Developing Higher-Order Thinking Through Personal Narratives in a Spanish II Classroom

Samanta Lopez

Introduction

As an English Language Learner, I have learned the value of writing. When learning a new language, writing helps in creating a platform that scaffolds and paces the information one would like to disseminate. It becomes a healthy bridge to communicate the complexities of language. Teaching Spanish as a World Language to non-native speakers can be challenging and limiting; however, utilizing multi-modal approaches in instruction will facilitate a more balanced transition of acquiring a targeted language. Using ACTFL in conjunction with the Common Core Standards to create frameworks for my class, highlight an expectation that moves students from simple to complex language usage as they develop the ability to communicate in authentic contexts, just as one would in the culture in which the language is spoken. Therefore, students will engage in independent research that communicates interpersonal and interpretive information, concepts, and knowledge. Students in Spanish 2, will need to create a written project of the self, using creative undertones in Spanish to express their ideas and findings. Written material will consist of 500 words, a planning rubric, an outline, two drafts with one peer revision before submission. Students will publish their text or present their paper in Spanish.

In the past, students have written simple work that did not involve research or multiple revisions. Students engaged in writing comical strips using fictional characters to highlight the until goals. The content used was based on fiction, which at times seemed very decontextualized from their reality. Students have been responsible for 3-5 sentences in Spanish to consist of their writing projects. However, students were minimally challenged, and did not get an opportunity to make connections between their writing and lived experiences. Therefore, engaging my students in creative non-fiction writing will motivate the exploration of self, others, and their reality. Students will explore fun creative writing about personal stories, and then create one of their own, first in English and then in Spanish. The reason why students will first attempt their draft in English is to appreciate their freestyle and creative writing in their native language to then give an opportunity to appropriate translation. Students will focus on improving their Spanish vocabulary, conjugation, and sentence structure to express themselves interpersonally.

We will focus on Common Core and ACTL Language readiness of interpretation, presentational, and interpersonal communication.1

Demographics

The New Castle County Vocational School District (NCCVT) comprises of 4 schools, Howard, Delcastle, Hodgson, and St. Georges in urban and suburban settings. Each school provides different career tracts that students can choose from to be career ready after high school. New Castle County Vocational schools all have different cultures and demographics. For example, Howard High school of Technology (Howard) is the oldest school in Delaware that has served the African American community of New Castle County since 1927 when schools were still segregated. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at Howard in 1960 around issues of protesting living conditions, desegregation, and civil rights. However today, Howard still stands in the poorest, underserved community of Wilmington, Delaware. Compared to the counterpart schools in the district, Howard demographics consist of 70% African American students, 15.7% Hispanics, and 13.6 % Whites. Almost half of its pupils receive free to reduce lunches. Many of students that are admitted to Howard come from nearby local public schools that are under-resourced, and high needs. Howard, unfortunately, ranks 26th out of 30 Delaware schools in performance. 2 In 2018, our SAT results in ELA and Essay writing was below state and district standards.

At Howard High School, I teach predominately 9th graders and Seniors that did not take Spanish during their Freshman year. My classes consist of 28-30 students. I teach 90-minute classes of Spanish 1 and 2. I have classrooms that are diverse in race, gender, ethnicity, language, and ability. Approximately 40% of my students have IEP or 504 plans, and 10% are English Language Learners. My students are pulled out of class twice a week by a special education teacher and a Bilingual paraeducator. As a World Language, Spanish teacher, it is imperative that I provide accommodations to my students and use multimodal approaches to meet all learning needs.

Rationale

Second language acquisition can be a daunting and overwhelming process that at times defaults to rote learning and memorization. In world language classrooms, you can often witness a lack of motivation, engagement, and content understanding due to the decontextualized reality that teaching and learning can have if the material or lesson is not relevant to the student’s lived experiences.

Learning a foreign language is a new and different process that many students have to encounter for the first time. I teach 9th graders, in a diverse setting, of different backgrounds, abilities, and motivations. In September 2019, my students completed a pre-assessment on basic Spanish 1 vocabulary and grammar. The results highlighted that 87% of my students fared below average. To provide a further context of my class, 50% of my students are taking a foreign language for the first time. Students that have taken Spanish before, but are still in the novice proficiency level fall at 35%. The remaining percentages consist of students that classify as English Language Learners (ELLs). Although the majority of my ELLs speak Spanish, they are considered “Heritage Speakers”. According to Zapata and Lacorte, Heritage Speakers are individuals that learned a language at home in a sociocultural way; usually in a 2nd or 3rd generation setting3. The Heritage Speakers in my class are able to hold a discussion in Spanish, but unable to academically write and evaluate in the target language. Many Heritage Speakers may have basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) but lack the cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP).4 Therefore, my ELLS are not only in the BICS stage in Spanish but also in English.

