Spanish 1 Language and Culture

Course Catalog ID:

4619

Subject Categories:

Global Language

Description

This course is a highly-interactive, multifaceted, systematic approach to developing a solid foundation in spoken and written Spanish. The coursework includes vocabulary activities, reading, cultural elements, grammar drills, audio comprehension, and pronunciation lessons to build a variety of necessary knowledge and skills. During class, the time is dedicated to growing comfortable and proficient in speaking and understanding the kind of practical Spanish that is useful in everyday situations. Students will be encouraged and evaluated during the live class time, and their graded work will include simple written compositions, quizzes, exams, and recorded spoken submissions. The curriculum is a dynamic multimedia program that integrates grammar, vocabulary, culture, pronunciation and comprehension at an ambitious but manageable pace.

Prerequisites

Grade Levels*:

8, 9, 10, 11, 12

* Enrollment restricted based on Date of Birth and Grad Year (whichever is more limiting). Enrollment outside these levels requires written concurrence from TPS Support.

Readiness

• Students concurrently receiving academic support for English as a Foreign Language (e.g., TPS EFL-A Tutoring) require TPS Support approval to enroll this course. This course is taught assuming the student's primary language is English.

Notes and Conditions

Standard vs. Honors: TPS offers Spanish 1 in two levels: standard and honors, where this “standard” course is one day of live class per week and “honors” is two days of live class per week. The workload and level of difficulty are similar, but the honors class has more dedicated opportunity for instruction and speaking, so your proficiency will be higher after the honors course.

Grade 8: This high school credit course allows grade 8 enrollment. However, the rigor, pace, and workload are high school level and no accommodation is made for students who are not ready to work at a HS pace with HS standards of evaluation. Students seeking a more relaxed pace Spanish 1 course are encouraged to consider Spanish 1A/1B instead.

“I started this course with very minimal knowledge of Spanish — just a few vocabulary words that I’d learned years ago — but I now have a good grasp of the basics of the language and feel prepared to move on to Spanish 2. The course has a decent amount of homework without feeling like an excessive amount of work. The teacher was encouraging, and I enjoyed hearing about her own experiences with both the Spanish language and Spain. Overall, I have enjoyed learning the language and would definitely recommend this course to other high schoolers, whether or not they know anything about Spanish already!”

Molly C

Student

“At first when I was told I was going to be doing a Spanish class, I thought I was doomed. But no, this became one of my favorite subjects. It was hard for me at first, but when I started to understand it a bit more it was easy! There were still some challenges I faced on the way, but I really improved on the way. My Spanish class was really fun and I look forward to it again next year. One of my favorite things about this course is how the students get to interact with each other and encourage each other. The teacher also does a great job teaching, answering questions, and helping the students. I would also recommend taking the study class Spanish Conversations with this class.”

Clara H

Student

“This was a very beneficial and methodical course. I learned a lot, had a wonderful teacher, and loved the strong teaching from a Christian perspective. The class had a manageable schedule and homework load.”

Elise A

Student

“This course gave me an excellent understanding of basic Spanish grammar. Each week had new verbs, vocabulary, and grammar concepts for me to learn. I learned more Spanish in this TPS course than any other Spanish class I’ve taken before. This class was intense, but worth it.”

Meredith B

Student

“This course is a great learning experience for those who are beginning to learn Spanish; by the end of this course one can go from being a complete novice to forming short sentences and understanding a great deal of Spanish.”

Elizabeth M

Student