AP Spanish Language

Course Syllabus

Biography
Leigh Murrell has her Masters in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. She has been an educa! tional technology sta" developer for over 8 years. She is cur! rently a Instructional Technology Integration Specialist at the San Diego County O#ce of Education. Prior to this, she worked as an Educational Technology Teacher at San Di! ego Unied School District, a large urban district with over 200 schools. Leigh directly supported 30 schools and devel! oped professional development to support project based learning and integrating iPads as a learning tool into multi curricular areas in grades 3!12. For 9 years Leigh provided Spanish Language instruction in the San Diego Unied schools district at all levels 1!AP Lan! guage. Leigh also served on the World Language Curricu! lum Committee from 2007!20011. Leigh collaboratively authored the curriculum; standards alignment; and district benchmark and Final assessments for Spanish levels 1/2!7/8.

About the Instructor

Leigh has been a member of the Foreign Language Council of San Diego $FLCSD% since 2002 and has served as member at large and webmaster on the Board of Directors. She has presented at local, state and national conferences including ISTE. For more information about Leigh visit her online at: LeighMurrell.com or view her CV.

Contact Information:
Email: Leigh.murrell@sdcoe.net Phone: $858% 292!3536 Google Voice: $619% 940!5652

Communication:
If you wish to correspond with me for any reason, I prefer you submit a message through the Moodle inbox. An alternative is to submit an email to the address above, writing Spanish AP in the subject area.

Course Overview
In today's world the ability to use a second language brings great advantages to our students: increased earning power, broadened cultural understanding and sharpened intellec! tual skills. Learning a second language helps students pre! pare for life in a world of cultural and linguistic diversity. I am therefore committed to helping each student develop and maintain prociency in a language other than English in an established sequence of language classes and by speak! ing Spanish exclusively in the Advanced Placement Spanish Language classroom and encouraging its use in their daily interactions in the community. In adherence to the Califor! nia State World Language Standards and the National Stan! dards for Foreign Language Learning, the course will ad! dress the ve prociencies: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Lis! tening and Culture in the context of the ve "C's" of for! eign language education: Communication, Cultures, Con! nections, Comparisons, and Communities.

About the Course

We will be addressing the California State Content Standards $CCSS% and the Common Core State Standards and the ACTFL Prociency Guidelines.

Interactive 2.1 ACTFL s Alignment of the National Standards for Learning Langauges with the Com! mon Core State Standards

How the CCSS, ACTFL prociency guidelines, and the National Standards for Learning Languages are aligned.
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Student Learning Outcomes

The students improve speaking ability. The students improve study habits and learn to budget study time. The students learn web 2.0 skills in context to their learning and safe online behavior. The students study and share di"erent cultural backgrounds. The students read guided literature and authentic reading from print and internet sources, utilizing read alouds, shared reading and other literacy strategies. The students pass the Advanced Placement Exam in Spanish Language.

The students reinforce grammatical skills. The students write compositions in Spanish on a variety of topics. The students participate in Socratic Seminars, discussions and debates. The students prepare individual and group projects. The students expand vocabulary.

Course Outline
First Semester
Unit consists of: Chapters from Triangulo Chapters from Abriendo Paso (lectura)

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4

1 2 3 4

1 3 3 4

Second Semester
Unit consists of: Sections from AP Spanish Chapters from Abriendo Paso (lectura)

Unit 5 Unit 6 Unit 7 Unit 8 Unit 9 Unit 10

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I, II, III, IV I, II, III, IV I, II, III, IV I, II, III, IV I, II, III, IV I, II, III, IV

27 14 15, 22 18, 19 20 21

Sample Classroom Activities

Listening
To prepare students for the listening portion of the AP Exam, stu! dents will practice listening to the following:
Representative music genres Recordings/readings of literature and current media Recordings of authentic materials $radio broadcasts, movies, TV series, Spanish Speakers from various regions, podcasts% Guest speakers Academic lectures

Reading
A variety of authentic reading materials are used to develop this skill. Representative samples include: Bodas de sangre, Continuidad de los parques, Selecciones de Versos Sencillos, Emma Zunz, La casa de los espritus.
Journalism & & & & & Reader's Digest in Spanish Vanidades People in Espaol Newspapers online Blogs & & & & Literature Short Stories Plays Poetry Novels

Speaking
To prepare for the speaking portion of the AP Exam students are given ample opportunities to practice a variety of speaking modes.&

Small and large group conversations Presentations of original movies and skits Interviews of Spanish speakers AP Practice Informal Speaking $Simulated conversation% AP Practice Formal Oral Presentation $Integrated Skills% Recognizing and utilizing the various language registers

Discussions Debates Socratic Seminars Audio and Video Podcasts Role playing

Writing
A spectrum of writing practice includes formal and informal exercises.

Quick writes Blog posts Paraphrases Letters Emails Online discussion forums Informal journal entries Critiques Summaries

Persuasive and compare/contrast essays Scripts for original movies and skits Vocabulary building: word study, idiomatic expressions, synonyms/antonyms Grammar reinforcement and sentence structures Synthesis of multiple reading texts Planning, prewriting and proofreading. $Venn diagrams, storyboards, mind maps, outlines, etc.%

Teaching Strategies
The following strategies combine the four language prociencies and can be emphasized to achieve a particular goal. At the beginning of a new topic, I activate prior knowledge on a subject by showing pic! tures, video clips, providing word association activities, and or questioning to elicit what the students already know. While listening to or reading students are asked to take notes for the purpose of nding the main ideas and important details. At the beginning of the year I use groups and pair shares for students to help with comprehension. As the year pro! gresses, students are expected to have a higher level of auditory comprehension and no longer use their peers. I use comprehension questions after reading and listening activities for students to demonstrate their level of understanding. A representative assignment would include a student preparing a summary of an' article or a current event, presenting their summary in a blog post as well as live in class for the class to take notes. A short answer test may be administered and if appropriate I provide key vocabulary in a variety of methods.