For example, my student Maria is able to enter the class, greet me, and even inform me extensively of what she did the day before, all verbally in Spanish (L1); but she is unable to receive a proficiency score on the unit summative assessment requiring her to write what she likes to do on the weekend in Spanish, which technically is her first language. Maria was part of a migrant family that permanently remained in the U.S. when she was in the fifth grade. The rural schools that she attended only met 3 times a week; she did not receive a foundational language structure that usually is conventional in primary grades. As a student in the U.S., it was assumed that she already had the foundation of language rules and structure and that the only thing she needed was access to Spanish to English translation. Therefore, Maria remains in the basic interpersonal communication skills stage in both languages after being in the U.S. for five years. She is falling below standards in the Spanish and ELA assessments.

Maria is not the only one challenged by a lack of early linguistic preparation. Some of my students struggle in their native language English, in terms of reading and writing proficiencies; which in turn, will create challenges in learning a new language, like Spanish. According to Littlewood, W. (1984), students that are not at a healthy proficient level in their first language (L1), learning a second language(L2), and a set of new linguistic rules can have a discouraging and limiting effect on acquisition. A student by the name of Malik is a good example of how early linguistic preparation can make or break your second language acquisition experience. Malik was raised in public schools situated in disadvantaged communities that lacked resources to pay and retain effective teachers and to control the caseload of students with socioemotional/physical needs. Overall, Malik is an eager and personable student that aspires to become bilingual;

however, regardless of his motivation, he has come across some challenges that predate his primary learning experiences. When learning to conjugate verbs in Spanish, students will refer to their English conjugation rules and understanding of basic grammar to put into perspective the Spanish translation of the rules and structures. During a recent lesson on conjugation, Malik became frustrated, he was not able to refer back to his knowledge around pronouns, verbs, and subject and adjective agreements. He informed me that his classes were so out of control in elementary and middle school that the focus was on behavior and not on content. He also mentioned that in the 4th and 5th grades, he had teachers that left the school mid-year. The inconsistencies in this context did not adequately prepare Malik with the skills that he needed to become proficient in his native language of English, thus creating a bilingual gap in the proficiency of English, and Spanish.

Therefore, as a teacher that wants to see their students flowing and flourishing in the art and science of learning Spanish, I want to bridge the proficiency gap between their native language (L1) and their second language acquisition (L2) by introducing creative writing that is culturally relevant and includes higher-order thinking skill sets. Currently, in Spanish I classrooms, students are focusing on learning the foundation of Spanish as a second language, and listing new vocabulary, completing assignments that help with defining terms, and interpreting the new target language. Students are in a novice stage engaging in lower-order skillsets to remember and understand the new material. In Spanish II, students have acquired a better sense of foundation and lexicon around Spanish that can open opportunities to engage students in creating or putting materials and new content together to form a coherent or functional whole. Utilizing the skill sets that students have acquired by the time they reach Spanish II, it will be complementary to engage students in writing creative nonfiction that will connect content learned, critical thinking, and lived experiences to a deeper form of learning.

Students starting off as beginner of learning a world language, do not often get an opportunity to explore different ways of learning that is a bit autonomous and that focuses on Bloom’s Taxonomy higher-order skill sets. Due to the novice, and at times remedial nature of Spanish 1 and 2, many educators stay stagnant on the lower order of Bloom’s Taxonomy learning levels like “remembering” and “understanding,” which include the following skillsets of listing, reciting, outlining, defining, naming, matching, recalling, recognizing, describing, explaining, interpreting, summarizing, and discussing.5 In order for students to move from novice to intermediate and then to advance, skills of higher order like analyzing, evaluating, and creating need to be part of the objective and strategies.

Spanish 2 curriculum has been designed to acquaint students with the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), and the cultural background of the

Spanish-speaking countries throughout the development of meaningful thematic units. The curriculum follows the Delaware Student Learning Standards for the Common Core as well as the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) World-Readiness Standards.6 The goals of the course are to be able to communicate in the target language in simple sentences and to handle simple transactions related to everyday life. The four language areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing continue to be developed with an emphasis on expanding vocabulary and improving the student’s ability to understand and use important linguistic content and structure. Language usage and cultural knowledge continue to be developed through the sequential building of the interpretive, interpersonal and presentational modes of communication. This approach not only yields students who are proficient in basic grammar and vocabulary but will include experiences that promote the use of language as a communicative tool, task-oriented instruction and learning: i.e. an ability to communicate about oneself and others, and ability to express the fundamentals of daily life, and ability to interact with others in the target language. Therefore, engaging students in writing about their lives and experiences with others creatively will bridge the language and cultural components of the standards, providing skills that will help students interpret in their own capacity and present information in diverse ways.

