Level 4/5 Spanish – Spanish 115 / 116

Profesora: Senora McKay

Email:

Phone:(914) 257-5800

Course Description:

SPAN 115 Spanish for Communication: A beginning Spanish course designed to help develop listening and speaking skills in the Spanish language. The course will help students deal with real everyday situations (identifying needs, shopping, seeking medical assistance, gathering information, etc.). The aim of the course is to enable students to understand basic spoken Spanish within the limits of the topics presented in the course, including (but not limited to) business, travel, and social interaction. This course is not open to students who have studied Spanish in high school for more than two semesters or to students who have native or near-native fluency in Spanish. 3 sem. hrs. 3 crs.

SPAN 115 GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

The primary objective of this course is to enable students to communicate in Spanish orally and in writing. Using basic language functions such as socializing, providing and obtaining information, expressing feelings and opinions and convincing others to adopt a course of action, students will gain semantic and contextual understandings of how to speak Spanish. Further objectives of this course include but are not limited to reading comprehension and understanding of key grammatical structures. The course is to be taught almost entirely in Spanish, and students are expected to use Spanish as their primary language of communication in the classroom. Accurate and intelligible pronunciation is fundamental to achieving this goal, and students will be corrected accordingly.

SPAN 115 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

This course is specifically designed to allow students to develop the language skills needed for understanding, speaking, reading and writing in Spanish. An emphasis is placed on the acquisition of a practical vocabulary and oral use of the language as well as gaining fundamental tools for learning a foreign language. The basic topics for conversation will include the following:

1. Greetings, farewells

2. Useful questions and answers, polite expressions

3. Daily activities, telephone calls, personal information

COMPETENCIES

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to orally and in writing:

1. Ask questions and respond to questions in a variety of contexts.

2. Express feelings and inquire about the feelings of others

3. Describe self and others

Books:

Herrera, Carmen, Lamontagna, Paul. ¡A Toda Vela! EMC Publishing. St. Paul, Minn. 2013

Cuoch, James, McCann, Rebecca, Rodriguez-Walter, Carmel, Rubio-Maroto, Angel. UnaVez Mas. Pearson. New Jersey. 2009

Supplemental Materials:

Workbooks

Newspapers / Magazines / Internet Research

GRADING:

Quarterly Grades: Grades will be computed based on homework, class participation, class work, quizzes, compositions, essays, orals and tests using a total point system.

Here is an idea of what to expect:

Tests: 100 Points.

There will be a unit test at the end of each chapter.

Homework:0-3 Points Daily (depending upon completion of assignment)

Homework will be assigned every night and credit will be received for completed assignments. Incomplete homework assignments will not receive credit.

Quizzes:10 –50 Points (depending upon lesson)

Quizzes will cover vocabulary, grammatical structures and readings and will be given on weekly basis throughout lessons. Oral quizzes will also be given.

Compositions/Essays:25-100 Points (depending upon lesson)

This will include short writings, as well as literary analysis and synthesis essays.

Class Participation:15 Points (weekly)

A perfect class participation grade can be achieved by arriving to class on time, being in your seat and ready with a notebook and pen/pencil when the bell rings, and actively participating in class by taking notes and completing all class work.

Syllabus

Intro to Course:

Syllabus review for Level 4/5 course.

Lesson 1

Review of the Present Tense – Regular and irregular verbs

Ser and Estar

Definite and Indefinite Articles

Gender and number of nouns

Comparatives and Superlatives

Essential Questions:

  1. How does one’s home culture compare to the target culture?
  2. How does one express oneself and support ones point of view effectively when talking about the present.

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will know the conjugations of regular and irregular verbs in the present tense.
  2. Students will know the formulation of questions using appropriate vocabulary and expressions.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Vocabulary and Present Tense Acquisition: Achievement of this outcome will be assessed in an essay writing of 150 words in the target language and students will be graded out of a 100 point rubric.

Lesson 2

Reflexive Verbs

Gustar

Pronouns/Demonstrative adjectives/possessive adjectives

Essential Questions:

  1. How does one describe his or her daily routines?
  2. How does one communicate likes and dislikes in the target language?

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will talk about their daily routine and utilize reflexive verbs to discuss taking care on one self.
  2. Students will talk about their belongings.

Learning Outcomes:

Lesson 3

Preterite

Imperfect

Preterite vs. Imperfect

Essential Questions:

  1. How does one express one self and support ones point of view effectively when talking about the past or events that happened in the past?
  2. What is the difference between the Preterite and the Imperfect?

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will know the difference between the Preterite and Imperfect Tenses.
  2. Students will know the conjugations of regular and irregular verbs in the past.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Writing (Travel and Leisure):Achievement of this outcome will be assessed by students writing an essay entitled “El veranopasado” using the Imperfecto and Preterito and students will be graded based on a 100 point rubric.

