Cristóbal Colón/Christopher Columbus

A Spanish II Unit Plan Overview for ALI

by Velda Schneider

Abstract:  Comparing cultural history and how it effects our lives today is one of the exciting parts about learning a second language!  One of the most fascinating things is being able to understand another culture and how what they did in the past shaped the world that we live in today.  Students can apply this history with what they  already know to help them learn and appreciate the discoveries that Spanish explorers made and how these actions have shaped that culture that we live in today.  This Unit of Practice provides students the opportunity to explore and enrich their history knowledge of Christopher Columbus and other Spanish explorers and how the explorers’ accomplishments have a significant outcome in the world that we live in today.  Students will be able to learn these lessons through cultural, historical, and language lessons that I will teach them.  

Invitation:  How can I help my students understand the 15^th century time period Spanish explorers lived in?  How can my students experience the life and times of Christopher Columbus?  How can I help my students become actively involved in understanding the different navigational systems?  Can I get my students to connect with the islands of the 1500’s versus the changed islands of the 21^st century? How can students be actively involved in the voyages and adventures that Christopher Columbus and other explorers went through?

Standards:  (These are the state and national standards for world languages that I will be using in my 11 day unit plan).

·        Standard 1:  Communication - Students will communicate in world language for multiple purposes within various contexts.

·        Standard 2:  People and Culture - Students will gain knowledge and understanding of other peoples and cultures through the study of the target language.

·        Standard 3:  Home Language and Culture - Students will use world language to increase their understanding of the home language and culture.

·        Standard 4:  Global Interconnections - Students will use world languages to Internet in multilingual communities and to analyze career options in a global marketplace.

·        Standard 5:  Perspectives - Students will use knowledge and perspectives that can be gained only through the target language and culture.

Tasks:

·        Introduction 

-         I will need to be specific in each aspect of the lessons that I teach. 

-         I will give students an opening lesson on Spanish navigators.  I will create a KWHL chart to build upon prior knowledge of students.  (Find out what the students know, what they want to know, how they will find the information and document what they learn).  Students will research other Spanish explorers and come back together in groups and give power point presentations.

-         I will discuss Columbus’s background and give an overview using a timeline of his life and voyages.  I will try to see what surprises the students from that already know about Christopher Columbus, using the KWHL Chart.  Research and documentation-I will give the students a power point presentation about Christopher Columbus and his life and voyages.  Students will have a worksheet that they will fill out that goes along with the power point presentation.  Students will submit a journal entry over the WebCT discussion so that I know they are trying top think and connect with the tasks at hand.

-         On my next lesson students will research and make documentation on information that they find on Columbus’s crew and ships.  Students will then create 5 minute power point presentations to be presented over the Vtel. 

-         Next my students will be given a lesson on preterit verbs and ending along with vocabulary word that go with this lesson.  Students will also be learning about celestial and dead reckoning navigation and leagues.  Students will be given a handout to work on.

-         For my last lesson I will give my students a list of helpful sites to go to and I will have to make sure laptops or a lab is available.  My students will study Christopher Columbus’s 4 voyages and they will do a mapping assignment on poster board.

        - Applications – Students will utilize information found during      their research to apply in the classroom.

·        Students will fill in a handout  over the power point presentation that I give about Christopher Columbus and his life and times.

·        Students will fill in KWHL Charts.

·        Students will research and then create power points on Spanish explorers.

·        Create maps on poster board in groups to show Christopher Columbus’s 4 voyages.

·        Students will create power point presentations about Chrisopher Columbus’s crew and ships.

·        Students will learn and review the preterit tense and vocabulary words.  Students will do a worksheet over this.

Interactions – Students will be working in a variety of conditions.  There will be some whole group discussion, and individual work, but there will also be some small group work on some of the projects.  There will be some peer teaching with the power points and some peer assessing with the rubrics on the discussion board participation over Christopher Columbus’s league, longitude, and celestial and dead reckoning navigation.  Students will also be using small group dynamics as they create poster board maps over Christopher Columbus’s 4 voyages.  We will be using the WebCT for e-mail, discussion, and chat.  I will also post some assignments on the WebCT, to make sure that my students get their work at the remote sites.  Students will also have to do some individualized work when they send their reflections through the WebCT via e-mail reflections.

Situations:  These activities will take place in a variety of areas.  It will be in my Vtel classroom, and in the computer lab.  I am teaching 5 lessons and they will take approximately 2 to 4 days per lesson.  Their physical environment is generic, but I would put up a bulletin board with information from the local and remote sites with pictures of all the students, and other bits of information on them. I will be using rubrics and a check point system to make sure my students are going through the phases of their projects.

Assessment: There are various ways to assess the knowledge gained by students who completed the Unit of Practice.

Here is a list of ways in which I will assess my students:

·       Use the KWHL chart to see what they learned about Spanish explorers.  Students will also give power point presentations and I will assess them with a rubric to see how well they did on these presentations.  Students will also have a discussion on the WebCT on the information that they have found so far on their Spanish explorers, and this is a way for me to check and make sure that they are interacting with the other sites and group members and to make sure that they are doing the task at hand which is to research Spanish Explorers.

·       Students will have to fill in a KWHL Chart with me on the SmartBoard and I will present a PowerPoint and students will have a worksheet to fill in based on that PowerPoint and I will collect that worksheet to make sure they got all of the information or students can send it to me via e-mail so that I receive their handout and can give them a completion and participation grade.

·       Students will research in a computer lab and find information on Christopher Columbus’s crew and ships and they will create a 5 minute group power point presentation.  I will assess this assignment with the following rubric.  (Ex.: Participation/Group dynamics 25 pts., completion of task at hand 25 pts., presentation and research of topics 35 pts., artistic, creative and overall effort and use of the Vtel system 15 pts.)

·       Next students will research for information that they can find on Columbus’s leagues, celestial and dead reckoning navigation.  I will give students a worksheet on the preterit tense and a worksheet on new vocabulary that I will collect.  My students will also be working on a worksheet that is all in Spanish and I will have to collect that.

·       My final assessment project will be students creating maps on tag board mapping out in great detail Columbus’s 4 voyages.  These will be presented in new groups of 4 to 5 students up in front of class, and I will do a rubric assessment over this assignment.

Project:  Students will fill in 2 KWHL charts.  Students will give their own power point presentations.  Students will present their power points in class.  Students will do a power point worksheet, a vocabulary worksheet, a preterit tense worksheet, and a Christopher Columbus informational worksheet.  Students will use WebCT for discussion and e-mail.  Students will also create maps on tag board of Christopher Columbus's 4 voyages and present this to class.
        

Tools:

-In order to complete these projects I will need the following things:  the Vtel system, an overhead projector, white tag board, markers, colored pencils, video, the Internet (for research and WebCT), scissors, paper, and a computer lab available.