August 2015 Speaking Assignment

¡Hola estudiantes! ¡Bienvenidos otra vez a nuestro blog de clase! Just like last time, our activities on the blog will be in the green box located below. Read the activity and follow its instructions.

Activity:

In the IB Summer Assignment packet, item #4 was the speaking assignments. For the July message, you were to have called my school voicemail at 517-755-4261 and left a message describing one of the pictures I provided, or have done an audio recording of yourself on your computer and e-mailed the file to me at charles.horner@lansingschools.net. For the August message that you are to leave for me, you are to simply read the following excerpt in Spanish. I am listening for your pronunciation and fluency in Spanish. This will give me a baseline that we can compare your progress to throughout the school year and will also tell me what things that the class as a whole does well or needs to focus on for improvement. It is appropriate to rehearse the reading selection a few times out loud before you leave the message for me. It is okay to make mistakes, this is a learning process and I am looking to see where you are at right now. I will give you written feedback the first week of school on what you do well and what you can improve upon. Hints: 1) you don’t need to understand every word, but knowing keywords and what the selection is about will help. 2) look out for familiar grammar concepts: agreement between nouns and adjectives (masculine/feminine, singular/plural), verbs, adverbs, etc. to understand how the sentences should sound – pronunciation, inflection (question vs. statement, etc.). 3) Practice reading aloud so it can be done in less than 2 minutes. You don’t want to be cut off by the voicemail and be sure to include your name! 4) Print off a copy of the reading selection if necessary. 5) Do not talk on Speakerphone. The quality of the voicemail is very poor and will not be graded. ¡Buena suerte!

Reading Selection:

5 consejos para un trabajo en equipo efectivo.

Trabajar en equipo puede potenciar exponencialmente los límites de productividad y eficiencia de cada individuo que colabora en un fin común. Es decir, suma la fuerza de trabajo de cada persona y multiplica su potencial al trabajar en conjunto. Cabe mencionar que no se trata de más horas de trabajo aportadas por más individuos hacia una actividad, sino de mayor calidad y eficiencia aportada por un conjunto de personas que no sólo aportan más unidades de tiempo al trabajo, sino que incrementan el tope del límite personal que cada integrante del equipo alcanza de manera individual.

A continuación, quiero compartir 5 consejos prácticos que te permitirán colaborar en equipo de manera más organizada y eficiente:

1. Desarrolla un equipo compacto
2. Identifica los roles en el grupo.
3. Establece una visión común
4. Establece un liderazgo efectivo
5. Genera un Plan de contingencia