The College Board: Connecting Students to College Success

Professional DeveloPment AP Spanish Language  ® Teaching Listening Comprehension Special Focus 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 1 8/15/08 2:59:34 PM The College Board: Connecting Students to College Success The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 5,400 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations.Each year, the College Board serves seven million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,500 colleges through major programs and services in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best-known programs are the SAT ®, the PSAT/NMSQT ®, and the Advanced Placement Program ® (AP ®). The College Board is committed to the principles of excellence and equity, and that commitment is embodied in all of its programs, services, activities, an d concerns.For further information, visit www. collegeboard. com. The College Board acknowledges all the third-party content that has been included in these materials and respects the intellectual property rights of others. If we have incorrectly attributed a source or overlooked a publisher, please contact us. Page 14, 16: â€Å"Lluvias en Costa Rica dejan 18 muertos† from Radio de las Naciones Unidas, October 19, 2007 (http://www. un. org/radio/es/detail/6528. html). Used by permission of the United Nations.  © 2008 The College Board.All rights reserved. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, AP Vertical Teams, connect to college success, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. com. 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 2 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Brant Hadzima 2. Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 ann mar 3. General Strategies for AP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension . . . . . . . . . 31 Brant Hadzima 4. Listening Strategies for Multiple-Choice Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 maria redmon 5. Listening Strategies in Preparation to Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Daizha Heberling 6.Listening Strategies in Preparation to Write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Jill Pellettieri 7. About the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 8. About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 iii 08- 1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 3 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 4 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Introduction Brant Hadzima Newfound Regional High School Bristol, New HampshireThe AP ® Spanish Language Examination is an assessment designed to determine a student’s overall level of fluency in Spanish. This summative language examination employs a variety of authentic assessments that require students to demonstrate competence and fluency in Spanish. Most recently, the examination has been revised to best assess authentic use of the language, and the spirit and intent of the new examination is based wholly upon assessing integrated language skills. The four essential skills required to communicate fluently in a language are reading, writing, speaking, and listening.These skills are interconnected, and therefore the AP Spanish Language Examination does not assess them separately. Virtually every aspect of the examination requires students to integrate all four of these ski lls in some form in order to perform a particular task. In preparing for the examination it is important that the teacher instruct, practice, and assess all of these four individual skills. Although ideally classes should be designed to integrate skills as much as possible, it is important to first ensure that all four skills are properly developed.One cannot simply assume that because a student can write fluently in a language, he or she can also speak it with the same level of competence. The skills may be intrinsically interrelated, but they certainly do not develop uniformly. In some instances it may be necessary to allocate more time and effort to master one specific area of competency than another. Therefore, the intent of this unit is to focus predominately on one of the four essential skills: listening comprehension. Instruction, practice, and assessments have been specifically designed to hone listening comprehension skills.This unit can be used as a full AP Spanish listeni ng comprehension unit, or components of the unit may be utilized for additional remediation in listening comprehension as needed. 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 1 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension The authors have made every effort to provide appropriate pedagogical research as well as practical suggestions for classroom strategies designed to develop listening comprehension skills. As the title states, this special focus unit is based upon integrating listening comprehension skills across the modes of communication.There are several modes of communication that are assessed in the AP Spanish Examination, and consequently the unit is separated into five sections to address these modes: †¢ Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Skills †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ GeneralStrategiesforAPSpanishListeningComprehension ListeningStrategiesforMultiple-ChoiceAssessments ListeningStrategiesinPreparationtoSpeak ListeningStrategiesinPreparationtoWrite Finall y, although listening comprehension prompts on the AP Spanish Language Examination will inevitably vary in style, format, and content, the authors have endeavored to address a variety of means in which listening comprehension can be assessed.It is the intent of the authors to provide not only research-based theory but also practical strategies that can be readily employed and also further adapted to address all styles of listening comprehension assessment. 2 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 2 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies ann mar Alamo Heights High School San Antonio, Texas The Challenge of AP ® Listening Comprehension Success on the AP Spanish Language Exam requires highly developed listening comprehension skills—skills that cannot be achieved in a one-year AP course.Success depends on vertical teaming—the coordinated work of all the teachers from the beginning levels through the AP course. To make the goals of equity and access to A P success a reality, we need to provide ALL students at every level the opportunity to develop strong listening skills. To start teaching with the end in mind, all teachers in the program must be familiar with the AP Exam, and in particular with the role listening comprehension plays on the test. Four separate parts of the test, totaling 60 percent of the score, rely to some extent upon the student’s ability to understand spoken Spanish.A description of those AP Spanish Language Exam tasks that include a listening component follows. Multiple-Choice Listening (20%) This section includes a series of short and long dialogues and narrations testing a student’s ability to comprehend the main idea, understand details, make inferences, make predictions, and infer social relationships. The test consists of 30 to 35 questions and lasts around 30–35 minutes. Formal Writing (Integrated Skills) (20%) One of the three sources students must incorporate in their formal essay i s an audio recording, which is played 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. ndd 3 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension only once. Students must take notes and refer to the source in their essay, synthesizing rather than merely summarizing. Informal Speaking – Simulated Conversation (10%) Students participate in a conversation, creating 5–6 responses of 20 seconds each to audio prompts. Students follow a functional script, reacting to the recorded stimulus. The task requires real-time processing for immediate response; the thread of the conversation may include unexpected twists requiring accurate listening comprehension and quick thinking.Formal Oral Presentation (Integrated Skills) (10%) One of the two sources for the formal oral presentation is an audio recording played only once. Students must take notes and refer to the source in the oral presentation, comparing rather than only summarizing. There are additional challenges. The listening passages include a broad variety of regional accents and cover a wide range of academic, social and cultural topics. The recordings may include background distractions such as music or ambient noise, and may have a rapid rate of delivery as is normal in radio news. Pre-AP StrategiesTo start preparing students for these challenges from the start, I have outlined 10 strategies that teachers of beginning and intermediate levels can use to build students’ listening skills starting at the beginning levels. The strategies, sample activities, sources, and rubrics proposed here are meant to contribute to the lively exchange of ideas and experiences among teachers. I encourage teachers to try these and other strategies and share your successes and difficulties via the AP Electronic DiscussionGroup,anddepartmentandprofessionalmeetings. Principles for Building Listening ComprehensionStrategy 1: Teach in Spanish and teach about the Spanish-speaking world. Strategy 2:Getthemostoutoftextbook liste ning materials. Strategy 3: Design listening activities that provide evidence of engagement, including note taking. Strategy 4: Use authentic materials, with scaffolding tasks. Strategy 5: Develop generic tasks for listening, and use them often. 4 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 4 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Strategy 6: Vary the evaluation of listening tasks making it appropriate to the purpose of the task. Strategy 7: Develop your skill at finding appropriate listening materials on the web.Strategy 8:Getstudentsspeaking with native speakers early on, and use technology to share their conversations with classmates. Strategy 9: Teach and practice component skills like recognizing cognates, listening for gist, etc. Strategy 10: Create a culture of listening in your classroom and program. Strategy 1: Teach in Spanish, and teach about the Spanish speaking world. From Spanish I onward, use Spanish to teach. Teach and use the words and expressions neede d for classroom routines right from the start. Classroom instructions and interaction is authentic communication, and is comprehensible, because it is â€Å"here and now. Established routines help minimize the need for English explanations. Team with your whole department to educate administrators, counselors, and parents about your approach. Praise and grant occasional random rewards for attentive students who immediately follow instructions given in Spanish. The more students know about the countries, cities, regions, physical and human geography, history, art, conflicts, challenges, and traditions, the better equipped they will be to understand authentic listening passages produced in and for the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.Throughout the program, we need to build students’ knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world. Assign students a country, and then periodically ask them to report to the class about that country, regarding the topic at hand. For instance, in a unit on the environment, students report on the park system, endangered species, or environmental challenges of â€Å"their† country. In a unit on careers, have them research and report on two or three large employers in the country, or an aspect of the economy of the country. In a unit on food, each student can provide details of the national cuisine.This type of reporting can begin at the earliest levels, with research in English, Spanish, or both. Strategy 2: Get the most out of the textbook listening materials. Use the listening activities in your textbook, then reuse them and recycle them. Consider having â€Å"listening quizzes† or â€Å"listening tests† separate from other elements to emphasize its importance. Include easy, short passages and longer, more difficult 5 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 5 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension ones.On tests, sometimes you can use listening passages you have done previously in class, but with different questions. This