Goal #1:  Connecting Content Knowledge to Learners

The beginning teacher understands the discipline he or she will teach and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of the subject matter meaningful to students.

To demonstrate my knowledge and understanding in my content area of Spanish, I am submitting two artifacts:  an essay entitled La importancia del español en el mundo, and a novice level unit plan, Entre Familia. 

La importancia del español en el mundo is an essay that I wrote in a Spanish grammar class, Spanish 415, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fall of 2004.  The assignment was to write openly about the importance of Spanish.  I explored this topic on two levels: the importance of Spanish in the world and the importance of Spanish in my life.  I have done research about the facts of Spanish speakers in the world and why it is important to learn this language.  I also investigate how my life has been shaped by the both the Hispanic culture and the Spanish language.  This essay displays my understanding about the structure, grammar and language, as well as the cultural significance of learning a foreign language. 

Entre Familia is a chapter out of the textbook Ven Conmigo.  In this unit, students were actively engaged in learning about how to describe members of a family and to discuss things that families do together.  The unit is divided into three sections, each contains vocabulary and activities.  Also, there are grammar exercises, listening comprehension activities and communicative activities.  These listening activities were a means of self-assessment for the students.  Students would listen to a script, then fill in their worksheets based on the information they heard.  Students used context clues as well as key guide words to help them in their understanding.  With partners, students would work together to complete communicative activities.  Each student had different information.  They had to ask each other questions and be able to answer questions to find the information needed to complete the assignment.  For each section, students were assessed both formally and informally with daily class participation as well as examencitos.  This unit built on the prior concepts they had learned in the past.  Students created a family photo album.  In this project, students were able to put together all of the knowledge they had acquired to that point.