Lesson Plan Suggestions

CAPITULO 1

Activities for Tema 1
DAY 1

Introduce students to the idea that class is conducted in Spanish and that they must participate. Do this through example with some kind of activity in which they speak to each other and report back to the class. (Maybe incorporate some of the descriptive adjectives from activity 1-1 of Manual and activity 1-7 in the text, which are active vocabulary and will appear on exams. You may want to project some version of those lists on the overhead. The activity "asisoyyo.doc" might give you some ideas. A goal is to introduce some descriptive adjectives that go beyond "alto" and "bajo".)
Hand out your first-day information sheet (click here for a sample) and the WileyPLUS instructions. Make sure everyone understands that all course info is included on the website and all homework assignments are listed both on the syllabus and on WileyPLUS.
Hand out first-day questionnaire to verify prerequisites for all students. (Click here for a sample.)
Make sure all students know what is expected of them by next class: purchase books (or make photocopies in 4th-floor reserve section of library), register for WileyPLUS using the code that came with the textbook, complete homework mostly on line but also in book, bring book (or copies of appropriate pages) to class. It might help to talk about studying the textbook before completing the on-line Manual activities and about how each day's Manual corresponds exactly to that day's textbook assignment.
Work some with pp. 1-2. Students can answer questions in pairs, small groups, or with the whole class. Since they won't all have books, you can project some version of these activities.
Introduce the theme and vocabulary of "MisPaginas" with 1-1 and 1-2 on p. 3.

To reinforce descriptive adjectives as vocabulary and for agreement you may wish to play bingo. Have students draw a tick-tack-toe bingo chart and write a descriptive adjetive in each of the 9 squares that applies to, for example, their mother (feminine singular) or their friends (masculine plural). Then, go around the class calling on students to read one of their adjectives ("Mi madre es capaz"). The other students check off the adjective if they have it in their chart and the first to check off three in a row wins. Or, do the memory activity described here.

Students are responsible for all adjectives on p. 2 of the Manual, all of which take "ser," in addition to those listed in 1-8 of the text, some of which take "estar."

You should work extensively with the "sala de charla" reading in class before students "read" it for homework. Prepare some skimming and scanning exercises for in class. You may wish to use the activity "mispags.doc" and divide the class into pairs and have them fill out the chart. Then, ask each pair to tell the class, for example, which individual they have the most/least in common with. This first reading is important to teach students reading skills in Spanish.

An important goal for this "tema" is to reinforce SER/ESTAR + ADJ in addition to adjective agreement. You may wish to do some kind of a warm-up with adjectives that focuses students' attention on agreement. 1-8 and 1-9 part A are good for reinforcing these goals. Each of us should recycle the adjectives in 1-8 and from p. 2 of the Manual repeatedly so students learn them as active vocabulary. You may wish to use the "mejorcompa.doc" as a follow-up to 1-9. Be sure to focus on agreement as you proceed through these activities.

1-12 is an invitation to review the rules for gustar-type verbs, which the text does only in the appendix (p. 461). You could also project 1-6 from the Manual, which reviews these verbs. We will not test "gustar" in 211, but students need lots of exposure to the concept before it clicks.

Here is an activity (redsocial_dopro.doc) that practices direct object pronouns in the context of the MisPaginas.com reading.

For the Vocabulario para conversar in this tema, you may wish to use some version of the "circunloq.doc" and "estoypensando.doc" activities. We will not test these skills or vocabulary on exams, but feel free to use them in class for extra speaking practice.

Activities for Tema 2

Give students an outline to help them as you deliver the miniconferencia. You can download the text of the lecture from WileyPLUS or make a copy from the file in the mailroom. The powerpoint in WileyPLUS for this lecture is pretty good - images and text.

Do some kind of follow up w/miniconf. content and vocab.
As you work intensively w/present indic. verb forms, here is an activity that integrates verbs and direct object pronouns.

Administer a verb quiz according to the schedule on the syllabus.

