Methods of Teaching Reading in the Secondary Content Area II Vocabulary Activity

The attached reading is an excerpt from the Spanish I text used in AACPS (Avancemos I, pp. 234-5). It is a high school text that has been adopted for use in the middle grades (7th and 8th) for instruction in Spanish. The excerpt is taken from Chapter 4, which is usually covered during the second semester of yearlong study. This would be a reading that 8th graders (Spanish I for high school credit) would be capable of understanding by the time they reached the third marking period. In each class, the student size is supposed to be capped at 33 students, the classes are not leveled and there is no aide for special education students. This year, the initiative within AACPS is for teachers to model Thinking Maps, so that students become experts at selecting a thinking map that would be appropriate for a particular task. Teachers are not supposed to provide graphic organizers, but rather involve students in choosing a map and organizing the information to guide their comprehension and mastery. The directive is that students in all classes complete a thinking map per week.

If I were to lead students in a pre-reading strategy, I would use one like the example on p. 261, Rate Your Space Knowledge. In a foreign language, we focus on things like cognates and related words, so I would modify the knowledge rating chart for my purposes, as illustrated below. I have three categories with pictures: cognado, es familiar, or no tengo ni idea.

Vocabulario

Cognado

Es familiar

No tengo ni idea

habitantes El fin de semana Parques Restaurantes Teatros lugares Divertidos Descansar Pasear cafs Alquilar botes tiendas centro Pueden ropa comida

First, we would do think, pair, share. Once students completed the chart by themselves, they would pair up and see if their responses differed. Then, we would share as a whole class and see which words were still causing them problems in comprehending the passage. Once

students understood the unfamiliar vocabulary, I would lead them in the creation of a thinking map.

We would talk about the most useful of the maps and they would work on selecting the appropriate map and spacing for their organization of vocabulary. For this reading I would encourage the use of a tree map, because we are discussing the weekends in two places: Spain and Chile. The main heading would read los fines de semana: the subheadings would be Espaa and Chile: underneath those headings they would write Madrid and Santiago de Chile, and place the vocabulary and activities under the appropriate city.