Purpose: You will practice your listening and speaking skills in Spanish by listening to a recording about important dates and responding to the questions in Spanish. You will get exposure to different months, days, and numbers, and you will share information about your own life and preferences with your classmates. You will also show your understanding of meaning by writing summaries of the information you learn about your classmates in English.

Task: This activity has four parts.

1. An initial listening activity
2. An audio recording based on the prompts in the listening portion
3. A written list of things summarizing your peers’ responses in Spanish.
4. A “fact check” on the written summaries your peers made of your audio recording

Part 1. Listen to the following recording about important dates.

Part 2. Using a computer or a voice memo function on a smartphone, record your answers to the questions in Spanish, and post your responses in Spanish to the discussion board. Others will be able to hear your responses in Spanish, just as you can hear theirs.

Part 3. Listen to the responses of two peers in your class. Then, write a list in Spanish summarizing the information you gathered from your peers’ recordings and post them under their original post.

Part 4. Read the summaries your peers share on your original post and fact check them before making a closing remark in Spanish. If they made an error, graciously correct the error and thank them for their time in listening to your post. If their summary is correct, let them know that and thank them for their time in listening to your post.

Criteria: The components of this activity add up to 100%.

Parts 1 & 2. 50% of the grade is earned in this portion of the activity. You will hear a Spanish instructor tell information about herself and her preferences. She will then ask you 5 questions in Spanish. Record 5 responses in Spanish to those questions in a single audio file (if you make mistakes, it is okay and expected; start over from the beginning of the sentence and keep recording). Each response is worth 10%.

Part 3. 30% of the grade is earned in this portion of the activity. Choose two peers and listen to their responses. After listening to your peers’ responses, you will write a list of things that they shared with you in Spanish as a comment under their original post. Each summary is worth 15% and should include information about all five questions they answered.

Part 4. 20% of the grade is earned in this portion of the activity. After you read the summaries your peers wrote about your Spanish recording, fact check them. In a written response in Spanish, let each peer know if their summary is correct, or if they misunderstood parts of your response (if so, graciously correct the errors). Thank them for their time in listening to your post. Each closing remark is worth 10% and must include a comment about their summary and a thank you.

Ejemplo:

Tabitha listens to the recording of the Spanish instructor. She then records her responses in Spanish to the 5 questions and uploads them to the discussion board. She has earned 50% of the points for this assignment.

She then finds two peers, Cari and Tim, and she listens to their responses to the original prompt. She takes notes, and writes a summary list in Spanish under each of their recordings. She has earned 30% of the points for this assignment.

To wrap up, Tabitha reads the summaries that two peers left for her. One of her peers understood everything perfectly, so she writes, “Gracias, Alan. Es correcto.” The other peer misunderstood her birthday information. Tabitha writes, “Hola Cari. Mi cumpleaños es el cuatro de junio, no el cuatro de Julio. Muchas gracias.” She has earned 20% of the points for this assignment for her closing remarks.

Transcript of the Recording:

There are two parts to this listening activity. First, I will tell you information about dates, months, and days that is true for me, and then I will ask you questions about the same information. I will repeat each segment.

Hoy es nueve de mayo. Mi cumpleaños es el dieciocho de octubre. El sábado es mi día favorito. El mes de junio es mi favorito. Prefiero el Día de Acción de Gracias en noviembre.

1. ¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?
2. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?
3. ¿Cuál es tu día favorito?
4. ¿Cuál es tu mes favorito?
5. ¿Prefieres el Día de Acción de Gracias en noviembre o el Día de la Independencia el cuatro de julio?