Back-to-School Night was this week on September 10th, and it was great to meet the parents of our "special" 8th graders.  This is the class that had the good fortune to begin their study of Spanish in 6th grade, and it shows!  The students have a comfort level with the language that is more like that of a student in their 4th or 5th year of study.  They appear to be very comfortable with the immersion setting we are providing by conducting the class 90-100% of the time in Spanish.  And they readily respond in Spanish.

After a bit of basic review, we began a project-based approach to reviewing previously learned material that allows students to build on vocabulary already learned and add new words and phrases.  This first project focused on school; students worked in small groups to either describe Clarksville Middle School or a school of the future.  Students showcased their creativity and skills in the language through their presentations.

We also worked on some essential grammatical structures, such as noun-adjective agreement and prepositions of location.  Based on some of their written work, we will review the verb me gusta / me gustan and introduce the construction of (s)he or they like [le gusta(n) / les gusta(n)].

Also, in the coming week, we will complete the second review project:  La comida saludable (Eating Healthy).  Students will work in pairs or individually to design and review a restaurant that serves healthy menu options.  We anticipate more of that creativity to emerge with this project!

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Amazing what the 7th graders can already do in the language!  

For Back-to-School Night on September 10th, parents got to see the students' acrostic poems that they constructed using their new Spanish names and cognates.  Students used nouns and adjectives in Spanish to share a little about themselves, and in the process, discovered that there is a lot of Spanish they already can read and understand.

After these first couple of weeks of instruction, students can also carry on a conversation in which they talk the following:

• Say hello
• Ask for and give their name (in Spanish, of course!)
• Ask about and tell how they feel
• Ask about and indicate where they live
• Ask for and give their age
• Ask for and give the time
• Say good-bye.

Next week, we'll add phone numbers, the date, weather, and seasons.  We'll also check out the geography of the Spanish-speaking world and tell where we are from.

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