The end of our year is here and this is our final unit. In my opinion, this is the most fun but also the level of rigor is higher because the topic and the connections the students have to make require more interpretation than in previous units. In this unit we look at art from the Spanish speaking world, the lives of famous artist and how their work was influence by their life and social environment, and experience some art media. For this unit I build on the aspects of music and dance that reinforce and maintain communities and traditions together. We also build on aspects that are part of the collective and individual identity of its members, we look at music from a social and political form of expression and as an art form that represents people that come together and from different backgrounds as one.
Thematic Unit: The Arts- Visual and Performing Arts
In our curriculum map this unit is the fifth and last unit of the level 3 course. At the end of the course students are transitioning to level 4 or AP Spanish language. For all of my thematic units I have used the ACTFL template and adapted the top portion with language from sections of the UBD template because my district uses this format for planning.
My students are very responsive to music and I love using music in the classroom. Music is probably one of the most accessible authentic materials available and it is also easy to add to your instruction. In 2010 The Art of Flamenco was named cultural patrimony of humanity. As a student of the art of Flamenco myself, every year I was adding a mini-unit to my arts thematic unit to have the students briefly explore some of the ethnic influences, gender roles, and history of Spain that can be seen in this spontaneous art form. During the summer I started to investigate music in the Spanish speaking world and this is PBLL unit is the result. My mini unit on flamenco turned into a workshop for this unit that gives me the opportunity to give lots of comprehensible input and expose the students to all the cultural traits, influences, and expression of music and dance.
This is part of a role play (so the letter is a prop and it is not real). When I am introducing the project. I pretend to received a letter and we read it together as class and it becomes a class reading activity. I play my role the whole time and off course we do it in the target language.