Meet your Consultant and read the APSI Online Course Description for AP Spanish Language & Culture: Dr. Gustavo Fares

Gustavo Fares

    • College Board endorsed consultant for AP Spanish Language and Culture

    • This session is offered in Event 1:June 20-23 Tuesday through Friday

      The WaltonAPSI will observe the Federal Holiday Monday, June 20th. Our APSI Event 1 will run Tuesday through Friday June 20-23, 2023.

      This session is also offered in Event 2: June 26-29, Monday through Thursday in a setting with combined new and experienced teachers.

A native from Argentina, Gustavo Fares received a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature with emphasis in Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of five books, articles,  and reviews. He also enjoys painting and visual arts.


Fares’ teaching experience includes teaching Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Spanish courses. Currently in his thirty-fifth year of teaching, Gustavo has 20+ years’ experience in AP  Spanish Language and Culture and in AP Spanish Literature and Culture Programs.  He has been a presenter at the AP Annual Conference, and has worked with the College Board for more than two decades as Reader, member and chairperson of the AP Development Committee, AP consultant, Chief Reader (2009-2013), and Senior Audit Reviewer for the AP Language and  Culture Program and for the AP Literature and Culture Program. As a College Board consultant, he has conducted trainings in North Carolina, Washington, Michigan, Indiana, California,  Kansas, Georgia, Virginia, Kansas, Hawai’i, and Wisconsin.


Gustavo enjoys traveling abroad with his students and his family.  He is a strong advocate of teaching and learning languages starting in early childhood and believes that educators are life-long learners who look for opportunities to adapt, modify, or innovate their current practices for better student outcomes.

APSI Course Description for AP 

Objectives    Learning Goals and Key Takeaways

The APSI is designed to familiarize teachers with the AP Spanish Language and Culture Course and Exam, attending  to the needs of both new and experienced teachers of the  course. 

Throughout the four days we will examine best practices and strategies, and present activities for increasing student proficiency in the three communicational modes with an emphasis on integration of skills and use of authentic materials. We will review the exam format and rubrics using the College Board’s latest materials. 

Participants will be invited to actively participate and share their knowledge and experiences with the entire group on a daily basis. Likewise, they will develop and share projects and activities to be used during the academic year, and will leave with a toolbox of strategies to implement and successfully teach the course.

Goals

1) To familiarize ourselves with the format of all parts of the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam. We will discuss the redesign and the exams from subsequent years in detail, with examples from the exam

2) To review the rubrics and grading of the free response questions and to learn strategies to holistically evaluate students’ competencies in the target language

3) To examine, analyze, and discuss a range of materials and resources, both in book and in digital formats, suitable for the AP Spanish Language and Culture class

4) To prepare, share, and discuss successful classroom strategies for integrating the three modes of communication,  (interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational) with activities based on authentic resources

5) To familiarize the participants with the latest information regarding the AP program. 

Topics will include the following

  • Foundations of Advanced Placement
  • Building an AP Program and ways to involve all students
  • Developing and integrating proficiency the three modes of communication
  • Teaching AP Spanish Language and Culture across themes. Using the recommended contexts, developing new ideas 
  • Putting the Curriculum Framework into practice
  • Familiarizing the participants with the College Board resources, such as AP Classroom
  • Teaching and developing Culture activities in the AP Spanish Language and Culture course
  • Instructional Design and Management
  • Developing vocabulary skills and strategies
  • Integrating authentic literary and non-literary resources in the AP Spanish Language and Culture course
  • Using project-based learning a way to integrate and develop language skills
  • Developing units for the AP course
  • Understanding the latest information regarding the AP Program

Here’s Dr. Fares’ Welcome Letter to APSI Participants!

Dear AP Seminar participant:

I am pleased to welcome you to the College Board’s Advanced Placement Spanish Language
Summer Institute.  I have no doubt that we will have the opportunity to learn from each other
in a process of mutual enrichment. 

I am looking forward to getting to know all the Spanish professors at the Institute! In the
meantime, I would like to share some information about myself and the Institute activities.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, I am currently a professor at the Spanish Department,
as well as co-director of the Latin American Studies Program, both at Lawrence University, in
Appleton, Wisconsin. In those capacities, I teach language classes, advanced culture, and
literature courses, all in Spanish, for our majors and minors.

I have a passion for building bridges, among languages, cultures, countries, and people, and I
believe the AP Program is one outstanding way to forge cross-cultural and linguistic literacy.
That is why I have been working with the College Board for more than 20 years, as Reader for
the AP Spanish language and Culture exam, member of the AP Development Committee,
chairperson of that committee, Chief Reader (2010-2013), and Consultant. I have conducted
many one-day, two-day, and weeklong workshops and summer institutes in North Carolina,
Washington, Michigan, Indiana, California, Kansas, Georgia, Virginia, Kansas, Hawai’i, and
Wisconsin. In these capacities, I will be available to answer your questions and to receive your
comments before the Institute gets on its way and, of course, throughout the week, in order to
make this seminar a useful tool in your professional life.

The Institute is designed to familiarize teachers with the AP Spanish Language and Culture
course and exam. We will review the exam, the current rubrics and the ways in which they are
used when grading the exams at the Reading.  We will discuss strategies and activities for
increasing student proficiency in the three communicational modes, with an emphasis on
integration of skills and use of authentic materials. We will also examine in depth a plethora of
resources available in my website. The participants will learn about changes, updated new
resources, and registration protocols. Moreover, participants will have access to digital sample
copies of current books used in the AP Spanish course.

You are invited to actively participate by sharing your best practices with the entire group on a
daily basis, and by developing projects and specific activities to be used during the academic
year.Therefore, I would like to ask you to please, bring to the Institute ideas of the best practices

you would like to share with me and with your colleagues, as well as your enthusiasm
for building communities in Spanish.


Let me know if you have questions before the APSI starts. I look forward to meeting you soon.
 Yours truly,
Gustavo
—
Gustavo Fares, Ph.D.
Lawrence University
711 East Boldt Way
Appleton, WI  54911
Phone: (920) 832-6691
Fax: (920) 832-6944
faresg@lawrence.edu
https://faculty.lawrence.edu/faresg/