¡Llego la primavera!

¡Hola familias!

We blinked and we are now headed towards the end of Quarter 3 with Spring upon us!  The year is flying by! We would like to give you a few updates on some of the things we are doing in Spanish as well as some important information for Spanish students.

This past week, we started a unit called "De vacaciones" . In this unit students will learn to describe where they like to go on vacation, their favorite vacation activities and what they need to pack to go on a trip.  They will also learn to describe past events.  In the coming weeks students will be creating an itinerary and video recording about a trip they are planning to a Spanish-speaking country.  This is a really fun project!  Please be sure to ask them to show you their video.  We will wrap up the unit with a DC post card project that will be on display at DC night!

During the first week of April all students in Spanish classes will be taking the National Spanish Exam.  This is a contest and standardized test sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.  The National Spanish Exam is an online, standardized assessment tool for students in Grades 6 -12.  It is given voluntarily by thousands of teachers throughout the United States to measure proficiency and achievement of students who are studying Spanish as a second language.  The purpose of the exam is to recognize achievement in the study of the Spanish language, promote proficiency, assess the national standards as they pertain to learning Spanish and to encourage further interest in the teaching and learning of Spanish.  Students do not need to study for this exam and their grades on the exam do not impact their Spanish grade in any way. The exams will take place during the student's Spanish class time and consist of two separate tests - one proficiency exam (reading and listening) and one achievement exam (vocabulary and grammar).  Please know that if a student is absent, s/he will not be able to take the test at a later time as all students in a class must take it on the same day.  Students will receive their scores some time in May and there are several ways students can be recognized for outstanding achievement on the National Spanish Examinations:

Students with outstanding scores on the National Spanish Examinations are recognized as follows:

Premio de Oro - students scoring at or above the 95th percentile.

Premio de Plata - students scoring from the 85th through the 94th percentiles.

Premio de Bronce - students scoring from the 75th through the 84th percentiles.

Mención Honorífica - students scoring from the 50th through the 74th percentiles.

Students in Grades 8, 9 or 10 scoring above the 75th percentile are eligible to apply for the Global Citizen Scholarships.

Please let your child's teacher know if you have any questions about the exam. They have already taken several practice tests in and out of class and we encourage them to continue to do so, so they get acclimated to the style of the exam.

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Also important for all to know is that this week all 8th grade teachers are doing 9th grade placement and recommendations.  You will be getting this information in the coming weeks.  Please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher if you have any questions about what courses are offered for Spanish students at the high school.

As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. 

Un saludo cordial,
Kathy Delima and Leigh Netcoh
8th grade Spanish Teachers

¡Las vacaciones de febrero!

¡Hola familias!

We cannot believe that February Break is already here! Quarter 3 is already flying by! With that said, we felt it appropriate to provide you with an update of what we have covered since the break, what we will be working on after the break and to remind you of ways you can help your student to keep their Spanish fresh over the break. 

January and February have been very busy months in our Spanish classrooms. In January, students worked hard on winter poems and posters for World Languages Week. We were very impressed with the great quality of work we saw from students on these assignments. Between January and February, we also wrapped up our study of winter holidays in Spain and Colombia, as well as our unit on family vocabulary and physical descriptions. Your student should be able to name all of the members in your family as well as describe them. Feel free to quiz them some time! 

We have just begun a unit called "En el restaurante" (in the restaurant). Students have just learned the names for items found on the table at a restaurant (fork, knife, spoon, napkin etc.), as well as how to tell a waiter if something is missing from a table. Please feel free to quiz them on this as well! Students will also be learning how to order food at a restaurant as well as how to take food orders. If you are traveling to a Spanish Speaking Country over the break, you can order in Spanish on your vacation by saying "quisiera" key-see-ara" ("ara" with the "a" as in "apple") followed by the dish you would like to order! You can also visit many restaurants in the area where there are Spanish-speaking servers!  

