La presentación oral: 13 Ways to Teach it for AP Spanish Success

When my students first began giving oral presentations in my AP Spanish Language and Culture course, they had trouble for three reasons:

1. They had little knowledge of cultural practices in Spanish-speaking countries.

2. They struggled to finish within the two-minute limit.

3. Their presentations were completely disorganized.

In this blog post, I will explain how I addressed each issue so that my students were able to master the oral presentation section of the AP Spanish exam. Keep reading and get my F-R-E-E culture project on Spanish-speaking countries and famous hispanohablantes. Below are my best tips on how to teach la presentación oral.

1. STUDENT RESEARCH
Neither the teacher nor the students can predict what cultural practice will be mentioned in the presentational speaking section of the AP exam. Hence, the anxiety. However, just as those who live in Seattle must always have a raincoat within reach, students of AP Spanish must come equipped with knowledge of many traditions practiced in Spain and Latin America. Hence, the culture presentation. The more customs they are familiar with, the more likely it is that they will be able to answer the question with confidence. In order to fill their cultural knowledge bank, I assign a project.

At the beginning of the course, I hand out instructions for a culture project. Students must do a Google search to find cultural practices or traditions of a Spanish-speaking country. They can either choose from articles in the textbook or find their own. If they select a tradition not in the text, I must approve their choices.

I hand out and explain the instructions, so students know the requirements.

THE PRESENTATION MUST:
Have a visual component.
Be five minutes long.
Include comprehension questions for the class.
Include a quiz for the class.
Include an additional two-minute oral presentation comparing the cultural practice with one in their own country.

While the student talks, the observers take notes. Whenever students give presentations, I also include a graded, listening component for the observers so no one is sitting idly; students are always practicing their Spanish language skills, either speaking or listening. In this case, the students must evaluate la presentación oral according to the rubric, and answer comprehension questions in the student-created quiz.

After the presentations, the observers ask the presenter questions about his or her speech, then take the quiz.

Want more details? Click the following link to access the culture project I use: LA PRESENTACIÓN ORAL CULTURE PROJECT. These instructions are for Triángulo aprobado, but you can use them with Vista Higher Learning or any other textbook or test-practice booklet. Just replace the titles where appropriate.

2. TELL STUDENTS THE LEARNING GOAL
When I was a new teacher, I would anxiously sit down to grade a project and then feel my disappointed heart sink to my toes as I read each submission. How did the students miss the target by so great a distance? Because I had assumed they knew what I expected. Surely they knew they needed to include what to me were obvious elements. But they didn’t.

Students need to know exactly what is required of them. With that goal in mind, I tell them, at the beginning, what the learning objectives are. Then I give them the rubric with even more details. Below is the learning goal I give my students for the presentación oral comparing the grading system in the U.S. to that of a Spanish-speaking country:

Given a rubric of the oral presentation, vocabulary of comparisons, a PowerPoint on the Oral Presentation, and information on grading systems, students will do a two-minute oral presentation comparing the grading system of one Spanish-speaking country to the grading system in the United States.

HERE IS ANOTHER LEARNING GOAL:

Given information on Cartagena and Macchu Picchu, students will do an oral presentation comparing an American tourist attraction to Machu Picchu or Cartagena.

These topics were in the cultural texts of our AP Spanish test-prep booklet.