Lesson 4

The Perfect Tenses

Passive Voice

Prepositions

Essential Questions:

  1. How does one talk about past actions that effect the present?
  2. How does one communicate past actions using a variety of past tenses?

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will know to express past actions.
  2. Students will distinguish between the different ways to use the past tenses.
  3. Students will express and support a point of view with respect to past events.

Learning Outcomes:

Exam Lessons 3&4 – Final Exam for Spanish 115 – Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing are assessed through speaking prompts that lead to conversations; Listening done through authentic audio material; reading comprehension through stories where students answer written questions and writing prompts based on vocabulary studied throughout course. Exam will be graded on a 100 point scale.

Spanish 116

This course is a continuation of Spanish 115 and is designed to further the progress made by students in developing basic communication skills in Spanish. Students will continue to learn the basic elements of Spanish structure and vocabulary necessary for an ability to communicate in this language. A large emphasis of the course is on speaking and understanding Spanish as it is spoken today in twenty countries in Europe and in the Americas. Prerequisite: SPAN 115 or the equivalent; two years of high school Spanish; or approval of the Language program director. 3 sem. hrs. 3 crs.

COURSE OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, students will have developed an intermediate level of language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing with emphasis placed on a practical vocabulary and oral use of the language. The basic topics for conversation will include the following:

7. Greetings, farewells, personal data

8. Daily activities of self and others, telephone calls, nationalities

9. Characteristics of people and things

10. Food, beverage, and party activities

11. Travel, leisure, and friends

12. Descriptions of family members, weather, seasons, holidays.

COMPETENCIES:

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to orally and in writing:

8. ask questions

9. respond to questions

10. express feelings and inquire about the feelings of others

11. persuade others and tell others what to do

12. describe self and others

13. express and describe actions in the past and in the subjunctive mode

14. express needs when traveling and asking for directions

Lesson 5

Commands

Future

Adverbs

Conditional

Direct/Indirect Object Pronouns

Essential Questions:

  1. How does one give directions in the target language?
  2. How does on express events that will take place in the near future and future?
  3. How does one express a desire, a preference or a polite request in the target language?

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will know the proper uses of commands, the future and the conditional tense.
  2. Students will know how to formulate and utilize regular and irregular, negative and affirmative, formal and informal commands.
  3. Students will express future events utilizing both regular and irregular verbs in the future tense.
  4. Students will know how to utilize the Conditional Tense in every day life.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Vocabulary and new tense acquisition (Desires, Preferences or Polite requests): Achievement of this outcome will be assessed by students writing an essay entitled “el futuro” answering: ¿Cómoserátuvida en diezaños? ¿Dónde estarás? ¿Con quien estarás? ¿Estarás satisfecho/a con tu vida? Writing will be assessed using a 50 point rubric.

Exam Lesson 5 - Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing will be assessed through exercises based on a 100 point scale.

Lesson 6

Negative Expressions

Present Subjunctive

Subjunctive vs. Indicative

Impersonal expressions used with the subjunctive

Suffixes

Essential Questions:

  1. How does one express his or her emotions, opinions, beliefs, possibilities and uncertainties in the target language?

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will know how to express subjectivity.
  2. Students will know how to use the subjunctive mood to express hopes and wishes with regular and irregular verbs.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Vocabulary and new tense acquisition (Desires, Preferences and Polite Requests): Achievement of this outcome will be assessed by students creating a presentation describing what they would do under certain circumstances and then share this information with the class. This presentationwill be assessed using a 30 point rubric.

Lesson 7

Relative Pronouns

Qué vs, Cuál

Past Subjunctive

Saber and Conocer

Essential Questions:

  1. How can we effectively express emotions, doubts, etc. about something that happened in the past?
  2. How does one distinguish between the past and present subjunctive?

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will express current emotion, doubts and possibilities about something that happened in the past.
  2. Students will know the difference between the two verbs “to know”.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Immigration and tense acquisition (Characteristics of people, Personal data): Achievement of this outcome will be assessed by students writing an essay regarding a contemporary issue such as immigration with using the subjunctive to express their opinions and feelings. This essay will be assessed using a 50 point rubric.

Lesson 8

Gerund

Verbs Followed by Prepositions

Essential Questions:

  1. How does one express an action in progress?

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will distinguish between the present tense and an action in progress.
  2. Students will know how to create and write clear and detailed sentences in the target language.

Final Exam Spanish 116 - Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing are assessed through speaking prompts that lead to conversations; Listening done through authentic audio material; reading comprehension through stories where students answer written questions and writing prompts based on vocabulary studied throughout course. Cultural elements will be included throughout the exam. Exam will be graded on a 100 point scale.