will reward students for paying close attention during practice activities that are not for a grade. When the textbook provides â€Å"listen along† audio recordings of reading passages, start the activity by listening to a minute or two without looking at the written text, just to let students see how much they can â€Å"catch† without reading. Have students jot down the words they hear on a piece of paper, then share with class, writing a list on the board.Then read along, and do textbook reading activities. Then go back over the list. Praise the class on how much they could hear, and note to them how their skills improve throughout the year. The next day, listen again without looking, and see if they feel they understand more. The goal is to build students’ confidence in their ability to improve their listening skills. Strategy 3: Design listening activities that provide evidence of engagement, including note taking. Student s should DO something while listening in order to provide evidence of engagement.Ideas for types of evidence follow: †¢ notefamiliarwords †¢ writedownallnumbersyouhear (good for weather reports, sports news, economic news) †¢ checkwordsheardoffalist(prepare the list ahead of time, or have students predict words they might hear) †¢ fillinachartwithinformation †¢ fillinapartialscript(leave out cognates, familiar words, or numbers, etc. ) †¢ writedownanswerstobasicwho, what, when, where, why questions †¢ answerpreparedtrue/falseormultiple-choicequestions †¢ useâ€Å"thumbsup†orâ€Å"thumbsdown†toansweryes/noquestions Attachment A (p. 3) provides a simple chart students complete as evidence of engagement while listening to a series of interviews with native speakers found on a University of Texas Web site. Strategy 4: Create scaffolding tasks to help students to approach authentic materials from the start. Use authentic listening pas sages, full speed right from the beginning levels, but scaffold the activity by at first providing tasks that support, rather than test, students’ understanding. To make the listening more accessible to students, choose 6 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. ndd 6 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies passages on topics you are working on in your textbook. You can pair authentic listening passages with short written texts on the same topic, providing background knowledge, especially if the material or setting is unfamiliar to students. Provide students with unusual names of people, organizations, or locations mentioned in the passage, as these names are especially difficult to catch. Use a listening process, analogous to the reading process, including the following steps.A. Prelistening activity Activate prior knowledge of vocabulary or the topic; make predictions based on a headline, photograph, or theme; personalize by relating to students’ experience ; connect to studies in other classes. Tell students the topic, encourage brainstorming of known vocabulary, then offer to preteach five vocabulary words they don’t know but think they’ll need to understand the program. You could get the class to make a list of 10 words, and then you could translate the 5 words they decide they need the most. B.Have students listen with a purpose, providing concrete evidence of their comprehension. Focus student attention on specific elements, and require each student to show evidence of what was heard. Build in opportunities to hear the listening passage more than once. Provide extension tasks for those who have completed the first task on the first listening, letting others continue to focus on the basic skill. At times, provide transcripts to follow when listening, to help students recognize words they know when they see them, in the stream of speech. C. Cooperative listeningAfter students provide some evidence of what they hear the mselves, have students share their results ORALLY with a partner, noting the partner’s answers in another color, for instance, using a green pen. This will allow you to distinguish what was gathered independently from the details students got from a classmate. Be sure to require all students to note or check off what their partners heard, even if the students already wrote down what they themselves heard. On a final listening, or with a transcript, students can verify what was actually in the recording. D. Apply/connectHave students use the information gained in listening in another task such as writing a summary, making a comparison, making a prediction, 7 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 7 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension connecting to personal experience, reflecting on the learning process, writing about strategies, etc. Attachment B (p. 14) illustrates scaffolding by using the listening process in a simple â€Å"Checklist† activity. Novice-level students can successfully listen to an authentic source to develop the ability to recognize known vocabulary in the stream of authentic speech.The students simply listen to a passage and check words they hear, and skip words that are not in the passage. Then they compare lists with a classmate, listen again, and finally check their work against a script. The checklist and two colors of pens will allow the teacher to evaluate each student’s engagement in the activity, independent and cooperative listening skills, and the ability to extend or apply what was learned. The sample activity in the attachment was designed around a Radio Naciones Unidas report on torrential rains in Costa Rica. Strategy 5: Develop generic listening tasks and use them often.Many Web sources have high-interest audio news and information with accompanying written information. When the files are available to download and save on a computer, teachers can develop activities around these sound files, and keep them for future use. But it is difficult to find the time to prepare specific questions about today’s news each week, and many great Web sites have audio files that are not availablefordownloadingandthatmaynotbeavailableforreusenextyear. Generic tasks cut down preparation time and allow the listening task to become routine, which will help build confidence.Attachment C (p. 18) Pesca las palabras can be used to engage novice listeners in any authentic listening source. The sample activity in attachment C was used to listen to a BBC Mundo report on domestic workers in Latin America in a Level 2 class. Attachment D (p. 21) is a generic form to use while listening to any audio or video newscasts, and is based on the journalistic questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. For interest, vary the prelistening task and the application task according to the topic of the newscast you choose. The video news broadcasts found on the Web site Univision. om provide a we alth of short listening segments to use with this form. Strategy 6: Vary the evaluation of listening tasks, making it appropriate to the purpose of the task. WhenBUILDINGlisteningskills,useaprocess-orientedrubricsuchastheFormative Listening Comprehension Evaluation rubric (Attachment E, p. 22). This rubric evaluates four areas: 8 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 8 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Engagement Independentlistening Cooperativelistening ApplicationofinformationgainedthroughlisteningThis formative rubric recognizes the importance of attention to the whole listening process. It can be used to assess any of the listening tasks involving the listening process outlined in Strategy 4. WhenEVALUATINGlisteningskills,teachersshouldusemoreobjective measures, such as multiple-choice questions. Alternatively, students can take notes and answer open-ended questions or summarize. Then teachers can use a more product-oriente d rubric, evaluating the students’ ability to capture the main idea, understand most details, make predictions and inferences, and use linguistic cues to infer social relations.WhenINTEGRATINGskills,teachersshouldcreatetasksthatrequirestudents to listen, then use the information the students hear in writing and speaking tasks. Strategy 7: Develop your skill at finding appropriate listening materials on the Web, and share your findings with others. Work with your technology department to ensure that all teacher and student computers at school have the necessary software to view and listen to Web-based materials. With one teacher computer and speakers, all students can hear sound files on one computer. If you have the ability to project onto a large screen, you can share video clips from your computer with students.Encourage the library and computer resource center to make headphones available for students to borrow, so they can do their listening there. If you have a teacher W eb site, include links to Web sites with audio. Many Web page programs also allow you to upload audio files to your site. Some excellent Web sources for listening follow: Radio Naciones Unidas http://radio. un. org/es/ This is an excellent source, since files are not copyrighted, the archive is searchable, many programs have transcripts, and files can be downloaded to your computer. Click on Abrir archivo to view a list of recent short news items.Click on the title ofthenewsitemtoseethetranscript. RIGHTCLICKonthefilebuttonandclick on â€Å"Save Target As,† then navigate to the folder in which you want to store the 9 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 9 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension file. The actual sound file should download onto your computer’s hard drive, or to a flash memory stick if you so indicate. You can then play it off your computer, burn a CD, etc. The archive is searchable, so you can enter a term such as arte, comida, Peru, etc. , to help find material on topics you are studying. BBC Mundo http://news. bbc. co. k/hi/spanish/news/ The site contains a wealth of text, multimedia, video, and audio materials, much of it organized by topic. Studio 834 provides interviews with speakers from all over the Spanish-speaking world, and many interviews include scripts. Use this resource to familiarize students with regional variations in accent. Radio nuevos horizontes http://www. nuevoshorizontes. org This site has a searchable archive of programs on a variety of culture, traditions, health, immigration, arts, literature, and personal finance topics. Free downloads of audio only; CDs available for purchase, with transcripts.Langmedia http://langmedia. fivecolleges. edu/collection/lm_spanish. html. Students can view short videos of native speaker interaction, from a variety ofcountries. Goodfornovicestudentsforcomprehensionandodeling,andfor comparing accents from a variety of countries. Uteach proficiency exercise s http://www. laits. utexas. edu/spe/siteindex. php Here students can view short videos of native speakers doing performance tasks on a variety of topics at the novice, intermediate, and advanced levels. Language Acquisitions Resource Center at San Diego State University http://larc. dsu. edu/voces. VideotapedinterviewswithwomenfromGuatemala and Mexico present students with a variety of voices and experiences. The worksheet available at nflrc. hawaii. edu/voces provides a good example of showing evidence of engagement. Univision http://www. univision. com Enter â€Å"videos† in the â€Å"Uniclave† window and for a searchable collection of videos of one to eight minutes’ duration with news, entertainment, and more. Radio Caracol de Colombia http://www. caracol. com. co/ Has an audio archive link on the left-hand menu. 10 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 10 /15/08 2:59:36 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Strategy 8: Get students to interview and reco rd native speakers, and share their recordings with classmates. Across the country, students in more and more communities today have the opportunity to use Spanish outside the classroom. Students can consider interviewing neighbors, parents’ co-workers, school personnel, etc. Handheld cassette recorders, microcassette recorders, digital voice recorders, certain mp3 players, computers, digital cameras, some phones, and iPods and other devices can be used to record voices.If your department can invest in even five digital voice recorders, you can lend them to students to do their interviews. Have your beginning students interview a native speaker, write a transcript of the