Using authentic language sources for tasks in pre-AP Spanish classes Thomas Soth Northwest Guilford High School Greensboro, NC Currently teaching Spanish 2,4, AP Language and AP Lit Have taught all levels NBCT AP Reader sotht@gcsnc.com Spanishisfun.0catch.com

Overview of the presentation Goals Background AP integrated task information How to do this at the 3 and 4 levels Audience participation Some examples Closing thoughts

AP presentational Writing and Speaking summary The College Board states that the AP Spanish Language is intended for students who wish to develop proficiency integrate their language skills acquire information from authentic materials and sources. What about your non-AP students? What do you wish for them to develop?

AP presentational Writing and Speaking summary continued On the AP test, students have to “identify and summarize the main points and significant details and make appropriate inferences and predictions from authentic written and spoken sources on academic or cultural topics related to the Spanish speaking world” Examples??

AP presentational Writing and Speaking summary continued Students will write … Students will speak about…

What is an authentic task? 2010 AP Test Presentation Prompt: ¿Qué impacto tiene la música en la vida de los jóvenes?

Sources A newspaper article A digital news article An online recording

How do students complete this task? In writing… If speaking… Sound similar?

How do we assess this? We follow the AP Rubric’s 3 categories task completion task development Use of language

How to create tasks for pre-AP? You do not rewrite the curriculum and you do not buy new text books. You do need to keep the idea of integrating skills in mind so instead of teaching to each individual language skill (writing, reading, listening and reading), we integrate all skills, every day, into every lesson (to the best of our ability). You do need to develop integrated skill assessments.

Let’s look at an example Who? Spanish 4 When? At the end of the introductory unit that had the cultural component of Latinos in The United States.

Spanish 4: First Assessment La tarea: Describe o compara lo que estos hispanoamericanos han contribuido a los Estados Unidos. Fuentes: Short biographies of Carlos Santana and César Chávez, and an interview between Cristina and Salma Hayek (youtube).

Task time line Day 1: Day of unit 1 test review. Provide the task prompt, a rubric, and the two written sources to the students. Students told they would have two nights to read the sources and take notes to use for when they would write the essay in class. Day Two: After the test. The video was shown in class after a reading of the prompt again. Student needed to take notes. The third day, the students were shown the video again (3 min. 31 Sec) and then had the class to write the presentational essay while I graded their tests.

How do we assess this We make a similar rubric to the AP Will this work at the Spanish 3 level? How do we make these tasks level appropriate? Preparation time? Extended writing time? The use of notes for presentational speaking The AP exam allows students to use the notes and the sources when they record their presentations.

Let’s look at a Rubric

In what type of units might you do this type of exercise?. Any unit  Most text book series have common unit themes such as food, education, the environment, art, etc. Let’s look at food.

With the people Think about what type of integrated task would be level appropriate for a unit on food for either level 3 or level 4. Then write down two or more written sources ideas you could use for that question and one or more audio source ideas you could use for that question. Or start with your source ideas and come up with a question.

La Comida: Espanol 3 Compara la tortilla mexicana, la arepa colombiana y la tortilla española Sources A youtube video called la cocina de Mama that shows how arepas are made. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- 7Wv2Irqjv4&feature=related La tortilla de Maíz: riqueza y símbolo de México (Por Jessica Uribe el 16 de Octubre de 2007 en Gastronomía. ) La pagina web “La Tortilla Española” that has a short history and recipe of the tortilla española. http://www.vaucanson.org/espagnol/cocina/cocina_tortil la.html

La Comida: Espanol 4 Explica en una presentación de tres minutos los efectos que algunos productos del mundo nuevo y del viejo tuvieron sobre la vida en ambos mundos. Sources (Integrated throughout the chapter) Historia del azúcar (Written text from the internet) Historia del maíz (Written text from the internet) Historia del tomate (Written text from the internet) Historia de chocolate (Old Preparing for the language examination narrative #5 p ) La historia de la papa (Old Preparing for the language examination narrative #7, and a written text)

Problemas Direct use of source material Lack of good introductions Lack of good conclusions Lack of synthesis of information

Solutions Make students only use notes from sources so as to not have word for word repeats from the sources. Have students do one integrated task essay in class with a partner step by step with a focus on the introduction and conclusion and provide good vocabulary for essays. Graphic organizers and outlines to help students learn to make connections.

What else might we do? In your groups, pick a level, then pick a topic, come up with a prompt and then list some possible sources you might use.

Can we do this at the lower levels? Think about the content Most text books at all levels have units that focus similar materials going from the very concrete to abstract. Examples of this are the family, school life, and food. Create a level specific rubric based task completion, task development, and language use. Find sources and create a question by looking for level specific sources Let’s look at food

La Comida: Espanol 2 For this one, I decided to look first at sources that were in My textbook Realidades 2. Possible sources in the text book Chapter video about making paella A description about paella (Fondo Cultural) A recipe for tostones and a fondo cultural about plantains. A recipe for and a fondo cultural for Arepas Prompt: Describe y da una opinión sobre estas tres comidas del mundo hispano.

La Comida: Espanol 1 Students have a lower level of fluency so I came up with a question first Compare the 2 different menus and the food you hear about in the youtube. Also, tell which resautant you prefer and why, and which restaurant would be the best for your health and why. Sources: One menu in Spanish from a fish restaurant, one from a McDonalds and a youtube video describing the food at a mexican restaurant (lots of images).

The intent of the AP exam, and of all language instruction, is to authentically assess a student’s ability to engage in real-life language-use situations. Thus, as language teachers we should be modeling this teaching authentically but without abandoning teaching the language foundations necessary for communication.

By integrating skills and through authentic instruction, we will prepare students not only for authentic language exams (small goal), but also for the practical use of the language in out current, diverse society (our overreaching goal).

Thank you