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Similar to AP Spanish Language and Culture Course Revisions Overview
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AP Spanish Language and Culture Course Revisions Overview
- 1. AP® Spanish Language and Culture: An Overview of Course Revisions
- 2. Why Change? Reflect current pedagogy More fully align with national standards Ensure ongoing alignment with parallel college courses Standardize all AP® world language courses and exams
- 3. Focus of Revised Course Integration of language, content, and culture Practical language usage Communication is priority
- 4. What Has Changed? Focus on the three modes of communication – Interpersonal – Interpretive – Presentational Thematic approach Cultural emphasis
- 5. Performance Guidelines NOVICE INTERMEDIATE PRE-ADVANCED AP® COURSE
- 6. A Thematic Approach Global Challenges / Los desafíos mundiales Beauty and Science and Aesthetics / Technology / La belleza y la La ciencia y la estética tecnología Families and Contemporary Life / Communities / La vida contemporánea Las familias y las comunidades Personal and Public Identities / Las identidades personales y públicas
- 7. A Thematic Approach Recommended Contexts Tema: Los desafíos mundiales Los temas económicos Los temas del medio ambiente El pensamiento filosófico ya la religión La población y la demografía El bienestar social La conciencia social
- 8. Essential Questions Ask yourself: “What do I really want students to know? What can they use in real life?” An Essential Question: – is a provocative question designed to engage student interest and guide inquiry into the important ideas in a field of study. – does not have one “right” answer – is intended to stimulate discussion and rethinking over time – raises other important questions – When using more than one, essential questions can be differentiated to meet student needs
- 9. Focus on Communication The course is designed around an overarching premise: When communicating, AP® Spanish Language and Culture students demonstrate an understanding of the culture(s), incorporate interdisciplinary topics (Connections),make comparisons between the native language and the target language and between cultures (Comparisons), and use the target language in real-life settings (Communities).
- 10. Three Modes of Communication Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal Communication Active negotiation of meaning among individuals through conversation Active negotiation of meaning among individuals through conversation (face-to-face or telephonic); or through reading and writing (e.g., (face-to-face or telephonic); or through reading and writing (e.g., exchange of personal letters, notes, or email or participation in written exchange of personal letters, notes, or email or participation in written online discussions) online discussions) Interpretive Communication Interpretive Communication No active negotiation of meaning with another individual, although there No active negotiation of meaning with another individual, although there is an active negotiation of meaning construction; includes the cultural is an active negotiation of meaning construction; includes the cultural interpretation of text, movies, radio, television, and speeches interpretation of text, movies, radio, television, and speeches Presentational Communication Presentational Communication Creation of spoken or written communication prepared for an audience and Creation of spoken or written communication prepared for an audience and rehearsed, revised or edited before presentation; one-way communication rehearsed, revised or edited before presentation; one-way communication that requires interpretation by others without negotiation of meaning that requires interpretation by others without negotiation of meaning
- 11. Six Primary Learning Objective Areas Spoken Interpersonal Communication Written Interpersonal Communication Audio, Visual, and Audiovisual Interpretive Communication Written and Print Interpretive Communication Spoken Presentational Communication Written Presentational Communication
- 12. Achievement Level Descriptions Represent a student’s progression along the second language learning trajectory Provide explicit descriptions of student performance at 5, 4, 3, and 2 Allow for detailed and meaningful reporting of student performance
- 13. Achievement Level Descriptions Categories Spoken Interpersonal Communication Interaction Strategies Opinions Language structures Vocabulary Register Pronunciation Cultures, connections and comparisons
- 14. Cultures, Connections and Comparisons Spoken Spoken Audio, Visual Audio, Visual Written Presentational Written Presentational Interpersonal Interpersonal and Audiovisual and Audiovisual Communication Communication Communication Communication Interpretive Interpretive Communication Communication Discourse and Discourse and Interaction Interaction development development Strategies Strategies Comprehension of Comprehension of Strategies Strategies Opinions Opinions content content Language structures Language structures Language structures Language structures Critical viewing and Critical viewing and Vocabulary Vocabulary Vocabulary Vocabulary listening listening Writing conventions Writing conventions Register Register Vocabulary Vocabulary Register Register Pronunciation Pronunciation Cultures, Cultures, Cultures, Cultures, Cultures, Cultures, connections, and connections, and connections, and connections, and connections, and connections, and comparisons comparisons comparisons comparisons comparisons comparisons
- 15. Focus on Culture Products, Practices, and Perspectives – Products refer to both those products that are tangible (e.g., tools, books) and intangible (e.g., laws, conventions, institutions); – Practices refer to patterns of social interactions within a culture; and – Perspectives refer to the values, attitudes, and assumptions that underlie both practices and products.