At the completion of a Spanish 2 course, the majority of students are expected to perform in the Mid- Novice to high intermediate ranges of language proficiency. Students enrolled in these courses are expected to communicate primarily in the target language in class. Therefore, for this curriculum unit lesson, the focus will be on reaching Bloom’s Taxonomy of higher-order skillsets in Spanish II classrooms through creating writing following a hybrid language format. This is an approach that I am introducing in the writing and presentational practices of my World Language- Spanish Class. As a person who understands firsthand the process of learning a new language, being able to use both language at once, scaffolded and strengthen my learning of the target language. A hybrid approach can serve beneficial in building confidence and strategies in learning a new language. I have seen the concept of hybridization under sociocultural influences of learning in the educational experience. Therefore, hybridization in writing allows students at all levels to code-switch from the language that they are comfortable with and the target language being learned. Utilizing this approach will create fluidity and autonomy in my students’ writing. Research shows that language hybridity such as language mixing and codeswitching in text creates an opportunity for people to genuinely write without stifling their creative juices.7

Unit Objectives

This unit is designed for high school level of Spanish II but can also complement other levels and grades in a Spanish curriculum when modified. This lesson focuses on the

development of higher-order skills in Spanish through the practice of personal narrative writing. Students will write a creative personal narrative using hybrid language writing methods. They will be able to explore key vocabulary and writing organizational skills through their written presentation of what they do and do not do in their daily life.

During this lesson, students will operate in skillsets of analyzing, evaluating and creating, which are part of Bloom’s Taxonomy higher-order thinking. Students will not just be given questions or simple multiple prompts to answer and create content as writing assessments but will be challenged with the autonomy to write a freestyle narrative with supporting guiding questions. This lesson will allow students to separate content material and language learned into collective parts, determining the connectivity of all related components. Students will keep a journal of what they do on a daily basis using unit 4 Spanish vocabulary words and other cultural components that highlight or describe their activities.

As a culturally relevant lesson through the approach of language hybridity, students will be empowered to write drafts of their work using language that they feel a sense of confidence in Spanish and English. Students will use the art of code-switching, which allows them to use language, vocabulary, and tone that may seem different from each other but are related. Students in my Spanish I and II often feel intimidated to write more than two sentences in Spanish. The fear of making mistake and lack of vocabulary to write in Spanish is diminished when provided the opportunity to write in multiple languages. According to Rubdy and Lubna, Hybrid language usage will allow students to engage more in the lesson, use funds of knowledge to enrich their writing, and lessen the reality of writing block due to the fluidity of using multiple languages with word usage and identification.8

In the New Castle County Technical & Vocational School district Spanish II curriculum, in association with the ACTFL World-Readiness Language Standards, there are specific writing objectives. The writing objectives, which fall under the presentational components state that learners will describe what they do daily at home, school, and work. They will describe what they do on the weekends, describe what times they normally do things like get up, go to work, eat meals, go to bed, etc. They will also describe what chores they have to do at their home and will ask an exchange student a few questions about his or her daily routine in Barcelona, Spain.9 Students in past Spanish II unit 4 lessons, were very limited with their responses, and quite generic with their approach. This unit is rich in possibilities with creativity and connection to real lived experiences. When I think of a culturally relevant approach this unit has the potential to resonate deeper with students and open the door to a fun way to express and

present aspects of one’s daily life. Therefore, students will create a personal narrative around their daily life doings utilizing lesson a platform of creativity and hybridity.

Writing Information

Students in my Spanish class are not used to writing freely in Spanish. Usually, we have prompts that guide their writing by answering questions. We provide scenarios that create contexts for students to tether their writing accordingly. Therefore, this activity will be different; students will read different creative writing in English and in Spanish and will use the writing provided as a model text. In addition, some of the strategies that I will use with the students will be “name the step” of my approach to writing, and a think-aloud of my method.

