Preparing Students for Advanced Placement Spanish Literature: Content Sequencing of the Reading Skill

Abstract

The A.P. Spanish Literature course, sanctioned by the College Board, treats the works of five authors: Jorge Luis Borges, Federico Garcia Lorca, Ana Maria Matute, Pablo Neruda, and Miguel de Unamuno. Instructors are required to teach representative works from each author based upon those suggested in the Advanced Placement Spanish Course Description booklet. To assist teachers who are currently teaching or contemplating beginning an A.P. Spanish course, workshops sponsored by the College Board are offered. In the course of various A.P. workshops that I have given, a variety of pedagogical concerns have been expressed. The majority focus on the requisite skills that students need to handle the quantity and rigor of the A.P. readings. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the various reading skills that students need to master and at what level these skills may be presented. To address this concern, we have incorporated in our Foreign Language Department at Niles West High School the following reading skill-building curriculum. It is intended to offer suggestions for implementing the reading skill and includes some possible texts which lend themselves to the teach-