- 16. How to Integrate Culture? Authentic Materials such as (but not limited to) – newspaper/magazine articles, features, editorials, ads – maps – charts and graphics – letters – radio segments – podcasts – films – music – visual art – opinion polls
- 17. Broader Application of the Curriculum Framework The Curriculum Framework can be used to inform the entire program of instruction from beginning to AP. It can also help unify instruction in classes that have students with combined levels.
- 18. AP Exam Format Percent Number of of Final Section Questions Score Time Section I: Multiple Choice Approx. 95 minutes Interpretive Communication: Part A 30 questions Approx. 40 minutes Print Texts Interpretive Communication: 50% Print and Audio Texts (combined) Part B 35 questions Approx. 55 minutes Interpretive Communication: Audio Texts Section II: Free Response Approx. 85 minutes Interpersonal Writing: Email Reply 1 prompt 15 minutes Approx. Presentational Writing: Persuasive Essay 1 prompt 55 minutes 50% 20 seconds for each Interpersonal Speaking: Conversation 5 prompts response Presentational Speaking: Cultural Comparison 1 prompt 2 minutes to respond
- 19. Multiple-Choice Items Mix of comprehension and interpretive questions Vocabulary in context Purpose of the text, point of view of speaker/writer Audience of the text Inferences and conclusions Questions of “cultural” or “interdisciplinary” nature that ask students to show understanding of information contained in the text
- 20. Free-Response Questions Interpersonal and Presentational Communication Written and spoken responses – Directions in both English and Spanish
- 21. Free-Response Questions Item Types: – Email reply (interpersonal writing) – Persuasive essay (presentational writing) – Conversation (interpersonal speaking) – Cultural comparison (presentational speaking)
- 22. Advance Organizers Tasks and source materials come with advance organizers and time for previewing. SAMPLE: Print Source SAMPLE: Print Source Introducción Introducción Tema curricular: Los desafíos mundiales Tema curricular: Los desafíos mundiales Este texto trata del envejecimiento de la población europea. Este texto trata del envejecimiento de la población europea. El artículo original fue publicado el 25 de febrero de 2008 en El artículo original fue publicado el 25 de febrero de 2008 en Inglaterra por el periodista Inder Bugarin. Inglaterra por el periodista Inder Bugarin.
- 23. Advance Organizers SAMPLE: Audio Source SAMPLE: Audio Source Introducción Introducción Tema curricular: La ciencia y la tecnología Tema curricular: La ciencia y la tecnología Esta grabación trata del Primer Simposio de Bioluminiscencia en Esta grabación trata del Primer Simposio de Bioluminiscencia en Vieques. El reportaje fue publicado el 20 de enero de 2011 en Vieques. El reportaje fue publicado el 20 de enero de 2011 en Puerto Rico por el programa Sea Grant. Son entrevistadas Lirio Puerto Rico por el programa Sea Grant. Son entrevistadas Lirio Márquez, la coordinadora del simposio, la senadora Norma Márquez, la coordinadora del simposio, la senadora Norma Burgos, la senadora Marita Santiago yyRuperto Chaparro, el Burgos, la senadora Marita Santiago Ruperto Chaparro, el director de Sea Grant. La grabación dura aproximadamente tres director de Sea Grant. La grabación dura aproximadamente tres minutos. minutos.