conversation, and share the audio recording withclassmates. Keeptheinterviewssimpleatfirst,focusingonthetopicofthe current chapter or unit. For example, in a chapter on foods, the class can come up with a short questionnaire, for example: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ ?Cualesunacomidatipicadetupais? ?Cuales sonlosingredientes? ?Comoseprepara? ?Cualestucomidafavorita? Reflect with classmates on accents, regional vocabulary, and other haracteristics and how they effect pronunciation. At the intermediate level, include in your planning learning the language needed to call to request the interview, set up an appointment, and write a thank-you letter in Spanish. See attachment F (p. 23) for sample materials for an interview project from a Level 2 unit about jobs. Strategy 9: Target component skills for listening. Focus your listening activities on component skills and strategies for listening. Here are some suggestions: skill Discourse type task type gain familiarity with regional variations interviews with people from various countries (BBC Mundo Estudio 834)Mark a transcript where regional differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, verb forms, etc. , are evident. news and information check list activity recognize familiar vocabulary in the context of speech intended for native speakers â⠂¬Å"Pesca las palabras† 11 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 11 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension skill Discourse type task type recognizing cognates in the stream of speech news and information texts Prepare a cloze passage by eliminating cognates; students listen and complete. The topic of health often has many cognates. Students listen and note as many cognates s they can. inferring social relationships from linguistic clues recorded interactions between native speakers such as those on the Langmedia Web site Note and discuss the linguistic clues. listening for main idea, detail news and information texts Prepare a T chart on the board, with â€Å"Main idea† and â€Å"Supporting detail. † Listen, and then ask what students understood. Have class decide where each piece of information should go. comprehending specific information news and information Complete charts, fill in blanks, write numbers heard, and answer prepared multipl e-choice or open-ended questions. dvertisements Strategy 10: Create a culture of listening in your classroom. â€Å"Tweak† your classroom oral activities so they require students to listen actively to each other. For instance, expand your â€Å"Think – Pair – Share† activities to make them â€Å"Think – Pair – Share – Compare. † Have students share what the partner said, not what the student reporting said. Then after hearing from several students, ask another student to compare. For example, on Monday morning, students think about what they did on the weekend, pair with a partner to say what they did, and report to the class what their partner did.After hearing four to six students’ activities, ask another person which two students had the most similar weekends or which two had the most different weekends, or what all the students had in common. This activity, in addition to providing evidence of listening comprehension , practices the comparison and synthesis skills so important to the formal essay and formal oral presentation tasks. Tune into the mp3 generation. Encourage students to include Spanish music on their digital music players, and seek out Spanish language podcasts.As technology allows, create your own podcasts of lessons, explanations, or poems you are studying, andencouragestudentstoputthemontheiriPods. GarageBand(forMac)and Audacity (a free download for PCs) allow you to make your own audio programs. Even ifyouhaven’tlearnedthetoolsyet,manyofyourstudentshave. Getthemtoshow you, and start listening! 12 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 12 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment A: Provide evidence of engagement – Fill in a chart Listening source – University of Texas Spanish Proficiency Exercises http://www. laits. utexas. edu/spe/beg06. tml Preparacion:Conunapareja,escribeunalistadetrabajos,oficiosyprofesiones en espanol. †¢ Ahoraescuchaalasseispersonashablardeltrabajodesuspadreso parientes. Usatuboligrafoparaanotarlosqueescuchas. nombre lo que hace el padre lo que hace la madre Ejemplo simplificado Nativo hablante Beatriz Luna Torres Alejandro Ernesto Madgits Regina Ruiz Maria Angeles Fernandez Fernando Camacho Apuntes para MI presenacion oral †¢ Hablacontucompanero. UsatuboligrafoVERDEparaanandirinformacion queescuchotucompanero. †¢ Escuchaotravezparaverificartutrabajo. †¢ Aplicacion:EscribelostrabajosdedospersonasqueTUconoces.Luego describe sus trabajos oralmente (graba la descripcion para tu portafolio). 13 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 13 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension mi nombre lo que hace lo que hace Attachment B: Sample â€Å"Checklist† activity based on the Radio United Nations news piece Lluvias en Costa Rica. Transcripcion–reportedeRadioNacionesUnidas,19deoctubrede2007. http://www. un. org/radio/es/detail/6528. html Nombre Fec ha: A. Preparacion.? Quetiempohaceaquihoy? B. Escucha. UsatuboligrafoAZULymarcaconunapalomita(v)azullas palabras que escuchas. C. Lee tus palabras a tu companero.Escucha las palabras de tu companero. Marcasuspalabrasconunapalomita(v)verde. Palabra Yo escuche v mi companero escucho v en verde leimos en el texto sol calor lluvias nieve dias anos nacion aguas mas menos ayuda rios 14 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 14 8/15/08 2:59:37 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Palabra Yo escuche v mi companero escucho v en verde leimos en el texto institucion agencias comunicacion necesidades emergencia D. Anota numeros que escuchaste en el reporte. E. Anota5palabrasqueescuchastequeNOestanenlalista. F. Leelatrascripciondelprograma. Marcaenlaultimacolumnalaspalabrasque estanenelpasaje. G. APLICACIONComparaeltiempoenCostaRicaconeltiempoaqui. Engagement Independent listening Cooperative listening Application 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 15 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 15 8/15/08 2 :59:37 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Lluvias en Costa Rica Dejan 18 Muertos T ranscript for Checklist Activity – Reporte de Radio Naciones Unidas, 19 octubre de 2007. http://www. un. org/radio/es/ detail/6528. html r eal Descargar imPrimir LaslluviastorrencialesdelosultimosdiasenCosta Rica,handejado18muertosycuantiosasperdidas materiales. El Coordinador Residente del Sistema de la ONU enesanacion,JoseManuelHermidas,describiolos fectos adversos que han tenido las aguas sobre el territorio costarricense. â€Å"Hanhabidoinundacionesseverasenvariaspartesdelpais. Todoellitoraldel PacificoestaafectadoytambienenelValleCentral. Delos81cantonesenCostaRica, 65 se han visto afectados. † Los danos provocados en las cosechas y las redes viales han sido estimados de manerapreliminar,enmasde70millonesdedolares. SegunelRepresentantedel PNUD, las agencias de la ONU en Costa Rice se encuentran listas para ofrecer la ayuda que pueda requerirse. â€Å"Hemosestadoene strechacomunicacionconelentenacionalresponsablepara atenderlasemergencias,queeslaComisionNacionaldeEmergencias.Hemosidoa unareunionconellos,ademasdelascomunicacionescontinuasportelefonoy noshan dadounalistadelasnecesidadesmasurgentes. HemosinformadoaOCHAconuna solicitud, de parte del coordinador residente, para poder acceder a fondos para poder, entre otras cosas, comprar algunos de los requerimientos mas urgentes que segun la comisionnacionaldeemergenciasoncamillasymantas. † El representante de la ONU en Costa Rica, dijo que las necesidades de alimentos delosdamnificados,estansiendoresueltasporelgobiernoycompaniasprivadas. Attachment B: Teachers’ Notes ObjectiveIdentify familiar vocabulary in the stream of authentic speech. Prelistening–Askstudents? Quetiempohacehoy Lluevemuchoaqui? Discuss a bit about weather, at students’ level. Then pass out paper, and have students write about today’s weather. 16 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 16 8/15/08 2:59:3 7 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Listening Instructstudentstolistencarefully,andCHECKinBLUEorBLACKpen,any words on the list that they hear. Ask if they want to listen again, and repeat. Pair students and tell students to read the words they checked. Tell partners to useaGREENPENtocheckthewordstheirpartnerheard.DO NOT let them look at each others’ papers. This is the cooperative listening part—they listen to their partners’ answers and record. They should check all words the partner heard, even if they think the word wasn’t there. Then tell them they will listen again, and they should check to see if this time they hear words they didn’t last time. These should be circled in green pen. Post-listening Pass out the transcript so students can read and see which words in fact were there. Application Even beginning students can make a basic comparison with words like tambien, pero, mas, and menos.Students staple their paper to their par tner’s paper and pass both in. You score on the rubric in Attachment E, which includes Engagement (followed directions and completed all listening tasks), Independent listening (how accurate student was on the first listening, indicated by checks in blue or black ink), Cooperative listening (includes the green checks, which generally correspond to partner’s paper and circled words, showing the ability to recognize the words once alerted to their presence), and Application (the post-listening Reflections task). 17 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 17 /15/08 2:59:37 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Attachment C: Generic Listening Task ?Pesca la palabra! Tema: Notasdelapreparacion Yo escuche mi companero escucho Conclusiones 4. clearly meets expectations 3. meets basic expectations 2. approaching expectations 1. Does not meet expectations Engagement Independent listening Cooperative listening Application 18 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 18 8/15/08 2:59:37 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment C: Pesca la Palabra – Lesson Guide Long-term goals (claims): †¢ Recognizefamiliarvocabularyinthestreamofspeech. Comprehendspeechintendedfornativespeakers. Specific objective: †¢ Recognizedfamiliarvocabularyandcognateswhenheardinthestreamof speech in authentic sources. Level: †¢ Novice(Spanish1and2) Teacher preparation Find an authentic listening passage relating to a current chapter theme or topic. Prepare the link on your computer, or download the file. Select a one- to twominute â€Å"chunk† of the program to focus on, noting the time marker in your media player for easy access. Select chunks with a good variety of words students have studied, as well as cognates. Photocopy the generic ?Pesca la Palabra! handout, filling out the theme and pre- and postlistening tasks prior to photocopying the form, if you wish. Once students are familiar with the procedure, they can create their own forms on notebook paper. Classroom procedures Prelistening: Chose an appropriate selection of prelistening strategies: †¢ Readthetheme/titleofthepresentationandaskforpredictionsaboutthe program. †¢ Showaphotoorobjectrelatedtothetopicanddescribeit. †¢ Predictcontent. †¢ Brainstormknownvocabulary. †¢ Offertopreteachfivevocabularywordstheydon’tknowbutthinkthey’ll need to understand the program.You could get the class to make a list of 10 words, then pick only 5 to translate for them. †¢ Hacerpredicciones-? Quevanaescuchar? 