Weekly Communication

Spanish week of May 12 - 16

Mon, 12 May 2008 14:45:00 GMT

We will begin taking the district year-end Spanish assessments this week.

Monday we will talk about the speaking portion of the test.

Tuesday, we will continue work on our ongoing scrapbook projects.

We will take the writing portion of the test on Thursday. This is an hour long timed essay. Students are expected to have a polished essay of 80 words or more by the end of the hour. They will be given a writing prompt when they come in to class that day. We have already written several essays using the rubric the district uses for this test, so students should be familiar with the requirements.

On Friday, we will begin the speaking portion of the test. Each student will have a personal conversation with me which should last two minutes. They will select a speaking topic when they come to my desk, and will have one minute in which to collect their thoughts. They will not be permitted to write or read anything during this portion of the test. We will not get through every student's speaking test in one day. These will be spread out and students will be called on randomly. Every student is expected to be prepared to speak on Friday.

Spanish week of May 5 - 9

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:16:49 GMT

Hi everybody!

This week is going to be a bit of a hodge podge. We will start the week off with a mini-unit on Cinco de mayo. Did you know it is not Mexican Independence Day? Then we will go back to work on the mini-essays students began last week with the substitute. We will also be doing our daily class starters: free reading, and dictations. With the heavy emphasis on writing this week, we will not be doing a free writing assignment, but look for those next week.

On the topic of the free writing assignments, these will be given one grade based on each student's personal improvement. They are not graded against each other at all.

I got some new books for our class library this weekend! We got several new novice and intermediate level books, which should help round out students' reading choices a little bit. I am personally most excited about the Magic Schoolbus book :)

Spanish week of April 28 - May 2

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:37:20 GMT

This week students will be presenting their verb conjugation projects. Students were asked to work as individuals or in a small group of up to three students in order to create a project which would teach their classmates how to conjugate verbs, or how to remember subject pronouns.

In addition to these projects, students will continue their reading, writing and dictations which occur during the first ten - fifteen minutes of each class.

There will be homework sent home due Thursday and again next Monday.

Spanish week of April 21 - 25

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:07:05 GMT

This week students will be creating presentations to teach verb conjugation to each other. They may work individually or in groups of up to three students. These presentations should last approximately 3 minutes, and will be due on Monday, April 28. There will be no worksheets assigned as homework this week. We will continue to do free reading, reading logs, dictations and free writing exercises. There will be a quiz sometime this week which will focus on the current verbs and story.

Spanish week of April 14 - 18

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:50:29 GMT

Welcome back everybody! I hope that everybody had a fantastic three day weekend!

Before I talk about what is coming up this week in Spanish, I'd like to address two recent grades. The first of which was a timed essay which students wrote in March. These essays were in preparation for the district assessment essays which students will be asked to write in mid-May. (Please see my calendar for all upcoming deadlines.) I have entered the scores in the gradebook, but have opted to not calculate their overall grade with this score included at the moment. I am also asking students to revise their essays based on the feedback I have given them on their originals. These new essays will be graded and *that* second score will be entered and calculated as part of their grade. Students will be writing their updated essays in class on different days this week and next (period two wrote theirs last week.) I am in meetings at different times of the days over the next two weeks, and students will work while I am out of the room.

Similarly, there was a recent quiz on the verb gustar. This is the second assignment I wanted to talk about. The average score on this quiz was quite low. I retaught the concept in class, and gave a second quiz which entirely replaced the first grade. If you noticed a drastic change in the grades posted recently, that may be the reason why.

This week, we are continuing to look at some common verbs both in class and for homework. Homework is assigned on Monday and on Thursday and is due on the next day that homework is assigned. This allows one class period prior to an assignment being due, in case there are any questions. Please take advantage of this! Homework should not take more than five or ten minutes per page, these are designed to practice concepts that have been introduced in class.

We will also continue with free reading, reading logs, dictation and skits. There will be a short quiz sometime this week that will focus on recent grammar and story concepts. We continue incorporating sports vocabulary into our stories.

Spanish week of April 7 - 11

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:03:59 GMT

This week students will continue to practice verb conjugations for homework. In class we are continuing to work on our most recent story and revising the recent essays.

Students in section 2 did not get the needed information to begin their homework today. There is a verb chart at the top of the page that needs to be filled out.

yo soy

tú eres

él/ella/useted es

nosotros somos

ellos/ellas/ustedes son

I will go over the information in class on Tuesday as well.

Spanish March 31 - April 4

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:56:53 GMT

Students will be receiving practice grammar sheets for homework on a bi-weekly basis from now on. These practice sheets will reinforce the grammar we are learning deductively in class. The grammar will be fairly fast paced as most topics have already been introduced in class, and just need some more regular practice. We will continue with our free reading and reading logs.

This week we will be learning and talking about sports. We will be working on the verb gustar, present tense -er and -ir verbs, and indirect object pronouns. :)

Spanish week of March 17 - 21

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:54:43 GMT

This week we will focus on verb conjugations, and personality descriptions.

On Monday we will have free reading, reading logs, and then we will play conjugation battle ship. On Tuesday - Thursday we will play an old gameshow using descriptions to ascertain what a hidden person looks like. Friday we will have free reading and reading logs. After which we will use a tutorial software to review grammar on the interactive board.

This week is the school book fair, and there are a number of books in Spanish, including el Hobbit, CS Lewis, and three of the Harry Potters. There are also a number of easier books like Dr. Seuss and Captain Underpants. I have placed quite a few books on my wish list in an effort to build up my classroom library.

Don't forget! Next week is spring break, there are no classes. ;)

Spanish week of March 10 - 14

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:14:11 GMT

Hi everybody! Please don't forget your baby pictures! As a note, I will be making copies of the originals so that none are damaged. The pictures are due before the essays so that I can have time to make the copies!

This week we will be writing and acting stories, and preparing for a vocabulary game.

Spanish week of March 3

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:23:19 GMT

There are a few things running concurrently in class now. There is a homework assignment due next Monday - bring in a baby picutre of yourself!

Students will continue the free reading program for five minutes two days a week. I will also be reading stories to the class - this week we will be reading about dinosaurs.

We are also looking at grammar and the writing process. Students will be writing autobiographical essays and relating them to their own photographs.