Readings

As model texts, student will engage in creative writing work through fiction and nonfiction paradigms. Both texts account for personal narrative utilizing a hybrid approach of Spanish and English in their work. During our exploration of creative writing, we will use the work of Sandra Cisneros, which is a fiction-nonfiction story that accounts for real experiences. We will also explore Gloria Anzaldua short nonfiction stories that highlight the importance of language in one’s identity. The text used will resonate with students’ personal experiences and will provide diverse way of thinking about writing using multiple languages. This approach will not confine student to monolingual approaches in expression.

Content

Unit 4 writing lessons will include a method of language hybridity that will be new for many students. Language hybridity is often found in verbal communication. Research shows that language hybridity in literature manifests as language mixing or code switching. Many texts that may have not been written due to language barriers can thrive in platforms that are hybrid mixing native and targeted language. The two most highlighted hybridity forms most popular seen in texts are the following: Spanglish, which is known in Spanish speaking communities, and Ebonics, as an African American form of dialect. In this context, we will use hybridity in written form, allowing students to use English and Spanish in their narratives. The usage of these two languages will allow for scaffolding opportunities and creative platforms.

My students will explore the personal, interesting and fun way to write about themselves and their experiences. The one key asset that my students bring to writing is their creative oral approach to tell a story; in turn, they will find commonalities in transforming oral into writing as a form of storytelling. Students will identify the personal story that they would like to highlight and share. Students will write their first draft in English, which will serve as a scaffolding mechanism, and then the 2nd written draft will introduce Spanish vocabulary terms learned in unit 4. Students will have writing conferences to get them on the right path, and the opportunity to provide feedback on their own writing.

In order to prepare my students to write these types of creative narratives, it will be of utmost importance to expose them to writing that includes fun and creative personal narratives utilizing language hybridity. The two authors that I will introduce are developmentally appropriate for high school students in Spanish classes of Level I and II. Author’s like Gloria Anzaldua, and Sandra Cisneros’s written work will be introduced to incite creativity and language hybridity in personal narratives. In addition, YouTube clips of Spanglish communication will be exposed to students to visually see and hear the flow and texture of the two languages coming together as one.

As my students engage in the process of writing personal narratives about their daily life, they will be exposed to diverse modes of storytelling. My students are familiar with talking and sharing stories verbally but transferring those stories to writing become a bit more challenging. Therefore, it will be of great benefit to expose our students to oral storytelling that uses Spanish and English words in their stories. During this unit, students will watch a YouTube video, My Mother & Facebook, by Vito Di Bari, and then read the script to provide congruency and understanding from oral to written transition of storytelling.10 The video consists of Di Bari sharing a story of generational difference around his mother and technology. This story is humorous and full of Spanish vocabulary words learned in this unit and previous ones. They will be able to see and hear a natural flow of language codeswitching for easier and uninterrupted way expression. This introduction to a hybrid sense of oral storytelling will put into perspective the model text students will read.

Gloria Anzaldua’s written work opens the door for students to see the flow of language hybridity. Anzaldua’s narrative has an interesting way to share experiences of injustice and dread as a creative, lively, and eclectic whole. Her approach engages diverse readers and provides scaffolding of language by using complementary words in English and Spanish. The text How to Tame a Wild Tongue, is one of Gloria Anzaldua’s personal stories compiled in her book Borderlands/La Frontera.11 Anzaldua’s nonfiction story shares a recount of her language experiences at school. Her experiences were not

necessarily positive, due to the expectation of taming or not allowing the usage of her native language in expressing herself, but to prioritize the target language that she needed to master in her daily life. This story provides a provocative implication of language and identity in the U.S. This text will serve more than just a grammatical aspect of learning, but will engage students in discussion around language, expression, and identity. Anzaldua’s work uses a lot of Spanish saying and phrases that will tap on the Spanish vocabulary learned, and take my students on a literary ride, inspiring their creative juices.

Sandra Cisneros’s work is lighter in sociopolitical realities, and although categorized as fictional, it is grounded in realistic events. As a Latin American Author, she has been able to use bilingualism, figurative language, and narration to write creatively about her personal experiences and perspectives. For example, one of her short stories, Eleven, which is a fiction-nonfiction reflects her own experiences and coming of age trajectory.12 The key aspect of her writing that we will focus on, is on her narration using English and Spanish phrases that will motivate students to reflect and use hybridization to express their personal experiences. Cisneros’s writing is very vivid, fun, and light. Our students will be able to connect and enjoy the model text that we will provide and use as an example of the type of writing expected.