Here is a list in case you're interested! And please let us know if you know if any others :) 
Acapulco's (Mexican) - Sudbury
El Azteca (Mexican) - Framingham
Pueblito Paisa (Colombian) - Framingham
La Casa de Pedro (Venezuelan) - Watertown
El Oriental de Cuba (Cuban) - Jamaica Plain
Mexico Lindo (Mexican) - Melrose

To wrap up the unit, we will focus on how to use the verbs "ser" and "estar", which both mean "to be", but serve different purposes. For example "estoy aburrido" means "I am bored" while "soy aburrido" means "I am boring". This may be challenging for some students, so please encourage them to seek extra help if they express frustration when we reach this point in the unit. 

Over the break, many students will go a whole week without any exposure to Spanish! Repeated exposure is very important in language learning, so below are a few tips to help encourage their student to keep their skills sharp over the break:

1. Review previous unit vocabulary on the site Quizlet.com. There are great interactive games that students can play or flashcard sets they can study...playing games on Quizlet could be an easy and fun solution if your student ever says "I'm bored" over the break!
2. Play games or complete practice activities on the website Conjuguemos.com. This is a great way for students to keep grammar concepts fresh. To play games, they can click on the topic they want to study and click on the "new interactive games" link on the left hand side of the activity.
3. Practice with a friend or family member who speaks Spanish!
4. Watch t.v. or listen to music in Spanish. Any input in Spanish, even if they only understand a few words will help keep their listening skills sharp.
5. Eat at one of the restaurants listed above where you student can order in Spanish!
6. If you are going to a Spanish Speaking Country, encourage your child to use their Spanish! An "Hola, ¿Cómo está usted?" can go a long way! 

As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. We hope everyone has a happy, safe and restful February break.

Un saludo cordial,
Kathy Delima and Leigh Netcoh
8th grade Spanish Teachers

Preparing for Winter Break

¡Hola familias!

With the break fast approaching, we wanted to take  a few minutes to update you on what we have been doing since Thanksgiving and also provide you with some tips to help your student keep his or her Spanish skills fresh over the long break.

To begin, since Thanksgiving, we have been busy reinforcing family vocabulary and learning about how winter holidays are celebrated in both Spain and Colombia. Students have had lots of practice speaking and describing their own family, as well as famous families. The students have also learned about Noche de las Velitas and other holidays that are celebrated in Colombia this time of year. Additionally, students have learned about traditions in Spain such as eating twelve grapes and midnight on New Year's Eve. The students have also recently completed an assignment in which they recorded a video of themselves describing one of their favorite holidays that they celebrate. Many students include a comparison to holidays in Spain or Colombia in their descriptions.

After the break, we will be working on the Winter Poems that have been a tradition among all languages in the World Languages Department. Students will also be learning how to describe what they and others are like physically. Many students enjoy learning how to say someone is tall and has brown hair and green eyes etc.  We will also begin to discuss recommendations for 9th grade.  These are based on your student's progress in class and on assessments over the past two years.

Over the break, many students will go almost two weeks without any exposure to Spanish! Repeated exposure is very important in language learning, so below are a few tips to help encourage their student to keep their skills sharp over the break:

1. Review previous unit vocabulary on the site Quizlet.com. There are great interactive games that students can play or flashcard sets they can study...playing games on Quizlet could be an easy and fun solution if your student ever says "I'm bored" over the break!
2. Play games or complete practice activities on the website Conjuguemos.com. This is a great way for students to keep grammar concepts fresh. To play games, they can click on the topic they want to study and click on the "new interactive games" link on the left hand side of the activity.
3. Practice with a friend or family member who speaks Spanish!
4. Watch t.v. or listen to music in Spanish. Any input in Spanish, even if they only understand a few words will help keep their listening skills sharp.

As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. We hope everyone has a happy, safe and restful winter break. See you next year!

Un saludo cordial,
Kathy Delima and Leigh Netcoh
8th grade Spanish Teachers

El Día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving)

¡Hola familias!