19 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 19 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Usetheâ€Å"Notasdelapreparacion†forstudentstoshowevidenceofengagement in the pre-listening activity. Instruct them to write a description of the picture, or list the vocabulary the class brainstormed, or write their predictions of what will be in the passage. Listening Students listen and jot down words they comprehend in column 1; they can listen twice if they wish.Pairing: Pair students. Students take turns reading words from their list. †¢ Ifyourpartnersaysawordthatisalreadyonyourlist,putacheckbyit. †¢ IfyourpartnersaysawordthatisNOTonyourlist,writeitinthesecond column. †¢ IfyourpartnersaysawordthatISonyourlist,putacheckbytheword,in the second column. Listen again If you hear a word your partner said, put a check by it in the first column. Postlistening The generic form has a place for conclusions. Depending on the difficulty of the passage and the level of the students, create a closing task. †¢ SummarizeinEnglish(orSpanish) †¢ Personalize(e. . ,Describeeltiempoennuestraciudadhoy) †¢ Reflect(Wastaskdifficultoreasy? Why? Observationsontheaccentof speaker, etc. ) Evaluation – Use the rubric in Attachment E. 20 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 20 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment D GenericlisteningactivityforNewsProgram. F orexample,usewith Univision. com video segments. Noticias de la semana Antes de escuchar Fecha Fuente Pais Titular ?Quesabessobreeltema? Apuntes ?Quien? ?Que? ?Cuando? ?Donde? ?Como? Resumen/comparacion/personalizacion/opinion 21 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 21 /15/08 2:59:38 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Attachment E Formative Listening Comprehension Rubric, evaluating the listening process Have Pairs staPle PaPers togetHer anD turn in. graDe on tHe ruBric. 4 . clearly meets expectations 3. meets basic expectations 2. approaching expectations 1. not meeting expectations Written evidence and teacher observation provide evidence of full engagement throughout the listening activity. Notes and teacher observation show evidence of engagement; attention may wander, at times. Notes and teacher observation show artial evidence of engagement; off-task behavior or lack of attention detract from engagement. Notes and teacher observations show evidence of sporadic engag ement in listening activities. Independent comprehension clearly meets expectations for level. * Provides some evidence of independent comprehension; relies on classmates and total class discussion for some information. Provides little evidence of independent comprehension; relies heavily on partner work and class discussion for information. Prevents very little to no evidence of independent comprehension; may attempt to opy classmates’ work. Cooperative listening Shows clear evidence of sharing, listening, and note taking during pair interactions. Shows some evidence of sharing, listening, and note taking during pair interactions. Shows partial evidence of engagement in cooperative listening tasks. Contributes little to cooperative listening activities; may be off task and may distract classmates. Application Creatively and accurately uses information from listening in concluding tasks. Uses information from listening to complete concluding tasks. Uses minimal information fr om listening n completing concluding tasks. Provides little evidence of listening in completing concluding tasks. Engagement Independent listening *Expectations vary by task and level. 16 100 10 70 15 95 9 65 14 90 8 60 13 85 7 55 12 80 6 50 11 75 22 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 22 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment F: Interview Activity As designed, this activity is appropriate at a Level 2 or higher. Goals †¢ Usesimple,familiarphrasestocommunicatewithSpanishspeakersinthe community. †¢ Toobtainspeechsamplesfromavarietyofnativespeakersforin-class listening. TolearnaboutjobsthataredonebySpanish-speakingcommunity members. †¢ Tocomprehendavarietyofnativespeakervoicestalkingaboutafamiliar topic. Procedures Preparation: †¢ Teachandpracticequestionsneededtogetinformationaboutanadult acquaintance’s job (see handout below). †¢ AssignstudentstofindaSpanish-speakingcommunitymemberto interview and record. Technology not e – Many students have digital cameras, digital video cameras, phones, microcassette players, laptops, iPods with the iTalk microphone, mp3 players with voice recording capability, or other technology for recording the conversations.Our department has purchased a limited number of Olympus digital voice recorders (at around $70 each), which are lent out to students for one night if they have no other means of recording the conversation. Students are given a week or two to get the interviews to allow for technical problems. The following Web site has information on Olympus digital voice recorders. http://www. olympusamerica. com/cpg_section/cpg_voicerecorders. asp Project: Students record their interviews and transcribe them on the ENTREVISTA handout. 23 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 23 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Sharing: In class, students share their interviews. Classmates fill in the chart with details about each conversation they hear . Evaluation: Based on completion of interview, accuracy of transcript, and note taking during the in-class sharing. Thanks to Lucinda Salinas, Alamo Heights High School Spanish 2 teacher, for sharing this activity. Used with permission. CreatedtouseinconjunctionwiththeHolttextbookExpresateLevel2. 24 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 24 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Mi entrevista con †¦ Ud. Clase, quiero presentarles a Ud:? AquesededicaUd.? o? QueclasedetrabajorealizaUd.? El o Ella: Ud.? Quetipodepreparacionsenecesitaparaestaprofesion? (Fui a – I went to) El o Ella: Ud.? Comoleayudaelespanolensutrabajoosuvida? El o Ella:: Ud.? Otra pregunta, UD. escoja. ? El o Ella: 25 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 25 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension i salinas – alamo HeigHt HigH scHool – 2007 nombre de su companero ?vecino, amigo de la familia,etc†¦? el oficio Dime algo†¦ 26 08-1442. AP. SF. Span ish. indd 26 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension StrategiesAttachment G: Lesson Guide Goal–Familiarizestudentswithregionalaccents. From level one, engage students in listening to diverse voices. 1. Preparation †¢ Copythescriptsforthreeinterviews. Suggestedsourceis BBCMundo’s Estudio 834 †¢ http://news. bbc. co. uk/hi/spanish/programmes/estudio_834/ †¢ JavierZanetti,soccerplayerfromArgentina †¢ SaraBaras,flamencodancerfromSpain †¢ WillieColon,musicianfromNewYork(PuertoRicanancestry) 2. Materials Photocopies of scripts; highlighters. 3. Procedure †¢ Prelistening. a. Provide name, profession, and country. b. Ask for predictions about what students might hear. c.Students scan transcript to check on predictions, and find words they understand. †¢ Listening. Have students listen to each sample while following on their copy of the transcript. They should highlight any words or sounds that seem â€Å"different† from w hat they are used to hearing. Compare impressions and listen again. 4. Debrief Avoid generalizations like â€Å"in Spain, they speak like this,† or â€Å"Cubans pronounce it like this. † There is a great deal of regional and personal variation within countries. Make comments and observations about the ways the students hear THIS particular speaker pronounced at this particular moment.The goal is to increase the students’ comfort with variations, not to teach the specific characteristics of specific regional accents. (That could well be a different lesson at another level). Students write one or two sentences about each speaker’s pronunciation, and how easy or difficult the speaker was to understand. 27 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 27 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension 5. Evaluation Based principally on engagement as evidenced by notes taken on prelistening, highlighting on the transcript, postlistening conclusions, and t eacher observation of participation in classroom discussion.Attachment G T ranscripts of segments from BBC Mundo Estudio 834 (4/7/06, 6/2/06, 4/21/06) Sara Baras – bailarina de flamenco HablaconBBCMundodespuesdehacerdosobrasdebaile,â€Å"MarianaPineda†y â€Å"Juanalaloca. † BBC: ? Queaprendistedespuesdecasi,segunentiendo,800representaciones entrelasdos? Sara Baras: Puessi,pasamoslasmil. Fueronmasdequinientas representacionesdecadauna,oseaqueaprendimuchisimo. Elhechodetrabajar al lado de directores tan importantes como Luis Pascual y Luis Olmos, ha sido algo que me ha llenado de cosas nuevas, de cosas de teatro, no solamente de baile.Yahoraescomosiapreciaramuchomasunquejido,ohacerdemimisma, porque el hecho de meterte en el personaje de alguien te va acostumbrando a expresarte siempre pensando en alguien. Cuando de repente no tienes nada que contar, sino simplemente bailar es algo muy diferente. El haber hecho â€Å"Mariana Pineda†yâ€Å"Juanalaloca† creoquemehaensenadomuchomasdeloqueyo pensaba,nosoloaniveldeespectaculo,sinopormibaile. BBC: Ydosmujeresexcepcionalesenesosdosespectaculos†¦? Queesparati unamujerexcepcional Cualesserianlosatributosdeunamujerque,comotu, esexcepcionalenlosuyo? Sara Baras: Muchas gracias†¦ risas) Yo creo que una mujer excepcional, por ejemplo, es mi madre. Creo que una buena persona, una persona con inquietudes,inteligente,generosa,unapersonaquedaalgomas,? no? Creoque sobre todo las madres me parecen mujeres excepcionales. El amor que puedan dar no lo comparo con nada. Willie Colonseconsiderauncreadordelasalsa. NacioenNuevaYork,nieto de puertorriquenos. Tengo entendido que el 2006 es el ano de tu retiro, que estaspensandoenguardardefinitivamentetutrombon. Queriapreguntartesi realmenteteretirasoseguirasenlastarimashastaqueelcuerpoaguante. 28 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 28 8/15/08 2:59:39 PMPre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies W. C. : (Risas)†¦ No es exactamente un retiro, teng o algunos proyectos a los que quiero dedicarme y no puedo hacerlo mientras estoy de gira con la orquesta. Ahora estoy en el proceso de grabar un LP, puede ser mi ultimo y yo creo que me mantendriasiempreapegadoalamusica,laproduccionylacomposicion. Son cuarenta anos de viaje†¦ al final de este ano puede ser. BBC: Muchosdicenquelaedaddeorodelasalsanovolverayqueinclusono faltamuchoparaquedesaparezcacomogenerorentableenelnegociodela musica. Comolovestu,? lasalsaestamuriendo,seestatransformando,esta cambiandoaotrogenero?Colon: Bueno, esa es la ley natural, pero yo tengo confianza que algo viene, todoloviejoesnuevoydelonuevounosecansadespuesdeunrato. Yocreo queesunciclo,especialmentecuandolatecnologiahacambiado,quese puedegrabarunbuenLPenelsotanooenelgarajeconunacomputadora quenoestancara. Esovaapermitirquedenuevo,comoenmiepoca,surjan productores independientes porque uno de los problemas ha sido que las grandes corporacioneshanidoadquiriendotodoslossellos(discograficos)pequenos, ent oncesmatanlacompetenciaytambienlahonestidadylarazondeserdela musica, una musica que nace de la esquina del barrio.En verdad no entienden la esenciayelporquelamusicaeratanrentableyestanimportante. Javier Zanetti juega futbol profesional en Italia, pero es de Argentina. El estableciounafundacionparaayudaraninospobresenArgentina. BBC: ? QuesignificaPupi,dedondevieneesenombre? Javier Zanetti: PupiesunsobrenombrequemepusieronLopezyCaballero cuandocomenceajugarfutbolenelclubargentinoBanfield. Despueslepusimos esenombrealafundacion. Hacecuatroanosquecomenzamosysinceramente hemoshechomuchisimascosaspararecaudarfondosparaestoschicos:partidos a beneficio, calendarios, pulseritas con los colores de Argentina, etc.Todo esto para ellos, para seguir fomentando y haciendo crecer los proyectos que tenemos en mente. BBC: Segun tenemos entendido son unos cien los ninos que reciben asistencia diariaenlafundacion†¦ Javier Zanetti: Si,enestosmomentoshaymasdecienchicosdetresacinco anos — los que nos estuvieron acompanando durante estos cuatro anos, ahora 29 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 29 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension tienensiete,ocho-ademastrabajamosconloshermanosdeestoschicosycon lospadres. Queremosunpococerrarelcirculo,paraayudaratodaslafamiliaen lasdistintasproblematicasquesepuedenpresentar. BibliographyHumbach,J. ,Smith,S. ,andMadrigalVelasco,S. ,Expresate Spanish 2. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2005. 