. All answers must be supported with detailed
evidence from the audio. Students learn to apply this strategy individually during
practices for the AP Spanish Exam, specifically when using audio sources as
input for both the essay and formal speaking sections of the exam.
 Students are exposed to dialogues and narratives about everyday situations. (Ten
minutes of a Spanish soap opera every Monday). Students respond and discuss
specific questions about the segment watched. The goal is to help students to
improve their conversational Spanish. Other sources such as tape recorders and
videos are used as well.
Sources for authentic listening activities:
 Nuevo Horizontes
www.nuevoshorizontes.org
 CNN en español
www.cnn.com/espanol/
 Yabla
www.yabla.com
 BBC en español
www.bbcmundo.com
 Español en vivo
www.puerta-del-sol.com
 Univision
www.univision.com
Reading Skills
Every six weeks we choose a Spanish speaking country to study. Students research basic
data and read current event articles about the country. Working in cooperative learning
groups, students make oral presentations (e.g., famous people, traditions, celebrations,
history, music, etc.) This helps students to develop speaking and reading abilities in
Spanish and allows students to increase their understanding about the diversity of the
Spanish-speaking world.
Students read and discuss in Spanish literary texts, newspapers, and magazines. They
identify and summarize the main points and important details and make appropriate
inferences and predictions from a text that usually is related to an academic or cultural
topic of the Spanish –speaking world. Discussing extracts of Spanish Literature allows
students to develop a familiarity with literary vocabulary, to compare and contrast
overarching themes, and to write critically about literature. Also, students gain
confidence to continue with the study of the next course of Spanish (the AP Spanish
Literature). We read and discuss in Spanish the following texts:




First quarter: Carlos Fuentes, “El encuentro con el otro” “Casa con dos Puertas”
Second quarter: Borges, “El sur” “El milagro secreto”
Third quarter: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Un día de estos” “La siesta del martes”
Fourth quarter: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “Don Quijote de la Mancha
(adaptación)”; Anonimous, “El lazarillo de Tormes”
 I provide students with authentic reading sources and students are engaged in the
same type of activities used in the listening, (read, share aloud with group,etc.)
Sources for authentic reading text:





Periódico el tiempo
Revista ecos
Prensa escrita
BBC
La nación
www.eltiempo.com
www.revistaecos.com
www.prensaesrita,com/
www.bbcmundo.com
www.lanacion.com/
Writing Skills
To address informal writing, students make daily journal entries. They write
interpersonal notes such as an e-mail message, a brief letter, or a postcard. I use the
topics available in the AP SPANISH (Prentice Hall).
To address the formal writing students are asked to write an essay every 3 weeks.
In the first semester, I provide students with a short article taken from an authentic
source on a controversial topic. After reading the article, students debate and defend their
ideas. Then, they are required to express their opinions and defend their position by
writing a well-organized and coherent essay.
The following is a list of some the topics included:

La Eutanacia: ¿crimen o compación?





Los OVNIs: ¿realidad o fantasía?
El Sueño Americano ¿verdad o mentira?
Los uniformes obligatorios en las escuelas.
La licencia de conducción para los jóvenes.
El impacto económico y cultural de la comunidad hispana en los Estados
Unidos.
In the second semester, I give students 2 printed sources (newspaper or magazine article
or contemporary literary excerpts) and one audio source. These three sources present
ideas and information related to a prompt they have to write about. After reading the
printed sources and listening the audio material, students are asked to write a wellorganized and coherent analytical or persuasive essay. The essay should use information
from the sources to support ideas.
Speaking Skills.
Students participate daily in class discussions in the target language. I constantly stress
proper pronunciation and intonation. They have frequent opportunities to talk in formal
and informal situations. They are required to adapt their speaking for different audiences,
purposes, formats, and topics.
Students generate and explore ideas for speaking topics through a variety of pre-speaking
activities such as the following:







Constructing thought webs and graphic organizers
Reading and researching
Listening to music
Viewing a video
Listening to a guest speaker
Jotting down ideas
Reflecting upon personal experience
Some possible formats include the following:







Conversation
Discussion
Formal speech
Dramatic presentation
Monologue
Role play
Debate
In order to provide opportunities to practice leading a formal presentation, an individual
student gives a speech to the rest of the class once a week. At the beginning of the year, I
present a list of topics for the students to choose (students may propose another topics
and submit them for consideration). The topics are strongly related to historical, social,
and cultural aspects of the Hispanic world. Some of the topics are:






Cristobal Colon
Alvaro Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
La Leyenda del Dorado
Premios Nobel
El Deporte y su Función Social
Macchu Picchu
In their presentation students are required to provide one printed text (newspaper,
Internet, magazine, etc.) and one visual or audio stimulus (PowerPoint, graph, picture,
etc.) related to the topic. After the formal speech, students work in groups to synthesize
the information presented. This ensures full participation and comprehension by all
students.
I use checklists, tape recorders and videotapes to collect data about the speaking abilities
of the students. This data is used later during conferences or interviews with students
about their performance and progress.
Materials
A one and one- half inch three binders with four tab dividers
Paper
Pencils
Pen (blue or black link)
Color pencils
-Please place your work in the appropriate section of your binder.
-The sections of your binder should be labeled as follows:
1. Vocabulario
2. Bell-Work
3. Apuntes
4. Projectos
Textbook:
NUESTRO MUNDO Curso para Hispanoparlantes- McDougal Littell
Grading scale:
A: 90-100
B: 80-89
Evaluation:
Tests
Quizzes
50%
30%
C: 70-79
F: 69 and below
Homework
20%
Homework:
-Students are expected to read in Spanish every night for 30 minutes.
-Students are given homework from Monday to Thursday.
-Students should turn in their homework immediately upon entering the classroom.
Tests and quizzes:
Tests are announced approximately a week before they are given, but quizzes may be
unannounced.
-Tests are given every two to three weeks.
-Quizzes are given once or twice a week
Classroom rules:
1. Bring all books and materials to class.
Preparation is vital to our success. We must all come to class prepared to learn and
maximize our time together – every day. This means you bring the appropriate
materials to class such as textbook, notebook, and other supplies. Depending on the
unit we are studying, I will advise you other materials you need to bring.
Preparation also includes the things you do outside of class to assure you are ready
to take full advantage of class time. If you are not prepared for the class you have
to work without your materials for the period.
2. Sit in your assigned seat daily.
I require you to have an assigned seat from the first day of class to the last. Your
seat may change at any time under my authority. You must always sit in your
assigned seat. This helps me keep organized the classroom. If you are not in your
assigned seat it will be count as absent.
3. Listen carefully and follow instructions
Help you to maximize your time and get positive results.
4. Show respect for the teacher and one another.
Students will exhibit courtesy and respect toward all other students at all times.
Odious comments concerning race, gender, sexuality, political views, appearance,
or of any other type will not be tolerated; this applies to serious as well as
"joking" comments.