Teaching with Vistas Orienting Students to the Student Text Because Vistas treats graphic design as an integral part of students’ language-learning experience, you may want to take a few minutes to orient students to the student text. Have them flip through one lesson, and point out that all lessons are organized exactly the same way. Also point out how the major sections of each lesson are color-coded for easy navigation: red for Contextos, purple for Fotonovela, orange for Cultura, blue for Estructura, green for Adelante. Let them know that, because of these design elements, they can be confident that they will always know “where they are” in their text. Call students’ attention to the use of color to highlight key information in elements such as charts, diagrams, word lists, and activity modelos, titles, and sidebars. Flexible Lesson Organization Vistas uses a flexible lesson organization designed to accommodate diverse teaching styles, institutions, and instructional goals. For example, you can begin with the lesson opener and progress sequentially through a lesson. If you do not want to devote class time to grammar, you can assign the Estructura explanations for outside study, freeing up class time for other purposes like developing oral communication skills; building listening, reading, or writing skills; learning more about the Spanishspeaking world; or working with the video program. You might decide to work extensively with the Cultura and Adelante sections in order to focus on students’ reading, writing, and listening skills and their knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world. Or, you might prefer to use these sections periodically in response to your students’ interests as the opportunity arises. If you plan on using the Vistas Testing Program, however, be aware that the quizzes, tests, and exams check language presented in Contextos and Estructura. Identifying Active Vocabulary All words and expressions taught in the illustrations and Más vocabulario lists in Contextos are considered active, testable vocabulary. Any items in the Variación léxica or Así se dice boxes, however, are intended for receptive learning and are presented for enrichment only; the words and expressions in the Expresiones útiles boxes in Fotonovela are to be used solely to understand and talk about the video. The words in charts, word lists, ¡Atención! sidebars, and sample sentences in Estructura are also part of the active vocabulary load. At the end of each lesson, Vocabulario provides a convenient summary of the items students should know and that may appear on tests and exams. Getting to Know Vistas Teaching with Vistas S36
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