Designing Meaningful

Language Tasks in a Spanish

Bilingual Setting
By Paola San Juan and Jennifer Tugle
EDUC 546 – LT #2 Problem of Practice
 Problem of Practice
How can we design learning tasks that makes using the language meaningful to
our students and consequently, build their confidence in speaking Spanish?

Spanish Language Arts: Specific Language

Component
General Outcome 6: Students will acquire Spanish to
understand and appreciate languages, and use Spanish
confidently and competently in a variety of situations for
communication, personal satisfaction and further
learning.

Alberta Education, 2005

 Process
Understanding by Design (UbD):
• Identify desired results
• Determine acceptable evidence
• Plan learning experiences
 Documentation
Brainstorming Session 1 – Narrowing it down
 Documentation
Brainstorming Session 2 - UbD mind map
 Documentation
Brainstorming Session 3 – UbD Thinking Process
Solution – Meaningful Language Task Examples
Create projects where students talk about events they have personally
experienced or topics of interest.

• Language Task Examples: • Language Elements Addressed:

• A memorable moment • Sentence Structure
• Participating in a sporting event • Vocabulary
• Phone/Text Conversation • Pronouns
• Future Aspirations • Verbs/verb tenses and moods
• How to/Instructional • Articles
• Hobbies • Masculine and Feminine Nouns
• Favorite Book/Movie/Music • Adjectives
• Family/Pets • Adverbs/Conjunctions/Prepositions
 Example UbD Plan: A Memorable Moment
Confidently present a
memorable moment in their
Desired Results life.
SLA General Outcome 6

Oral Written

Assessment Formative: Listening for

accurate use of language,
Formative: Journaling, teacher
and peer feedback, self-
Evidence engagement in topic.
Summative: Oral
assessment.
Summative: Written
Presentation. Composition.

Vocabulary Grammar Sentence Structure

Related to: Vacations, Elements: Past tense and Example: A memorable
Learning Plan Graduations,
Accomplishments,
Imperfect, adjectives, moment in my life was…
masculine/feminine Un momento memorable en
Birthdays. nouns. mi vida fue…
 Mi cumpleaños
Un momento memorable en mi vida fue cuando cumplí doce años.
Estaba triste porque acabábamos de mudarnos a una casa nueva que
estaba situada muy lejos de mis amigos y pensé que nunca iba a volver a
verlos. Mi papá, queriendo hacerme sonreír, me llevó a un parque cerca
de la casa para jugar fútbol, mi deporte favorito. Cuando terminamos,
me sentí un poco más tranquilo pero en el fondo extrañaba mi casa
antigua y mis amigos. Regresamos a la casa y cuando entré, escuché
unos gritos muy grandes.
¡SORPRESA!
Todos mis amigos estaban ahí junto a mi mamá, mis hermanos y mis abuelos. En ese momento me
sentí muy, muy feliz. También, me di cuenta de que mi papá había salido conmigo para distraerme
mientras que lo demás preparaban todo. Fue una fiesta alegre y divertida. ¡Mis amigos y yo jugamos
toda la tarde! Cuando la fiesta terminó, me prometieron que íbamos a ser amigos por toda la vida.
Y hasta la fecha, lo somos.

Legend
Past Tense | Imperfect | Adjective | Infinitive | New Vocabulary
 Reflection on Design Process
Successes Challenges
• Practical approach • Overwhelming lesson/unit plan
• Can be applied for tasks at any template
grade or discipline • Time consuming
• Prompts you to consider what you • Assessment – how to gauge what is
want the end result to be first “acceptable” evidence
• Narrows the focus of what is • Coming up with good essential
needed to achieve end result questions.