Jessica Bisbee

MAT Program

Clark University

September 30, 2013

Foundations Unit: Unit 1

  1. The Foundations Unit is laying the first building blocks of essential Spanish for my Spanish One students. During this unit, they will learn the alphabet, pronunciation, basic conversation skills and introductions, classroom vocabulary, days of the week, the weather, as well as some numbers vocabulary. These skills will help the students to understand the basics of Spanish in preparation for more complex language and culture lessons.
  1. Big Idea/Essential Question: What are the skills that we need to be successful language learners? The foundations unit will hopefully build a student’s Spanish little by little, or block by block. It will also foster a sense of confidence in each student as we progress in a scaffolded and logical manner. For those that already speak Spanish conversationally, the foundations unit will refocus their attention to the smallest details of the language which many haven’t considered before such as spelling. The activities and skills we will cover in this unit will inform our later learning and progression.

Learning Goals:

  1. Students will be able to spell using the Spanish alphabet some of the terms they most frequently use on a daily basis such as their names, school, or address. They will also learn the pronunciations of the letters.
  2. Students will be able to hold a basic conversation in Spanish either formally or informally based upon whom they are speaking with including the appropriate vocabulary.
  3. Students will be able to describe items in a classroom and respond to classroom commands in Spanish.
  4. Students will be able to comfortably use days of the week, numbers, and weather vocabulary.
  5. Students will develop the routine of entering the classroom and working on their starters to get their minds into a Spanish mode of thinking. They will also be able to work independently and in groups through successful collaboration and communication. They will know to find their assigned seats and start their work for the day.
  6. Students will keep detailed notes including vocabulary that will be checked regularly. These notes will serve as their personal dictionaries and resources over the course of the year.
  7. Students will work on developing their ideas in their writing in both English and Spanish through work in their notebooks and other activities.
  8. Students will also strive to read and understand Spanish text as well as speak using our new vocabulary and phrases.
  9. The classroom as a whole will be an accepting place where students are free to try new things, make errors, and discover new ideas without embarrassment or judgment. Respect will be the foundation of all daily classroom activities and actions.
  1. Rationale:
  2. Learning goals: My essential question and learning goals are crucial for my students because they will help the students to have the skills to learn a new language both in regards to classroom expectations and in regards to how to break down language to its beginnings. Students need to be respectful of one another so that everyone can comfortably try new things such as speaking a language they have never spoken before or speaking a language they have never spoken in front of their peers. By breaking Spanish down into its most essential skills that will inform their future learning, all students create a firm foundation of skills that they can relate to in order to learn new material in the future.
  1. Curriculum standards: Our essential question helps us to see the different facets of being a language learner. Being a language learner comes with multiple sides as the standards show in detail. It isn’t simply grammar all the time, nor is it culture all the time. As students we need to build a strong foundation which reaches as many of these facets as we can so that we can be successful and authentic language learners both in the classroom and in the community.
  • Interpretive Communication: Students are communicating in Spanish to provide and obtain information. For instance, students will engage in performed dialogues including introductions.
  • Presentational Communication: One of the final projects of the unit will include students presenting a calendar week including weather for each day. The presentation will be given in Spanish.
  • Cultures/Cultural Comparisons: Students will investigate the Independence Day celebrations of Central American countries. Each group will investigate one country and share out with the group. Also, groups will compare the U.S. celebrations of Independence Days to the Central American Independence Days.
  • Linguistic Comparisons: Students will work with both languages looking at the similarities and the disconnects between the two. For instance, in the introductions section students will see that there is not a direct translation between the vocabulary used to ask someone’s name.
  • Connections: Through our section on Independence Day celebrations we will take a glimpse into world history as we look into timelines of the colonization of Central America.
  1. Students’ background and readiness: In this unit I am taking into account the variety of prior experience I have in my classroom. Students that have prior Spanish knowledge become the empowered experts who learn how to support their inexperienced classmates. They will also be held to high standards and rewarded for going above and beyond the classroom activities. Meanwhile, I will provide plenty of assistance to students who have never used or learned Spanish before this course. I will scaffold them into comfortable speaking, reading and writing. I will also address students on IEPs by providing them plenty of small group activities, regular check ins, and directions delivered in multiple ways to insure everyone’s success.
  1. Student needs: On a social level, my students need to feel comfortable working with one another and speaking, reading, and writing in front of one another. I have therefore provided activities that allow the students to slowly work their way up to presenting and providing responses. For instance, students may begin by presenting some items from their seats while I stand right in front of them to eventually volunteering answers and presenting in the front of the classroom with strong presenting skills. On an academic level I am here to push my students. When they are doing very well, I push them to do even more by encouraging them to try grammatical concepts we may not have covered and then providing support for them. When someone is struggling, I provide ample opportunities for them to meet with me after class or to revisit the challenging material through flexible lesson plans. On a personal level, some students need more encouragement than others because they are shy and reserved. I have been sure to reward their efforts with very positive feedback. I’ve also made sure to reward the effort of the students that try new things. The more outspoken students have been challenged to help their fellow students through group work and participate in a respectful way.
  1. Research- and evidence-based best practice ideas: I will try to reach various manners of learner ranging from auditory, kinesthetic, and visual as research shows that each individual learns in a unique way. Therefore, I will have students explore a concept in these various ways. For instance, when learning introductions, students will hear the audio while viewing pictures of different introductions taking place, they will themselves practice speaking these introductions and acting them out, and they will draw and write dialogues of introductions taking place. As far as best practice goes, I am including authentic material that would appear in everyday interactions in a Spanish environment. I am also including cultural elements such as Independence Day celebrations that are occurring in Central America currently. Students have also had some say in the skills that they feel they need to understand further. For instance, the schedule can be adjusted based on student needs. Many activities may be extended or revisited based upon the students needs. Also, students gain some of their new skills from their peers through extensive group and partner work.
  1. Assessments:.
  2. Our assessments will include a written quiz on the alphabet and hello and goodbye vocabulary, two to three notebook checks, a written quiz on introductions and classroom vocabulary, a variety of poster presentations to check for understanding, a presentation on days of the week and weather, and a final test reviewing all of our foundations material. The quizzes serve to see how individual students are grasping the concepts we have worked with. There is extensive preparation ahead of time which works towards having the students prepare in advanced and stay organized. The notebook checks are to ensure students are engaging in successful note taking procedures. This allows students to be organized and to create their own resources. It also helps prepare them for future high school and college success since note taking skills are very critical in both settings. Our presentations offer students the chance to work in groups and gain valuable insights from their peers through their conversations and preparations. It also stresses the need to work together as a community to build our knowledge. Presentations also help us to use the language orally and practice our pronunciation in a comfortable atmosphere.
  1. Students will be shown examples of successful assignment when given their directions so that they know what a quality project will look like. Also, for group projects students will be given a set of expectations as part of their directions. This may be written into the directions or be a separate rubric that they see ahead of time.
  1. Attach a draft of your culminating assignment and corresponding assessment criteria/rubric.
  1. Students and parents will have access to regular grade updates through email. Also, students will receive their graded work back in a timely fashion so that they may see their progress.
  1. Unit Calendar

