Course: Skillful Conversational Spanish

This course will take your student's knowledge in Spanish learned through books and elevate it to practical, skillful, everyday conversational use.  The class revolves around the two hundred most-used words in Spanish.  Your student will be challenged with weekly assignments to read short Spanish essays and listen to short Spanish videos. They will then respond in writing, or using an interactive online program. In class we will focus on oral communication.  New vocabulary will be introduced each week.  This class will focus heavily on the past tense (since Spanish actually has two different past tenses) but other tenses will be introduced as well.  The homework takes about thirty minutes daily.  A classical capstone project will be completed at the end of the year.  

Prerequisite: Your child must be able to pass the placement test.  Students should understand how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. Students must know some basic vocabulary and be able to respond to questions and form sentences in present tense Spanish prior to enrolling.  Please contact me for information about testing.

Textbook: No textbook needs to be purchased for this class. Class fees will be used to purchase a classroom subscription to online reading materials.  Parents will also occasionally be asked to print off homework assignments and reference pages for their student(s).

This class will be a blend of "levels."  For less experienced students, I will ask less difficult questions and expect less skillful replies.  For students who have already had multiple years of Spanish, I will push them to excel with more sophisticated questions and expect more skillful replies. During the year, i will maintain a careful grading record that will be available to the parent.  At the end of the year, I will assess each student according to the state guidelines, and be able to provide a grade for completing Spanish 1 or Spanish 2 depending upon the achievement the student has attained.  

I have taught Spanish using this method for years with my own children and with other classes.  My students have ordered meals at restaurants entirely in Spanish, and helped people in stores using Spanish. They are also able to have fun conversations in passing about everyday things in Spanish.  This method produces real success, and I look forward to helping your child learn to Skillfully Converse in Spanish!