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Tips for Studying and Learning Spanish
Tips for Studying and Learning Spanish
Parents and Students,
I've received a lot of questions about how to best learn a language and down the road improve scores to getting A's. Learning a language is hard and will take lots of work. This is most likely the first time you will be challenged by a class, and your parents probably can't help you with the material. You will need to learn to self-advocate for help, ask questions, and get advice. Here are some suggestions:
*Parents- please read over the letter in the inside cover of the workbook on the GP side that gives some ideas for creating work habits and study routines for learning a language.
*Students should be spending 10-30 minutes a night on homework every night during the week- M-Th. This is mostly on workbook pages. These pages are graded 1-2 days before every chapter test. If they cannot be completed the night they are assigned (extreme circumstances), they need to be done the next night or over the weekend to catchup. They will be checked at the end of the first week for completion, and if not done, students will come to Lunch Bunch to complete these pages (during lunch that day or the next).
*In addition, students should be spending ANOTHER 10-45 minutes a night reviewing the chapter's vocabulary, grammar concepts and overall themes of the chapter. We teach them a little bit every night instead of cramming the night before a test.
They can do this in a variety of ways...
1. Make flashcards from index cards- the first few times they go through them looking at Spanish and saying or writing the English. After 2-5 times doing this, they should be looking at English and producing Spanish in both speaking and especially writing. There is also the electronic version on Quizlet and Conjuguemos websites that they have accounts on.
2. Fill out the GP side of the workbook for the chapter, which includes picture flashcards, 2 column vocab checks, and detailed notes and more practice on the grammar concepts for each chapter.
3. Visit the websites that are linked up to my school website- Conjuguemos and Quizlet.
4. Visit the website www.conjuguemos.com to practice the chapter's vocab, grammar and verbs through activities. This is ESPECIALLY helpful a night or two before the test. Do the activities until you are getting 90% and 40 attempts/words. Hit record send to me or save the score.
5. Visit the website www.quizlet.com to practice the chapter's vocab through flashcards, games, activities and tests. This is linked up through my website. Remember, however that NOT all the words are on this website, so be sure to look in the textbook!
6. Listen to the pronunciation of the vocab either provided through the quizlet website- linked up through each chapter. By listening to pronunciation, this helps with spelling in Spanish.
7. Ask questions in class, if you don't understand something ask me, I’m here to help!!
8. Write out each vocab word 10 times until you can spell it correctly without looking.
9. Draw a picture dictionary for your chapter’s vocab words.
Right from the start students need to figure out what works for them. Now is the time to develop study habits, ways to study in order to get the results desired. Since these quizzes are basically Spanish spelling tests, the students need to be able to spell correctly and have memorized the vocab words at the end of each chapter- to be able to produce in writing. This is the way to succeed.
Students- Figure out the way you memorize and learn materials and keep trying things until you get the score desired. Learning a language is a full body experience. You need to embrace listening to it, speaking it, movement with vocab and writing it as many times as needed until you understand and successfully produce it. Use the language as much as possible, in as many ways as possible, to learn it-- make connections!
Learning Style Tests
In class we took 3 tests. Your student should have a good idea of how they need to study, to retain the material, based on what they learned from these tests.
What's Your Learning Style? 20 Questions
http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml
This tells you if you are Visual, Auditory or Tactile learners.
Free Learning Style Quiz: How Do You Learn?
https://www.learningstylequiz.com/
This tells you if you are more Introverted vs. Extroverted, Intuitive vs. Sensing, Thinking vs. Feeling, Perceiving vs. Judging
Determine My Learning Style - How to Study
https://www.how-to-study.com/learning-style-assessment/
This tells you similar stuff to the first one, if you are Visual, Auditory or Tactile learners. Results should be about the same as the first one.
Here's a great article about memory and how to improve it while learning.
called 10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory-- https://www.readingrockets.org/article/10-strategies-enhance-students-memory
In the end...
Students need a quiet place to study. They should not be listening to music or around tv or noise when memorizing words. They may need some help the first few months getting a system set up, but after that, we hope they are self-suficent and learn how to study in the best way for them. It is not about length of time in a day (for studying). It is about getting the most out of the time and doing smaller amounts on a regular basis.
They will struggle! This is high school level language class and is hard. But they need to work through the struggle, seek help, self-advocate and learn how THEY study best. It is all about the growth in the language. We celebrate growth, as part of the growth mindset, the scores will come along in time. Be patient with them. It will be worth it and I am here to help support them!
Please reach out if you need any help or have questions! I'm happy to give some quick lessons, advice, or just work time outside of class, to keep them on track or catchup .
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