Introduction to Spanish
Course Descriptions
Spanish courses include students from 4th-8th grade, but as the levels progress the ages tend to progress as well. Most students stay in the same level of Spanish for more than one year before they move on to the next as it takes time to acquire language. In the Advanced class, many students have taken 4 or 5 or more years of Spanish. When a student moves to the next level, they may find themselves behind those students who were already in that group last year. One of my goals is to offer work that is challenging for the most advanced students and still accessible to my newest ones. For students who commit to several years of Spanish study, I offer continually new material. Barnette is unique in that we are the only K-8 school in the district to offer full year world language study to any student for as long as they have the motivation and desire. In all classes I strive to expose students to the cultural wonders of the Spanish-speaking world with music, dance, poetry, my personal experiences, guest speakers, food, movies, geography and art.
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Important WEEKLY Update:
4th Quarter: 4/27/17 We read ch. 8 and ch. 9 this week in our novel. We have one more chapter left! Students challenged themselves this week by writing down in Spanish what they understood in the Ch. 9 this week after listening to it being read to them. Without my help, or anyone else translating for them, they were able to understand the majority of the chapter. I continue to be blown away by their skills which are soaring by this time in the year! Projects are due on WEDNESDAY. We will begin presenting to eachother on Wednesday of next week. We don't have explorations on Monday, due to testing in our core classes. We will resume on Tuesday. 4/21/17 We will start chapter 8 in our novel on Tuesday of next week. A highlight this week was students reading Ch. 7 on their own. Most students were able to understand the main points, if not all of the chapter. Reading a novel with so many cognates positively impacts their self confidence and comprehension. They are really excelling and I couldn't be more proud of them! Keep reviewing all vocab. words from Quarter 4 as we will have a check at the end of the quarter on many of them. 4/14/17 We finished ch. 4 and ch. 5 this week in our novel. Students are really progressing well! No other major updates. Please continue to review the given vocabulary. We will be having a test with words from all the chapters at the end of the quarter. They should be able to use the words in sentences. Remember to check in with your child about the project too! They should already have a head start on it! Again, it's due on May 3rd. 4/7/17 We read Ch. 3 this week. Students are enjoying being able to understand so much of the novel, with the cognates! They are also making connections between the novel and themselves. We have been sharing funny pet stories with eachother. This week I gave the assignment for the Quarter 4 Spanish Project. It's a bit different than we've been doing all year. The students will be making a book all about them! I didn't include a contract this time. Please ask them to show you the project guidelines, if they haven't done so already. They can present their project using a book with lined paper, a poster, a google presentation with slides, or a google document. They should practice giving their presentation several times at home so they are comfortable speaking in Spanish for that long. Students should have some of the sentences memorized. 3/31/17 We are moving right along with our novel study. We read Ch. 2 this week. It lended itself very well to Reader's Theater. I encourage you to ask your child to read it at home. We worked on fluency and comprehension this week. A lot of progress was made in both of those areas. Practice at home will continue the positive growth I'm seeing in the classroom. Students are also more wiling to share and speak in Spanish. 2/24/17 We are wrapping up our clothing unit. We will have a quiz on Thursday with all the vocab words. Students should have their master lists in their binders. They need to be able to say each word, and recognize each word. Quarter 3 Cultural Projects are due on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1. Many student have been turning them early, which is terrific. Students will start giving presentations next week on Thursday. We will wrap up presentations on Monday and Tuesday of the following week. 2/10/17 We spent time working on our Puedo Ir Al Bano unit this week. We also learned new clothing words. See above for the list, and student binders for the full list. The due date for Quarter 3 projects is approaching. Please make sure your child is sharing their plan with you. Next week we are having a Latin dance instructor come to teach us a variety of dance styles. He will focus on Cuba, but will include other countries as well. We are excited to partner with the Fairbanks Artist in Residency program in this way. He will be here Monday-Thursday. 1/27/17 We spent most of the week finishing up Ch. 10 of our novel! The students enjoyed a fun, and suspenseful ending. We will be wrapping up this unit with a few assessments including a writing and a speaking assessment. Our next unit will start the following week on Feb. 6. Students have been sharing their google doc presentations with me. It's terrific to see so much progress already being made. 1/20/17 We enjoyed reading two more chapters this week in our novel. We are getting close to the end. A big project the students worked on was recording themselves reading one of the chapters. I'll be finishing those grades on prounucaiont and flunecy next week. I also passed out information about the cultual project for Quarter 3. Please ask your child to share with you their plan. The contracts are due back to me, for me to check them off on MONDAY. See the side panal for the other dates when they are due and when presentations will be made. Please let me know if you need poster board, or supplies from school to make the project. 1/12/17 We had a great first full week back together as a class. We started a new unit learning vocabulary words from the topic of clothing. Students did well learning new words and actions. Weekly practice of vocabulary word certainly helps students retain them and use them in their own Spanish speaking. Thank you for being diligent about practicing at home. We are wrapping up our novel study of the novel Las Aventuras de Isabela. We only have three chapters left. Students have grown exponentially in their reading and speaking skills during this unit. 11/11/16 This week we read two more chapters in our new book. We have many new vocabulary words (found above.) Students are working on drawing pictures to accompany a chapter of their choice (ch. 1-4) They will retell the chapter to me in their own words, while pointing to pictures. We will do this quiz on Thursday in class. I told them if they wanted to work on it at home this weekend, they could. We will also have 1 1/2more days in class to work on it. Quarter 1 project. October 3. Please ask your child how their project is going . If they haven't started it, I recommend they do so soon, so they are not rushed. Videos:
These videos will be fun and productive for your child to practice at home. Check back for new ones to be posted throughout the year. ABC/ VOWEL SONG: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+Spanish+Vowel+song+with+dog&view=detail&mid=02E8BC0ACFB09782E75602E8BC0ACFB09782E756&FORM=VIRE |
Coming UPMay 3rd- Quarter 4 Spanish Project Due
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