Spanish II

Parents,

We are in the computer lab today setting up accounts for some of the websites we are going to be using this year. I am very excited to get started using the tech that is available to us. We will be creating accounts for Wallwisher, Edmodo, Twitter, Gmail, and our blogs. Your child will have a sheet in his/her binder that will give you access to all their usernames and passwords for each account. If you ever want to log in, you will have the necessary information. I am also sending home iPod User Agreements and Blog agreements. These two sheets must be signed and returned to class before your student can use an iPod or post to his/her blog. We will begin using iPods this Wednesday.

Especially for those who will be out today for volleyball–these are our assignments:

1. We will be practicing the Preguntas de Repaso–just look over them and be ready to answer a question on Monday.

2. I will be checking supplies today and we will label dividers. Dividers should be labeled: Handouts, Vocabulary, Notes, Reviews
and Projects. Please have your supplies on Monday for me to check.

3. We will also do the listening activity on p. 4 of the textbook; you will do this during enrichment on Monday.

4. You will need to complete actividad 2 p. 3–answer in a complete sentence. Also, actividad 7 p.5. Write answers only.

Today is the third day of school and we are getting to work in Spanish III. Yesterday, we reviewed sounds, basic question and answer, and we discussed why we should learn a foreign language. Students expressed their opinions about learning a foreign language, and especially Spanish. Today, we will be working in partners to ask and answer questions. Then we will come together as a class to answer those same questions to check for understanding. We will also discuss some review vocabulary, which students will quiz on during the day on Friday, September 3rd. We will really be talking about the differences between the verbs SER & ESTAR. This grammar point is a Spanish I skill, but it is so important that it is worthy of review in Spanish II and III. Tonight students should look over their vocabulary for 15 minutes, and their homework assignment is to make a post on our SER Wallwisher.

Welcome to Spanish II. ¡Bienvenidos a la clase de Español II! Today we will be discussing our class procedures and technology rules. You will have several papers to fill out as usual for the first day of school. I am very excited to teach each of you this year, and I anticipate a great year. You are the reason I come to work each day. I can’t wait to see all that you accomplish this year!

We will also discuss why it is important to learn Spanish:

Students will need the following supplies for class:

1 1/2 Inch Binder

1 pkg Dividers

1 pkg Note Book Paper (Wide Rule Only)

Pens

1 USB Drive–if you already have one, please don’t buy another.  You may use one drive for all your classes unless another teacher requests that you have one specifically for that class.

1 set of ear buds to plug into an iPod Touch or laptop

Parents and Students,

This is the 2nd week of the 3rd six weeks.  We have had many extra-curricular activities cropping up over the past week and into this week.  Congratulations to all students who have participated in each of these from Band to Cross Country to Football and now to Volleyball.  For this reason, we have been on a modified schedule of lesson plans in my Spanish II classes.  Please know that throughout this week and into next week, I will take things day by day as far as class activities.  Students are taking quiz 3-1 today and receiving new vocabulary.  We are working with new material this week and I will decide on each day’s assignments based on the comprehension level of the material covered in class on the previous day.  I do understand that volleyball with leave on Wednesday so we will not cover any new material in their absence.  We will continue to practice with the material that we began working on last week.

Students will take 2-1 tomorrow.  Test topics are:

Tener Que

Telling Time

Gustar

Immediate Future

Question/Answer

We have been doing review work for over a week and students will have a review sheet to fill out in class today.

Because of the PSAT, I have decided to reschedule the test for Thursday 22nd.  My hope is that students will take this extra time to study and really master the concepts that will be on the test.  Students need to master this material because it will be used for the remainder of the year.

Parents,

I have a number of students who are really struggling through the first two weeks of this six weeks. We are working on the following content:

• How to ask and answer a question correctly
• How to say “to have to” do something
• How to say “to like something”
• How to say “going to do something”

The notes on all these topics were given in stages and the last set was taken over two weeks ago.  I feel that I have given students plenty of time to process this information and we have worked with it in class most every day; yet, I still have students who are not certain of these topics.  In my professional opinion, I would say that many of these students are not studying at home.  I understand that they may be studying their vocabulary, and while that is a great thing, they cannot be successful without knowing how to use that vocabulary with their other grammar points.  We will have a test on Thursday of next week over this material. 

Please encourage your student to study their notes.  Some good study techniques for notes are:

• Rewrite the notes in summary format, or in a way that is more legible than the original version
• Draw small pictures next to the main points in the notes to draw their eye to the points to study and to use a visual recall aid
• Make index cards for each of the topics
• Type the notes on the computer
• Make their own Power Point Presentation with the notes & study from the presentation

I am going to make a new page with study links for Test 2-1.  I hope these ideas and the study links are helpful.