Unit Plan: Context

a. The Learners:
At Calvin Christian, I have two separate Spanish 2 classes. The first class, period one, has 23
students: 13 males and 10 females. Period four has 18 students: 7 males and 11 females. Overall,
38 of the students are white and 23 are of Dutch descent. One student is Asian and two are
Hispanic. Students who take Spanish 2 range from 14-18 years old. Of the 41 students, there are
two native Spanish speakers and one student (that I know of) who comes from an economically
challenged, one-parent family. The rest of the students come from middle-upper class families
and many (about 30%, information gleaned from students) have/have had siblings in the Calvin
Christian school system. Although there are two native Spanish speakers in Spanish 2, they are
equally fluent in English. That is, all the students in the class are equally proficient in English. Of
the two classes, there are four students who require extra help either in the tutor center or during
class (Mrs. VanderSluis and I take turns providing one on one attention to these students during
class time). To my knowledge, there are only four students with documented needs (extra
help/verbal instruction/slower pace). Fifty percent of the students have been a part of Calvin
Christian for the entirety of their educational careers and although I have not had any one-onone faith conversations with students, I know that they all take Bible classes and are exposed to
prayer every day in my classroom. As high schoolers, they are still developing in their moral and
spiritual lives and some have yet to mature (they still act out and say things without thinking). As
for the classroom I will be using to deliver my unit, the students will be seated at 5 table groups
which seat a maximum of 6 students each. Classroom rules, decided at the beginning of the year
and posted around the classroom, will remain in effect.

b. The School
Calvin Christian High School houses classes with students ranging from Freshman to Seniors in
high school (362 students in total) (gosquires.org) and although the middle school is on the
same property, the schools are not the same. The school is private and tuition-based. However, it
does offer various methods of tuition assistance as they believe that all students deserve the right
to a quality Christian education (gosquires.org). As far as student demographics, of the 362
students enrolled in the high school, 21 are international students from China, Taiwan and South
Korea, while there are only 13 Hispanic students and nine African American Students currently
enrolled (National Center for Education Statistics). As a whole, 54% of the students at Calvin
Christian are male (202 students) while 46% of students are female (160 students) (National
Center for Education Statistics 1). In addition, according to the National Center for Education
Statistics, there are approximately 38 teachers in the school, making for a 14:1 student/teacher
ratio (National Center for Education Statistics 1). Regarding curriculum, the Spanish
department uses the Martina Bex curriculum which is written by Martina Bex and is not the
traditional sort of grammar-based Spanish curriculum one sees at traditional public and private
schools in the area. Rather, this curriculum focuses on teaching Spanish through reading, writing,
and telling of stories as well as an immersion technique which allows students to simply be
exposed to grammatical issues and structures in the hope that they will absorb information
through utilization (martinabex.com).
c. The Community
Calvin Christian High School is located in the suburb of Grandville, Michigan. Enrollment is
open to all families who desire Christian education and is not limited to a specific area like a
public school would be (gosquires.org). Therefore, Calvin Christian is considered a regional

school, but with the surplus of Christian schools in the area, many of the students who attend the
school live near the school (20 minutes, maximum). The surrounding community is composed of
mostly single-family homes and local businesses, and is primarily composed of developments
(according to principal Thelma Ensink). The school is located a mere 4 minutes from 28th Street
which has businesses of all kinds from car dealerships to restaurants and is densely developed
with businesses every thousand feet or less. As far as learning opportunities that connect to
Spanish education, there are numerous businesses run by Hispanic people in the area. For
example, students in Spanish 2 are required to document in at least three cultural encounters
throughout the course of the year. Many students document trips to restaurants in which the
workers speak Spanish with them, as well as festivals such as the Hispanic Festival held in
downtown Grand Rapids, a mere 20-minute drive from the school.

References
High School (2016). In Grandville Calvin Christian Schools. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
Search for Private Schools (2016). In National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved
October 15, 2016.