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April 25, 2008
Curriculum Spotlight: Spanish 4-25-2008
Dear PHS Community,
What is going on in our Spanish Classes? Something exciting..? Is something cooking? The answer is, yes!
First, as some of you know, the 8th graders made a cooking project. To do this, they needed to put their Spanish, computer, and cooking knowledge and skills all together, and the results were fantastic! The kids learned new lines, new vocabulary, more speaking skills and overall, they had a lot of fun.
In the intermediate MS Spanish groups, the students are writing a book in Spanish. It is a free subject project. Therefore, they can be very creative, funny, and original. They are searching for novel ideas, perfect sentences, and more sophisticated vocabulary. They are looking for pictures, drawings, and many other ways to make the books attractive, original, and interesting to their audience. This project is giving students the ability to engage and build a higher level of interest in learning more Spanish.
Recently the 6th graders, the advanced and the intermediate groups, mingled together for a nice, healthy lunch in a nearby Mexican restaurant. It happened on one of the nicest days in the city. The kids really made the effort to speak and order their food in Spanish. It was great to see and hear how brave they were when they ordered their food. Some of them were asking at the last minute, “How do you say? I want the same”. While we were waiting in line, they mastered this “script” in Spanish. It was a real setting and they did a fabulous job!
The 5th graders are learning more about the house, the school, the city, the food, the animals, people, more vocabulary, and the conjugation of the AR verbs. The students have many opportunities to do hands-on projects, and by doing this type of project, kids get more involved in the real world, facing real situations, and most importantly solving daily life issues.
The Middle School continued to build more complex concepts of Spanish grammar, such as, the verbs Ser and Estar. They have also learned the future tense, irregular verbs, new verbs and new vocabulary was integrated while participating in the different projects, hands-on experiences, verbal exercises, and class and homework assignments.
They also are improving their listening and speaking skills while watching documentaries, asking questions, playing games, and participating in role playing. Videos and movies are part of the curriculum that improves their listening and comprehension skills. Dialogues are very important in our classes to speed up speaking skills, feel more confident, understand the language, and comprehend the context of the conversations.
All in all, a lot is happening in our Spanish classes!
Sincerely,
Teresa Morales
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