- 24. Features of the AP® Exam Authentic materials reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. Criteria for selection are comprehensibility and relevance. Materials will be reasonably chosen and also reflect a range of cultural perspectives and linguistic features. Audio sources are played twice. Most sources last from 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes 30 seconds (no longer than 3 minutes).
- 25. Preparing for the New Course For new teacher support resources and professional development opportunities visit: – advancesinap.collegeboard.org – apcentral.collegeboard.com
- 26. Timeline Date Activity October 2011 Official announcement of new AP Spanish Language and Culture course to take effect in 2013-14 academic year October 2011 Publication of AP Spanish Language and Culture Curriculum Framework including sample items Summer 2012 AP Summer Institutes with main focus on the current course, but also with information on the new course February 2013 Publication of AP Spanish Language and Culture Course and Exam Description and Publication of Course Audit materials March 2013 Course Audit begins; course syllabi to be submitted by 1/31/14 June 2013 Publication of a complete Practice Exam Summer and Fall AP Summer Institutes and one-day Workshops will focus on the new 2013 course May 2014 First administration of new AP Spanish Language and Culture exam
- 27. Thank you! On behalf of the Advanced Placement Program®, thank you very much for taking the time to learn more about the AP® Spanish Language and Culture course. We look forward to partnering with you as you build students’ success in your classroom and for the future!
Editor's Notes
- In this presentation, we will explain why we have made changes to the course introduce the revised curriculum framework with its focus on communication and culture and show you how the revised exam will assess your students’ proficiency in the Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational modes of communication. Finally we will show you how we will support you as you begin to teach this revised course.
- The AP Spanish Language and Culture course and exam are changing to reflect contemporary best practices in language teaching and to more fully align with national standards. The change is part of a broader effort to standardize AP world language courses and exams. At the core of the revision are the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21 st Century and the Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners produced by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
- The revised AP Spanish Language and Culture Curriculum Framework aims to Integrate language, content and culture; Help students “function in the language” rather than “learn language function;” And promote fluency and accuracy in the language, recognizing the importance of grammar but placing the priority on communication.
- As the profession has shifted away from the four skills approach, so too has the AP program. The focus of the revised AP Spanish Language and Culture course is on integrated content and skills, and the development of student proficiency in the three modes of communication as described by the Standards: Interpersonal, Interpretive and Presentational. The course also embraces a thematic approach, which allows for the seamless integration of culture into the language classroom.
- The AP course provides students with opportunities to demonstrate proficiency within the Intermediate to Pre-Advanced range defined by the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners. Describing performance relative to these common guidelines helps college admissions officers use AP scores to offer credit and placement.
- Course content is structured around specific themes to promote exploration of the language in context and develop students’ understanding of the target culture. AP requires that students demonstrate knowledge of the target culture and be able to use the target language in real-life settings. Themes help integrate language and content while developing students’ understanding of culture. The themes for the Spanish Language and Culture course are: Los desafíos mundiales La ciencia y la tecnología La vida contemporánea Las identidades personales y p úblicas Las familias y las comunidades La belleza y la estética AP teachers must touch on each of these themes, but have broad flexibility in how they do so and how much time they spend on each.
- Each theme includes a number of recommended contexts for narrowing exploration of the themes. The recommended contexts are not required, but serve as suggestions for approaching themes. You are also free to come up with your own contexts within the themes. On this slide you can see the recommended contexts listed in the Curriculum Framework for the theme Global Challenges. Take a moment to review them now. The curriculum framework similarly lists recommended contexts for each of the other five themes.
