ENVISIONING UNITS OF STUDY

Unit Plan PresentationBy: Heather Yordy

Travel Feature Article Expectations: By the end of this unit, each student will

be expected to produce their own feature article on a Spanish-speaking country or city of their choosing. Different feature articles will be explored and the final draft may be hand-crafted or done on the computer. The article should include: at least 3 hotspots and 2 historical places and sited sources both travel and culture are tied together and how travel

increases cultural awareness at least 2 of the following and both are related to article:

information boxes, pictures, captions, graphs, maps, etc. an intro, middle and closing; very well organized sophisticated use of vocabulary; flawless spelling, punctuation,

capitalization, and grammar

Schedule Day 1:

Students will explore the different feature articles as provided in the mentor text section and fill-in the noticings chart provided.

Students will choose their country or city and start to draft the format of their article

Homework will be to find the hotspots/data that will be included in their article.

Day 2Students will have the opportunity to draft

their articleStudents will meet in peer groups as well as

conference with the teacher as their draft comes to fruition.

If the library is available, class time will be utilized in working on the final draft.

Day 3Final draft will be ready to turn in.

Rubric

Mentor Texts The Lonely Planet – January 2010

This is an excellent resource for Travel Feature Articles. They range from within the U.S. to foreign travel. There are also a wide variety of formats to utilize for immersion and close study.

The Best of Southern Living 2009This is not just an excellent source for Travel Feature

Articles, but also on other topics. It also illustrates many different formats of feature articles.

Sunset magazine – February 2010 AAA Magazine – March-April 2010 Exprésate textbook – cultural notes

Noticings

What they noticed… Eye-catching pictures Attention-getting titles Concise information Highlights Different fonts Table-like format Has facts as well as commentary Very descriptive Gives websites for further research Usually a page long

Teacher Sample

StudentSamples

Reflection The unit of study went really well! The close study

helped tremendously. I truly believe that the immersion and close study helped them to understand the differences between a brochure and a feature article. It also helped them to see the varying types of feature articles, yet notice the main components. Through the student’s samples, one can clearly see that the immersion helped the students gain understanding of the format. The students really enjoyed this project and said that the immersion and close study helped them understand more clearly what was expected of them.