Spanish
Teacher: Shari Schwarz
There are several sessions for this subject. The cost is $60 per month per session.
Grades 9 - 12:
Year 1
M/W 9:00-10:15 Full
M/W 1:30-2:45
T/Th 9:00-10:15
T/Th 1:30-2:45
Year 2
M/W 10:30-11:45
T/Th 10:30-11:45
T/Th 12:15-1:30
Year 3
M/W 12:00-1:15
General Description, all levels:
These courses are academic, grammar based, and cumulative in nature. They are designed to foster growth in critical thinking skills and student assumption of ownership/responsibility in order to control and manipulate the language as a system.
Given our limitations of time and situation, it is not likely that students will become fluent in the language. For further development of rationale, see a description written to justify my use of lots of copy paper at Catawba College, pasted below the section, “Other necessary tools.”
Objectives
Focus
Class time will emphasize the areas targeted in placement testing; the cognitive aspect of reading, which involves the consideration of grammatical elements (especially verbs and pronouns), and the skill of listening.
Prerequisites:
Maximum number of students: 12
Cost per student (numeric only): See Session information listed above
Homework: Daily study, written work, and oral practice
Supplies that the students should bring to class:
Como se dice eighth edition 2005 by Jarvis, Lebredo, & Mena-Ayllón
Student text ISBN: 0-618-47144-8
The text covers all of Spanish grammar and will be used for all levels.
Purchase only the hard cover text, not ancillary materials (workbook, CD,etc.).
The text is available used for under $10 on amazon.com
Two and a half inch binder with paper and dividers.
Dark pencil, blue or black pen, red pen , a marker for a whiteboard, eraser for whiteboard.
Internet access for:
Email for emailed assignments
engrade.com 24/7 grade access for parent & student
learnspanish.com syllabus for assignments
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The following was written by Shari Sanders Schwarz.
RATIONALE: READING AS SECOND LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVE
or
Everything old is new again.
PRESUPPOSITION I:
The capacity to apply and transfer knowledge in order to discern, discriminate, and reason critically is a legitimate goal for disciplines of higher education. The accumulation of factual information is an intermediate goal supplying the building blocks for this capacity.
First language acquisition is a complex process initiated as a skill, enhanced by immersion and a high level of motivation (survival, gratification of perceived needs and wants), and later addressed cognitively as an academic subject.
In a fifteen week course consisting of three fifty minute classes a week, having no lab, and attended in large part by students unaccepting of the imposition of its requirement, meaningful practice (with motivation, preparation and focus) of the skills of listening, speaking (choral drill, individual response to questions, oral presentations), reading, and writing, as well as adequate evaluation thereof, is limited. In order to achieve any results of substance, objectives must be clearly defined. (1)
The skill of reading is one (although it will subsequently be alluded to as THE ONE or TRUTH) legitimate objective (terminal or intermediate in the case of the minority so motivated to practice pronunciation and to originate and receive communication in the target language) in the process of second language acquisition at the beginning and intermediate levels of college instruction in that it posses the potential to foster and develop critical thinking skills. (2)
1. When addressing a level appropriate reading, students can be assisted to discover that by using the vocabulary and structures they have learned, establishing a context, searching out cognates and words with recognizable roots, considering every sentence in relation to those preceding it, considering what is being asked of them, retracing these steps, and by referring to the dictionary for the meaning of key works only as a last resort, they can come to a reasonable understanding of the material.
2. The transition from rote memorization of concrete nouns in the target language to a meaningful context in which an abstract idea is apprehended without direct translation is a difficult one for most students. Reading differs from the other receptive skill, that of listening, in that it may be retrieved, reconsidered, and reflected upon. The student internalizes correct expression and not his own invented grammar. Properly structured questions on the reading allow him to compose and practice with accuracy and to increase his passive vocabulary by the acquisition of words whose meaning he is able to discern by considering context.
3. The reading provides the basis for oral expression based on its content and vocabulary.
4. Readings may be the source of much rich cultural information which goes beyond superficial differences between peoples to a higher level consideration—that of the world view expressed by a literary reading adapted for beginning use. Again, second language instruction readily lends itself to higher level thinking skills.
5. The reading objective equips the student to fulfill the second language requirements of proficiency tests and graduate programs.
6. Reading as a primary objective provides focus for scheduling and prioritizing course Elements. Mastery of the agreement of adjectives and their nouns, for example, does not impact the student’s capacity to understand a selection to the same degree as does his grasp of direct objects. Hence less time and emphasis would be allotted to the former.
HOW IT WORKS:
1. MEANING IS PARAMOUNT. Exercises and oral drills which emphasize the acquisition of mechanics and fluency need to be complemented by opportunities for the student to consider meaning as well. For example, a written exercise in which he changes a present tense verb form to preterit may be completed without his understanding a word, and should be followed by one in which the student demonstrates apprehension of meaning by choosing from several different infinitives to complete the sentence.
2. GRAMMAR RULES. The student must be presented with essential grammar and be required to demonstrate knowledge thereof. The osmosis method of second language learning breaks down at the intermediate level if not before.
3. THE VERB IS THE CENTERPIECE OF THE SENTENCE. The student must be able to recognize it, discern what is happening, deduce the time frame of the action, and identify who is doing it.
4. PRONOUNS ARE PRIMARY. The student must be able to discern how they operate in the sentence and what their antecedents are.
5. RE-ENTRY IS RITUAL. Textbooks tend to teach grammar points and vocabulary as discrete, isolated segments, and students may be accustomed to being tested in like manner. Written and oral communication do not observe such niceties. Each homework assignment, each quiz, each exam, should therefore re-enter and reinforce previously learned material. For example, if object of the preposition pronouns are being addressed, after some initial practice, the student should be favored with the opportunity to choose between subject, direct object, indirect object, and reflexive pronouns as well.
6. OBJECTIVE TESTING TELLS THE TALE. Well structured objective tests which evaluate clearly defined objectives indicate a student´s level of mastery of the material. Their composition is exacting, therefore their number is few and their reputation poor.
FOOTNOTES:
1. The problematic nature of second language instruction is evidenced by instructor dissatisfaction with the perceived level of student success and the resulting cyclical shifting of emphasis on goals and methodology. Emphasis in recent years, possibly related to the demand that learning be “relevant” and to the decline in formal instruction of English grammar, has been on the communicative approach, which targets the active skills of speaking and listening in specific and limited situations (expressing likes and dislikes, shopping, travel, sports and leisure activities) almost to the exclusion of reading and grammar. Measurement of success is subjective, as goals and criteria are necessarily nebulous where accuracy is not the desired outcome. The objectivity of the evaluator is further limited by his personal response to the student, by his familiarity with the student’s pronunciation, and by his knowledge of what vocabulary and structures have been taught. Student motivation is impacted by the lack of clear cut learner objectives and the lowering of expectations may result.
2. This objective may well be met with resistance by students who are accustomed to the memorization of lists and verb forms being an end in itself and to “one shot” problem solving.
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