Prior+Knowledge

= Prior Knowledge: = This project would be given to students about halfway through their first semester of Spanish I. Topics already covered include: basic greetings and conversational terms, clothing, classroom objects, and descriptive adjectives. In class, students will have already:
 * Designed a positive image poster about themselves that includes all adjectives describing them
 * Completed online games/quizzes about noun/adjective agreement in number and gender
 * Described two different celebrities, one male and one female
 * Drawn pictures to represent 5-8 of the adjectives

Short quizzes are used at the beginning of class or online to help students remember grammatical structures that are used differently in Spanish than they are in English. Frequent quizzes should help students accurately describe the pictures in their presentations. By seventh grade, students are proficient in the use of: power point, photo story, and movie maker. Voicethread will be new to some students, therefore requiring the presence of a media specialist. The media specialist will show students how to navigate the site, upload and organize their pictures, and add comments. If there are students who are new to the school or lack familiarity with these tools, I will be able to assist them one-on-one with Voicethread or have a small group session in which I will go over the basics.

In the project rubric, guidelines will be set to let students know what they should be commenting on and how to give constructive criticism since students will be commenting on each other's presentations. Grammar points and effectiveness of the image should be highlighted in a student's comment. Comments such as, “Nice pic” will simply clutter the Voicethread and waste time. Students will be directed to their rubric for what is considered a quality response. Since students are posting their links in the shared drive, they will have access to each other’s presentations. I will assign 2 of the 3 presentations each student needs to assess so that all presentations will receive feedback. Students may choose their third Voicethread.