30 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 30 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM GeneralStrategiesforAP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension Brant Hadzima Newfound Regional High School Bristol, New Hampshire Introduction Teaching and assessing listening comprehension are perhaps the most challenging components of the AP curriculum, due in great part to the many variables that affect a student’s ability to comprehend spoken Spanish: the physical classroom environment and school equipment, learning styles, note-taking skills, regional dia lects, etc.Many teachers may assume that they are assessing â€Å"listening comprehension† when in fact they are assessing listening and cognitive reasoning skills. Listening may be part of the exercise, but the inevitable tasks of reasoning, critical thinking—even the kinesthetic connection to writing—are factors that can drastically affect the outcome. In essence, two of the major obstacles in solely assessing listening comprehension are first determining which factors may impede a true assessment of listening comprehension, and then making every effort to offer students the opportunity to mitigate these variables.This will help to provide a true baseline for students, and teachers will have a better understanding of whether they need to remediate listening or focus more on reasoning and critical thinking strategies. Teachers must know what students hear in order to then address how to analyze and synthesize the information presented orally. 08-1442. AP. SF. S panish. indd 31 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Eliminating Variables Although it may appear to be obvious, there are several issues that the classroom teacher must evaluate and address prior to administering a listening comprehension assessment.First and foremost, it is imperative that students are provided with the best possible equipment and physical space for listening comprehension. If no language lab is available, a classroom should be optimized for a listening environment: Students should be provided with headphones and a listening center, the room should be quiet, comfortable, and free from distractions such as PA announcements and hallway activity. (I can vividly recall an adept AP Spanish student who performed poorly on one of the practice listening comprehension assessments for no particular reason.I evaluated the listening comprehension segment, tried to determine if the regional accent was overwhelming, and even took the test myself. Exasperated, I finally asked the student why he did so poorly. His response: â€Å"I was watching the garbage truck picking up the dumpster outside the window. † By simply drawing the blinds, his scores improved remarkably. ) Once the classroom space and physical environment has been evaluated and addressed, it is important to know and understand each student’s learning style. Most people tend to rely heavily on visual references in order to supplement auditory comprehension.An example might be how teachers themselves process information at a faculty meeting. If the principal states an outline and a deadline for a project with no visual reference whatsoever, it is more probable that the staff will misinterpret and/ or forget the information stated. Although we have developed coping skills such as taking notes and asking clarifying questions, it is more likely that the request will be taken seriously and acted on in a timely fashion if it is written as well. Another exa mple is when teachers are assigning homework.If teachers state what the homework will be without writing it on the board, there will inevitably be confusion for some (if not all) students. Of course there will be some who will diligently write down the assignment and ask a question if confused. Others, however, will remain silent and may not understand or remember the assignment. Therefore, one essential preassessment that should be done early in the school year is to have students determine their learning style. There are many assessments readily available, and one particularly detailed assessment is the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) developed by Richard M.Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University. The Web site address is www4. ncsu. edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/ public/ILSpage. html, and it provides a free, 44-question Web-based assessment for students to determine their learning styles. Students should use this information 32 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 32 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM GeneralStrategiesforAP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension to better understand how they learn and process information, and teachers should discuss in the classroom how to best prepare for listening comprehension with the understanding that each student learns differently.Once the teacher and students understand their learning styles, the next step is to help auditory learners further hone and process their listening skills, and to provide the more visual learners with coping skills necessary to compensate for their discomfort with being assessed for listening comprehension. A student who â€Å"doesn’t like† listening comprehension and who â€Å"performs poorly† on these assessments may struggle due to personal learning style—and not due to Spanish language aptitude. We all have students who can read and write very well in Spanish, but who are not proficient in listening comprehension and/or speaking.It must be surmised that the se students do not have a deficiency in Spanish, but rather in processing auditory information. Teaching more Spanish will not make them better listeners. On the contrary, teachers must make a conscious effort to help students develop coping skills and to help the students feel more at ease with the style of assessment. Pretesting Listening Comprehension After addressing physical space and learning style, it is important to give a comprehensive listening assessment in Spanish to obtain a baseline and to observe student test-taking strategies.It is best to utilize assessments that model what will be tested on the AP Spanish Language Examination, and AP Spanish–style listening comprehension assessments with resource kits are readily available for purchase and do quite well for student preparation. AP Central ® has audio files available and sample assessments as well for teacher use in the classroom. Regardless, teachers should pretest listening comprehension with short dialog ues and narratives, and also medium-to-long narratives and dialogues. I recommend giving students an overview of how they will be pretested, and to recommend that students take notes when necessary.During the actual pretest it is a good idea to observe student behavior. Perhaps more valuable than the data from the pretest is the observation of student test-taking skills;i. e. ,whichstudentstookthoroughnotesandwhichonesjustlistened? What didthenoteslooklike—weretherelists,graphicorganizers,andothervisualaides? Whichstudentswereeasilydistractedand/orwereunabletofocus? Didstudents simply look for words written in the multiple-choice answers that were said in the dialogue (â€Å"word recognition†), or did they first interpret the information and then use processofeliminationtoselectthebestpossibleanswer? 3 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 33 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Most likely, the students who performed the best in the assessment were the ones who were taking notes, who were focused, and who concentrated on understanding and interpreting the information instead of just attempting to recognize words that matched the ones in the answers provided. Obviously, basic proficiency in Spanish is essential, and a student who does not have the proper skill base from prior classes will be at a complete loss.However, assuming that students have had the proper prior training (for more information, please refer to the AP Vertical Teams ® and Pre-AP publications on the AP Web site), the issue at hand will be to teach students to be better listeners. Teaching Listening Skills Once a baseline for listening comprehension has been established, the task of honing listening skills and forming coping mechanisms begins. The first step is to help students create their own system for listening.I have found it very helpful to model good test-taking skills as a way to broach the topic of how to tackle the listening component. After t he students take the initial pretest in listening comprehension, I take the test myself in front of the class. I copy the answer key onto an overhead transparency, and we play the test out loud. As the dialogues are played, I take notes on the overhead or the board, and create links and graphic organizers. I then model the answer selection on the overhead using the process of elimination, and explaining why certain answers are wrong while referring to my notes.Often students will start to discuss the thought process, and it becomes an interactive class where students generate ideas and discuss what they did for that particular dialogue or narrative. At times students will volunteer to direct the next dialogue, and I allow them to model their thought process for the class. The essential component to that particular lesson is that students see how to process information that is presented verbally, that they observe and evaluate techniques that worked (and didn’t work). At that point, they should begin to develop a routine for listening comprehension that works for them.I finish the lesson by having students tell me what they intend to do differently next time to perform better. For the next listening comprehension activity I eliminate the variable of the multiple-choice questions. This gives students the opportunity to focus directly on the dialogue or narrative and to employ their personal listening strategies. The class begins by brainstorming various note-taking techniques. Next, students are asked to listen to a 10-minute narrative and to take notes on the essential information.When the narrative ends, students are allotted 15 minutes to summarize the narrative in 34 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 34 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM GeneralStrategiesforAP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension their own words (in Spanish). We then read our summaries out loud, and by sharing we realize what may have been missed, what was truly essential, and what impeded our understand ing. Students should begin to realize that deficiencies in vocabulary, perhaps dialects, the rate and speed of the speaker, and background information may be impediments for comprehension. PracticeWhen students understand the impediments to comprehending a dialogue or narrative, the task then becomes practicing, and learning by trial and error. Unlike writing or grammar, there is a limit to skills that can be taught for simply listening. Essentially, once distractions have been eliminated, the format of the assessment is familiar, and note-taking skills have been instructed and reviewed, the only way to improve is through continual practice. Practicing listening comprehension should be frequent, varied, authentic, and routine in order to truly prepare students for the examination.In reality, there should never be an AP Spanish Language class where listening is not an integral component of the class itself. It is important to note that not all listening activities have to be assessed formally, but it is important that they be assessed in a variety of ways. Visual Versus Nonvisual Although there are many ways to present listening, it is best to separate listening comprehension activities into two categories: those with a visual aid and those without.The listening activities that allow for a visual reference may be easier for many students, as they provide a frame of reference and therefore some level of comfort. Using segments from Spanish television, a podcast, or watching a PowerPoint presentation can function as a less threatening form of integrating listening into the daily classes. It is vital to ensure that these activities be varied so that students do not get too accustomed to a particular dialect or vocabulary base.If utilizing segments of Spanish television is part of the class routine, make sure to access different programs and channels whenever possible. Have students â€Å"prelisten† by presenting the title or some background on the segment, and discuss what they could expect to hear. Most importantly, however, assess what they have heard. Assessments can range from a quick student synopsis to a formative written assessment to a class discussion. The assessment piece is essential nevertheless, and 35 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 35 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM

