AP Spanish Language and Culture Syllabus
Orialis Serrano
laly.serrano@spart5.net
2012-2013
Course Overview
The AP Spanish Language and Culture course is an advanced and rigorous study of the Spanish language
which provides students a learning equivalent to a third year of a college or university course. Instructional
materials, activities, assignments, and assessments are appropriate to this level. [C2] The class will be
conducted almost exclusively in Spanish by the teacher, and students are expected to express themselves in
the target language. [C1]
The students will develop a strong command of the Spanish language with emphasis on the following learning
strategies: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as culture, through a holistic approach to language
proficiency through the three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive and presentational. This will
prepare them for the AP Spanish Language Examination. [C5, C7] All students enrolled in AP Spanish
Language are expected to take the AP Spanish Language Exam.
Sample Classroom Activities:
Listening: Students will improve their listening skills of the target language through a variety of authentic
resources. They will be able to interpret Spanish using a variety of regional dialects, and making inference and
interpreting linguistic cues while listening to both formal and informal dialogues and narratives.
Speaking: This course will provide students opportunities in class to improve their speaking skills in a variety
of settings, types of discourse, topics and registers. Students will respond to conversational prompts such as
interviews, voice mail, given speeches, using rich vocabulary, accuracy in structure and syntax, and fluency.
Students will have at least one major assessment per nine-week cycle that will include oral presentation. [C5]
Writing: This course will provide students directions to express ideas accurately and fluently in writing.
Students will develop their writing skills through producing well organized and persuasive essays. Students will
participate in weekly writing activities related to topics covered such as, journal entries, emails, poems, dialogs,
and creating writing. [C6]
Reading: The goal for students is to listen to controlled information to improve reading skills. The students will
learn to synthesize a wide variety of authentic resources which include but are not limited to poetry, current
events, literary pieces and various forms of communication, and audiovisual material to broaden understanding
in reading newspapers, magazine articles, and research paper, and literary pieces.
Culture will be an integral component of the thematic unit with the inclusion of all skills. The students will have
an in depth study of thematic units dealing with Global Challenges, Science and Technology, Contemporary
Life, Personal and Public Identities, Families and Communities and Beauty and Aesthetics. The six thematic
units will be divided into the first three units taught first semester, and the last three units taught second
semester. Please see table below.
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Thematic Units
Recommended Contexts
Global
Challenges/ Los
desafíos
mundiales
• Economic Issues
• Environmental Issues
• Philosophical Thought
and
Religion
• Population and
Demographics
• Social Welfare
• Social Conscience
Science and
Thechnology/ La
ciencia y la
tecnología
• Access to Technology
• Effects of Technology on
Self
and Society
• Health Care and
Medicine
• Innovations
• Natural Phenomena
• Science and Ethics
Comtemporary
Life/ La vida
contemporánea
• Education and Careers
• Entertainment
• Travel and Leisure
• Lifestyles
• Relationships
• Social Customs and
Values
• Volunteerism
Personal and
Public Identities
• Alienation and
Assimilation
• Heroes and Historical
• National and Ethnic
Identities
• Personal Beliefs
• Personal Interests
• Self-Image
Families and
communities
• Customs and Values
• Education Communities
• Family Structure
• Global Citizenship
• Human Geography
• Social Networking
• Language and
• Visual and Performing
Arts
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Overarching Essential
Questions
¿Cuáles son los desafíos
sociales,
políticos y del medio ambiente
que enfrentan las sociedades
del
mundo?
¿Cuáles son los orígenes de
esos desafíos?
¿Cuáles son los orígenes de
esos desafíos?
• ¿Qué impacto tiene el
desarrollo científico y
tecnológico en nuestras
vidas?
•¿Qué factores han impulsado
el desarrollo y la innovación en
la ciencia y la tecnología?
• ¿Qué papel cumple la ética
en los avances
científicos?
•.Cómo definen los individuos y
las sociedades su propia
calidad de vida?
•¿Cómo influyen los productos
culturales, las prácticas y las
perspectivas de la gente en la
vida
contemporánea?
•¿Cuáles son los
desafíos de la vida
contemporánea?
• How are aspects of identity
expressed in various
situations?
• How do language and culture
influence identity?
•¿Cómo se desarrolla la
identidad de una persona a lo
largo del tiempo?
• ¿Cómo se define la familia en
distintas sociedades?
• ¿Cómo contribuyen los
individuos al bienestar de las
comunidades?
•¿Cuáles son las diferencias
en los
papeles que asumen las
comunidades y las familias en
las diferentessociedades del
mundo?
Chapters from
Interacciones
Presente Indicativo,
Verbos de Cambio de Raíz,
Reflexivos, Ser /Estar,
Gerundio,
El Pretérito (Verbos
regulares/irregulares)
Personal “a”,
Pronombre de Objeto
Directo/ Indirecto, Haber,
Adjetivos y Pronombres
Posesivos
Verbo gustar y similares,
Imperf vs. Pretérito,
Por/Para,
PronombresPreposicionales
Futuro y Condicional,
Presente del Subjuntivo,
Comparaciones.
Mandato Familiar,
Comparación de igualdad,
Adjetivos y Pronombres
Demostrativos
Subjuntivo con
expresiones de emoción,
El Progresivo,
Contradicción y Negación,
Mandato Formal
Subjuntivo con
expresiones de duda,
inseguridad,
Repaso del género y
número del sustantivo
Adverbios de formación,
Adjetivos de cantidad,
Cantidad usando
números
Mandato indirecto,
Superlativo absoluto,
Subjuntivo del Imperfecto,
en cláusulas adverbiales
Future Subjuntive,
Pronombres relativos, Que
and Quien, el que, el
cual, y cuyo
Beauty and
Aesthetics / La
belleza y la
estética
• Architecture
• Defining Beauty
• Defining Creativity
• Fashion and Design
• Language and Literature
• Visual and Performing
Arts
•¿Cómo se establecen las
percepciones de la belleza y la
creatividad?
•¿Cómo influyen los ideales de
la belleza y la estética en la
vida cotidiana?
• ¿Cómo las artes desafían y
reflejan las perspectivas
culturales?
Return
Repaso de todos los
tiempos gramaticales
Student Evaluation:
All assessments will be performance based graded using the AP rubric for oral and written presentations.
Students will be assessed both formally and informally during each of the following thematic units: Global
Challenges, Science & Technology, Beauty and Aesthetics, Families and Communities, Personal and
Public Identities, and Contemporary Life.