¡Qué increíble que ya sean las vacaciones del Día de Acción de Gracias! We can't believe that it is already Thanksgiving Break! The intercambio is off to a great start. Our students have just finished their first letters to their pen pals and should be hearing back from their pen pals (in Spanish) in the next few days. We have also just finished up a hefty unit where our students have learned how to talk about sports they play, tell someone that a specific body part hurts, tell someone what they are going to do and invite someone to do something. They have also learned about what Spaniards like to do in their free time and all of the exciting things there are to do in Spain. The will surely be learning more about this from their pen pals!

In perfect timing with the spirit of the holidays, we have just begun our family unit. Students have begun to learn the Spanish names for the members in their family. They will also be learning how winter holidays are celebrated in Spain and Colombia and will be making comparisons between these celebrations and their own.

In order to bring a little bit of español to your Thanksgiving tables this year, we are offering students extra credit on their next quiz if they make place cards in Spanish for the people who are at the Thanksgiving table. For example, a card with the word "abuela" written on it to be placed where his/her grandmother will be sitting. A family friend can be referred to as "un amigo/una amiga de la familia". The students must take a picture of the labels on the table and show the picture to us, via email or printed out, on Monday December 1st.  Students may also receive extra credit for labeling at least five dishes in Spanish and showing us a picture of this as well. 

We look forward to the coming unit and to seeing a little bit of Spanish in the outside world of our students! We hope you all have a restful and wonderful break.

Un saludo cordial,
Kathy Delima and Leigh Netcoh
8th Grade Spanish Teachers

¡El intercambio va a empezar!

¡Hola familias!

We are very excited to announce that we are planning to begin a language exchange with a middle school in Madrid starting next week. Many of the students at this school are students that Leigh Netcoh worked with while living in Madrid, Spain from 2011-2012. We began the exchange last year and are looking forward to continuing the tradition this year with a new group of students.

The exchange will be taking place on the students' blogs. The students will be adding their pen pals, as well as the teacher from Spain, as author's of their blogs so they may have access to make comments on the blog. Our students will post first in Spanish and the remainder of the exchange will take place via the comment sections of the blog. As the exchange is taking place on the students' blogs, you will be able to carefully monitor the interactions as well. 

We are very excited to begin this exchange. We look forward to providing our students  the opportunity to use their Spanish for an authentic purpose as well as to learn about their peers in a Spanish speaking country, broadening their cultural perspectives. We ask that send an email to your child's Spanish teacher to give consent for your child to participate in this cultural experience (Leigh_Netcoh@wayland.k12.ma.us if your child has Profe Netcoh or Katherine_Delima@wayland.k12.ma.us if you child has Señora Delima). Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions.

We look forward to receiving your consent via email. 

Un saludo cordial, 
Katherine Delima and Leigh Netcoh
8th grade Spanish Teachers 

¿Qué está pasando en la clase de español? Edición de otoño

¡Bienvenidas Familias! Welcome to our 8th grade blog!

The purpose of this blog is to keep you up to date on what is going on in your child's Spanish class. 

Currently, we are in our second unit of the year "¿Qué vas a hacer este fin de semana? (what are you doing this weekend?) So far, the students have learned to describe their favorite sports and leisure time activities. Soon they will learn to extend and decline invitations. This part of the unit is a lot of fun as we pair them up and have them send voicemail messages to each other and accept or decline their partner's invitations.

 This past week the students also worked on and presented their Day of the Dead altars. This is one of our favorite projects as the students are really able to connect with the Mexican culture as they recreate an authentic ofrenda. I've posted some of their ofrendas below. We were blown away at how amazing their ofrendas came out. ¡Excelente trabajo!

 The students have blogs that they post to regularly as well as many online activities where they have to record themselves speaking en español. Students will be posting to their blogs again next week. Please do not hesitate to ask them to share their new knowledge with you! Have them share their blog posts or voice recordings with you. We also have stamp sheets we use in class to assess what the students are learning throughout each unit. Students receive a stamp on this sheet when they demonstrate to us that they can meet a unit objective. This is a great way to quiz them on what they know at home too! You'll be quite impressed with all they can say and write!

 We have gotten the year off to a great start and are looking forward to continuing a great year with your students. Please stay tuned for another update.

 Un saludo cordial, Katherine DeLima and Leigh Netcoh
 8th grade Spanish teachers