Weekly assignments are posted in the 'Stream' of our Googel Classroom.
This course is designed to help beginning students attain proficiency in the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Cultural materials, which give the students a realistic view of the Hispanic world, are included. Various forms of media are used to enhance students’ understanding of grammar and culture.
Throughout Spanish II, students will develop their language skills by studying a variety of topics. Each topic will have several sets of vocabulary and grammar points associated with it. The general topics to be studied include travel, sports and health, daily routines, clothes and shopping, legends, and food/restaurant.
Instruction is guided by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) standards. Throughout the course of each unit, we will focus on the 5 C’s: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities. This allows us to get the larger picture and use Spanish in real-world context, which is vital for a living language that is used in over 20 countries by more than 400 million people.
To speak Spanish whenever possible, both inside and outside of the class setting.
To improve our reading and writing skills in English through the study of Spanish.
To develop an understanding of and increase our knowledge of other cultures and societies.
Work for each week will always be posted by 8 AM on Wednesdays and will always be due by midnight on the following Tuesday. The completion of the week’s video lessons will determine your attendance.
All work completed late, after the due date and time, will be reduced to a maximum grade of 60% (assuming it is completed and of an acceptable quality). However, after two weeks have gone by, no work will be accepted. It will also not be possible to complete work for prior marking periods once they’ve ended.
If you do poorly on a video lesson, practice assignment, quiz or project, you may be able to resubmit it to regain some of the lost points. You should contact me for help first and to discuss your situation. Requests to re-do video lessons must be made before the due date. For other assignments, a genuine effort must have been made to complete the assignment prior to the due date in order to receive full points.
Cheating is a very serious offense. A student found cheating on an assignment will receive an automatic zero for that assignment; multiple instances of cheating may lead to a failure of the marking period.
In addition, in the context of World Languages, it is important to note that cheating also includes use of an online translator or native speaker for help (you may look up individual words in a dictionary). Also, students may not ask others to review and improve their work without first obtaining teacher permission. Academic dishonesty also includes providing help to others without the permission of the teacher.
You should check your grades frequently on Skyward. While many of your assignments will be graded in Google Classroom, the grade in Skyward is official!
Each marking period grade will be based on the total points earned out of the total points possible. While I do categorize my assignments, they are not weighted categories (e.g. a homework point counts the same as a project point).
For every new vocabulary, grammar concepts and culture, there will be a video lesson that you will need to watch, taking the place of live instruction. These will be done on EdPuzzle, meaning that the videos may have comprehension questions throughout that you will have to answer and on which your grade will be based. These are also used for purposes of attendance.
If you are unhappy with your score on a video lesson, you can message me and request that I reset the video for you. You will then be able to start over, as if you never made the first attempt. You will not be able to skip ahead and you will have to answer all of the questions over again. I will only reset videos that have been watched all the way through the fist time (not just partially watched)
Practice will be assigned for each vocabulary and grammar concept. There may also be some longer practice assignments for the purpose of unit review. These will generally be PDFs that you will complete by adding text or other annotations using Kami. Some practice assignments will be done using Google Docs, for which each exercise will be worth 1 point.
For some vocabulary/grammar concepts, there will be a short quiz. Some units will have longer, comprehensive quizzes at the end of them. They will be open-notes and done on Google Forms.
Throughout the course of the year, you will show your understanding of the various concepts and expand your learning through the completion of projects. Expect to have a project to complete once every 2-3 weeks. They will be done using a variety of online tools and graded using a rubric.