All the students’ work will be submitted via an online platform. Schoology is an online learning management system that allows students to create, manage, and evaluate their work. This is a shared medium that provides teachers an opportunity to provide immediate feedback and assessment to students’ work, and vice versa. Even if a student is absent, they can access the videos, readings, and submission folder from wherever they are, if they can log into Schoology. The work in this unit is not dependent on online learning systems; students can retrieve and submit all materials as hardcopies for further dissemination and assessment. However, online platforms like Schoology creates a more manageable process for teachers to assess and for students to manage. My district uses this online tool for students on a regular for them to create and maintain work; therefore, it will not be a complicated process for students to use an online learning management system to create and submit their work.

Strategies

Writing a personal narrative in a target language that is quite foreign can create limitations and hesitations. For students in my Spanish II class to feel somewhat confident in the process of writing, strategic and collaborative approaches need to be in the full front of the learning experience. I want to leverage the lack of short story or personal narrative writing in the curriculum of Spanish II through creating an opportunity for students to use multimodal approaches in sharing a personal story. At the end of the

unit, student should be able to write about the following in a creative and personal way: students should be able to share what they do daily at home, school, and work. Their story should also describe what they do on the weekends, and what times they normally do things like get up, go to work, eat meals, go to bed, etc. This unit will provide students with a platform to include content learned that is usually decontextualized in a more personal and relatable way; meaning that students will have an opportunity to include the Spanish vocabulary and concepts in narrative writing.

As students engage in the writing process, it is important that they jot and practice writing as much as possible. The students in my Spanish II will use an online journaling option to write down thoughts, experiences, and challenges. The students will be asked to write a summary of what they did that day, aside from attending school. I want students to start feeling comfortable using Spanish words in their writing. Therefore, I look forward to seeing at least 30% of the words written in their journal to be in Spanish. This is a good way start acknowledging opportunities to creatively write in a hybrid way. From my observations, I believe that students are taught to write in conventional, monolingual ways. It will be a different state of mind to think in both English and Spanish when writing. However, it prepares students to think multilingually.

In order to scaffold learning and create perspective, I will display anchor charts. Students learning a foreign language are tasked with new daily vocabulary and concepts to learn in the target subject. An anchor chart grounds learning by providing students with a visual aid that consist of the subject learned. The students in my class will assist me in creating the anchor chart and displaying it on one of the walls in our classroom. Anchor charts can be updated daily by students when new concepts are presented. Anchor charts are great way to support student language development and acquisition.13

Think aloud is another approach to help with modeling and comprehension. A think aloud activity allows teacher to model step by step what they want to see students do. It creates an opportunity for educators to think aloud while creating or problem solving.14 During this strategy I will write my first draft in front of students using a projector. I will then use stopping points to create mini lessons for student to practice the steps that were modeled. It will be essential for me to provide higher order thinking skills that goes into writing. During the think aloud, I will present common mistakes that are made, and how using a hybrid method of English and Spanish can limit or correct errors. However, I will highlight some misconceptions and ways to resolved them. Lastly this strategy provides an overall scope of what students should work on and the outcome it should produce.

Another avenue that helps students develop their confidence and skills in storytelling and comprehension is think-pair-share. This is a student-centered strategy based on collaboration and support. This is a good way for students to begin to develop their stories, and practice sharing. One thing that I have learned about students is that they enjoy sharing stories about themselves informally. Therefore, think-pair-share allows students to discuss diverse topics with a partner, receive feedback or brainstorm further, and then share their findings or product. This approach helps students with their participation and confidence in the content at hand. For this unit, students will choose to share with their partner a funny or interesting story that they experience in their daily doings. They will then take turns to give each other feedback on what stood out as funny or interesting part of the story. The pair will then work together to highlight words that were used in each story that are also present in the Spanish anchor chart. Once they identify the key words, they will translate them into Spanish using each other as resources. After the pair work together to share, identify, translate, and create, they will report out the Spanish words used in their stories and their findings.

For this unit, graphic organizers will emphasize the development of the writing assignment and will serve as a comprehension tool of the materials being used. Graphic organizers serve as a scaffolding tool that gather and help students synthesize information. It also can be used as a tool to generate ideas and create perspective. Three different graphic organizers will be appropriated for the main activities, which include the video, and readings. Using the organizers for these activities will help students decipher the content and break down the steps used to create a creative personal narrative. In the video by Vito Di Bari, students will use a graphic organizer to highlight the Spanish words that was used, and to translate the vocabulary into English. Students will also have a section in the graphic organizer to summarize the story utilizing their own words and identify the creativity of the stories. Students will reflect and identify any similarities or difference of Di Bari’s story and their lives.