- One way to design instruction with themes is to identify overarching essential questions to motivate learners and to guide classroom investigations, learning activities, and performance assessments. Essential questions are designed to spark curiosity and engage students in real-life problem solving tasks. They allow students to investigate and express different views on real world issues, make connections to other disciplines, and compare aspects of the target culture(s) to their own. Essential questions also lend themselves well to interdisciplinary inquiry, asking students to apply skills and perspectives across content areas while working with content from language, literature, and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.
- The five goal areas defined by the Standards for Foreign Language Learning—known as the “5 C’s” —are foundational to the premise of the course: When communicating , AP ® Spanish Language and Culture students [must] demonstrate an understanding of the culture(s) , incorporate interdisciplinary topics, make comparisons between the native language and the target language and between cultures, and use the target language in real-life settings.
- The three modes of communication are foundational to the AP ® Spanish Language and Culture course. Let’s take a moment to go over the definitions for each of these modes. In Interpersonal Communication , individuals negotiate meaning through conversation (either face-to-face or by phone or computer) or through reading and writing, such as through the exchange of personal letters, notes, or email or participation in written online discussions. Adjustments and clarifications can be made accordingly. In Interpretive Communication there is no active negotiation of meaning with another individual, although there is active negotiation of meaning construction. The focus is on the cultural interpretation of speaking or writing. Examples of interpretive communication include the cultural interpretation of text, movies, radio, television, and speeches. In Presentational Communication , spoken or written communication is prepared for an audience and rehearsed, revised or edited before presentation. This is one-way communication that requires interpretation by others without negotiation of meaning.
- The AP curriculum framework describes six groups of learning objectives identifying what students should know and be able to do across the three modes of communication. The objectives outline expectations of student abilities in the following primary areas: Spoken Interpersonal Communication Written Interpersonal Communication Audio, Visual and Audiovisual Interpretive Communication Written and Print Interpretive Communication Spoken Presentational Communication; and Written Presentational Communication
- The degree to which student performance meets the learning objectives in each area is articulated in the achievement level descriptions. These explicitly describe student performance on a continuum from 2 to 5. A “1” is defined as student performance that is less proficient than that described at Level 2. Achievement Level Descriptions are global descriptions of performance. They are not exam rubrics. Exam rubrics are for specific tasks. However, Achievement Level Descriptions can inform the types of tasks you give your students, and provide the basis for rubrics for those specific tasks. You can see the Achievement Level Descriptions in full in the Curriculum Framework.
- Let’s look a bit closer at the Achievement Level Descriptions. Achievement Level Descriptions are divided into categories that describe different aspects of each Primary Learning Objective area. For example, the Achievement Level Description for Spoken Interpersonal Communication describes students’ ability to interact, their proficiency with a variety of communication strategies, their capacity for stating and supporting opinions, their use of a variety of language structures, their comprehension and use of a variety of vocabulary, their choice of register, their pronunciation and intonation patterns, pacing and delivery ; and their cultural awareness
- “ Cultures, connections and comparisons” is a category that appears in each of the Achievement Level Descriptions. Students must demonstrate that they understand various elements of culture and interdisciplinary connections being described in source material. For example, if a student is reading or listening to a text that includes a description of a cultural festival, the student should demonstrate that they recognize that a uniquely cultural event is being described.
- To help students develop cultural awareness and appreciation, they should have opportunities throughout the course to explore the “products, practices and perspectives” of the Spanish-speaking world. Let’s look at what we mean by “products, practices and perspectives.” Products refer to both those products that are tangible (such as tools or books) and intangible (such as laws, conventions and institutions); Practices refer to patterns of social interactions within a culture; and Perspectives refer to the values, attitudes and assumptions that underlie both practices and products. While students should be familiar with cultural products, practices and perspectives, the exam does not have a separate culture section. There will be no cultural trivia questions. However, as mentioned on the previous slide, “cultures, connections and comparisons” are a thread throughout the Achievement Level Descriptions and by extension, the course and exam.
