School Comparisons: a novice Spanish IPA

The goal for this IPA is not just to measure performance, but also to find the right resource to inspire my students to inspire others.

Here’s how.

Finding the right infograph

I can find SO MANY AUTHENTIC INFOGRAPHS that my students can understand halfway through their first semester of Spanish! What I have a hard time finding is something that really allows them to flex their proficiency/performance muscles.

Find this infograph and more on my school infographs Pinterest board

For example, my kids would feel SUPER confident if I gave them this infograph to interpret.

I’d say they easily know 90% of those words and could probably figure out another 5% at least. However. We decided back when we began discussing proficiency week 1 that they should be aiming for Novice High performance the second six weeks of the semester. Even if they interpreted 100% of that infograph, they would still only be at N2 MAX on the AAPPL scales–not a sentence in sight!

Then there’s this infograph:

Find this infograph and more on my Útiles escolares Pinterest board

Plenty of words my kiddos could pick out, sentences galore, and my heritage speakers–who have to demonstrate at least intermediate proficiency–could probably get some fascinating cultural insights about how school and school supplies are viewed in Colombia (which, incidentally, is where the supplies we are collecting for our current project will be headed!)

However, I’m also looking for sentences my novices have a prayer to piece together to get to N4 or at least N3. Lots of cognates and familiar words, but I’m still not so sure my little novices could grasp enough to string together any complete sentences here.

I want them to push themselves, but I also want them to have a chance to succeed! And really, even the numbers don’t help because of the intricacy of the vocabulary and the cultural background necessary to grasp the difference between different types of stores.

So I kept digging through my Pinterest boards to find something that was both easy enough and hard enough–for novices AND native speakers. And I found this.

Infograph from wwwhat’s new

Interpretive Reading

There was a time that past tense paralyzed me, and I thought that my Spanish I and II students could never handle a verb form they hadn’t thoroughly studied beforehand. But here I am slipping in the imperfect tense with full confidence they will be able to use what they know about antes and tiene to fill in some gaps!

What’s more is the infograph is housed within a brief blog post that will allow my heritage speakers to expand on their interpretation and demonstrate intermediate skills!

Because this is an interpretive reading exercise, I will use pretty much the same format as with the activities IPA earlier in the semester.

Interpersonal Conversation

Find a partner and RECORD A 1-3 MINUTE DISCUSSION IN SPANISH about what school activities are like at La Laja–or at least what you imagine they are like based on what you know about the resources available to them. 

Find out from your partner how he/she WANTS to help the students at La Laja and how school activities CAN change if his/her plan works. 

Presentational Writing

On a piece of paper, sketch a draft of your OWN comparison infograph to inspire others to help schools like La Laja. (NOTE: artistic talent is not part of the grade–but I should be able to get an idea of what you’re going for). Instead of comparing the past and the present, compare La Laja NOW with what La Laja is GOING to be like after they receive the shipments from our class. 

 I may also have the young ones try out Seesaw to submit photos of their sketches if there’s time–that way we can quickly pick out the ideas we want to develop to help spread the word!