:: FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Please note: The courses listed below are for the 2009 AP Summer Institutes. These course descriptions will remain posted for your reference, until December 2009.

Week One: July 13-16, 2009
Week Two: July 20-23, 2009

In the course titles, “combined” means that the institute is open to both new and experienced teachers in that particular Pre-AP or AP subject.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES WEEK ONE: JULY 13-16, 2009

AP Spanish Literature—combined

The basis of our discussions will be the following:

Materials published and provided by the College Board
The works on the AP Spanish Literature Required Reading List and appropriate materials to teach them successfully

We will examine the format of the AP Spanish Literature Exam and what it requires of students. Participants will begin—or continue—to make choices adapting various sample syllabi to their teaching needs and sharing tips on textbook selection, reference books, audio-visuals and Web-based learning opportunities, as well as samples of student work. All relevant anthologies sampled out by their publishers at summer institutes will be put in participants’ hands on the first day of the Institute, for examination during our time together and to take home at the end. By the end of the Institute, participants should feel prepared to create or to adjust their own syllabi for teaching AP Spanish Literature in the fall. The exchange of ideas among colleagues will prove invaluable. This Institute will be conducted entirely in Spanish. Because of time constraints, we will not be able to cover in a direct way matters related to the AP Spanish Language Exam. To make the most of your Institute experience this summer, it will be helpful if you inspect and learn to use AP Central, the College Board’s Web site, as it relates to AP Spanish Literature. If you have not already done so, go there, register for an Education Professional’s Account, and set your Personal Preferences for AP Spanish Literature. Follow the links to the Spanish Literature Course Description, the basis for our curriculum, and familiarize yourself with it as your time permits: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com

Specific topics I will cover in the Institute:

How the AP Spanish Literature Exam is constructed and what teaching and learning strategies lead to the greatest possible student success
Your own concerns regarding the teaching of the Required Reading List in AP Spanish Literature
Selection of a textbook appropriate to your students’ needs under the curriculum
Reading of sample essays from the May 2009 AP Essay Reading and learning how to share them meaningfully with your students
Useful reference materials for the teacher and ancillary materials for the classroom
The benefits and challenges of the AP Spanish Literature course
Attracting and keeping students in the AP Spanish Literature program
Teacher and student endeavors in an AP Spanish Literature program, the challenges of offering AP Spanish Literature to the non-traditional AP student, Equity and Access, and issues unique to AP Spanish Literature classes
The College Board Web site AP Central, the AP-Spanish Electronic Discussion Group, and current College Board publications

As a down-to-earth, practical, experienced teacher, I intend to help my participants feel both more familiar with the content and dynamics of the Required Reading List and better prepared to design and implement their own courses. I want to help demystify not only the curriculum but the many AP Spanish Literature materials now available in print and on the Internet for teachers and students. I encourage a warm environment of sharing among institute colleagues during our week together, and I urge you to bring ideas that have worked for you to share with your fellow participants.

See the Course Syllabus.

Lead Consultant: Bonnie Bowen
Bonnie Bowen teaches Spanish at Ventura College and AP Spanish Literature classes at Nordhoff High School and Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai, California. She attended Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, in Quito, and received her B.A. in Latin-American studies and M.A. in Spanish-American literature at California State University, Fresno. She was the recipient of NEH fellowships at Brigham Young University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Oregon. Her teaching experience includes being a full-time bilingual kindergarten teacher at the American School of Quito, Ecuador for two years and a full-time Spanish teacher in public secondary schools in Fresno and Van Nuys, California for 30 years. In 1995, she received the Outstanding Foreign Language Teacher Award given by the California Language Teachers’ Association. Bonnie has been a College Board Consultant at Saturday workshops and summer institutes for two decades, an AP Spanish Reader (17 years, the last 15 reading AP Spanish Literature), and was a former Content Advisor for AP Central’s Spanish Literature Home Page and AP Start-Up Grant Program Mentor. Together with her husband, Wayne, CSU Fresno Spanish professor emeritus, Bonnie organized, wrote, and edited the Nextext/McDougal Littell anthology Abriendo puertas, which contains all of the texts of the AP Spanish Literature curriculum, and she contributed to and edited the accompanying Teacher’s Resource Manuals (TRMs). Bonnie has published a number of articles on AP Central’s Spanish Home Pages and in the AP Spanish Literature special-focus workshop materials Writing About Literature and Teaching Poetry.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES WEEK TWO: JULY 20-23, 2009

AP Spanish Language—combined

AP Spanish Language summer institute participants will focus on building students’ communication skills through thematic units and content-based instruction. We will review free-response tasks, rubrics, and student samples from the 2009 exam to better understand the demands the AP exam places on students. We will explore a variety of teaching and assessment tools to build toward success on the AP exam, paying special attention to the integrated skills presentational tasks. Participants will explore ways to develop a strong program through vertical teaming with teachers at all levels, integrating the use of authentic materials from the beginning levels.

Participants are invited to bring an activity to share and discuss with the group.

Lead Consultant: Ann Mar
Ann Mar teaches AP Spanish Language, Spanish 4, and tenth-grade Spanish Immersion at Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, Texas, where she also serves as a technology facilitator for the LOTE department. Her areas of interest include second-language acquisition, immersion education, materials development, and teacher education. She is active in the local chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, serving as National Spanish Exam coordinator. She has presented numerous workshops for local school districts and for regional and national conventions, including the Texas Foreign Language Association and the ACTFL. A College Board Endorsed AP Consultant, she has served as a reader and table leader for the AP Spanish Language exam. Since 2008 Ann Mar has served on the Spanish Language Curriculum Development and Assessment Committee of the College Board. She authored an article on developing pre-AP listening comprehension skills which is featured in this year’s College Board Professional Development Special Focus publication.