- Teachers can better integrate culture into the classroom using “authentic materials.” “Authentic materials” are created by native speakers for native speakers. They should represent the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world—and can introduce students to its produc t s, practices and perspectives. The course themes can help you choose a focus for lessons and units, and help you determine which authentic materials to use. On this slide you can see examples of types of authentic materials that would be appropriate for use in the AP classroom. This list is not intended to be comprehensive, but simply a starting point to consider the broad range of materials available.
- The Curriculum Framework can be used to inform the entire program of instruction from Level 1 to AP. At all levels you can: Design thematic instruction Develop proficiency in each mode of communication; and Articulate an expected level of performance The curriculum framework can also help unify instruction in classes that have students with combined levels. Now let’s turn to the AP Spanish Language and Culture examination.
- This chart shows you the types of questions that will appear in each section of the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam. There are both multiple-choice and free-response questions. Also indicated is the number of questions in each section, the weight and the time allotted.
- The multiple-choice section of the exam presents a mix of comprehension and interpretive questions. Students may be asked to identify vocabulary in context; identify the purpose of the text identify the point of view of the speaker or writer identify the audience make inferences and conclusions; and show understanding of cultural or interdisciplinary information contained in the text.
- The free-response section assesses Interpersonal and Presentational Communication by requiring students to produce written and spoken responses. In written and spoken responses, accuracy of content , as well as linguistic accuracy, will be important. In most of the responses, students will be required to demonstrate understanding of some type of input. For all Free-Response items, English and Spanish directions will be printed side by side.
- There are four types of free-response questions on the exam: an e-mail reply, a persuasive essay, a “conversation”, and a “cultural comparison”. -For the email reply, students will be presented with a formal e-mail message—for example, from a business or university. They must respond appropriately, answering all questions and requests in the message, and ask for more information. -The “persuasive essay” item presents students with a topic and three sources on that topic that introduce varying viewpoints. The sources are both print and audio. Students must produce a well-organized essay that presents the sources’ viewpoints and their own, and defend their opinions. -In the “conversation” free-response question, students must respond appropriately to a recorded speaker. They will be provided with a preview of the conversation before they are required to answer. -For the final free-response question—the cultural comparison—there is no stimulus, only a prompt. The goal of the task is for the students to speak first about themselves and their communities, and then speak about an area of the Spanish-speaking world that they’ve learned about or experienced personally. Students are encouraged to cite examples from materials they’ve read, viewed, and listened to; and from personal experiences and observations.
- Students will always be given contexts for doing exam tasks, that is, information about what they are about to read, listen to or interpret. This information will appear in Advance Organizers that are standardized across the exam to give the same type of information throughout. There will be NO tasks that are decontextualized and standalone. On this slide you can see an Advance Organizer for a Print Source. Notice that this Advance Organizer introduces the source’s theme, its topic, its date and location of publication and its author. This information is intended to activate students’ background knowledge before reading the text. You should make students aware that they will be presented with this information on the exam, and that they should read it carefully, as it will help them better understand the text.
- This is an example of an advance organizer for an audio source. Like the Advance Organizer for the print source, it provides the theme of the audio text, its topic, its date and location of broadcast and its origin. Additionally, it identifies the speakers, and the length of the selection.
- Some other salient features of the exam: Students work with a variety of authentic materials— both print and audio — reflecting the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. The content will always be about something in the Spanish-speaking world. Students would not, for example, be presented with a standard news account of an American political happening in Spanish. It is extremely important that the day of the exam not be the first time that students encounter print or audio texts that represent the linguistic and cultural diversity of Spanish speakers. Criteria for selection of materials are comprehensibility (with accent, pace, and background noise taken into account) and relevance to a course theme and to a topic that could interest students. Materials will be reasonably chosen, and also reflect a range of cultural perspectives and linguistic features. Audio sources will be played twice except for the interpersonal speaking prompts in the simulated conversation.
- The College Board has available several free resources for download. Please check back regularly for new resources and professional development opportunities.
- On behalf of the Advanced Placement Program, thank you very much for taking the time to learn more about the AP Spanish Language and Culture course.