Class Syllabus

¡Bienvenidos a la clase de Español!

Course Description

Welcome to Spanish 3! In this course, students will continue to advance their knowledge of the Spanish language and explore the various cultures of Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain. 

 

REQUIRED MATERIALS

1. Text: ¡Avancemos! Level 3

2. Workbook: ¡Avancemos! Cuaderno Level 3

3. A one-inch-three-ring binder with eight dividers (one for each unit) with ruled paper. No spiral notebooks or spiral notebook paper

4. Supplies for notes, number 2 pencils, good erasers, blue or black pen, red pen, different color highlighters.

 

Binder Requirements

The goals of having a binder for this class are to learn organizational skills, to have hard copies of vocabulary and grammar notes, to create a portfolio of progress and accomplishments, and to generate review pages to help you study for, quizzes, tests, and finals. This binder, like the textbook, will be divided into eight units. For each unit you should save:

1. All the culture/country notes you take in class

2. All grammar notes you take in class

3. All vocabulary lists (printed or hand written)

4. All graded unit activities and paper projects

5. All the handouts and other important papers distributed in class.

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Goals and Objectives

 

During this class, students will use:

1. Preterite tense of regular verbs; irregular preterites; imperfect tense; preterite vs. imperfect

2. Tú commands; ustedes, nosotros commands; polite requests; pronouns with commands; impersonal expressions + infinitive; impersonal expressions with se

3. Future tense; the prepositions por and para; present subjunctive of regular verbs; subjunctive verb forms

4. Subjunctive with ojalá and verbs of hope; subjunctive with verbs of influence; suffixes

5. Expressions with sea; subjunctive with conjunctions; subjunctive with the unknown; qué and cuál; conditional tense; reported speech

6. Past participles and adjectives; present perfect; past perfect; future perfect

7. Imperfect subjunctive; subjunctive of present and past perfect tenses; si clauses; sequence of tenses

8. Past progressive; conjunctions; se for unintentional occurrences; uses of the subjunctive

 

By using these skills, students will be able to:

1. Talk about themselves and their friends; say what they know how to do; talk about people and places they know; describe their daily routine; make comparisons

2. Describe a camping trip; talk about what they did with friends; talk about nature; talk about family vacations; discuss activities, skills, and abilities; describe a place and its climate; learn about authentic Mexican culture.

3. Describe volunteer activities; organize people to do a project; persuade people or influence others; make requests and recommendations; express opinions; talk about media and the community; learn about the Latin culture in the United States

4. Discuss the impact of technology; express environmental concerns and possibilities; make predictions and discuss causes and effects; discuss obligations and responsibilities; present and support an opinion; express a point of view and make recommendations; learn about the culture in Central American countries

5. Describe people and things; tell others what to do; express wishes and desires; express doubt, denial and disbelief; express positive and negative emotions; learn about the culture in the Caribbean

6. Talk about personal items; talk about requirements; express what does and does not exist; say what would or would not happen; report what someone said; talk about the day’s activities; learn about Andean culture

7. Talk about the neighborhood; describe places and things; say what has happened; describe an excursion; express what will have happened; talk about the history of a place; learn about Spain and the Spanish culture

8. Relate what others wanted to do; express past assumptions and emotions; discuss work and school activities; talk about career possibilities; hypothesize; narrate in the past; learn about Colombian and Venezuelan culture

9. Discuss and critique literature; talk about what they were doing in the past; link events and ideas; read and interpret a short play; talk about unplanned occurrences; express opinions about a text; learn about South American culture

 

Big Ideas and Essential Questions

Some of the Big Ideas that will be covered in this course are:

 

  • Effectively communicating in more than one language is essential to function in a variety of situations and for multiple purposes

 

  • Interacting with different cultures leads to growth in cultural competence and understanding of other languages

 

  • Creating connections to other disciplines provides access to diverse perspectives and information that in order to use the language to function in academic and career-related situations

 

  • Making comparisons develops insight into the nature of languages and cultures in order to interact with cultural competence

 

  • Interacting within communities that are enveloped in languages and cultures at home and from around the world aid in cultural competence and language understanding

 

As we move along through the course, students must keep these Essential Questions in mind: 

 

  • In what ways do we “effectively communicate?” 

 

  • How do we relate culture to language learning?

 

  • How do diverse perspectives aid us in the acquisition of a language? 

 

  • Is there a right or wrong language to learn?

 

CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS

1. Students will follow all rules established in the Parent/Students handbook

2. Students may not enter the classroom if there is no staff member inside of the classroom. They will wait outside of the door in the hallway until their teacher returns

3. All work must be completed and submitted on time unless told otherwise by the teacher

4. Students must always come to class prepared with all of their materials. Failure to do this will affect their Participation grade.

5. Students will be safe, responsible and respectful towards their classmates during class time

6. Students must inform the teacher of any and all excused absences as soon as possible. (The day before at the latest)

7. TRY, TRY, TRY! No one learned how to speak in a day and neither will you!

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GRADING

Students grades will be calculated as follows:

 

Participation/Preparedness- 20 points (1/2 point deducted each time students comes to class unprepared)

 

Homework- 5 points each + 10 assignments each quarter = 50 points (1 point deducted for each late day)

 

Projects/Class Activities- 60 points 

 

Quizzes- 20 pts each + 1 quiz each chapter = 60 points

 

Tests- 30 points each + 3 tests each quarter = 90 points (Including Mid-term and Final Exam)

 

Total points each quarter grade: 280 points per quarter

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The total possible points at the end of each marking period or semester will be used to assign letter grades according to the following scale:

Percent of Total Points                        Letter Grade

96.50-100                                                           A+

92.5-96.49                                                          A

89.50-91.49                                                        A-

86.50-89.49                                                        B+

82.50-86.49                                                        B-

79.50-82.49                                                        B

76.50-79.49                                                        C+

72.59-76.49                                                        C

69.50-72.49                                                        C-

66.50-69.49                                                        D+

62.50-66.49                                                        D

59.50-62.49                                                        D-

Fail Below 59.49

 

NOTICE: If you have an excused absence, you are responsible for completing the assigned work. You will have an extra day to complete the assignments with no grading penalty, unless the work is handed after the extra given day. 

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If there are any other questions you may have pertaining to grading, classroom conduct or the contents of the course itself, please reach me by clicking on the "Contact Me" tab at the top of this page. From there, you will find various options to contact me. 

 

I look forward to an absolutely wonderful year with you all!

 

¡Hasta pronto, señoras y señores!

 

Señor Idrovo