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Introduction/General Comments
I think this overview summarizes pretty well, however, I think that it is crowded both in the proficiency goals and in the national standards. If you make a few adjustments, such as adding spaces, it may flow better and look better to the human eye. user:litwins5

It would also be nice to see a title that goes along with your Unit, such as ¡Ven Conmigo a México!. user:litwins5

I'm looking forward to seeing how this unit develops. I like your emphasis on communication. What is the name of the chapter? Why do you think students would find it worthwhile to learn about Mexico? Also, can you integrate communities and connections? I agree with Kerry's suggestions. user:Anny1

Unit Web
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This gives a nice overview. You seem to have some very worthwhile learning activities! user:Anny1

I really like the idea of having students create a blog about their daily activities. I also like that students will be comparing Mexican culture with their own. user:kendal53

Daily Schedule
"//Monday-// Introduce telling time- give basic formulas ¿ Qué hora es? activity-Students draw a time from a hat, then draw an activity on the board that would take place at that time- the other students guess what time it is." I like this activity because students have the opportunity because they will be able to create their own activities (they can be very creative!) Will you put a time limit on this for each student? What if you have a shy student who can't think of something to draw? user:litwins5

We would have a time limit, probably 30 seconds or so for each student (just like playing pictionary). Often shy students actually do better with assignments like this where they are not expected to speak in front of everyone, and our hope is that students who may be more artistically inclined will enjoy it. Of course, if a student can't think of an activity that might take place at their given time, the teacher could help them out with suggestions. 1208467741

Lesson Plan 1- Comparing Schedules
I think this is a great lesson to start off the year, especially with new students who are just getting to know each other. This way, they can learn who is in their classes and hopefully form friendships with them! How will you prevent students just copying down each other's schedules, which is something we all dread and try to prevent? user:litwins5

I really like the authenticity and contextualization of this activity. It actually applies to students' lives, which I think is great. I think one challenge could be making sure that the students all are staying in the TL. How would you motivate students to stay in the TL? user:kendal53

Making sure students stay in the TL and actually ask each other the questions, rather than just copying, is always a concern with info gap assignments. Since this isn't the very beginning of the year, students will already know that the expectation is that they speak in Spanish, but the teacher would definitely need to pay attention and circulate to make sure this is actually going on. The students will also have to use the information at the end to answer questions about their partner's schedule, so the teacher has another chance to evaluate whether they really know how to use the vocab. 1208469128

Lesson Plan 2- Technology-based
It's a great idea to have students communicate with one another. One question: do your students know how to create a blog? If not, how are you going to help them with that? -- Weiqing

We're not assuming that the students know how to create a blog (though many of them probably do). We will go through the basics of setting up a blog in this lesson, as students make their first post, and will work with them as the semester goes on to make it more personal and use the different tools available. 1208469128

When you say to email the url to the teacher, how do you know that the students have an email? How will you approach the subject if students do not have an email? What if Blogger is blocked on your school's internet access? user:litwins5

We created this lesson plan with the assumption that students would have a school email address. Obviously this isn't always true (it wasn't for me in high school), and if students don't have their own personal email addresses, we could very easily help them set one up while they are working. Thanks for the suggestion about ePals below- it sounds like a really good tool for doing this kind of classroom blog. I think I would still have students create their own private email addresses if they didn't have them, just because it would be more valuable for them to have in the future. 1208469128

I think this is a great idea! I do have to say though, I didn't have a blog before this semester. Also, blogger is usually blocked in schools - but a great website that you can use and monitor with ease is ePals, which literally allows students to create email addresses and blogs, but you can read all their emails and their blogs at any given time. You also have access to their passwords always, so they can never try to 'trick' you. ePals can probably be 'unblocked' in schools - whereas blogger maybe not! Just a suggestion :) user:litwins5

Performance Assessment
"This project will give students the opportunity to display their language skills in both orally and in writing" - There is a small typo at the end of this sentence. Just FYI. This is a great speaking performance assessment! I really like and appreciate that you focused it on people in the students' lives, instead of just specifically stating 'family.' I'm a huge believer that this diversity allows and looks forward in case you may have a student that does not have much or any family. I will be very interested to see your rubric - will you have students make full sentences (will they be able to?) Will you model this activity before students actually do it so they see what you are looking for? user:litwins5

Students will definitely be able to make full sentences (however simple) by now, and they will be required to write several. I would model the kind of desciptions we would be looking for (there are examples on the updated project description), but I am cautious about providing actual models of projects. We want them to be creative, and the format is not as important as the information displayed. There are a few ideas given for students, and we would help them along, but we also want them to display their individuality. 1209153463

Learning Centers LP
This is an awesome idea! I really like how you would coordinate with other teachers to get dual credit, just make sure they understand that it should be over something they //already// taught. How will this tie in with what you actually want them to learn? Is it just for review, or will you be testing them on what they learned, etc. Also, in math, will you translate their answers for the math teacher? How will that work? My other question is: In many high schools students are at different levels, thus the advantage at allowing them to be placed according to their level of knowledge. For example, I took Biology when my grade level was taking general science - it's just something that I chose to do. How will you accommodate this? Plus, what if you have different grade learners in one class? A senior could be taking this class with 29 freshman, for example. What would you do then? Reminder though: This concept is really excellent! user:litwins5

With any of the subjects it would be necessary to translate the answers for the other content area teachers if they want to do their own grading (sorry, we would have added that in, but we thought it would be obvious). Alternately, they could supply us the answers, which we could translate to do the grading ourselves. Ideally, we would find some way to work it so that the assignments gave the students practice with the vocab and structures from the chapter (like in the example, where students describe what they see on a microscope slide). We also know that there will be students of different levels in the classroom, and we would choose to coordinate with the classes that the majority of them are taking (I think it says so in the lesson plan somewhere). If for one or two students we weren't able to arrange for them to get credit in both classes, it wouldn't be the end of the world, and they would still get the review and practice. 1208928007