thematic unit --- relationships

My thematic unit will be based on friendship/relationships.  I am using the fourth chapter from the textbook (Realidades 3) – as a source more than strictly following it. The main vocabulary that will be included deals with personal characteristics and the grammar point that I would like my students to become proficient with is the use of (present) subjunctive in cases with emotion.

http://thehypebomb.com/archives/1943

The culminating project (assessment) will be an apology letter that they will write to a “friend” who they have had a “fight” with. In this letter they will be able to express emotion and utilize the subjunctive, describe characteristics of themselves and the friend to whom they are writing.

Breaking down my unit by the five Cs I have the following ideas:

1.       Culture:

a.       Valentine’s Day – emphasis more on friendship than romantic love in Columbia, specific gifts given in Spain

b.      Permission activity – there is a chart in the book about what Mexican youth need permission for. We will make our own based on the experiences of the students in my two sections of level three and Sra. Foster’s four sections.

2.       Connections:

a.       Stats – Using the data derived from the permission survey the students will create statistics and a chart.

3.       Comparison:

a.       Family of words – if you know one word (ie – the verb, noun, or adjective) you can probably figure out the other two. Students will look at the list in the textbook and also generate their own.

b.      Holidays – Valentines activity

c.       Permission activity – self explanatory

4.       Community:

a.       Perception of young people in Spain – pie charts in textbook.

                                                                  i.      What are the perceptions of us?

                                                                ii.      Interview community members.

1.       Do we like it?

2.       Do we want to change it?

3.       How?

5.       Communication:

a.         Letter writing – explained earlier (assessment)

Additional activities:

·         Friendship Quiz

·         Horoscopes

·         Personal ad 

mgmt

I have really enjoyed the textbook so far – Conscious Classroom Management (Smith, 2004). It gives so many practical ways to structure your classroom and how react in certain situations. What I especially like is the emphasis put on your own expectations of yourself as the teacher and your students. If you view yourself as not only a teacher of Spanish but also as a teacher of behavior then it won’t bother you nearly as much when your students don’t act as you would like them too. A student acting out is simply asking you to repeat your lesson. I think if I put some kind of note to myself in my classroom to this effect it will help me not to become so discouraged or disappointed. 

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100098.Conscious_Classroom_Mahttp://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171464491l/100098.jpgnagement

It was very interesting to note that good classroom management is essentially invisible. The teacher has already set everything up to run smoothly. (And when it comes to management the best defense is truly a good offense!) The question then becomes – how do we translate what we are observing into our own classroom? I wonder how much the dynamic of the classroom will shift once it is no longer Sra. Lewis up front. I definitely think that going over my expectations and rules at the beginning of my time as the teacher will be crucial.  Even if I don’t change anything from the way it is set up now it will be good to let the students know that they can expect the same from me. Also, they will have already been in school for half a year – I think it will be good to brush up on rules, procedures, and expectations anyways. I typically need to do so mid semester just to remember if my professor accepts late assignments or not. It is easy to forget so I will help them remember! :) 

A Spectrum of Students

I think that a typical classroom is going have this makeup: a spectrum of students with a wide variety of needs. I think one of the best ways to approach this situation is to pair students together. When the students who need more of a challenge in the class have the opportunity to aide a classmate they may feel a greater sense of accomplishment and be invigorated. The student who is struggling will have some one-on-one help from a more knowledgeable other (where’s this lingo coming from???).

http://www.maurilioamorim.com/2011/03/rules-for-successful-team-work/

I think the important thing to keep in mind is the sensitivity towards what group students are put in. Yes one student is helping the other but I wouldn’t want the student who is having difficulty to feel as if he is dumb or not as good as the other students. It would be important to me to create a community within the classroom. When it comes time for students to pair up and to work together there would already be a base of trust and openness. I wouldn’t want the student who is doing the aiding to feel overwhelmed with this task nor would I her to think too highly of herself. It would be a balancing act and I think at the center would be humility.

When I observed/aided in the Spanish I/II classes at The Potter’s House in Wyoming, Michigan the teacher I worked with often split the class into two groups and these groups varied from week to week, lesson to lesson. The group that had grasped the concept and showed that they were proficient at it would do some sort of culminating activity. Often, these students would construct a skit to perform for the whole class that encompassed the new skill that had been taught. The portion of the class that had struggled with the new concept benefited from extra time with the instructor, in a smaller setting, with new exercises and examples to help them master the topic.

I like this idea because the students who already mastered the concept are not expected to sit and be bored while the same material is retaught in a new manner. Instead, they get to show what they know. The students who need more time on that material are not penalized but actually get much more attention from the teacher. And the best part of all, just because a student is in the “review” group one week doesn’t mean that he will be stuck there the whole school year. There is the fluidity between the groups. Often when Christy (my cooperating teacher) thought a student was borderline between the two groups she allowed them to choose. And more times than not the student chose to review the material.

I hope that these and other ideas that you all have come up with will work in my future classroom!