The New Haven Board of Education employs the ACTFL National standards for foreign language. The ACTFL National standards use the five C's, which are: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. This unit, Blacks and Latinos: A Linked Journey focuses on Culture, Connections, and Communities. As an introductory unit the focus will be on creating connections and making comparisons among different cultures to get students to want to learn the Spanish language.
The majority of the students in my Spanish class are African American and have never left New Haven, therefore they have a very simple and sometimes misguided understanding of their own history and culture, much less the history and culture of different groups of people, in particular the Latino community which is also very prevalent in New Haven. This is the impetus for the unit being presented. The Learning Targets are all designed to further the students' understanding of varying Latino cultures in the United States.