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High school Spanish 4 reading list (x-post)


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I posted this in the Bilingual Education Board but thought there might be some interest here too, so I'm sharing a reading list roughly for high school Spanish 4 (the first one might be appropriate for Spanish 3, and #4-7 might be appropriate for an AP Spanish Language and Culture class).  These all include materials originally written in Spanish (not translations), with some literary value, and of interest to a high-school-aged student: 

  1. Andrade, Marcel (ed.) Classic Spanish Stories and Plays (in Spanish), on the easier side of this list.  Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes.
  2. Varona-Lacey, G. (ed.) Contemporary Latin American Literature (in Spanish). Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes.
  3. Quevedo, F. Aventura Caribe, maybe more middle school level for native speaker?
  4. Sepúlveda, F and L Díaz (eds.) Cuentos Latinoamericanos   
  5. Garcia-Marquez El Coronel No Tiene Nadie Con Escribir    
  6. Bastidas Padilla, C. Quetzalcóatl y Otras Leyendas de América
  7. Cuentos latinoamericanos (Prologue by Conrado Zuluaga, analysis by Maria Candelaria Posada; Publisher: Alfaguara Juvenil/Santanilla). Appears to be for solid high school students in Latin America

The list is roughly in order of difficulty.  I tried to avoid lengthy works so as to provide a variety of texts, especially since Spanish reading speed may not be as fast as English. 

 

There are also a few other materials which may be of interest for others in this situation:

 

(A) there's a great highly abridged, paraphrased Spanish graphic novel of Don Quijote de la Macha by Oceano press.  Highly entertaining and you get some of the main storyline;

(B) Michael Clay Thompson's vocabulary building texts for English speakers have a lot of words that tie in nicely with Spanish for bilingual students, especially Caesar's English 1, Caesar's English 2, and, to a lessor extent, Word Within the Word 1;

© A nice book, in English, on the early history of the Americas is The Ancient American World (Oxford Press).  It's probably at the middle school level, but could be used for early high school unless you find something more appropriate. 

 

If anyone else has additional suggestions for this level, I'd love to hear them.

Edited by Brad S
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Another nice anthology is Voces del Hispanoamerica. I haven't seen the ones on your list to know how it would compare, though.

Thanks!  I'm not familiar with that anthology, but I looked at how it was used in courses.  The first place that came up was a previously offered Univ of Texas course; apparently, which I qualify since their catalog is hard to follow, Voces del Hispanoamerica was used in a class after a minimum of four semesters, and after approx. 6 recommended courses had been taken.  That would seem to place it at the AP Spanish Literature and Culture level or slightly beyond.  It would appear to be somewhat comparable to the end of my above list or probably slightly beyond that.  FYI, for AP Spanish Literature and Culture, there is a required reading list and a few anthologies tailored to that course

 

 

 

In summary, the order of classes for a non-native speaker would seem to be:

 

Years 1-3 (or semesters 1-3 in college): basic Spanish vocabulary, speaking, grammar, writing

 

Spanish 4: reading of simpler texts in their entirety or selections of more complicated text, with most discussion in Spanish

 

AP Spanish Language and Culture (usu. taken after 4 years high school level Spanish or after 3 intensive years)

 

AP Spanish Literature and Culture

 

Courses Beyond What's Usually Offered at the High School Level

 

Thanks again for sharing this anthology!

 

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