Hola! Welcome to my High School Spanish 1 (first semester) Spanish course. This course will be great for high school students that have little to no Spanish knowledge. The course will be structured around a teacher led slide lecture, however we will take many opportunities to break from the lecture to interact in Spanish, play games, listen to native Spanish speakers, and watch videos. My goal is to give a good foundation, use authentic resources and teach the Spanish language through student to student interaction, teacher to student instruction, listening activities, in class grammar activities that we complete together, games and practice work outside of class. I will incorporate Quizlet, Blooket, Google Slides, YouTube, Word Wall and more as needed (all of these are free accounts as well).
 **Because of the inclusion of sites such as YouTube and Word Wall, students must be over 13 to be a part of this class (Per Oustschool Policy)

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 /vocabulary charts/ slides to complete) 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. 
**Please note that homework is not given a percentage grade for being right or wrong, if students turn the homework in, then they will get the credit. HW will be encouraged to be completed before the second class because answers will be given the second class each week. 

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.

You may not hear your student speaking in lengthy or complex sentences in Spanish. Spanish 1 is an introductory course, students are still learning the structure of the language and acquiring new vocabulary. 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 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. 

*See syllabus for a weekly break down


There will also be a second semester that follows this course that will also continue for 14 weeks, it will use the same format as this course. Upon completion of both courses you will receive a certificate of completion of Spanish 1.