Spanish News
Keeping You Informed
For weekly updates please visit the classroom site at: https://sites.google.com/site/sragillrenken/
Here you will find: instructional tools, updated information and pictures of your student, and so much more. Sign up for SMS too!
Spanish I
Getting Started All Over Again
It's a brand new year with many new faces and that means some back tracking. For the last two weeks we have reviewed common greetings and smaller numbers in a hope of getting students who missed Junior High Spanish all caught up. Now on to the fun things! We just began telling time and learning body parts. With time comes math and an opportunity to work on the school improvement math goal within the district. Yes, math class in Spanish, practicing basic math skills and patterning with prediction. Students will be able to ask what might be hurting and explaining to another this week. We'll be singing and of course we'll be out of our seats. Look for pictures in the next week!
Review, Review, Review
Spanish II
Students have learned to much in a Spanish I classroom and when starting a new year it seems as though they have forgotten so much. So back to the grind and first comes vocabulary and infinitives, not to mention their conjugated forms. We have spent the first week and a half playing games in an attempt to win back those memories. I ask that all students quiz at the end of the week and if there are concepts they are stumbling over to take the time to come in, review and retake the quizzes they did not pass. I assure them that they are not in trouble, but I merely want them to have a solid structure before moving on. As concepts build and build in the world of Spanish grammar I do not want students to be come frustrated.
Currently our new chapter is about places one might visit, where it's located and why one is going there. As always, we have created individual goals for this chapter focusing on reading, writing, speaking and listening in the Spanish language. It is amazing as to what they can accomplish.
Getting To Know One Another
-Through Review
Spanish III
What an energetic group that has hustled through the reviewing of adjectives, verbs, and question words! Every day there are responses and more and more of class is instructed in Spanish. Amazing group!
We have covered new adjectives of one's nationality, reviewing old ones on the way. We have again reviewed typical verbs from prior years and students are beginning to read quite easily. To make Spanish III a bit more interesting we are Blogging bi-weekly and writing Tweets on Twitter five times per quarter. In addition each student is creating an electronic portfolio available to only District OR-1 staff and students. My hope is that students venture off to the "real world" and share these with college advisors as well as future employers. Their skills in the Spanish language are quite phenomenal.
Ferdinando, Ferdinando
Spanish IV
We are reviewing a bit with a great little read. It's an easy one but a book that uses a tense many English speaker struggle with in Spanish - the past tense. Through the literature we will not only review the verb tense but adverbs, the act of bullfighting and customs that surround it. A little fan etiquette never hurt anyone. In addition, students will also be Blogging twice each week as well as completing five Tweets via Twitter each quarter. Again we are expanding our electronic portfolios which already include You-tube video, scanned work and completed projects, and a character page we are creating to increase writing skills through a little six trait writing and interesting photos.
