¡Feliz Año Nuevo! I am so excited about digging into this new semester. Here is a quick heads up about what we are doing:
8th Grade: We have been moving quickly through Unidad 3.1, which expands on all of the clothing vocabulary, and introduces several new verbs that are similar to gustar. They require the use of indirect object pronouns, and the third person conjugations of the verbs. We have reviewed the verbs gustar and doler (ue) and have added in the verbs interesar, importar, quedar (to talk about the fit of clothing), encantar and molestar. Additionally, we have been reviewing all of our verbs with irregular yo forms in the present tense, especially poner, decir, tener, venir, conocer, saber, dar, ver and hacer. We did oral quizzes today, and will be doing a written quiz next week, with the chapter exam the week of the 18th.
I am very excited to announce that our 8th graders will be participating in the National Spanish Exam again this year. Last year, more than 150,000 students nationwide participated in the exam, and All Saints students performed extremely well. We are in a rather unique situation, in that our middle school classes are not officially designated for high school credit as being Spanish I or Spanish II, and the material overlaps a bit. I offered the students the choice of testing at either level, and the class unanimously chose to test at level 2. That means that they are testing at the exact same level as high school sophomores, juniors and seniors who are taking Spanish II! It says a lot about this class that instead of taking the easier level, they chose to challenge themselves above and beyond what is required. We talk about preparing students to go on after All Saints, not just with a strong academic foundation, but also in terms of their character. So many colleges and universities lament the rise in students who are fragile and coddled. To have entire classes that seek a challenge and are courageous enough to risk lower scores instead of easy winnings, just because they want to stretch themselves and grow, is a powerful testimony to the resilience and motivation of our students.
7th Grade: We are learning the parts of the body, and the use of the verb doler (ue) with indirect object pronouns, and did an oral quiz over them today. I was delighted when one of our students went blank on the word, and found a different way to express the same idea. That is exactly what our students have to be able to do in real life to communicate! We all have moments when we can't come up with the word we want to use, either because we have forgotten, or because it is one we haven't learned yet. When our students have the gumption and poise (during an oral quiz when they are put on the spot!) to still be able to convey the information, that is a wonderful thing.
Next week we will begin the preterite, and I am very excited about helping our class learn how to talk about past events. The preterite tense is all about details--accent marks, spelling changes, and all kinds of tricky little things that make a big difference in the meaning. It is a lot of work, but I know that they are up for the challenge.
Our 7th graders will also be participating in the National Spanish Exam. This exam is hard. There is a TON of vocabulary that students are expected to know, as well as a great deal of grammar. To my delight, students have already been on the NSE website, looking at past examinations and practicing with the online exercises, and even told me that they wanted to do more this weekend!
So, to sum up, our students had oral quizzes the first week of class and were successful on them, they are speaking the language, studying on their own, and taking on challenges even beyond what I would ask--I cannot imagine a better or more inspiring group of kids!
