Congratulations!  You have elected to study a great college level course next year.  The work is not difficult but it does demand your best effort to succeed.  For that reason you have a summer assignment designed to maintain and improve your skills in Spanish. Here is an excerpt from the college board website to let you know more about the course.

 The AP Spanish Language course is designed to be comparable to an advanced college level (fifth-sixth semester or equivalent) course.  This course will include aural/oral skills, reading comprehension, grammar and composition.  Students taking this course have the following objectives:

1.    The ability to comprehend formal and informal spoken Spanish
2.    The acquisition of vocabulary and a grasp of structure to allow the easy accurate reading of newspaper and magazine articles as well as of modern literature in Spanish.
3.    The ability to compose expository passages.
4.    The ability to express ideas orally with accuracy and fluency.

(http://www.apcentral.collegeboard.com)

Your Assignment
This assignment is divided into 4 different parts.  Please read through the entire description because you must complete activities in all four parts.

Part 1: Reading
You will read 5 articles in Spanish from a Spanish language newspaper or magazine. You may chose articles that are interesting to you and appropriate for school.  Please do not chose more than two articles on the same topic.  These articles must be written in Spanish and not just be translations of an article in English.   Prepare a short summary in Spanish of each article (8-10 sentences).   Make a list of important vocabulary words (5-8) and their definitions in Spanish. Print a copy of the article and be sure to include the reference from where you obtained the article.  You may want to get your article from the website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/news/

Part 2:  Writing
You will write 5 journal entries in Spanish.  You may not get help from a friend or website but you may use a dictionary if needed.  You should be creative and your information does not have to be true.  But your writing should be organized and make sense to the reader.  You must use the ideas below for your journal entries:

a.    a letter to a famous or admired person
b.    an essay to describe an ideal job, country, university
c.    an autobiographical description of your family’s most important tradition
d.    an original poem, song or story
e.    a description of a favorite movie, book, musical group
f.    a biography of a superhero, famous person, favorite person
g.    an essay that begins if I could change one thing…Si pudiera cambiar una cosa…
h.    an essay to explain the importance of vacations and time off
i.    an essay to describe a new summer holiday
j.    a list of the top 10 reasons you are taking AP Spanish Language

Part 3-Speaking and Listening to Spanish
You will practice listening and if possible, speaking in Spanish.  You should complete 5 hours of listening and/or speaking.  You may repeat an activity in this part.  You must write a short summary of the activities you choose but remember the emphasis is speaking and listening.

a.    Interview a Spanish speaking friend, neighbor or family member.  Write a brief description of your conversation.
b.    Watch a movie or television show in Spanish.  Write a short summary of the plot or action.
c.    Listen to the radio in Spanish.  Write a brief description of what you heard.  What kind of music? What kind of advertisements?  What kind of news?
d.    Visit the local Latino community.  Write about a visit to a Latino restaurant, market, theater, video store or library program.  
e.    Volunteer to work in the Latino community.  Contact the Hispanic Committee for a list of opportunities.  

Part 4-Review/Learn Vocabulary
You will learn the first list of vocabulary before we meet for class on September 5/6, 2006.  We will have our first vocabulary quiz (100 pts) the first week of school.  Remember to learn the words in Spanish with Spanish definitions.

To help you complete this assignment you may want to use a Spanish language dictionary.  I recommend the Larousse Diccionario del español moderno, ISBN 0-451-16809-7.  It’s available at Borders for $6.99.  Usually they have it available on the shelf. They will also order it for you if you ask.

You may contact me by email if you have questions.  I check the email about three times per week during the summer.  I hope you enjoy your summer vacation.  Espero que estudies mucho para que no se te olvide nada.
Cuídate bien.  Hasta septiembre, Sra. Lampazzi

Hoja de tarea del verano, 2007
Guía de estudiar el vocabulario