Thursday's class

Today's class was...alright. I'm worried I left students feeling confused about certain things in Lección 3, but hopefully that´s not true. I devoted the class almost entirely to review- we went over "tener que" and I think it clicked. Some of the students who seemed to have a better command of this particular unit helped others and volunteered suggestions to others. It seems like students found Krista's grammar instruction this week particularly helpful. Yay Krista!

We then reviewed the personal a, which is what got us into trouble. Some students seem to really be having difficulty with this, but we went through myriad examples that they answered correctly, so hopefully they at least have the application correct, even if the comprehension of the concept is still a little murky.

We also went over the quizzes from last Friday and I directed them to points in the quiz where the majority of the class seemed to be having difficulty. We went through the quiz in extreme detail, so I think they are feeling comfortable with Lección 2 material.

I did speak primarily in English today, which I didn´t feel good about, but many students sad that they found it really helpful to talk about the more confusing aspects of grammar in English and translate it into Spanish. I still think it's important to speak as much Spanish as possible, but since the class was entirely review, I did end up speaking English for clarity's sake to make sure that as many people as possible were absorbing the concepts we discussed.

I asked the class to compile a list of specific questions and things they find particularly difficult for tomorrow's class so we can review them before the exam Monday. I will make the exam this weekend and send it out this weekend. I would appreciate any and all comments and input you may have...

Other things of note:

1. Nel Butler informed me that he is dyslexic today. We are scheduled to meet tomorrow independently and have a talk about accommodations that he may find useful in this class, but if there are any teachers particularly familiar with how to accommodate for this learning disability in terms of teaching style etc, please share any advice!

2. The class seems to be super interested in having a study hall, as Krista mentioned yesterday. I briefly spoke about this subject with Jennifer last week, but it seems like the study halls with PUP are already quite full of English students. Given that Spanish already meets 5 days a week, I don't think giving priority to Spanish students in study hall is at the top of the list. We can keep working on this, but one idea I had was to potentially set aside time in class twice a week that serves as office hours, so we can set up individual meetings or group meetings with people around areas in which they struggle. That's just one idea and I'm sure there are many more, but the class seemed adamant enough about wanting out-of-class support that I think it's important to keep in mind.

Hope everyone is well!

Kara

Wednesday, February 24th

Today's class went well. I read a short dictation to start the class. It highlighted basic vocabulary, the "tener que" construction, possessives, and agreement of adjectives. The students did well for the most part with some having a harder time than others. We went over the sentences in Spanish and translated them into English.

We then briefly reviewed -ER and -IR verbs, tener, venir and tener que. We started going over the homework, getting through the first two pages before the break.

After break, we continued reviewing the homework. The students had difficulty with section F, which dealt with contractions and the personal a. Before going over the section, we had a short grammar lesson on the personal a and the contractions al and del. We did the práctica in the book (p. 72 and 73) to practice those structures. I would encourage reviewing the personal a again, and emphasizing the difference between the preposition a and the personal a. Since it does not exist in English, some students had a hard time grasping the concept.

They are going to finish the handout for homework. I also told them that there would be no quiz this week, but there would be a test on Chapter 1 -3 on Monday. They should be ready after additional review on Thursday, Friday and time to study, over the weekend.

Some students mentioned that they would like us to come into study hall (held on M, W, F evenings) for the extra opportunity to practice, ask questions and review concepts.

Have a good class tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 23

Hi everyone,

Today we did some of the exercises from the book for Chapter 3.

We started with the dialogue on page 62, which we did in groups. Everyone seemed to understand it well.

Then we reviewed all the adjectives we have learned that can be used to describe people, from pages 63 and 64. We talked briefly about the use of ser and estar with these adjectives (mostly ser!) Then we mixed up the groups a little and had everyone take turns describing a real or imaginary person using the vocabulary. At the end, we had a few people stand up in front of the class and talk about their person. Not everyone who wanted to talk got to talk, because we had to stop for the break.

After the break, we moved on to the -er and -ir verbs. We reviewed how to conjugate them, and then practiced using exercise A on p. 69 (some people also did exercise B on p. 70). Everyone seemed to understand this well. Then we talked about tener and venir, and I reminded them about using tener for age. Everyone seemed fine with the conjugation, but there was some confusion about "tener que" even after I explained it. We stopped there and didn't do any of the exercises on page 71.

For homework, I asked them to do the first four pages of the photocopy for tomorrow, but I told them that it wouldn't actually be collected until they had finished the whole packet.

In this chapter, we still need to talk about using "a" before people that are objects (p. 72), but we are pretty close to being done. I did not tell them when the quiz or the test will be . . . I don't even know whether there will be a quiz or not. Is the test on Monday? We should tell them!

I didn't have any more problems with people leaving early.

Monday February 22nd

Today we began by brainstorming the -ar, -er, and -ir verbs that we know, and then broke up into groups to invent stories using those verbs. Each group then shared their stories with the class. We read some more library books, working on our pronunciation and learning how to deal with unfamiliar words. And then we practiced descriptions by playing a "guess who I'm thinking of" game.

Good luck tomorrow!

Can't make it to the meeting today...

Hi all. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to the meeting today in Temescal because I have a commitment on campus. Just wanted to give you the heads-up.

Class Update for Wed. 2/17

Tom and I had a good class today. We started with introductions (yet again since it was Tom's first day). Based on Kara's suggestions, he then went over the difference between nouns and -AR verbs, and the gender of nouns, to help clarify some of the confusion that some of the students had.

I went over their homework from the Práctica (p. 45). Like Kara mentioned, some students heard the assignment at the end of class and others hadn't. Together we found the -AR verbs in the sentences and conjugated them for additional practice. As we went over the exercise, we also reviewed how to form questions and negative sentences, and refreshed their memory on the gender of nouns.

We were interrupted at this point by a fire alarm. After a brief break outside, we had to change classrooms. We then read the few sentences (Práctica C) aloud together. I asked questions about the reading so that they could hear different ways of asking question, work on basic reading comprehension, and responding verbally to questions.

Tom taught the possessive - form of "de" - and then I went over possessive adjectives briefly. We didn't do any exercises to practice this because guys were starting to leave as it neared 5 pm.

We asked them to finish the Lección 2 workbook exercise for tomorrow - they complained a bit, but should have it done. Also, I said we'd have a quiz over Lección 2 on Friday since we've now covered all of that material - a postponement from last week's planned quiz. I'll bring corrected homework for lesson 1 to tomorrow's meeting so that Friday's teachers can return it.

I agree with Kara that we should postpone the exam. We haven't even started the 3rd chapter. Maybe it'll go quickly, but I feel like things are taking longer than initially imagined.

See you all tomorrow at 6:30 PM at the Peet's in Temescal.

Hi, this is the first post of the Spanish at San Quentin blog.