Activities for Tema 3

Do the "Entrando en materia" activities from the text the day before students are to read it for homework. You may wish to develop other activities in addition. Here is a chart that students can begin to fill in. Omaggio's Teaching Language in Context is a great source for ideas. (See "Teaching Reading Comprehension" in Chapter 5.) Here is a list of pre-reading activities, which she develops in that section:

1. Students read the title and anticipate ideas in the text
2. Look at visuals, headlines, titles, subtitles, other contextual aids and anticipate content
3. Read first line of text and anticipate content
4. Students skim for the gist of first paragraph (or more)
5. Identify topic sentence of chosen paragraph(s)
6. Select best paraphrase of paragraphs main idea
7. Match subtitle with chosen paragraph(s)
If you find that your pre-reading activities work particularly well, please share them electronically with the rest of us.

After students have read at home, work w/the reading in some creative ways (vocab and content). You could show more Botero or teach them some baseball vocabulary. Here is a Botero powerpoint with images he created in response to the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.
Introduce and work with the preterit.

As you work w/preterit verb forms and usage you may wish to use this possible preterit activity.
You may wish to introduce imperfect today in class. Note that the book introduces the two past tenses separately and does not combine them until next chapter. We will follow suit on exams. Therefore, do not go into too much detail regarding usage of the two tenses during Capitulo 1.

Activities for Tema 4

There are several Tego Calderon videos on Youtube. Some reflect better than others the "consciencia social" theme from the book.

Activities for Mas alla...

Students need some solid pre-reading activities for the Allende passage in class before they tackle it at home. After they read it and do the activities from the book, you may wish to copy and bring to class the "El escritor tiene la palabra" activities from the homework in WileyPLUS to reinforce the literary concepts, which are hard for the students to do on their own.

As you "review" for exams, be sure you are not limiting the focus of student studying. See the "review sheets" accessible from the website and don't give students any more specific information about what to study than is found there. An important goal of the 200 series is to give students the responsibility for studying and learning. Please don't do too much for them. Review should consist of the recycling of previous activities and perhaps some new activities that reinforce concepts with which your students need more practice; it should not give sample exercises from the exam.

CAPITULO 2

Activities for Tema 1

The first paragraph in "Cuestion de familias" on p. 47 asks students to brainstorm about Hispanic families. This is a good pre-reading activity.
Work w/vocab from the Manual 2-2 and 2-3 (boxes).

Work more with "lectura."
Work w/ "se." IMPORTANT: we will teach and test "se" the easy way. In terms of structure, if there is no noun after the verb, the verb is going to be singular. If there is a singular noun after the verb, verb is also singular. If noun after verb is plural, verb is too. In terms of meaning, se passive and se impersonal mean the same thing: they mean there is no specific individual who does the action of the verb; the action "is done" or "ya" does the action.

Activities for Tema 2

Work with "Entrando en material" and vocab to the miniconf. Prepare some kind of handout to help students listen. Here is a fill-in-the-blank activity "amistad.doc," and here is an outline students can follow as you talk: amistadminiconf.doc.
Deliver the miniconf and have students compare their notes, perhaps in pairs, afterwards. (Download script from WileyPLUS or copy from files in mailroom.) The powerpoint in WileyPLUS may be helpful.

Work more w/content of miniconf on the second day, after students were to listen again at home.

IMPORTANT: our goal for teaching pret/imperf is for students to learn to narrate a short incident in the past (i.e., write a short paragraph that tells a story with relatively high accuracy in choice of verb tense).

Administer a (verb?) QUIZ according to the schedule in the syllabus.

Work with comparatives and the vocabulary related to relationships from p. 63. Reinforce adj. agreement as you work with comparatives.

For the Vocabulario para conversar: have them do 2-30 in class. In pairs they can write a story of at least 5 sentences, each containing an expression from the lists and using pret/imperf accurately.

Activities for Tema 3

Students could create the "tabla" suggested on p. 67 and then, perhaps compare their own activities w/ those of Marta and Pedro in the reading. Maybe tailor the "tabla" so it points more specifically to themes from the reading. Work, in some way, w/lectura content and vocab. The "paseo" is an important cultural concept in this tema - it's a social event on Sunday afternoons in the Hispanic world.

