The Spanish curriculum is intensive, focusing primarily on spoken and written mastery of the Spanish language and the cultural and literary heritage of the Spanish-speaking peoples. Students may elect to take Spanish starting in the fourth grade.
Department Members
Sixth Grade
Students begin their study of Spanish by learning the alphabet, rules of pronunciation
and accents, greetings and simple conversations, ordering in a restaurant,
counting, and the weather before moving on to more complicated grammar.
Covered this year will be -ar, -er, -ir and irregular verbs,
both in the present and preterite tense, adjectives and adverbs. Ser vs. estar
are covered thoroughly as well as direct and indirect object pronouns. The
vocabulary comes from lessons on friendships, student life, shopping, time,
school activities, eating out, family life, sports, health, the seasons, cultural
events, and vacationing. Labs are incorporated into the classroom routine
on a regular basis.
Seventh Grade
Students begin their study of Spanish by learning the alphabet, rules of pronunciation
and accents, greetings and simple conversations, ordering in a restaurant,
counting, and the weather before moving on to more complicated grammar.
Covered this year will be -ar, -er, -ir and irregular verbs, both in the present and preterite tense, adjectives and adverbs. Ser vs. estar are covered thoroughly as well as direct and indirect object pronouns. The vocabulary comes from lessons on friendships, student life, shopping, time, school activities, eating out, family life, sports, health, the seasons, cultural events, and vacationing. Labs are incorporated into the classroom routine on a regular basis.
Eighth Grade
Students complete the equivalent of high school Spanish I, which they began
studying in 7th Grade. Students become fully competent in the present tense.
By the end of the year they start becoming comfortable using the past tenses.
Vocabulary ranges from talking about the university, the family, shopping
terms,and different types of housing, to food.
Students spend time actively using the language in games and skits. To increase listening comprehension, students are exposed to the different dialects of Spanish by watching videos of native speakers and through their lab work.