Kristin's+Unit

Vision
Raise student consciousness about federal immigration issues, especially with how they relate to undocumented Latin Americans in the US. Build student speaking and writing skills through debate, charlas, wiki entries/articles, blog entries and a letter to a federal official. Understand better where the current debate on immigration reform stands, at the federal level with attempts at the state level. Compare and contract political environments around immigration issues in the US and Spain. Understand better current issues with the US and Mexico: immigration and drug violence.

**What did this unit used to look like?**
Much of the content was the same, but the intentionality of creating a plan with integrated, sensible elements was lacking. The final product was a newspaper, and now I'm really excited that we're creating a wikispace, with discussion board input and articles/links created by the students. The material will be reviewed by Spanish IV students and there will be a formal debrief with those students and mine. ("My" sophomores and juniors with the other classes of juniors and seniors) More intentionality will be brought into the project in terms of supporting their learning about federal immigration reform, as well.

Reflection on the process & thoughts for next year
Having the authentic audience to review their work will be supportive in terms of creating ownership for the work they've done and the material they've learned. One of the best parts of this project is working with colleagues from other disciplines and divisions in a meaningful way. By having deadlines and concrete expectations we keep ourselves more accountable, and the collegiality is fabulous. Having gone through this process, I see great value in incorporating more of the PBL philosophies into more units of instruction. Bringing the students into the fold of the "bigger plan" is useful and important. I look forward to learning more about PBL in lower levels of language instruction. Keeping students engaged in meaningful content while also maintaining the integrity of working in the target language.