ACTFL Lesson Plan Template

Day
Performance Range Intermediate mid Grade PS Date 11/1/2017 in 5 Minutes 50
Unit
Theme/Topic Un planeta para todos / A Planet for All

Essential Question Why is important a global protection of the environment?

Daily topic: Open-pit mining in Argentina

STANDARDS LESSON OBJECTIVES

Which modes of Learners can:
communication
What are the Communication
will be addressed? P understand the purpose of a public service
communicative and
and Po Interpersonal announcement;
cultural objectives for
Po Interpretive P give a speech to enhance environmental awareness
the lesson? Cultures
Po Presentational among people
P discuss diverse environmental issues.
Connections Environmental Studies
If applicable, indicate
Comparisons Environmental issues in Argentina and U.S.
how this lesson
connects to other Communities
standards.
Other
Standards
Materials/Resources/
Time* Technology
Activity/Activities How many Be specific. What
Lesson Sequence What will learners do? minutes will materials will you
What does the teacher do? this segment develop? What materials
take? will you bring in from
other sources?
While students walk in the classroom, I project Slide 2
some announcements, reminders, a song in the
Activate Spanish background, an image or other “starters” related to
Mode the lesson topic or questions to elicit a small talk
using the conversation placemat, for students to
turn “Spanish mode” on before getting started.
Once the class begins, I greet the students, ask Slide 3
how they are doing today, and introduce the lesson
Gain Attention / goals in a can-do-statement form to emphasize the
Activate Prior skills they will gain with the language functions 1
Knowledge being covered. That’s why these statements are
written from the student perspective, in
accordance with the backward design approach.
The slide serves as both warm-up and before Slide 4
viewing activity. To make a connection to the
lesson goals I say: “Hemos hablado de diferentes Standards:
temas en torno al medio ambiente en esta unidad. Communication -
Provide Input 6
Ahora van a ver un anuncio de la televisión Interpreting (reading);
argentina sobre un grave problema ambiental en el Connections
país, pero antes busquen en Internet la siguiente (environmental studies).
información en español.” (3 minutes) I usually
 make clear the timing of each activity. I ask for
“voluntarios” or “víctimas” to follow up the
questions as a class (1 min.) and try to interact
with students above and beyond the answers to
these questions. Once students are familiar with
the practice of megaminería, I quickly go over the
potentially problematic words and make sure
everyone understands key vocab. I point out the
picture and use gestures to indicate the meaning of
“a cielo abierto.” In this case, I also ask students to
remember the most salient traits of Argentine
Spanish to activate background knowledge some
may have on this point à “vos” y su conjugación,
la pronunciación de la ll y la y reilada. (2 min.)
Transition: “Ahora que saben qué es la Slide 5
megaminería y conocen algunas palabras
importantes, van a ver el anuncio creado por la
ONG Conciencia Solidaria.” I introduce this
Argentine organization and its mission in a few
seconds.
Transition: “Antes de ver el anuncio, lean Slide 6
rápidamente estas preguntas para contestarlas
mientras vean el video.” When possible, I embed Standards:
the video into the slide to avoid interruptions with Communication -
YouTube links. I also display the questions they Interpretive (viewing);
need to answer while playing the video. I provide Culture (Argentine TV
students with strips of paper containing the publicity).
questions when the video can’t be embedded,
7
though. Before the first view, I ask students to
quickly skim the questions and then they watch
the public service announcement to begin
articulating their answers. After giving students a
few seconds to check out the questions again,
during the second view they need to finish
answering the questions. In some cases, I allow a
third view if necessary.
Transition: “Ya deben estar listos para verificar Slide 7
sus respuestas con su compañero/a, ¿cierto?”
Next, I have students share and discuss their Standards:
answers in pairs (3 min.). I typically walk around Communication –
Elicit Performance / the classroom to supervise student interactions, Interpersonal (pairs).
6
Provide Feedback follow up some of the answers, provide formative
feedback, and then return to the questions to check
