Spanish II Course Overview

Taught by: Javier Fernandez

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Goals:

Primary goal:  To communicate in Spanish.

Performance goals:
     To develop a basic set of communicative skills.
     To acquire correct speech habits and structural accuracy while conversing and writing on everyday topics.
     To be able to tell stories.

Evaluation procedures

A marking period grade is a combination of evaluation on the following areas:

     A quiz is given each time a uniform portion of material, or a specific skill has been fully explained, practiced and developed. An evaluation is also made at the end of each chapter and upon completion of a set of three chapters.

     Whenever possible, an equal number of tests is given for each evaluation area and averaged together with any samples of written or oral work produced by the student. A different amount of points is assigned to each evaluated material depending on its characteristics.

Homework policy

   Homework is regarded as essential for class, a sine qua non condition.

   About half an hour of homework is expected for every class session.

   Daily homework is assigned as a follow up of the lesson or as preparation for the following class.  Each completed homework receives 10 points while undone or clearly hasty, careless homework receives 0 points.  Partial credit is given only when there is evidence that the student has done his best but could not complete the task because of lack of understanding of the subject.

    Participation in school sports, clubs or activities is not regarded as a valid excuse for failing to produce homework. Students who fail to do their homework are assigned to the MLRC in order to ensure completion of assignments.

Work presentation

     A three hole binder is needed for keeping the workbook and the tape manual sheets in good condition until the end of the school year.  Class notes and other homework assignments may be kept on a different notebook or section provided it only contains Spanish related material.

     In general, students are encouraged, but not forced, to produce their work in handwriting.  Occasionally typed assignments will be requested for special papers or projects.

     As stated above, hasty, sloppy work will not receive credit.

Making up work after an absence

Students who missed classes are expected to contact either their teacher or a classmate.  The students are responsible for finding out what happened in the session(s) missed, update their class notes and ask about pending assignments.  If then, while reviewing the material, a student has trouble understanding it, he should see his/her  teacher immediately in order to clarify  difficult concepts and get explanations as needed.   At that point some kind of remedial or makeup work will be arranged.  A reasonable amount of time for the completion of the task will be given to the student.

Students who know in advance that they will be missing classes for school reasons or family needs must write a short note to their teacher stating the days they will be absent and the reasons.  As they hand in the note to the teacher some arrangements can be made regarding make up work and class work.

     Students who missed tests due to an excused absence have a maximum of four days to take that test at the Resource Center.  After the fourth day the test will be graded 20% down for each day delayed.  However, if the absence was unusually long and the student needs prolonged makeup work to catch up with the class, a deadline will be set by the student and the teacher together.  Again after the deadline the test will be graded 20% down for each day delayed.  Finally, students repeatedly missing test days will be reported to the principal's office and the reason for their absence will be examined very closely.  A doctor's signature may be required depending on the case.

Late assignments

Students are well advised to contact their teacher if they foresee that reasonable circumstances will prevent them from meeting a deadline.  However, deadlines are usually established together by both the teacher and the class at the time of giving an assignment and therefore, as a general rule, late work is not admitted.

Extra credit

Extra credit may be given either to students who volunteer to participate in projects that would translate into some kind of benefit for the class as a whole (v.g.: making of materials) or to those who, out of genuine interest in the subject, produce an amount of work well beyond the requirements and expectations set on a given task.
Extra credit is not an option for students who having wasted class time or neglected attention to the subject want to improve their grade in the last stages of the quarter.  

Extra help

            Students experiencing major difficulties with writing, reading or oral skills will be called individually by the teacher and assigned to the Resource Center, required to complete specific remedial  assignments or asked to take extra tapes home in order to improve their listening ability. 

Teaching style

1.  Classes consist of a warm-up, a topic clearly stated by the teacher at the beginning of the session, oral practice with choral and individual repetition, free response questions, and written work that summarizes the day's topic.

2.  Students are requested to participate actively in class since this is a critical factor in language learning.

3.  All material is presented in conversational form, imitated, repeated, recombined in different ways and applied to similar situations.

4.  Although some skit memorization tasks are used to support fluency and assimilation of new structures, emphasis is on comprehension rather than memorization.

5.  The material is presented through a broad variety of activities so that it reaches students with different learning styles.

6.  Writing ability is developed through short sentence practice leading gradually to longer and more complex structures.

7.  Aural comprehension is emphasized as to develop the hearing skills necessary for communication. Tapes present speakers from different Spanish speaking countries.  Listening activities train the students not to rely solely on printed materials, but rather to listen carefully to what they hear.

8.  Oral expression is first achieved through practice of controlled conversation and role playing  in skits leading gradually to more free patterns and delivery of short speeches.

9.  Much of the practice -be it in the form of questions, situational, or role playing- is personalized and it is designed to get students to respond from their personal experience.

Use of technology and other resource materials.

1.  The course is supported with a broad range of multimedia and audiovisual materials:    Laser disk with bar coded sequences, multi-system video machine, tape recorder with adjustable speed, tapes, videos, overhead transparencies, slides, picture posters, art work.

2.  Computer support:

Microsoft Word in Spanish.

Microtutor in Spanish (a computer program for remedial and review purposes)

CD-ROMS.

Projects and special assignments

A.        Short term assignments include compositions, computer assisted instruction, projects involving some elaborate presentation such as poster making or brief oral reports.

B.        MLRC assignments are part of the course and they may include computer assisted instruction as well as listening to recordings and reading short Spanish articles.