Do an activity where they have to narrate a past event.

Work w/object pronouns, in contexts students prepared for homework. IMPORTANT: focus on location of pronouns with various verb forms: pronoun(s) + verb, (pronouns) + verb + infinitive + (pronouns) and pronoun(s) + affirmative command. These three structures will appear on the exam. In order not to get bogged down in grammatical explanations, you can copy back to back and use the following 2 activities: telodio.doc and generoso.doc

Work w/Vocabulario para conversar and Manolo. Perhaps they could write a paragraph of narration about one incident that occurred back in 1994 before Manolo changed his ways. Or they could narrate the incident that made Manolo see the light and change his ways.
Work with Color y forma.

Activities for Tema 4

As you work with the Esquivel reading, you may wish to show a scene from Como agua para chocolate.

Activities for Mas alla¡...

Do some solid work with the poem before students read it and prepare activities at home. After they have read it, you may wish to do the activities from WileyPLUS in class, which are difficult. In addition, the system marks them wrong for some pretty good answers regarding sounds that repeat and the like.

CAPITULO 3

Activities for Tema 1

The murals that introduce the chapter are a rich source of images related to Hispanic heritage in the US. Be sure to point out some of the symbols, if students are unable to identify them. The characters in the first mural are, from left to right: miguel hidalgo y costilla (indpendencia 1810), jose maria morelos y pavon (independencia 1810), Benito juarez (reforma 1856), no se quien es el que sigue, atras esta Pancho Villa (revolucion 1910),
y el de bigote es Emiliano Zapata (revolucion 1910). Los americanos son: John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, y no se quien.

Introduce subjunctive verb forms. Students will need lots of practice with these forms each day this week.

Do some kind of a pre-reading activity (10 minutes or less) with the lectura.
Activity 3-2 from the Manual might be good for pre-reading discussion in class.

Administer (verb?) QUIZ

Have them write using the subjunctive in contexts presented in this chapter.

Here is a subjunctive activity that uses horoscopes to practice expressions of doubt/certainty.

The Vocabulario para conversar activities anticipate the composition for this chapter and should be incorporated in some way.

There is a *great* video on Youtube for the Los Lobos song ("Corridos de Aztlan") with wonderful images of Mexican-American heritage in the US.

There are 2 videos in WileyPLUS: Prepare and Present, Resources, Chap. 3: "Un muralista en defensa de Miami" and "Las muchas caras del inmigrante". The activities ("Video Activities") also in WileyPLUS resources are pretty good and can be used in class.

Activities for Tema 2

Work with the pre-listening before the miniconferencia
Deliver the miniconferencia. Use some version of "mitosbilin.doc" to guide student listening. The powerpoint for this chapter is not very good. If anyone re-works it, please send me a copy to post here.

Work more with miniconf. content and vocab. on day 2.

Work with the unpleasant roommate behaviors in 3-22. First, have each student prepare a list of annoying behaviors (in the present indicative). They should practice saying, "no me gusta que + subjunctive" and "me molesta que" for a few minutes. Then, open it up to the class. One student confesses an unpleasant behavior and another has to react to it. (Or come up with your own activity based on the concept.)

Here is a subjunctive activity that combines emotion and the miniconferencia.

Activities for Tema 3

Work with 3-26, 3-27, and have students define "espanglish" in anticipation of the reading. See if students can articulate opinions regarding the phenomenon. Can they tell you why there is English influence in computer vocabulary? There are some good examples of Spanglish and code switching at http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanglish.

On day 2, use Xose's letter to talk about "tone" in writing. If tone reflects the author's attitude, what is Xose's attitude in the letter? Romantic? Serious? Humorous? Sarcastic? Cynical? Critical? Other?
Work with vocab/content from reading.

Activities for Tema 4

Activities for Mas alla...

Students need some solid pre-reading before tackling the "discurso" at home. The activities for homework in WileyPLUS are not as difficult in this chapter.