Major tests and projects: 40%
Quizzes and warm-ups: 25%
Journal Writing: 20%
Class participation & Homework: 15%
Technology: Students will use technology on a regular basis to use authentic sources from the web for
speaking, reading and listening comprehension. Students will also create and present projects to class through
the use of Power Point. (Interpersonal, Interpretive and Presentational.
Materials and Resources
Texts:
 Interacciones, 5th edition: Spinelli, García, Galvin; Thomson/Heinle
 Lecturas Avanzadas
 Preparing for the AP Spanish Language: Diaz, Leicher-Prieto, and Nissenberg; Prentice Hall (3rd
Edition) (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
 De Paseo, Reseigh long, Lynn Macián; Thomson/Heinle
Resources:




Imagina, español sin barreras: Blanco/Tocaimaza-Hatch; Vista (2011)
Intriga, Literature and Film: Courtad/Everly/Gaspar; Vista (2012)
Una Vez Mas: Couch, MC Cann, Rodríguez-Walter, and Rubio-Marcot; Pearson (1993)
Triangulo: Gatski and Mc Mullen; Wayside (2000)
Triángulo provides students with extensive vocabulary building and recycling, along with an
ample selection of materials taken from authentic sources. The essay topics provided in Triángulo are used to
practice writing formal and informal essays. We also practice multiple-choice listening and reading
comprehension exercises as well as other free-response sample prompts. The use of Triángulo provides
abundant opportunities for classroom interaction, language use building and recycling, and practice for the AP
Spanish Language Exam
Viewing of movies in Spanish may include titles such as:


Don Quijote de la Mancha
La Casa de los Espíritus
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
Bajo la Misma Luna
Technology:






Computer Lab
APCD: Spanish Language-Preparing for the AP Spanish Language Examination
EdModo
PowerPoint
Internet
Authentic programs in DVD, and CD formats
Suggested Additional Materials for Speaking:
· Audacity™ recording software: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
· Personal Recorders
The AP examination for Spanish Language will take place the first two weeks of May. You will be expected to
know and be able to do the following:
 understand Spanish spoken by native speakers at a natural pace, with a variety of regional
pronunciations, in both informal (interpersonal) and formal (presentational) contexts;
 have developed an active vocabulary sufficient for reading newspaper and magazine articles,
contemporary literature, and other non-technical writings (websites, letters and emails,
advertisements, signs and instructions) in Spanish without dependence on a dictionary;
 express yourself by describing, narrating, inquiring, and developing arguments in Spanish, both
orally and in writing, with reasonable fluency, using different registers for different audiences
and communicative contexts.
Plagiarism and Cheating
“Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another person’s work, in the form of original ideas, strategies, and
research, or another person’s writing, in the form of sentences, phrases, and innovative terminology” (Spatt
366).
“If you present another person’s ideas as your own, you are plagiarizing even if you use your own words”
(Spatt 368).
Plagiarism will be considered as cheating. Be careful when working on projects while in the computer lab or
at home. If you are paraphrasing someone else’s ideas, you must retain your own writing style. However,
appropriate citation must be used when incorporating someone else’s work. Copying homework assignments
from someone else in the classroom is also another form of plagiarism/cheating and it will result in an
automatic zero for the assignment. In addition, the use of online translators is not acceptable and will also
result in a 0 for the assignment.
Spatt, Brenda. Writing from Sources. 6th Ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
Classroom Expectations:
Homework: Students will have either a written or reading assignment every night. Homework will be posted
and checked daily. Late homework will not be accepted except in the case of absence. Since material is
reviewed in class from the homework, late homework cannot be accepted.
Makeup Work Policy: Students are responsible for making up all work missed due to excused absences.
Students should see me to make arrangements for making up work within one week of returning from
absence. I am available (by appointment) most days before school (beginning at 7:30) and after school.
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Quizzes: Students will have vocabulary, grammar quizzes. The format will be announced in advance. These
quizzes will be given on a regular basis. Pop quizzes are also possible at any point during the semester.
Tests: There will be a listening, speaking and writing tests on a regular basis. Grammar components will be
assessed at all time with these tests.
Projects: Throughout the year students will have the opportunity to further their knowledge of the Spanish
language through the development of projects. Students will receive rubrics when projects are assigned.
Class Participation: Class Participation is an essential part of this AP class. Speaking formally or informally
in class will be assessed on a regular basis
Note: You will receive a rubric the first week of school and we will go over the rubric to get you familiarized
with AP standards of grading.
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