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Image from Flickr licensed under CC BY 2.0

The Far Reaching Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire is a story of global power. From the 15th through 19th centuries, the Spanish controlled territory all over the Atlantic world and as far east as the Philippines. However, Spanish conquest has also sparked historical debate and criticism because of the brutality the Spanish often inflicted on those people and places they conquered. Listen to hear an historian and author discuss stories of Spanish power and conquest and offer a broader assessment of how the Spanish Empire should be judged.

?L LEXILE AUDIO MEASURE

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Story Length: 7:15

Listen to the Story:

Listening Comprehension Questions

  • In what ways did Andrew Carnegie’s libraries serve their communities?
  • How did Carnegie benefit from a library when he was growing up?
  • Which personality traits helped propel Carnegie from poverty to riches? Bring specific details from the story to support your ideas.
  • According to Carnegie, what should rich people do with their money and why? Why was Carnegie known as both generous and “brutal”?

Discussion Themes

  • In your opinion, what should really rich people do with their fortunes?
  • What does it take for a person to rise from “rags to riches”?

Socrative users can import these questions using the following code: SOC-1234

Listening Organizers

  • Fact, Question, Response

  • Language Identification Organizer

  • Deeper Meaning Chart

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Lexile Audio Measure

The Lexile Audio Measure is an indicator of the complexity of an audio passage. It is based on a scientifically developed scale with a maximum score of 2000L.

How to Use Lexile Audio Measures

Find stories at the right level of complexity for your students, so that they will be challenged without being frustrated. The measures are categorized into low, medium, or high in order to aid teachers in story selection when they do not know students’ Lexile listening levels.

Listening Level Lexile Audio Measures
0L -1250L
1251L -1555L
1556L-2000L
Recommended Lexile Audio Measures by Grade Level

These recommended ranges are for instructional use of Listenwise audio content in combination with supports such as the interactive transcript, etc.

Grade Lexile Audio Measures (Recommended Ranges)
1 215L - 610L
2 490L - 855L
3 725L - 1060L
4 945L - 1250L
5 1045L - 1350L
6 1125L - 1430L
7 1190L - 1500L
8 1250L - 1555L
9 1300L - 1610L
10 1345L - 1655L
11/12 1385L - 1695L
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