Islamic Art in Europe Essay

Islamic art and architecture is worldly renowned. It was developed during the era when the West was surrounded in Dark. It was the time when the West was learning to live in a society while the Islamic world was enjoying their glorious time. They had mastered the language of social survival and aesthetic beauty. They had excellence in the field of science and arts especially chemistry, physics, mathematics, and astronomy, painting, sculpturing wood carving and calligraphic art, the dominant feature of Islamic art. The sea route of Mediterranean Sea spread the Islamic art and knowledge in the world of West. The elites would visit the land of Muslims so as to gain knowledge from Muslim and Jewish scholars and brought with them the memories of Islamic art. Later, this art was exported to the West and was the sign of status. This art brought the glory of Muslim into another world and created patrons of Muslim art. When the Muslim glory was declining, the art did not lose its significance in the world and many Muslim artisans and Jewish craftsmen were employed by the Christians to build extravagant and highly admired buildings. (Derhak, 1) The roots of European culture can be traced back to the time of Renaissance that brought a glorious time to the field of arts, science commerce and architecture. But long before this Spain was well developed in the humanistic and aesthetic beauty ingrained in the society which was at that time under the rule of Muslims. At the time when Europe a feudal society and all the powers were held by the Church, the Spain was booming and flourishing with half a million of population living in 113,000 houses and 700 mosques. The houses were properly built catering the needs of the people as they provided marble balconies to serve people in summer and hot-air ducts built under mosaic tiles to prevent people from cold and winter. There were gardens with artificial fountains and orchards in every house. The streets were paved and properly constructed. There were seventy libraries in Cordova, capital of Muslim Empire while Europe was unknown to the material, paper. (Derhak, 1) Students from around the world came here to learn philosophy, science and medicine. The society was tolerant to other faiths and religions which prospered the growth of art and architecture. But after some years, the period of intellectual and economic success began to decline and new Arabic dynasty was formed. Conservative in its nature, the new dynasty could not bring the glory to the Cordova society. At that time the Western society was growing and the Europeans were forming a lobby to drive the Muslims out of Spain. They set a system of translating the work of Muslims which had the philosophies of Greeks and Romans. â€Å"They translated astrology, astronomy, pharmacology, psychology, physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, optics, chemistry, mathematics, physics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, music, meteorology, geography, mechanics, hydrostatic navigation and history†. Europeans learned a lot through the text of Moors. Along these texts, the Arabic music was spread teaching the use of flute, keyboard and harmony. (Derhak, 1) The values and ideas taught by Islamic culture were called the secular humanism as it drove the people away from the powerful grip of Roman Catholic Church and these studies were having the progress of human nature as the centre of interest. The rise of humanism was seen in the paintings created by Renaissance artists. In the middle Ages, saints were the centre of drawings and they were portrayed as the humans larger than ordinary life. The landscapes in those painting were heaven but the renaissance art transformed and saints were depicted of the size of common man and earth became the landscape of the paintings. Now the saints occupied similar to the common man. The renaissance art gave new tools to the artist to portray three-dimensional picture giving a new effect of illusions in paintings. The frame of the paintings was becoming more the frame of the window and the painting was the view of the place seen beyond the window. (AAM—The Renaissance Connection Lesson Plans Humanism in the Renaissance, 1) It gave the artists the idea of using oil paints and egg tempera in their paintings. These paints gave depth and roughness to the painting which gave a life to the paintings. The glass and ceramics which became the identity of European courts for three hundred years was brought by Muslims in Spain. The skilled technique used to make glassware more ornamental was practiced by Muslim glassmakers in 800 AD. These techniques include gliding, enameling and tin-glaze and luster on glass. â€Å"Italy was at the heart of sea routes in late Middle Ages and was surrounded by Muslim Empires of Turkey, Palestine, North Africa and Spain†. This link helped in mixing the cultures of East and West. Sea routes brought exposure to various forms of art and techniques. It introduced glassblowing in west practiced by east and learnt from Syrians of Roman Empire. This also diffused textiles, metal work, carpets and ivories, popularizing the motifs and styles of Islamic world in the West. (AAM—The Renaissance Connection Lesson Plans Humanism in the Renaissance, 1) The international luxury trade from 14th-17th century brought in a great impact on Italian art and architecture as it was heavily influenced by the items imported to European market from the Islamic east. The Italians adapted and imitated the imported Oriental art. The Italians have little knowledge of the geographical distinction of the foreign items that they admired. The paintings that revolutionized the Italian culture gave rise to the trade and travel across the Mediterranean Sea. Ceramics that were regarded as mediocre in Islamic society were admired by the Italian society and had great impact on the pottery of Italy. (The Islamic Influence On The Italian Renaissance Is Explored In Exhibition Tracing The Roots Of Luxury Glass And Ceramics, 1) The Cathedral built near Pisa at the end of 20th century has Islamic earthenware bowls called bacini are basically painted with the traditional Islamic animals, plants and geometric motifs. These bacini were also used as kitchenware demonstrating the diffusion of Islamic utensils in late middle Ages. It is thought that these utensils were brought in by Crusaders or donated by the travelers to local institutions or building projects. Bacini caused improvement in Italian pottery. The largest surviving Islamic bronze sculpture was brought in during the conquest of the Muslim Empires on Mediterranean shores. The Lion of Venice, another bronze rendition came from the eastern shores of Mediterranean Sea and was placed at the entrance of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. (The Islamic Influence On The Italian Renaissance Is Explored In Exhibition Tracing The Roots Of Luxury Glass And Ceramics, 1) The Abbasids Caliph in Baghdad developed a rich urban culture giving high value to pleasure and luxury in every day’s life. They developed silk weaving, ceramics, metalwork and wood carving in daily utensils turning them into the work of art. The tapestries, cushions and rugs were woven in silk. Clothing became rich and elegant and the daily utensils were given visual and demonstrative qualities adding the fun to use them. These items were heavily imported even among the Muslim Empire from Spain to China. Later they were exported to the European society when the wealth started flowing in their life. The items of decorations were also heavily imported which had no offending material to the Christian community as idolatry is not permissible in Islam. Most of the Islamic art were abstracts in which the sole or the dominant theme was religious. (Bent, 1) The human figures drawn or sculptured in Islamic world consisted of humans engaged in pleasure of drinking, horse riding and hunting which was also with correspondence of the feudal society of Europe. The jars known as albarelli was commonly used in Islamic society to preserve spices was aesthetically beautiful and showed style in its use. The ivy and fern leaves painted in horizontal bands in cobalt blue and gold metallic luster highly complemented the shape of the jar. The Italian Renaissance and Islamic art both emphasizes in the harmony of design, balance of parts and perfection of the whole body of the item. (Bent, 1) The main difference between Renaissance art and Islamic art was that European art was the representation of Greco-Roman traditions while Islamic art was ornamental. The depiction of plants was strikingly similar to the nature as they grow and behave. The borders or the frames carry most of the meaning of the drawing. The art influenced by the oriental imports focuses on pleasing the senses and enhanced the object. These art pieces lost their religious meaning of Islamic culture as the seculars or Christians employed the artists who were highly regarded for their craft. For example the basins which were used for washing hands before meals or prayers in the east Islamic Empire lost its meaning and were used as the containers of wines of Eucharist. Even the garments also lost their original identity. The silk garments which had woven Arabic inscriptions on them praising the Mamluk Sultan worn by the princes according to their statuses and adherence also lost their original representation and were worn by the clergy of Roman Catholic Church. (Bent, 1) The most important room of Italian courts, the bedchambers were highly decorated with the tapestries, in which Arabic inscription were woven, and expensive carpets, originally traded from the Muslim market or are the original depiction of Muslim art. The silk gowns which were presented to Muslim rulers for their statuses were then presented to European kings as diplomatic gift. The use of silk became so much prevalent in European society that later the princes were buried after being wrapped in Ornamental silk. Most of the silk was consumed by the Church as it was used as drapes on altars walls and funeral biers. (Bent, 1) The vessels made up of rock crystals, glass and ceramics acquired a sacred status as they became the containers of relics. The use of precious metals gems also started prevailing in European society and started defining the statuses of the people. The bourgeoisie proudly showed off the pieces acquired from the Italian culture. The use of such materials prominently defined the difference of statuses among the rich and powerful. The cost, rarity technique and the eastern origins made the goods more appealing to the European society. Sometimes the richest Europeans had difficulty in collecting luxury item in quantity like the Islamic carpets and Chinese porcelain. (Mack, 1) The Italians tried to establish local markets of such items but they failed to produce the quality and the design similar to the original item but some imported item became so popular that exceptional efforts were made to create an imitation of those goods which was quite similar to the original one. The imitation was so similar that it was difficult to distinguish the original piece from the mimic intricate indicating the sophisticated appreciation of Islamic art. The foreign art highly contributed in the development of the Italian art as these patrons and artisan were always in thrust of exploring and developing new techniques in art to give it a more luxurious touch. (Mack, 2) The script of the movement of Oriental art written by Italians have little value as at that time they had little knowledge about the geographical origins and foreign artistic styles and little has been written by Muslim authors. It is believed that cross-culture has occurred when a native artist migrated to another land and trains the patrons of the other society. Another way of cross-cultural development was due to the sketches or memories of patron or the traveler who had highly admired the art and culture and other societies and brought it to his land. (Mack, 3) The early transference of Muslim culture showed its early traces in Venice when a state chapel and a shrine was being built for the saint relics. A Byzantine architect and a Greek craftsman worked on its structure and earlier designs of mosaic decoration. These Gothic last of Italian art had its roots back to Islamic culture. It