For group discussions, Socratic Seminar's, conversations or debates, students must select a theme, bring vocabulary, research and prepare an introduction, prepare questions and/or an outline for discussion, act as moderator, and give a closing statement. During informal writing assignments, students are given a topic and a time period with which to write about the topic. I also give students scenarios or themes and ask them to write blog posts, email or participate in online forum discussions. For Formal writing prac! tice students are given a prompt and are required to write full length, well constructed es! says of at least 200 words. As we get closer to the exam, students are given a prompt, two reading passages, and one audio excerpt to integrate into a well constructed essay of the same length.

Grading and Assessment

There are ongoing informal assessments related to class! room activities. The grade in this course is cumulative throughout the semester. The grades for each quarter are not averaged together to come up with the semester grade.. Grades will be calculated as followsThe weighted percent! ages for assignment are:

Policies

15%
Tests Class Work Essays Projects Oral Presentations Participation

25%

15% 15% 15% 15%

Grades are based on a point system. Each homework assignment, quiz, project and test will have a point value. I update grades every 2!3 weeks. Academic Grades are based on points earned. Letter grades are assigned as follows:
100( ! 80.5( =A 80( ! 60.5( =B 60( ! 40.5( =C 40( ! 20.5( =D 20( ! 0 =F

Rubrics
I use the o#cial AP Spanish Language rubrics for formal assessments and occasionally for informal assignments. I use teacher generated rubrics for all other items. Any additional rubrics will be made available to students at the time of assignment. All rubrics are avail! able on the class Moodle site. Additional assessments are from the adopted texts and include: cloze activities, multiple choice item selection, paragraph completions with and without root words.

Participation Points
Students participation is noted during in class discussions, online forums and other activi! ties. A student must participate in these activities to earn points.

Missing Assignment and Late Work

Late work is accepted on a case by case basis depending upon why a student needs to turn in work late. In all cases a one letter grade penalty will be assigned. If you nd that you have any trouble keeping up with assignments or other aspects of the course, let your in! structor know as early as possible. Informing your instructor of any di#culties, provides an opportunity to nd a solution.

Turning in Work
Your assignments will be submitted electronically in our Moodle. Specic links and infor! mation will be available for you there. In the case of submitting actual computerized docu! ments using Moodle, please use the following naming convention: Last Name then First Name_Period Number_Assignment Title. All assignments must be submitted by the due date $at 11:59 pm Pacic Time% or by the end of the course, if an extension is specically granted

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Online Interaction
Online Discussions and reections assigned in this course will expected. You are required to respond to posts by other participants. You will receive a passing score by meeting the minimum criteria as outlined in the rubrics. If you have a question about an assignment, please post your question in either the General Discussion Forum or email the instruc! tor.

Academic Integrity:!
Please refer to the School Academic Honesty Policy for details. Any student caught cheating or trying to cheat on a test, quiz, or project will receive an F for the assignment grade for the following reporting period.' A second instance of cheating will result in an F for the semester, according to school policy.' Any unauthor! ized material found on or about the person will constitute cheating. ' Turn in creative and original work. Cite your references, including websites. Copying other peoples work, giving unauthorized help to another student, receiving unauthorized help from another student/teacher/native speaker, and the use of online translating pro! grams are all forms of cheating and will result in an automatic grade of F on the assign! ment in question. If you are ever unclear about what constitutes academic dishonesty, just ask!

Disability Statement
This syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. Students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course should contact the professor at the beginning of the semester to discuss needed accommodations.

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Technology Requirements

There is a strong web and technology component to this class. I therefore ask that all students have an email and a google account. 'Students will use Moodle $an online learn! ing management system% to take quizzes and tests, access class documents, turn in work, and participate in student driven help forums. The class will be using blogs to write re! ections, learning summaries and interact with their class! mates. Wikispaces will be used to create an online portfolio of work. Google Sites, Google Docs and other Google re! sources will be used in the class. Students will be creating podcasts, and videos. All technology used in the class will be used to enhance the student learning and further their abilities in Spanish. Adherence to the district Acceptable Use Policy is expected. Moodle! Moodle is an online learning management sys! tem. All students in the class will be given login informa! tion that they will use throughout the course. Moodle will be used 'to: take quizzes and tests, access class docu!

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ments, turn in work, take part in interactive assignments, and participate in student driven help forums. Google Account! I ask that all students have an email and a google account. Google Sites, Google Docs and other Google resources will be used in the class. WikiSpaces! Wikispaces will be used to create an online portfolio of work. Other Technology! We will also be using other technology throughout this course. We will be using computers, microphones and cameras to create podcasts and video.

Required:
Free online accounts for Google, Wikispaces and other Web 2.0 tools that emerge in the course. Current web browser with the appropriate plugins: Quicktime Player for Mac or Windows Windows Media Player Flash Player Adobe PDF Reader

Optional:
Headset/Microphone Screencasting software Webcam

File Formats Accepted:

Microsoft O#ce File Formats: .doc or .docx, .ppt or .pptx .pdf Google Docs
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