The graphic organizer will also be utilized for the work of Cisneros and Anzaldua. In the reading, students will need to highlight the Spanish words, and find their meaning. They will also use the graphic organizer as a tool to compare both author language usage, creativity, and tone. Students will be able to identify the difference and similarities in both stories around fiction and nonfiction categories. During this process students will engage in an online graphic organizer to fix the first draft of their stories, highlight common word found in our units, and translate them into Spanish. Students will then be able to write the type of stories they would like to share that takes into consideration the unit’s objectives of vocabulary that consist of words used to talk about experiences in their daily lives. Once students have completed the graphic organizers, the document can then serve as a resource to finalize their writing.

During this process, I wanted to tap into strategies that were culturally relevant, and that promoted the usage of students’ background knowledge and interests. This unit will blend technology with conventional approaches to teaching and learning. Overall, in order to increase comprehension and language acquisition, I will break the assignment in chunks or smaller components to stay developmentally appropriate and supportive.

Classroom Activities

I. Exploring the Vocabulary

Students will have an opportunity to identify and dissect the new vocabulary words in the unit and create flashcards and anchor charts using Spanish and English translation. Before students should engage in the writing process, it is imperative that they know the new vocabulary of the unit:

Linguistic Content:

Keeping the new vocabulary in mind, the class will create an Anchor Chart. Every student will identity 3 new words or concepts that they find challenging to know or complexed, and they will add it to the anchor chart with the bilingual corresponding meaning. Students personal narratives will need to demonstrate knowledge of the unit content.

II. Personal Story Exploration

Interpretive

Students interpret the main idea and supporting details in authentic written, video and audio texts, such as video clips, podcasts, blogs, text messages, emails, and advertisements related to unit topic.

Activity

Student will use turn and talk activity to answer the following prompt: What is a personal story, and in what ways can it be creatively disseminated? Students will have 3 minutes to discuss the prompt. Then each student will have an opportunity to write on the white board one word for each question connected to the prompt. I will ask for volunteers to explain their answers. Students will then take time to review the words jotted down by their peers and identify similarities and themes.

Students will then recall a personal story presented by a friend, family member, or celebrity that was either memorable, interesting, or enjoyable to hear. Then using Schoology, a district based online learning management platform, students will use the submission option to write down the story they heard as if they are sharing the story with someone else. Once the story is written, students will use the highlighting option in Schoology, and highlight in yellow any cognates, and words that they also know in the target language. This is an opportunity for students to put their thoughts on paper and to experience the fluidity of language.

III. What’s in a Narrative

Personal narratives can take many different shapes, within content and structure. This unit includes an introduction of the different narrative styles. I will discuss the personal narrative in detail, highlighting the corresponding content for this unit. The content will be reflective in nature answering the five w’s: what, when, who, where, and why. In addition, students will use four forms of sequencing, First, then, later, and finally to organize their narrative accordingly and create order.

During this activity students will watch a YouTube video based on a short personal story about technology and generational differences. The story is very memorable because the speaker chooses to highlight his mother, which helps his narrative connect to a diverse audience. He also chooses to tell his personal narrative in a more humorous tone, making his story light and welcoming. Therefore, students will use a graphic organizer to dissect the video and answer the five w’s found in the story. This will breakdown the component of the personal narrative that pertains to their stories. Students can easily lose track of the key elements of a narrative, so it is important that the graphic organizer serve as a tethering tool to assist in the formation of the personal narrative.

IV. Reading Assignment

To provide students with a healthy combination of oral and written work, I decided to utilize the work of two bilingual authors, Cisneros and Anzaldua. The authors are perfect for this exercise as though they are able to express themselves effectively using mixed language of English and Spanish. They demonstrate nicely a balance of hybridity in language usage. The student will spend 3-4 days with the reading assignment. First, students will read on their own the Cisneros’ short story Eleven. They will use the graphic organizer to identify the five w’s found in the story. The students will do a similar exercise with Anzaldua’s text How to Tame a Wild Tongue. As a class we will explore the difference between fiction and nonfiction, and why one story is classified as a quasi-fiction and not non-fiction; a graphic organizer will be part of this lesson. Students will also identify similarities and differences between both texts.

To include language unit objective, students will highlight cognates and words learned in current and previous units. Students will work in groups to decipher the Spanish words used in the text. Students will identify common words found in both narratives and discuss the effect of those words in the text. It is important that students not only meet the language objective, but also use higher order thinking of reflection, and analyzation.