has its historical analogies with styles of Pisa and Norman Sicily. This form of art soon appeared in the state buildings giving great credit and honor to the Christian as they defeated the Muslim and drove them out of Mediterranean shores. Soon the Christian had full control on the goods let by Muslims as war booty and was used for commercial advantage. The Pisans and Normans styles quickly grew but were highly affected by the architecture of Mediterranean but significantly expressed the shift of powers. The conquest in west Mediterranean shores also created extensive trade across the sea routes. The variety of color and texture in the cathedral’s exterior ornaments bring to mind the great Islamic art of Spain and North Africa. High influence of Islamic art was depicted on the governmental and religious buildings especially in Norman Sicily and Pisa as they hired the Muslims and the Greek inhabiting the shores of Mediterranean. (Mack, 4) The geometric marble traceries screening windows in lunette above the Porta Sant’ Alippio at the extreme left of the facade is quite similar to the window grill of Great Mosque in Damascus. The striking similarities between the Islamic and Christian buildings created confusion among the travelers and they started considering the Dome of Rock as the temple of Solomon and Herod. Another example of such confusions is Al-Aqsa mosque considered as the palace of Solomon. (Mack, 5) The domes were highly regarded in Islamic building especially mosques. The trend on the domes in mosques can be traced back to the early time of Islamic civilization. The most original form is muqarnas dome or semi dome. It is truly Islamic creation and was not influenced by any other culture or civilization. They could be made of wood, stucco, brick or stone and are the most characteristic feature of Muslim world. These were later adopted by the Christian in their religious building especially that of Pisa. (Grabar, 1) The varied Oriental culture in Venice showed the growing trade relations with the eastern Mediterranean. The Gothic architectural style highly expressed the values and culture of the ruling class and also developed a distinctive dialect which had any words of Arabic language and this dialect survived in the palaces till sixteen century- showing the high influence of Islamic society in Venice. (Mack, 6) Later in the 14th century the theme of Italian paintings changed and they showed the arrival of luxury items from Islamic society and their use by the Italian people. The paintings, drawings and sculptures portrayed the understanding of cultures of East and West but these understanding were based on the imports of goods, religious and political strategies with each other. (Mack, 7) The fascination for Islamic art was beyond the bounds of Islamic world. The development of blue and white on ceramics in Islamic art was desirable to Chinese as well as Europe. It was highly bought by these societies for decorative purpose. (Bent, 1) The Quranic scripts written on mosques developed calligraphy in Islamic art. This decoration was applied to various buildings of religion, military civic and private use. it was the main feature and identity of Islamic art. The earliest surviving building of calligraphic art is Dome of Rock in Jerusalem. The inscription on buildings used to show the praise to God, construction date and patronage scripts on the religious buildings while the civic buildings had date of construction, details of the architects and artisan but most prominently it had reference inscriptions of the caliph to demonstrate his power and benevolence. Variety of calligraphic art was developed for aesthetic beauty. It was applied on many surfaces like wood, stone, plaster and ceramic tiles. Later it was developed on books, coins and metal wares. This form of art highly attracted the west due to its origin and writing pattern. They were usually used for decorative purpose. The crockery having calligraphic art was highly regarded for their classy use and was mainly consumed by elites. (Renaissance art and architecture – FREE Renaissance art and architecture information Encyclopedia_com Facts, pictures, information! 1) Works Cited AAM—The Renaissance Connection Lesson Plans Humanism in the Renaissance http://www. renaissanceconnection. org/lesson_social_humanism. html Accessed May 08, 2009 Bent. B, (1991), Islamic Art, 2nd edition, Harvard University Press, England. Derhak. D (2005) Muslim Spain and European Culture http://www. xmission. com/~dderhak/index/moors. htm Accessed May 08, 2009 Grabar. O, (1985), Muqarnas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, illustrated edition, BRILL Mack. E. R, (2001) Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian art, 1300-1600, illustrated edition, University of California Press, California. Renaissance art and architecture – FREE Renaissance art and architecture information Encyclopedia_com Facts, pictures, information! http://www. encyclopedia. com/doc/1E1-Renaisart. html Accessed May 08, 2009 The Islamic Influence On The Italian Renaissance Is Explored In Exhibition Tracing The Roots Of Luxury Glass And Ceramics, March 23, 2004 http://www. getty. edu/news/press/exhibit/artof_fireshort. html Accessed May 08, 2009

A Culture Of Compliance

A Culture Of Compliance What makes a good compliance culture can be deconstructed into multiple components yet it is instantly recognizable. It is strong and functional yet in no way hinders the development of profitable new business and can adapt to market, technological or regulatory change. A good compliance culture is represented across all levels of the organization ensuring a coherent and integrated approach to compliance throughout the company. The essence of how staff, managers and executives interact and work is towards a common goal and value system based on mutual respect, integrity and ethical behaviour focused on the long term health of the business, not just short term gains. In the wake of the financial crisis, good compliance culture and ethics are commonly touted by regulators and governments alike as key to promoting both trust and confidence within the financial system and regulatory bodies charged with their oversight. Equally without the credible threat of regulatory enforcement, it is questionable whether a good compliance culture would be possible. So what are the key ingredients? The framework for organizations that are serious in embedding a good compliance culture within their business is based on the following: Tone at the top: Corporate strategy partnered with legal, risk and compliance Tolerance statements aligned to policy measures and triggers, including swift remediation and proactive compliance risk management Governance and accountability with supervision, discipline and swift investigatory processes tied to performance management Risk assessment, ongoing monitoring, testing and reporting (internal and external) Ongoing Training, guidance and development aimed at all levels of the organization Robust regulatory and active supervisory regime Tone at the Top The tone at the top sets an organization’s guiding values and ethical behaviour. Executive commitment to invest and empower those in compliance, risk and legal resources creates the appropriate oversight and encourages staff to do the right thing. Legal, risk and compliance staff must be viewed as important and critical partners in the business and not simply as support functions. Their views are sought and followed through with respect to new business, operations, business models and planning, pricing and product development. Legal, compliance and risk staff have visible reporting lines into the Board, where breaches for non-compliance are taken seriously and are met with swift investigatory and disciplinary action and accountability. It then follows that the Executive which should include the Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Executive Legal Counsel are duly qualified, credible leaders and can take action. A corporate strategy committed to compliance, risk and legal requirements must therefore be more than a statement of mere good intentions and must be continuously reinforced. Judy O’HanrahanIt is where the executive takes decisive leadership and ownership of a corporate strategy strongly aligned to regulatory, legal requirements consumer protection providing a safe and fair environment for staff implementing active deterrents of unethical or unlawful activities and protecting institutional assets from data theft, financial crime, fraud or business disruption promoting ethical behaviours that foster respect, integrity, consistency and concern for the organization’s core values. This should be the experience of every employee, from new starter to those that seek to exit. It should be clear to both new and veteran employees that those who represent the core endorsed compliance values and principles are promoted or hired to leadership roles and/or appropriately rewarded. Creating and maintaining the right tone at the top aligned with a corporate strategy partnered in legal, risk and compliance offers can and will increase client and employee retention, ultimately leading to the establishment of a good reputation. Tolerance statements aligned to policy measures A good compliance framework is not only designed to address events as they arise but also to pre-empt them by taking steps to address potential issues. In organizations that have zero tolerance for actions or lack of action that could lead to breaches in compliance, swift, specific, measureable, realistic and time-bound actions are taken by management to address exposures. Limits and warning levels should be built into processes and procedures with clear escalation policies that are adhered to. Notification of breaches and reporting should be well defined and transparent within an agreed structure characterized by a hierarchy up to the Board. Policies are widely understood and followed by staff who can attest to each by aligning their procedures with them and taking an active role in their review through a governance structure. Governance and Accountability In order to foster a good compliance culture, good governance is established through a robust and credible three lines of defense model. The First line All managers and staff take ownership of a consistent compliance approach supported by far sighted incentive structures, where recognition of staff doing the right thing for consumers and for the business and each other is recognized and rewarded and actively promoted. Each business unit has embedded risk and compliance partners who are knowledgeable about their business processes and are senior and independent enough to influence or change behaviours and reward positive outcomes. Primarily accountable for development of controls in tandem with procedures and policies to prevent, detect and respond to compliance failures, they can also test their effectiveness. Middle management are empowered to turn compliance values into practice and encourage employees to come forward with legal, compliance and ethical questions without fear of retaliation, building trust and increased levels of employee engagement. Judy O’Hanrahan Senior leaders hold themselves and others accountable for complying with the ideals of the agreed norms of what makes a good compliance culture. Bad behaviour such as circumventing policy or procedure must have negative consequences. It is clear to all that positive behaviour is rewarded and new recruits are screened against agreed principles and values. Finally, internal issues or matters must be adjudicated with fairness, transparency and integrity, and whistle-blowers are protected when they make a disclosure. The Second line Legal, risk and compliance departments are asking questions about conduct, ethics and culture and not just providing assurance on regulatory and legal technical questions. Their oversight of the effectiveness and integrity of the compliance value system must be established in every aspect of the business. Embedding compliance within the processes and procedures in business units must extend not only to laws, regulations and business principles but to best practice and proactive risk management. Their message must be consistent with that of the business and must be endorsed by the executive. They are seen as critical partners in protecting the reputation