Foundations Unit

Unit Calendar

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
Aug. 28th
-Syllabus
-Class Expectations
-Cognates / Aug. 29th / Aug. 30th
-Partner spelling activites using Spanish alphabet
Sept. 2nd
LABOR DAY / Sept. 3rd
-Pronunciation notes / Sept. 4th
-Name Poster Presentations using Spanish Alphabet
-Memory Game / Sept. 5th
-Passport Notes / Sept. 6th
-Passport Project (quiz grade)
Sept. 9th / Sept. 10th
-Formal versus informal hello’s
-Partner dialogue practice / Sept. 11th / Sept. 12th / Sept. 13th
Sept. 16
-How Are You Posters / Sept. 17th / Sept. 18th / Sept. 19th
-Alphabet/Hello Quiz
-Accent Marks / Sept. 20th
-First Notebook Check
Sept. 23rd
-Independence Day Videos / Sept. 24th
-Country Comparisons with celebrations / Sept. 25th
BIG E FIELD TRIP / Sept. 26th / Sept. 27th
-Independence Day Presentations
Sept. 30th

Unit Calendar

Oct. 1st / Oct. 2nd
-Introductions Presentations / Oct. 3rd
-Classroom Vocabulary / Oct. 4th
-Numbers Vocab 1-15
Oct. 7th
-Numbers Vocab 15-31 / Oct. 8th / Oct. 9th
-Days of the Week /Months Vocabulary Notes / Oct. 10th
-Days of the week activities comic / Oct. 11th
-2nd Note Check
Oct. 14th
-How to say the Date / Oct. 15th / Oct. 16th / Oct. 17th
-Quiz Review / Oct. 18th
-Introductions/
Classroom vocab
Quiz
Oct. 21st
-Weather vocabulary / Oct. 22nd
-Pair Dialogues on weather / Oct. 23rd / Oct. 24th
-Begin calendar project / Oct. 25th
-Calender project work
Oct. 28th
-Calendar/ Final
Project Presentations / Oct. 29th / Oct. 30th / Oct. 31st
-Unit Test
  1. The sequence of activities has been built as stepping stones. Each layer builds off the last layer that occurred. This way everything becomes interconnected as the unit continues. We begin by breaking the language down into its simplest form: letters. We then work on building confidence through work with cognates and pronunciations. Then, as a class we will move on to simple conversations including hello’s, how are you’s, and goodbye’s in both formal and informal settings. This is the most basic form of conversation a language speaker will encounter. The next step involves making introductions and adding introductions into our already established basic conversations. We will then learn useful classroom vocabulary. This will enable students to ask questions and respond to prompts using our new foreign language. Next, we will move days of the week, months, and numbers (which go along with learning how to ask and give the date). Finally, we will incorporate weather into our conversations. With all this basic vocabulary students will have a firm foundation as a language learner that will allow them to participate in every day conversations as well as classroom activities.
  1. Resources:
  1. On day one parents will receive a classroom contract exposing them to the expectations of our Spanish classroom. Both the student and parent will need to sign and return the contract during our first week of classes. In this way everyone has a similar understanding of expectations from the beginning.
  2. I have drawn on projects from my colleagues to further our learning such as a passports activity that will begin our looking into the cultural side of the Spanish language. I also welcome students to share their personal experiences with Spanish in order to answer puzzling questions and prompt further questions from classmates.
  3. In class we will use sources that require citing. Students are reminded that they may use translating resources, but these tools have to be cited because it is not completely their own thinking.