Name ________________________________________ Date ____________________________________

Reading Venn Diagram

Cisneros Anzaldua

(Fiction) (Non-Fiction)

V. Your Personal Narrative

This activity promotes creation. Students will be able to create their own personal narratives using the five w’s of what, when, where, who, and why. In addition, students will organize their narratives using the Spanish sequential/transitional words of primero, despues, luego y finalmente. Students personal narrative can represent a funny, sad, interesting, or revealing aspect of their lives. The story should highlight who is in the story, where is the story taking place and when. It should reveal what is happening that is worth talking about, and why is it happening. Students narratives will touch on the theme of things or activities that people do in their everyday living. The narration will take a non-fiction role in the dissemination of a story that represents a part of their lives.

Personal Narrative Graphic Organizer

5 W’s

Interpersonal

Before the creation and during written process of the narratives, students will engage in short, spontaneous conversations with classmates, and the teacher, in which they ask, and answer questions related to descriptions of self and others, preferences and cultural activities and products. Use house vocabulary, prepositions of place, possessive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives and descriptive adjectives to talk about their houses. Students will also use the irregular verb estar or hay to locate things in a house and/or talk about their home life. For the personal narratives, students will display the usage of home life vocabulary, chores vocabulary, prepositions of place, possessive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives and descriptive adjectives to talk and discuss likes and dislikes about their responsibilities. Furthermore, students will work with the irregular verb tener+ que+infinitive to describe household activities and chores.

Drafts

The first draft will consist of 250 words that include the who and what of the details of their story. Students will brainstorm on the content by using a graphic organizer that will serve as a brainstorming tool. Students personal story will be based on things they do on their daily life. They should highlight something that they do and with whom they do it. Once student begin the process of creating a personal narrative, they write in their language of comfort first. The next step will consist of translating words that they recognize into Spanish. Students will then give their paper to their classroom partner to look over the draft, and make appropriate changes to the content, grammar, and response.

The second draft will have an additional 250 words that students will include the where, when, and why of their story. Using the framing graphic organizer students will provide comprehensive details of their story using the sequential concepts. Students will

write using Spanish sentences. The Spanish words that they do not know but want to express can be written in English. Once done, students will work together with their partners to finalize their work.

Writing Conferences

After the second draft, students will have 10 minutes in a writing conference with the teacher. During this time the student’s graphic organizers should have been reviewed. Questions around the activities that they chose to write about should be formulated. Also, a discussion around the process will create a better understanding of the students’ overall thoughts and organization of the content. Students will walk the teacher through their conception of their narratives; in addition, during these conferences, students will figure out what next step they need to take to finalize their narrative. During the writing conferences I will engage with students accordingly:

Final Project

The final project will consist of 500 words; at least seventy percent of the words need to be in Spanish. The story format consists of New Times Roman, 12 font size, and double space. The personal narrative will include the following, but not limited to a true story written creatively around chores, activities, and or encounters in their daily lives. For students that are in an advanced level, or that are considered heritage speakers, they can add to their narratives the following: similarities and differences between chores and household activities in the United States and in a Spanish-speaking country. The project will demonstrate students’ abilities to research, collaborate, and create interpretative and presentational outcomes. This will also show students’ competence and skill levels move from Novice to intermediate, or from intermediate to advance. Teachers can be creative with a rubric that can capture the skills and knowledge that are applicable for their standards.

Once students are done with their written portion of the project, they will present their written work to the class either in person or via video. On of the goals in Spanish class is to create proficiency not only written but also orally. Students should demonstrate the skills and competencies in the World Readiness Language Standards through listening, speaking, reading and writing platforms. Students will be able to use power point, iMovie, Schoology Screencast or Flip Grid to record their written work and share or present to the classroom. Students need to understand that language also warrants a process of confidence building. It is important that students utilize different more of engagement to practice the language. The more students can practice language usage in diverse context, the closer they will get to language acquisition. Hopefully through this unit students get become more prepared with the skills, competence, and confidence to be 21st Century global ready.

Resources

“ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages,” ACTFL The National Standards Collaborative Board, accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.actfl.org/publications/all/world- readiness-standards-learning-languages . World Language Standards.

Anderson, Lorin W, and David R Krathwohl. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Complete ed. New York: Longman, 2001. Bloom’s Higher Order Thinking

Anzaldúa, Gloria, Norma E Cantú, and Aída Hurtado. Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera. Fourth Edition, 25th Anniversary ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012. How To Tame a Wild Tongue.

