Español de secundaria, primer semestre

Hola! Welcome to my Middle School Spanish Semester 1 course. This course will be great for middle school students with little to no Spanish, it is engaging and medium paced. 

All the coursework will be presented weekly through a slides presentation. 
This course is an introductory course, it will focus on expanding the students Spanish vocabulary, introducing them to the Spanish culture and it begins to introduce basic grammar concepts, however it is not too heavy on grammar such as verb conjugations, etc.  
Once both semesters are completed the student will be ready for High school Spanish 1. It provides the linguistic base needed to support further language learning. 

This course is organized to teach the Spanish language through student to student interaction (2nd day each week), teacher to student instruction (1st day each week), critical listening activities, games and practice work. During live sessions, students will be watching short song videos,  playing games,  and sometimes participating in interactive worksheets to ensure that the language is being acquired and taught to the students in a comprehensible and meaningful manner.

Please note that students will be provided with a link to the Google slide show used in class and there will be short assignments (flash cards) issued to do outside of class. There will also be links to games included in the presentation that students will be able to play outside of class for extra practice. These links will only take the student to a specific game, not a general website to browse. 
 
I will make the course engaging and relaxed, while still encouraging participation. My goal is to create an environment where the students feel comfortable, because the key component to acquisition of a foreign language is to be comfortable enough to have an open mind and not worry about perfecting the language. I want students to know that it is fine to make mistakes, I will NEVER embarrass a student or call them out in front of their classmates for making a mistake. Mistakes actually are beneficial in the language learning process, and I made plenty of them learning a second language.

Each week the lesson will be broken into 2 parts - Grammar/language and Culture. The first day if each week will be lecture based and focused on vocabulary words (pronunciation and meaning) and grammar. The first day each week there will not be much Spanish speaking done by the students. The second day of each week will be started off with a vocabulary game and then once that is done students will use the vocabulary and/or grammar from the week to form short phrases and use the Spanish in interactions.
Please note that this is an introduction course and you are not going to hear your student speaking in lengthy or complex sentences in Spanish. I also limit class sizes to 14 so that each student has the opportunity to speak and use the Spanish they are learning, however it does take time to go around the class and sometimes it may seem as though your student is not getting an ample amount of speaking time. I encourage students to continue using the Spanish they learn each week outside of class either practicing pronunciation alone or with a family member. 

Culture will also be included weekly and will be reserved for the last 5-10 minutes of each class, however there is always a detailed culture presentation that is provided each week and can be explored more by the students.  I believe that learning about the culture of Spanish speaking countries is just as important as learning the language, to be completely fluent in a foreign language it is essential to understand where it comes from and all about the native speakers. I feel that this component of the course helps bridge the cultural gap that is sometimes still evident in society today, it creates a well rounded student that has empathy and understanding towards the native speakers, their beliefs and land. 

**This class will need a minimum of 6 students to continue. This semester long course will be broken down as follows:

Schedule
Week 1
Vocab: Greetings/departures
Grammar: Greetings (with estar) and intro to ser vs estar
Culture: Costa Rica
Week 2 
Vocab: Numbers
Grammar :Pronunciation/Alphabet
Culture: Puerto Rico
Week 3
Vocab: Calendar/Days /Months /Seasons
Grammar: Telling Time
Culture: Spain
Week 4
Vocab: Food and "me gusta"
Grammar: Question words and "hay"
Culture: Dominican Republic
Week 5
Vocab: Body Parts and "me duele"
Grammar: Personal Pronouns and Tú vs Usted
Culture: Bolivia
Week 6
Vocab: Clothing
Grammar: Articles, gender and plurality
Culture: Honduras
Week 7
Vocab: Animals
Grammar: Adjectives
Culture: Uruguay
Week 8
Vocab: family and feelings
Grammar: Ser vs Estar
Culture: Argentina
Week 9
Vocab sports
Grammar Verbs
Culture TBA
Week 10
Vocab:  school
Grammar: Verbs
Culture TBA