Shelby County Schools June 2004

Introduction
¡En Español! will help teachers integrate the National Standards, use technology to enhance
instruction, address multiple learning styles, open students to new experiences and help students
gain an appreciation of another culture. ¡En Español! consists of a preliminary chapter and six
units; each unit consists of three etapas. Teachers need to realize that it is not crucial to do all the
activities of the etapas to achieve the goals / objectives of each etapa. The teacher, as facilitator, will
need to determine which activities to cover, taking in account the needs of every class.
The teacher needs to remember that it is very important to give students opportunities to
practice over and over again some of the critical concepts. For this reason, it is suggested that the
students begin learning some of the hard concepts like gender, tenses, etc. at the beginning of each
semester to ensure the students have the entire semester and, in some cases, a full year to practice
the hard concepts. This textbook with all the visual aides, technology tools, art, recipes, games,
projects, and supplemental materials will make teaching more enjoyable for the teacher and learning
more enjoyable for the students.
Rationale
With the introduction of new textbooks, it is necessary to draft a new curriculum to
correspond with the new text. The Shelby County Board of Education has adopted the McDougal
Littell series ¡En español! for Spanish Levels I and II. The curriculum has been written in
accordance with the national and state goals and standards for foreign language proposed by the
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and in accordance with the
standards set forth by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP)
for the National Spanish Examination. The curriculum has been designed to be of use to the novice
as well as veteran teacher. The acquisition of foreign language is a skill; therefore, the text and
curriculum guide are designed to advance a proficiency-based method of learning. The curriculum
guide is divided into two semesters with two nine-week periods in each semester. Suggestions for
pacing, a scope and sequence, a curriculum map, and an outline are dealt with by nine-week periods
in order to give the teacher a recommended stopping point for each semester. A suggested calendar
has been offered to allow teachers time at the end of each semester to review prior to semester
exams. Suggestions for assessment activities are addressed in a separate section. Assessment
suggestions include examples of standardized semester exams. It is up to the teacher to decide
which activities and which assessment items will work best for his/her students. However, it is
highly recommended that teachers work within a school to standardize the curriculum as much as
possible so all students receive the same skill acquisition at each level.
Shelby County Schools Spanish II Curriculum Guide June 2004 Page 1