"Bloom's Taxonomy." Gifted Child Today 27, no. 2 (2004): 6. Bloom’s Taxonomy and Competencies.

Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek, and Other Stories. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1991. Eleven Short Story.

Gunderson, Lee. Esl (ell) Literacy Instruction: A Guidebook to Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2009. Literacy Strategies for ESL Instruction.

Littlewood, W. (1984). Foreign and second language learning: Language-acquisition research and its implications for the classroom (Cambridge language teaching library). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Language acquisition in classrooms.

Morrow, Lesley Mandel, Kenneth Kunz, and Maureen Hall. Breaking through the Language Arts Block: Organizing and Managing the Exemplary Literacy Day. Best Practices in Action. New York: Guilford Press, 2018. 2018. Accessed October 15, 2019. Strategies to effective writing and organization.

Pawlak, Mirosław, Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak, and Jakub Bielak, eds. Autonomy in Second Language Learning: Managing the Resources. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017. Second Language Acquisition.

“Preparing America’s students for success.” Common Core Standards Initiative. Accessed October 1, 2019. http:/www.corestandards.org/. The Common Core Standards

Rubdy, Rani, and Lubna Alsagoff, eds. The Global-Local Interface and Hybridity: Exploring Language and Identity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2014. Strategies to extend literacy via language hybridity.

Sebba, Mark, Shahrzad Mahootian, and Carla Jonsson. Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing: Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse. Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism, 2. New York: Routledge, 2012. Language Mixing and Code Switching in classrooms.

Someren, Maarten W. Van, Yvonne F Barnard, and J. Sandberg. The Think Aloud Method: A Practical Guide to Modelling Cognitive Processes. Knowledge-Based Systems. London: Academics. Learning Strategies of Think Aloud.

“U.S. News, Best High Schools Ranking: Delaware High Schools,” U.S. News, accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/delaware/rankings . List of school rankings by performance.

“World-Readiness Standards,” accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.doe.k12.de.us/cms/lib/DE01922744/Centricity/Domain/139/Delaware%20World-Readiness%20Standards%20for%20Learning%20Languages%20040816.pdf . World Readiness Language Standards.

Zapata, Gabriela C, and Manel Lacorte, eds. Multiliteracies Pedagogy and Language Learning: Teaching Spanish to Heritage Speakers. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Strategies to teach Heritage Speakers.

Notes

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1 “ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages,” ACTFL The National Standards Collaborative Board, accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.actfl.org/publications/all/world-readiness-standards-learning-languages .

2 “U.S. News, Best High Schools Ranking: Delaware High Schools,” U.S. News, accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/delaware/rankings .

3 Zapata, Gabriela C, and Manel Lacorte, eds. Multiliteracies Pedagogy and Language Learning: Teaching Spanish to Heritage Speakers. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

4 Gunderson, Lee. Esl (ell) Literacy Instruction: A Guidebook to Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2009.

5 Anderson, Lorin W, and David R Krathwohl. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Complete ed. New York: Longman, 2001.

6 “World-Readiness Standards,” accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.doe.k12.de.us/cms/lib/DE01922744/Centricity/Domain/139/Delaware%20World-Readiness%20Standards%20for%20Learning%20Languages%20040816.pdf .

7 Sebba, Mark, Shahrzad Mahootian, and Carla Jonsson. Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing: Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse. Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism, 2. New York: Routledge, 2012.

8 Rubdy, Rani, and Lubna Alsagoff, eds. The Global-Local Interface and Hybridity: Exploring Language and Identity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2014.

9 “New Castle County Vocational School District World Language (Spanish),” accessed October 3, 2019, http://www.nccvt.org/academics/world-langauuge-spanish-curriculum/

10 Futurist Vito Di Bari. “A Storytelling in Spanglish: My mother and Facebook,” YouTube Video, 3:02, April 4, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ-ivXoGHwU .

11 Anzaldúa, Gloria, Norma E Cantú, and Aída Hurtado. Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera. Fourth Edition, 25th Anniversary ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012.

12 Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek, and Other Stories. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1991.

13 Morrow, Lesley Mandel, Kenneth Kunz, and Maureen Hall. Breaking through the Language Arts Block: Organizing and Managing the Exemplary Literacy Day. Best Practices in Action. New York: Guilford Press, 2018. 2018. Accessed October 15, 2019.

14 Someren, Maarten W. Van, Yvonne F Barnard, and J. Sandberg. The Think Aloud Method: A Practical Guide to Modelling Cognitive Processes. Knowledge-Based Systems. London: Academics.