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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This year, we will be using Edmodo in our classroom.   Edmodo is a free and secure social learning network for teachers, students, and schools.  It provides a safe and easy way for us to connect, share content, access homework, submit assignments, and receive class notices.  Only the students have the initial Group Code to join; after all the students have enrolled, I lock access and the code is no longer active.  This prevents outsiders from accessing our class on Edmodo and provides a protected environment in which to manage class assignments, information, and interaction.

With Student Accounts, you can:

• Send messages to the class and to me, but you cannot send private messages to other students
• View homework assignments and due dates
• Submit assignments and take quizzes
• Access and print class documents
• Receive updates on class and school events.

Edmodo is accessible online and on any mobile device with Internet capabilities (there is a free app for iPhone, iPad, or Android).  You can access your account on the go, and adjust your notification settings within Edmodo to receive alerts via text or email.  

Parents can also join our class site.  The Parent Account allows you to observe your child's classroom activities, so you will always be updated about assignments, grades, upcoming events, and more.  Your account is automatically updated as your child uses Edmodo and participates in his/her Groups.

Students will enroll in our Edmodo Group during class with our special group code.  If you are interested in accessing your Parent Account, please send me an email with your child’s first and last name in the Subject Line.  I will then send you the unique code for you to register for Edmodo and access your student’s information.  

In the meantime, please sign the Edmodo Student Permission Form that you can download from this website on the Inicio or Para los padres pages. 

Welcome to a new school year and Spanish I!  Squishy (our class mascot) and I have been waiting for the students to arrive and they are finally here!  It's been a great first week and we're looking forward to listening, speaking, reading, and writing Spanish with all our students.

Want to know what we're going to learn this year?  Check out the Para los padres page for the welcome letter and curriculum:

• 7th Grade Welcome Letter
• 7th Grade Curriculum
• 8th Grade Welcome Letter
• 8th Grade Curriculum.

Also, take a minute to review the various pages on this website, starting with the page that introduces me, Sra. Espitia!  Across the various pages, you'll find documents and resources for learning the Spanish language and the cultures that speak Spanish.

Have a question not answered on the website?  Contact me via the website or my email at deborah_espitia@hcpss.org.

Hasta pronto,
Sra. E.

We had a bit of fun with the New York Times interactive website, How Y'all, Youse, and You Guys Talk.  The survey questions were based on those in the Harvard Dialect Survey, a linguistics project begun in 2002 by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder.  The data for the quiz and maps come from over 350,000 survey responses collected from August to October 2013 by Josh Katz, a graphics editor for the New York Times who developed this quiz. The colors on the large heat map correspond to the probability that a randomly selected person in that location would respond to a randomly selected survey question the same way that you did as you took the quiz. The three smaller maps show which answer most contributed to those cities being named the most (or least) similar to you.

While the quiz was in English and not Spanish (that would be great and I'll keep looking to see if someone has created one), it addresses observations we've made in class about different words Spanish speakers use to identify the same thing, based on their country of origin.  

For example, in Spain, the word for car is coche; however, carro or automóvil is used in other countries.  For these countries, coche is a carriage and in Mexico and Central America, it may refer to a pig.  Public transportation is widely used throughout Latin America and the word for bus varies from country to country.  Some examples include flota (Colombia), buseta (Colombia), colectivo (Bolivia), guagua (Puerto Rico and Cuba), and camión (Mexico).  The latter is a truck in most Spanish-speaking countries.

It's not just transportation terms that vary from country to country.  A lot of vocabulary does, especially in terms of foods.  Chayote, or vegetable pear, is a fruit native to Mexico that has spread to many Spanish-speaking countries, Europe, and the United States.  In Colombia, it is called cidra, however, in certain regions of the country, it is referred to as guatila or papa de los pobres.  An orange is usually called a naranja in Spanish, but in Puerto Rico it is called a china, which is understood by many Spanish-speakers as a woman from China or china dinnerware.  Remember that we have learned the word, sándwich to refer to a sandwich; it is a cognate and adopted from the English.  But, in Spain, a sandwich is called a bocadillo and is made in a little different way, especially in terms of the kind of bread used (a baguette instead of thin-sliced white or wheat bread).

As we continue to acquire new vocabulary, take note of the variations that occur among Spanish-speakers.  Maybe we'll discover enough words to create our own survey for Spanish!

This year, we will be using Edmodo in our classroom.   Edmodo is a free and secure social learning network for teachers, students, and schools.  It provides a safe and easy way for us to connect, share content, access homework, submit assignments, and receive class notices.  Only the students have the initial Group Code to join; after all the students have enrolled during our class session in the Media Center, I lock access and the code is no longer active.  This prevents outsiders from accessing our class on Edmodo and provides a protected environment in which to manage class assignments, information, and interaction.

With Student Accounts, you can:

• Send messages to the class and to me, but you cannot send private messages to other students
• View homework assignments and due dates
• Submit assignments and take quizzes
• Access and print class documents
• Receive updates on class and school events.

Edmodo is accessible online and on any mobile device with Internet capabilities (there is a free app for iPhone, iPad, or Android).  You can access your account on the go, and adjust your notification settings within Edmodo to receive alerts via text or email.  

Parents can also join our class site.  The Parent Account allows you to observe your child's classroom activities, so you will always be updated about assignments, grades, upcoming events, and more.  Your account is automatically updated as your child uses Edmodo and participates in his/her Groups.

Students will enroll in our Edmodo Group during class with our special group code.  If you are interested in accessing your Parent Account, please send me an email with your child’s first and last name in the Subject Line.  I will then send you the unique code for you to register for Edmodo and access your student’s information.  

In the meantime, please sign the Edmodo Student Permission Form that students are bringing home.  Or you can download a copy from this website (on the Inicio or Para los padres pages).  Return the form to Sra. Espitia by Wednesday, September 4, 2013.

Welcome to Spanish I and the first day of class!  

I'm looking forward to this new school year and the opportunity to get to know each of my students.  I love everything about the Spanish language and the cultures that speak the language.  And I hope to instill that passion for the language in my students.  It's not enough to just take a language for the credit or so that it looks good on a future transcript.  It's important that everyone have the opportunity to develop proficiency in English and at least one other world language.  To be multilingual offers so many advantages - not the least of which is increased understanding of our neighbors near and far.  So, I hope the students are ready to read, write, speak, and understand when spoken to as we immerse ourselves in the Spanish language and its cultures!