I teach 9th and 10th grade Spanish at a satellite campus of a larger high school in the urban New Haven Public School District. As a world language teacher, my curriculum is focused around the five Cs: Communication, Cultural understanding, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. Communication and Cultural understanding are the first and second goals of any world language classroom. In following the national standards for language learning, students aim to not only be able to communicate in the language, obtain an understanding and awareness of other peoples and their cultural customs, but also to relate them to their own languages and cultural practices. Each of the 5 Cs relate to each other and one must almost always refer to one or more of the other Cs when talking about one of them (1).
There are a total of 49 schools in the New Haven Public School District, with a total of 7 high schools. There are over 20,000 students enrolled in the district, with a total of about 1.24% Asian American students, 54.82% African American students, 30.95% Hispanic students, 0.05% Indian American students, and 11.08% white students. The remaining students are from other backgrounds (7).
The ethnic makeup of my school, Cross CT Scholars, is slightly different than that of the overall city makeup, as previously stated. It is about 50% African American and 50% Hispanic. Students come from surrounding neighborhoods from all over New Haven. Every student in the school receives a free lunch.
Teaching a world language allows many opportunities to teach cross curriculum content. The new world language curriculum is currently lacking in science subject matter. In the current science oriented world, I believe that it is important to incorporate science content whenever possible, in all content areas. The future success of our students relies in large part of their mastery of science material. The purpose of this unit, HIV/AIDS in Our Spanish-Speaking Communities and the World, is to educate students about one of the most pressing current global health problems.
Today, about 40 million people in the world live with HIV and AIDS (15). The number of people affected by HIV and AIDS, including the family members and friends of those living with these diseases, is even larger. The global HIV/AIDS pandemic is growing, and the effects of HIV and AIDS on those people living in higher needs communities and impoverished countries are even larger than on those that have access to treatment in wealthier communities. This topic is pertinent to my students, considering the demographic makeup of my school. As previously stated, my students fall into two main groups, Black and Hispanic. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that these two groups share a large percentage of the new recent diagnoses of HIV and AIDS in the United States.
My students are interested in HIV and AIDS, but unfortunately many do not know relevant and indispensable facts about this disease, such as for example how it is even transmitted. This unit will expand upon my students¥ studies in their science classes. At CT Scholars, students take Biology and Physical Chemistry in their freshman year, and Physics in their sophomore year. A unit about HIV and AIDS in our Spanish-speaking community and the world will complement the already strong science program at Scholars. Although I will be teaching this unit to 9th grade Spanish 1 and a 10th grade Native Speaker course, this unit is appropriate for any secondary level Spanish course. I will be teaching this unit at the same time the freshman Biology teacher will be presenting her unit on HIV and AIDS. The purpose of presenting our two units together is to develop an interdisciplinary and cross-curricular unit, in hopes of adding more importance to the topic. The freshman Biology teacher will be presenting the biology of HIV and AIDS. While I will present the basic biology of the disease, this unit focuses more on the social aspects surrounding HIV and AIDS, in the Spanish-speaking community of New Haven, the United States, and the world.
This unit will take place over a three-week course period, or 15 school days. I see my students four times a week, three meetings occur during a 45-minute period, and one during a 90-minute block. Over the three-week duration of this unit, students will learn about a variety of issues relating to HIV and AIDS. We will begin by discussing what HIV and AIDS are, and how they are transmitted. This material will be complemented by the information presented in the freshman Biology class. Other topics will include:
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What is the global AIDS pandemic and how does it affect people in the United States, and in New Haven, Connecticut?
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How does the epidemic manifest itself in Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States? Discussions on Puerto Rico will include the issues of a major lack of funding for AIDS clinics, where 26 in 100,000 people are infected with HIV/AIDS (6).
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What are the issues of medical care and equal access to medical treatment both in the United States, specifically Puerto Rico, and other Spanish-speaking countries of the world?
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What are the specific issues surrounding HIV and AIDS in Equatorial Guinea, as a Spanish-speaking country in Africa?
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What are some cultural misconceptions about HIV/AIDS in other countries?
This unit will also include a host of Spanish vocabulary, including body parts, hospital, pharmacy and doctor related vocabulary.
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Students will be able to interpret and produce these vocabulary terms by the end of the three week unit.
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Students will also be able to interpret and produce pertinent grammar structures, including:
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ir
+ infinitive
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necesitar
+ noun or infinitive
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- and other phrases relating to medicine and buying different products.
When beginning the unit, students will take a pre-test covering all unit objectives. We will use this pre-test to track our progress of mastery of each unit objective. Students will also begin the unit by brainstorming and answering the following questions:
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What is HIV/AIDS?
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How does it affect me?
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Does it affect different populations differently? If so, how?
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Does it affect people in other countries, specifically Spanish-speaking countries, differently? If so, how?
These are questions that students will be able to answer by the end of the unit, and provide specific examples for the last four questions. Over the course of the unit, activities will include class discussions and a variety of cooperative learning opportunities. Students will work in the same group for the full three weeks of the unit.
It is my hope that my students will develop critical thinking skills related to these issues. In a world language class, I have the opportunity to teach my students to think globally, not just locally. My goal is to not only think globally, but to also compare these global thoughts locally to New Haven, Connecticut, as a baseline for their understanding of all unit objectives. In the midst of globalization, this is a necessary skill for our students to obtain in order to be successful in such an international climate.
