Middle School Spanish: The Second Quarter
Avancemos!
OVERVIEW
As we move forward into the 2nd quarter, I would like to give all of you an overview of where we intend to go with our study of Spanish. My goals in the 1st quarter were simply to try to instill and review a few basic concepts and get everyone to take their study of Spanish seriously and make a real effort. Most of my students did that and stepped up to the task, and there were some real bright spots. Pushing ahead will require continued dedication if we are to reach our goals.
GENERAL STUDY PLAN
My plan is to spend pretty much all of this quarter and half of the next in covering the grammatical and lexical elements of the material we need to get through and then spend the remainder of the school year in consolidating these elements with increased practice in the passive skills – reading and listening – and the more difficult active skills of writing and speaking. I will, however, be devoting some time in this quarter and the next covering some basic pronunciation as well as doing at least some minimal work with reading and writing.
Daily lessons will generally go as follows: a quick review of the previous class’s material, (probably) some sort of quick graded exercise to see if that material “sunk in”, introduction and explanation of the day’s new material, some sort of consolidation exercise of the new material – most likely a worksheet from the workbook, and finally, some brief work with basic pronunciation, reading, or writing. I intend to do quite a lot of group and pair work in this quarter and use my native Spanish speakers to help other non-native Spanish speakers while consolidating and furthering their own language skills. Some part of each class I will also devote to rather more personal instruction of those of my students with I.E.P.’s and try to tailor the day’s material to their individual learning styles.
GROUND RULES
Students will have outside-of-class homework assignments. I know they all already have a lot of demands on their time, and I do not expect to cut into that time very much. However, I do expect them to pay attention in class, take appropriate notes, and ask the questions necessary to having a clear understanding of what we have covered. A bit of mental review of the material prior to the next class would be ideal, and some small homework assignment will serve to help them retain the material better.
I will post websites to give students additional resources and references for what we are going over in class.
I expect to be constantly posting the grades for what we have done in class, so that everyone will know where they stand almost immediately. Some opportunities for making up grades will be given and, as a general rule, very low out-of-the-norm grades will be dropped. My goal is for students to have and maintain an ongoing average, so that there are no questions about where they stand gradewise and no “panic” at the end of the quarter.
I understand that many of the students have in-school demands on their time that will cut into my time with them – athletic competitions, etc., but I place the responsibility squarely on the students to stay up to speed on what we have covered in class. I am available and their classmates are available to find out what they have missed and I will hold them responsible for that, course, I will make allowances for extraordinary circumstances.
Although I like a lively classroom learning environment, I cannot tolerate conduct that is disruptive to teaching and learning. Such behavior will be met with a warning or two from me and, if necessary, subsequent notification of the parents should the conduct persist and, finally, detention in the worst case situations.
I do ask all parents to contact me via e-mail with any concerns, comments, suggestions, etc. that they may have and will make myself available for parent-teacher conferences. As a general rule, I can meet with parents on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 1:45 to 2:15 and Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:55 to 1:25. After school times are also available with some advance notice as I may need to arrange alternate plans for after-school pick up of my own kids.
MATERIAL
As to specifics about what we will be covering in class, I hope to be able to finish covering the following material in the next two weeks or so:
6th Grade: Reviews of: greetings, introductions, numbers, days of the week, the weather, classroom phrases, the alphabet, after-school activities, describing yourself and others, subject pronouns, “ser”, “gustar” with an infinitive, definite and indefinite articles, noun-adjective agreement. (Introductory Unit and Unit One of our text)
7th Grade: Reviews of all of the above as well as: daily schedules, telling time, describing locations, expressing feelings, the verb “tener”, present tense of –ar verbs, “estar”, “ir”(Introductory Unit, Unit One, and Unit Two of our text)
8th Grade: Reviews of all of the above as well as: meals and food, asking questions, giving dates, clothing, shopping, getting around town, in a restaurant, “gustar” with nouns, present tense of –er and –ir verbs, possessive adjectives, comparatives, stem changing e/ie verbs, direct object pronouns, stem changing o/ue verbs, stem changing e/i verbs. (Introductory Unit, Unit One, Unit Two, Unit Three, and Unit Four of our text)
posted 10/31/11