of the organization, involved in operational and strategic decisions, testing and compliance monitoring. Chief Compliance Officers play a strategic role in the organization, cultivate the right stakeholder relationships, are trusted advisors to the business, have access to the board, drive and influence the culture and are viewed as authentic leaders and role models. The Third line Audits are measuring the corporate compliance strategy and success of implementation of a good compliance culture based on agreed tolerance statements. An annual compliance charter, plan, policies, monitoring and reporting should be tested for effectiveness and accuracy and process related testing. Employee surveys on culture conducted internally or externally by third parties are helpful in measuring the cultural pulse of the organization. In essence, a good compliance culture is underpinned by good behaviour which must be linked to goals and an incentivized scheme that rewards respect, dignity at work, integrity and trust. Risk assessment, ongoing monitoring, testing and reporting A compliance risk assessment helps an organization understand its risk exposure, prioritize risks, assign ownership and adequately resource and mitigate risks, starting with those that have the highest potential for violations of laws and regulations. The application of a risk methodology based on impact and likelihood identifies the inherent risk combined with controls, highlights the residual risk. This must be authorized and agreed with business partners together with an appropriate response that is monitored and reported up the hierarchy, presented in a dashboard against defined tolerances. Audit and Compliance plans should be complementary and monitoring reviews carried out by risk, compliance and audit serve as an early warning system to potential compliance issues by taking samples of business unit activities, products or output. Ongoing Training, Guidance and Development Individuals will need additional reinforcement on ethics and compliance programs through innovative training or workshops so that staff can connect to the values through Judy O’Hanrahan information sharing and story-telling. New starters, higher risk staff, management and operational staff should have specific training geared towards their needs. Encouraging staff to enrol on professional compliance courses run by external parties and to become industry leaders by participating in external committees or federations contributes to further reinforcing a positive compliance culture supported by external validation. Robust regulatory and active supervisory regime A sharp supervisory approach by an active regulator supports organisations looking to create a positive compliance culture and provides the assurance to consumers that they will be protected. Bernie Madoff’s victims, for example, would wonder how did regulatory agencies such as the SEC, FINRA, which are charged with monitoring financial institutions, fail in their supervisory duty to uncover the largest Ponzi scheme in history. After all, there were warning signs and tip-offs that were ignored, missed or misunderstood. Examiners had sat in Madoff’s offices for two months in 2005 without a complete understanding of the firm’s activities. Regulators who understand how these organisations operate and are able to unravel what appear to be complex activities promote ethical behaviour and protect consumers. By focusing on matters associated with good corporate governance and operational risk with a credible threat of enforcement wake organisations up to the realities that created the perfect storm that was the financial crisis of 2008. In conclusion, organisations with a good compliance culture create lasting relationships with clients, customers, employees and suppliers. This ultimately leads to a good reputation in the market and a positive brand that in turn will attract long term investors. It is evident from scandals involving high profile companies such as Madoff, Enron or Anglo-Irish Bank that implementing and maintaining a positive compliance and ethical culture ensures organisational survival and contributes to the stability of the financial system, something that regulators recognize and are therefore scrutinizing as part of their supervisory regime. It is a reciprocal relationship between organisations and their regulators. Without the credible threat of regulatory enforcement extending to personal liability of senior management, compliance and ethics may be mere check the box exercises or seen as obstacles to new business. Nonetheless, organisations that encourage mutual respect, dignity at work, integr ity and honesty among staff and management lay the foundation for not just a good and positive compliance culture but a truly sustainable work environment that is recognisable by its outperformance and endurance.

Eassay Analysis (human resources) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Eassay Analysis (human resources) - Essay Example It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications†¦ Persons with HIV disease, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, have physical impairments that substantially limit one or more major life activities and are, therefore, protected by the law. â€Å"(1) A. The act of Marion County in requiring an applicant be medically examined prior to any offer of a job is illegal. In a decided case it was ruled that the â€Å"Chicago Board of Educations requirement for any job applicant to provide a complete medical history and to submit to a medical examination is tantamount to requiring HIV status disclosure and is thus violative of the Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, and Federal and State constitutional guarantees to privacy and equal protection under the law.†(3) Thus the â€Å"Board agreed not require applicants to submit to the medical exam unless they have a conditional offer of employment.† (4) B. The act of denying Mr. Poole employment on account that he has AIDS. This allegation by Mr. Poole must first be proven. For him to find a basis for his allegation he must be found to possess all of the following: The ADA prohibits employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities. A "qualified individual with a disability" is a person who meets legitimate skill, experience, education, or other requirements of an employment position he or she holds or seeks, and who can perform the "essential functions" of the position with or without reasonable accommodation. (5) Essential functions of the job are those core duties that are the reason the job position exists†¦Requiring the ability to perform "essential" functions assures that an individual with a disability will not be considered unqualified because

American Academy of Physicians Assistants Essay

American Academy of Physicians Assistants - Essay Example The organization strives to enhance an improvement in healthcare through efforts to improve on the quality of the healthcare, the accessibility, and cost effectiveness (DEA Publishes Final Rule to Reclassify Hydrocodone Combination Products. (n.d.). The organization is guided by a comprehensive strategic plan through which the purpose for their existence is well laid out. Through such a comprehensive plan, the organization intends to achieve an acceleration of reforms both at the national and at the state levels majoring on increased access to healthcare and a reduction in costs (American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA)., 2012). They also intend to ensure that the patients who visit various healthcare centers get the value for their money. Through their consumer centric healthcare approach, the organization wants to make sure that key health decision making is left in the hands of the consumers of the products together with the key organizations who play a major role in the industry. They as well intend through competitive healthcare structures that the consumer get quality. Thie is well planned by way of consolidating the industry and the vertical integration of all the industry players. Such strategies are intended to open up the playing field making sure that there is a level play ground hence players are able to come in with their varied models (DEA Publishes Final Rule to Reclassify Hydrocodone Combination Products. (n.d.). These and more are the main issues that the society have come to realize as having an impact on the American population. Therefore, they are position the Pas by equipping them with skills and knowledge to combat such challenges head on. Through the values the organization stand for such as leadership and service, unity and teamwork, accountability and transparency as well as excellence and equity: the organization is able to impact positively on their stakeholders. The patients in the US as a result will be in the position

How did the Nazi Party begin to change the culture of Germany Essay

How did the Nazi Party begin to change the culture of Germany - Essay Example 1999, p. 278). Another technique that Hitler and his Nazi colleagues used was a program of speeches and gatherings. Hitler notes in his introduction to â€Å"Mein Kampf: â€Å"I know that fewer people are won over by the written word than by the spoken word and that every great movement on this earth owes its growth to great speakers and not to great writers.† (Hitler, 1924). This created loyalty to him, and from there he began to foster a culture of blame. The Nazis introduced into German society a hatred of Jewish people, many of whom were loyal to the German state and proud to combine their nationality with their religion. In a diary recoding all the insults that happened to her on an increasing basis, Dr Herta Nathorff quotes a Roman Catholic nun who said to her â€Å"Frau Doktor, we needn’t fear hell any more. The devil is already abroad in the world.† (Perry et al., 2000, p. 169) Shops and businesses were boycotted, and there was a violent disturbance on t he occasion now remembered as â€Å"Kristallnacht† (Night of the Broken Glass) on November 10th 1938 in which thousands of Jewish windows were smashed to demonstrate the hatred that the Nazis had for Jewish traders.

Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis for Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House Research Paper

Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis for Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House - Research Paper Example The secondary data has been collected from journals such as â€Å"Use of qualitative research in foodservice organizations: A review of challenges, strategies, and applications†, â€Å"Quality in Service Sector†, â€Å"Perception Gaps in customer expectations: Managers versus service providers and customers† and â€Å"A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research†. Following this, relevant theories have also been incorporated from books namely â€Å"Managing Service Marketing†, â€Å"Principles of Marketing†, â€Å"Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods† and â€Å"Strategic Management and Business Analysis†. Correspondingly, relevant data has also been collected from websites such as â€Å"Yelp Inc.† After identification of the different problem areas of restaurant, a qualitative method has been used for maintaining the effectiveness of the system and enhancing the business prominenc e in the new market. According to the past record of restaurant and secondary data sources, it stated that this particular restaurant has faced a cultural difference issue, along with selection of foods and analyzing the threat of other existing restaurants. After analyzing these areas, paper was found proper problems in service, quality management, along with cultural differences. According to these situations, the findings were both development of the negative as well as positive aspects. Technically, the restaurant has been able to configure properly its negative angles with maximum consciousness as well as tried to resolve it with the help of its existing strengths i.e. the unique cuisine that it have been providing to its consumers. Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House located in San Francisco. According to the name of this restaurant, it has been clear that it is based on the Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant has its own blend of Asian flavors with various types of meats along with