answers as a class (3 min.) To conclude and
summarize this part: “La explotación del medio
ambiente no ha cesado en América.”
Once students have the essential ideas and Slide 8
understand the purpose of the public service
announcement they have watched, I ask them to Standards:
think of similar environmental issues in their Comparisons (cultural
countries or local communities. Transition: “Hay practices)
Provide Input 1
problemas ambientales en otros países de América
como Estados Unidos, incluida la Florida, que fue
posesión colonial española. Por ejemplo: la
deforestación. ¿Hay otros problemas ambientales
en su comunidad?” I provide a visual example and
 statistics to facilitate the connection between
megaminería and a particular problem affecting
their communities.
Students are to collaborate as they discuss some Slide 9
environmental issues in their communities. Then,
Elicit Performance / they pick one of these issues and make a list with Standards:
5
Provide Feedback some of the negative consequences this problem Comparisons (cultural
causes. I also suggest brainstorming a few actions practices)
that can be taken to mitigate this negative impact.
Transition: “Si ya tienen su lista, preparen un Slide 10
discurso para denunciar el problema ambiental que
eligieron en la televisión hispana. Por ejemplo, en Standards:
Univisión o Telemundo. Sigan estos pasos.” The Communication –
uses of si-clauses that students learned in this 10 Presentational - Writing
chapter are integrated as communicative functions.
I also provide pages of the grammar explanations
in the textbook in case students need to refresh
these structures.
Once ready, students are invited to perform their Slide 11
presentations in groups of 4 (2 partner groups).
While a partner presents, the other partner needs to Standards:
7
listen to their classmates’ presentation to react Communication –
with expressions to agree or disagree, including Presentational - Oral
surprise. Then students switch the roles.
Contextualizing every activity to resemble a real- Slide 12
life scenario is one of my priorities. I read the
instructions of this activity for students to Standards:
elaborate and build on their ideas. Afterwards, I 5 Communication –
quickly follow up some of the questions and could Interpersonal (groups)
ask: “¿A qué conclusión han llegado de acuerdo
con el análisis que han hecho?”
If time allows, I would ask some volunteers to Slide13
perform their presentation to the whole class, and
anybody may react using the expressions projected
Closure on the previous slide. Otherwise, I go directly to 1
the this slide to wrap-up my lesson with a general
statement, in this case with a quote that
summarizes and concludes the discussion.
I praise my students for their job and allow a Slide 14
moment for questions or comments. I go back to
the goals set in the beginning so they can reflect
on their own performance and self-assess the
communicative skills acquired in Spanish. I ask
Enhance Retention them thumb-up -down, -middle to indicate if they
1
& Transfer can do it, can’t do it yet, or partially can do it. It’s
also an opportunity for me to know which areas
students need more work on.

“Hasta la próxima clase, chicos. ¡Que pasen un

excelente día! Chau.”
Reflection/ • What worked well? Why? The lesson sequence was highly smooth because most activities
Notes to Self were thematically related and built on one another. Students kept focused at all times
thanks to the use of authentic materials and were mostly clear about what they needed
to do with each piece of information. Engagement was high.
• What didn’t work? Why? The first time I taught this lesson I invited a Colombian
colleague to talk about “hormigas culonas” (Atta laevigata), a traditional Colombian
plate, 5 minutes before class ended. There was no transition to this community standard
activity and students didn’t interact with the presenter as much as I was expecting. I
should have told the students about this visit before class and have them prepare some
questions in advance.
• What changes would you make if you taught this lesson again? I included all of the
suggestions by the language program director in this lesson plan. I improved transitions
and the purpose of every interaction, resorted to different strategies (gestures and other
visuals) to guide students to the desired outcome, and clarified instructions of each
activity further. Finally, I understood the importance of a formative feedback, as
opposed to the summative feedback.