Amy Mardis

Understanding by Design
Spanish II Lesson Plan

Content:
Lesson Unit
Time Frame:

Spanish II
Grade Level: 12th Grade
PARA EMPEZAR Getting to Know Each Other
Report Period 1:
Week 1 (Days 4 and 5) and Week 2 (Days 1, 2, and 3)

Stage 1 Desired Results

Established Goals:
Course Objectives:
Use SER and adjectives to describe personality and physical traits
Use ESTAR and adjectives to describe feelings
Critical Concepts:
La personalidad y las caractersticas fsicas
- SER
- adjetivos (la sintaxis y la concordancia)
- la estabilidad y la permanencia

Las emociones
- ESTAR
- adjetivos (la sintaxis y la concordancia)
- la temporalidad

Understandings:
Big Ideas
Students will
understand that

Knowledge
Students will know that

Communicating
effectively in the
Spanish language
increases the number
and variety of situations

in which one can

function and succeed.
Spanish-speakers
cannot be characterized
by a singular
description of physical
traits, of personality, or
of culture.

SER is used to describe a

persons permanent traits
(personality, physical
characteristics)

Skills
Students will be able to

ESTAR is used to describe

a persons temporary
emotions or states of being
Adjectives are used to
describe people, places,
and things. These people,
places and things are
nouns.

Adjectives must agree with

the nouns that they describe

in both gender and number.

Many adjectives sound and

Describe the personality

and physical
characteristics of
themselves, their
classmates, and others
using the verb SER
State the emotions that
they and others are feeling
using the verb ESTAR
Compare and contrast the
various uses and
meanings of the verbs
SER and ESTAR
Produce an adjective that
matches the noun it
describes in gender and in
number.

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look similar to English

words.

Essential Questions:

What does a Hispanic person look like?

How is learning Spanish relevant to me?

Stage 2 Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

Other Evidence:

Writing
Imagine that your Spanish class is starting a
pen pal program with a group of high school
students from Chiapas, Mxico. You just
received your first letter from a student
named Javier!

Benchmark Exam Students mastery of

the knowledge and skills delineated in Stage
1 will be tested on the school-mandated
Spanish II Benchmark exam. This exam will
be given at the end of RP 1.

First, read Javiers letter below. Then, write

a letter back to Javier, including the
following information:
Your name
Your age
What your look like
What your personality is like
In addition, make sure to answer any
questions that Javier asks you!
Your letter must be at least 10 sentences in
length.

Exit Tickets (Boletos de salida) Daily exit

tickets will be used to check students
understanding of important grammar
concepts from the days lesson. In this
lesson, Salidas will be used to check for
students understanding of 1) adjective/noun
agreement, 2) vocabulary comprehension
and retention, and 3) conjugation of SER and
ESTAR.
Quizzes At the end of Week 2 (Day 3),
students will take a quiz that requires them to
fill in the blank with the correctly conjugated
form of SER or ESTAR. This requires that
students not only choose the correct verb

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Criteria
This performance task will be graded on a
rubric that addresses 5 categories. Each
category is worth up to 4 points, for a
potential total of 20 points.
Assessment Categories:
Task completion
Comprehensibility
Spelling
Syntax/Grammar
Variety and Appropriateness of
Vocabulary

based on the context of the sentence, but also

that they conjugate the verb to match the
subject of the sentence.
Example questions:
1. Susana y Mariana _____ muy hermosas y
altas.
2. Cuando saco una buena nota en un
examen, yo ______ feliz.

Stage 3 Learning Plan

Introduction to Lesson Content:

Teacher uses interactive, whole-class TPRS method to introduce relevant vocabulary

and grammar structures
Teacher breaks out of Spanish immersion to highlight important grammar notes and
common misunderstandings:
-- If the group is mixed gender (contains both males and females), you must use
the plural masculine form of the adjective.
-- Adjectives that end in e (inteligente, amable, sociable) stay the same for both
masculine and feminine nouns. To make them plural, just add an s
(inteligentes, amables, sociables).

Learning Activities:
Adjective and Noun Treasure Hunt
Spanish competencies used: Reading Comprehension and Writing
Individually, students read a passage that introduces three prominent Hispanic
musicians, each from a different Spanish-speaking country. As they read, students
must 1) circle every adjective they come across and 2) underline the noun that is
described by the adjective. Once they finish, students will compare their annotations
with a partner and will work together to write their answers to 5 comprehension
questions.

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Follow-up Discussion
After the activity, teacher will show pictures of each musician and will play short
samples of their music. Teacher will invite students to share their thoughts on the
differences and similarities of the musicians appearances.
Discussion Questions - Did anything surprise you about the descriptions of the musicians that you read in
the passage? Why/why not?
- How do you think the musicians country of origin factors into their physical
appearance?
- How are the physical characteristics of these musicians similar or different to the
ways that Hispanics are usually portrayed by the media in the United States? Why
do you think that Hispanics are generally portrayed this way?

Text Message Conversations

Spanish competencies used: Reading Comprehension
Students get into pairs and read fictional conversations sent over text messages. One
partner reads the messages from Person A, the other partner reads the messages from
Person B. After the pair finishes reading, they will fill in a graphic organizer (in
English) that tests their comprehension.
Quin es?
Spanish competencies used: Listening, Writing
Teacher will put the pictures and names of 5 celebrities on the board. She will read
descriptions of each celebrity, focusing on physical descriptions and personality.
As the teacher reads the descriptions, students are to write down the English
translation of each adjective that they hear on their white boards. When the teacher
finishes her description, students are to write down who they think the celebrity is.

Corre, corre!
Spanish competencies used: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking
Students will get into pairs based on seating arrangements. Partner A stays at their
desk and has a handout with 10 lines on it. Partner B goes to the nearest wall, which
has a paper with 10 sentences on it. Partner B reads the sentence silently, memorizes
it, then runs to Partner A and repeats the sentence aloud. Partner A writes the
sentence. This process continues until Partner A has written sentences 1-5. Then the
partners switch roles and complete sentences 6-10.
Cmo es.?
Spanish competency used: Writing
Journal Entry - Students will have 10 minutes to respond to one of the two
following prompts: 1) Cmo es tu familia? 2) Cmo es tu mejor amigo/amiga?
Students can either respond truthfully or with a lie, as long as they write complete
sentences and include both physical and personality descriptions.
Role Play

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Spanish competencies used: Listening, Reading, Speaking

Teacher passes out short dialogues to volunteers. Each dialogue is written to display
either one or two emotions. Volunteers go to the front of the class and read/act out
their dialogues. As the students perform, the rest of the class is watching and
listening intently to guess what emotion is being acted out. Once the dialogue is
finished, the teacher will ask for a volunteer to answer the question, Cmo
est/estn ______? The question must be answered in a full sentence using the verb
ESTAR.
Homework
Students will have daily homework assignments that require them to practice the
lessons vocabulary. Students have the option of choosing one of 10 vocabularyrelated assignments each night. Students receive a higher homework grade by
choosing a variety of activities throughout the week.