Spanish 1

 

Overview of Spanish 1

¡Bienvenidos!  Welcome!  My goal is to conduct class in Spanish from the very beginning of the year.  But don't worry! I’ll go over vocabulary with lots of gestures and context clues.  We'll play games, dance, sing, read stories, and do lots of speaking activities.  By the end of Spanish 1, students should be able to use Spanish to tell others about themselves, their friends, their family, their likes and dislikes, and their home and school life.  Spanish 1 will help students build a strong foundation for future language learning. 

To access my lesson plans, click below:  Lesson Plans for 2023-2024 

Important Policies:

Homework:  Because we are doing a lot of oral work in class, students should expect to have homework a few nights a week.  


Late work:  There is a 10 point deduction each day the assignment is late.  If the assignment is later than 5 days, it’s a zero.  The student must attend a tutorial to recover the zero and receive partial credit, up to a 50.  If a student is absent, he or she has the number of days absent + one day to get make-up work in.  Please, however, please email me if there is a special situation that resulted in the late work.


Oral Participation:  Students will receive points when they speak in Spanish during assigned discussions or on-task interactions.  Their goal is to get 5 points every week.  I will take a participation grade every 4 weeks.  (I want to encourage them to be fearless and try!  I’m not looking for perfection.)


Grading:  The following percentages will be used to determine grades:

Minor grades--(50%) (include classwork/homework, participation, quizzes/mini projects)


Major Grades--50% (include oral and written tests as well as major projects)


If students fail a test, they may retake it, but the first test will be averaged with the second test to get one grade; I want to encourage them to study well the first time.

Materials needed:

Supplemental Apps and Websites:

Sometimes students have had Spanish in elementary school and, therefore, would like to go beyond what we're doing in class.  Here are some additional school-appropriate resources, some of which are free:

Duolingo:  Students can download it on their phone, so it's easy and convenient, and it's free.  It will give a 'test' when your student first joins to determine what level to begin with.  It offers good pronunciation, lots of vocabulary, and fun challenges.  

Lingopie.com:  There's a 7 day free trial period; then it's about $75 per year.  Students can watch kids' tv shows from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries.  Students can adjust the speed to slow down the videos and make them easier to understand; they can also select subtitles in English and/or Spanish.  Students will need guidance in navigating to the "Kids" section of the website; there they can find cartoons, cooking shows, nature shows, etc.  

Listen to children's books on YouTube with side by side English and Spanish.  You can find these by searching the following channel: "readitagain bilingual," and these stories are free.

Watch favorite movies with Spanish audio and English subtitles.  If you are using a DVD, you can find these under "set up," though not all DVDs have Spanish audio.  When watching on a streaming platform, you can use most remotes to set up the subtitles and audio.

Memrise.com:  We already use this for our class, but students can navigate to other Spanish courses on the site to learn additional vocabulary.

Finally, there are Spanish-learning programs online which connect students with native speakers over Zoom, but these cost $20-$80 monthly, depending on how frequently students join a discussion.  I have not joined this kind of class myself, so I cannot attest to how the programs filter for age appropriateness.  If you would like to explore this option, some of the companies to look into are Memrise Live, Busuu, FluentU, and Babbel.


  

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