Albany Senior High School/Coursebook/1SPA

The limits of my language are the limits of my world
This is the communication age and languages are the heart of communication. With over 400 millions speakers in 28 countries, Spanish is the third most commonly spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English. If you want to learn a cool language, experience meeting and speaking to different people, taste and make Spanish food, listen to popular Spanish music, travel overseas for your OE or get that dream job you've always wanted then Spanish is the subject for you.

But why learn Spanish if I want to be an engineer, doctor or lawyer? There is a common misconception that languages are not useful for these sorts of careers. However, having a language is a huge advantage no matter what career you pursue. Having a language makes you much more appealing to future employers as you will be useful to them as two or more people as you will be able to do the job in your native language and your second language.

If you learn Spanish, you will have an edge over the hundreds of other applicants who have all taken only sciences and mathematics at high school as '''you will have something valuable that most people do not; another language! '''You will be the one who stands out from the crowd with another language!

You have heard it time and time again, those that are blessed with bilingual brains through speaking more than one language are developing brain connections that enable learning and help people have successful careers.

Guess what Kobe Bryant, Dakota Fanning, David Beckham, Matthew McConaghey, Will Smith, Ben Affleck, Barack Obama and Maya Angelou  have in common? Yep, they all speak Spanish.

This course will appeal to students who want to become competent speakers in Spanish. We will explore the language, the culture, the history, the geography and customs of Spain though multimedia resources, visual presentations, connecting with other Spanish-speaking students in the community and guest visitors as well as having our own language assistant from Spain.

Students interested in going to Spain could also have the opportunity to get involved organising a trip to Spain.

Check out the cool videos at the bottom of this page to see what we do in Spanish!

What will I learn?
You will learn how:


 * to talk about spare time and compare trends between New Zealand and Spain's teeagers.
 * to identify specific food for different regions, how to read and create a Spanish recipe and make a traditional paella.




 * to discuss experiences of past holidays and plan a holiday in Spain
 * to explore possible ideal jobs and how to apply for jobs in Spain
 * to compare school systems in Spain and New Zealand
 * to plan a holiday and Spain by planning a detailed itinerary
 * to research individual Spanish autonomous regions and what they are famous for
 * Course design principles:
 * intentional planning which means that you will be involved in the planning of the course by selecting topics that interest you and link in with your interests
 * high expectations which means that your teacher will be clear on what is expected of you, and how to meet those high expectations. An open door policy means that you will have the opportunity to discuss with your teacher where your learning is going.
 * assessment which enables learning which means that the learning takes over assessment and that you will concentrate on providing evidence of your learning as you learn and assessment will not be a isolated occurence at the end of a unit but rather a by product of learning. You will be in charge of choosing which evidence will go towards your internal assessments.

What sorts of things will I do?


You will:


 * interview our Spanish assisstant, create and participate in role plays and engage in discussions with Spanish learners from different schools
 * spend a day at the Spanish club learning salsa, seeing an Argentinian movie and tasting Spanish food [[Image:Salsaeating.jpg|thumb]]
 * make a Spanish traditional dish, called 'paella' as part of your food unit
 * read about Spanish regions and create a website to promote a region
 * design posters promoting Spanish as a foreign language
 * keep a diary about your life

What standards can I enter?
Assessment:

You will be in charge of your learning and assessments. You will keep a digital portfolio which will record evidence of your learning throughout the year. It is your responsibility to keep and add evidence to your porfolio and also to show it to your teacher on a regular basis to receive feedback. Milestones for collections of evidence will be negotiated with your teacher and advertised in the Assessment Calendar 2016.

No further assessment opportunites will be offered for this course, as evidence of your learning will be collected throughout the year in your portfolios.