Day 1 and already stressed about Spanish 4

[Anonymous]

My sophomore came home from school stressed that his Spanish 4 teacher only speaks Spanish in class and she talks fast and no one understands what’s going on except one kid who speaks Spanish at home. He said everyone’s saying the class is a gpa killer and he’s really worried he’ll end up with a C or a D. I had heard that there’s a big jump from Spanish 3 to Spanish 4, but this seems extreme. Has anyone had luck with a tutor for Spanish 4? I feel like my son doesn’t know any Spanish despite getting As and Bs in Spanish 3. We would’ve let him drop it this year, but we keep hearing most colleges require two years of the same language *in high school* (and he keeps telling me he has lots of friends who aren’t doing that, including some who have older siblings who’ve been through the college process). What are we missing? Should we have let him drop it??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sophomore came home from school stressed that his Spanish 4 teacher only speaks Spanish in class and she talks fast and no one understands what’s going on except one kid who speaks Spanish at home. He said everyone’s saying the class is a gpa killer and he’s really worried he’ll end up with a C or a D. I had heard that there’s a big jump from Spanish 3 to Spanish 4, but this seems extreme. Has anyone had luck with a tutor for Spanish 4? I feel like my son doesn’t know any Spanish despite getting As and Bs in Spanish 3. We would’ve let him drop it this year, but we keep hearing most colleges require two years of the same language *in high school* (and he keeps telling me he has lots of friends who aren’t doing that, including some who have older siblings who’ve been through the college process). What are we missing? Should we have let him drop it??

I would consider it. It is tough at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sophomore came home from school stressed that his Spanish 4 teacher only speaks Spanish in class and she talks fast and no one understands what’s going on except one kid who speaks Spanish at home. He said everyone’s saying the class is a gpa killer and he’s really worried he’ll end up with a C or a D. I had heard that there’s a big jump from Spanish 3 to Spanish 4, but this seems extreme. Has anyone had luck with a tutor for Spanish 4? I feel like my son doesn’t know any Spanish despite getting As and Bs in Spanish 3. We would’ve let him drop it this year, but we keep hearing most colleges require two years of the same language *in high school* (and he keeps telling me he has lots of friends who aren’t doing that, including some who have older siblings who’ve been through the college process). What are we missing? Should we have let him drop it??

I would consider it. It is tough at our school.

But what does that mean for college admissions? He won’t be targeting top 20 schools, but I don’t want him shut out of state flagships, etc. He seems to think it’s enough that he met the Maryland requirement of 2 years of a foreign language, but 2 of his 3 years were in middle school, which I hear doesn’t count.

[Anonymous]

There was a huge jump for our child. In hindsight I wish we got a tutor. Our teacher talked super fast too and I raised it with her and she blew it off. We may get a tutor this year. After sophomore year we are done.

[Anonymous]

The fact that everyone gets A&B’s in Spanish 1-3 is the problem.

Most kids drop as most Spanish teachers in MCPS are terrible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact that everyone gets A&B’s in Spanish 1-3 is the problem.

Most kids drop as most Spanish teachers in MCPS are terrible

Correct. By Spanish 4, a student should be able to handle a class being taught 100% in Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Too late now for you, but my kid retook Spanish 3 over the summer. He'd gotten an A freshman year but didn't feel like he had a strong base. The summer class moved fast and wasn't amazing but it was good practice and he feels like he's on more solid ground now heading into Spanish 4.
I would definitely consider a tutor.

[Anonymous]

My kid's 8th grade Spanish 3 teacher spoke Spanish at the class about 90% of the time. It was a jolt on that first day of class, and my daughter panicked as well! But actually she had straight As that whole year.

Just because at first it seems scary to be talked to in a language you don't understand, doesn't mean you can't pick things up from context clues. That first week, DD realized she could fill in all the words she didn't know from her teacher's gestures, and over the year, it became easier as class routines become ingrained. So it wasn't actually difficult to follow.

Please reassure your kid, OP! His teacher is doing him a favor. Creating as immersive an environment as possible is the only way to learn.

And he should be careful to memorize all the vocab lists and grammar irregularities. This is what's going to get him good grades. DD's 8th grade teacher told them this at the beginning of the year and repeated it to us parents at Back-to-school Night.

[Anonymous]

Can he start a new language? Mine did two years of Spanish in middle but his 8th grade teacher was horrible. I can vouch for him on that as I’ve spoken to her myself. It got to the point where he just didn’t want to take Spanish anymore so now as a freshman, he’s starting a new language. If your child starts now, they can still have 3 years in the same language. They may not be able to take AP but that’s not the end of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sophomore came home from school stressed that his Spanish 4 teacher only speaks Spanish in class and she talks fast and no one understands what’s going on except one kid who speaks Spanish at home. He said everyone’s saying the class is a gpa killer and he’s really worried he’ll end up with a C or a D. I had heard that there’s a big jump from Spanish 3 to Spanish 4, but this seems extreme. Has anyone had luck with a tutor for Spanish 4? I feel like my son doesn’t know any Spanish despite getting As and Bs in Spanish 3. We would’ve let him drop it this year, but we keep hearing most colleges require two years of the same language *in high school* (and he keeps telling me he has lots of friends who aren’t doing that, including some who have older siblings who’ve been through the college process). What are we missing? Should we have let him drop it??

Here is another post about Spanish:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1223116.page

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'll start looking for a tutor now. I wish MCPS started teaching everyone Spanish in K. Even just once a week as a special in elementary school would have gone a long way with kids that young and given them a much better base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid's 8th grade Spanish 3 teacher spoke Spanish at the class about 90% of the time. It was a jolt on that first day of class, and my daughter panicked as well! But actually she had straight As that whole year.

Just because at first it seems scary to be talked to in a language you don't understand, doesn't mean you can't pick things up from context clues. That first week, DD realized she could fill in all the words she didn't know from her teacher's gestures, and over the year, it became easier as class routines become ingrained. So it wasn't actually difficult to follow.

Please reassure your kid, OP! His teacher is doing him a favor. Creating as immersive an environment as possible is the only way to learn.

And he should be careful to memorize all the vocab lists and grammar irregularities. This is what's going to get him good grades. DD's 8th grade teacher told them this at the beginning of the year and repeated it to us parents at Back-to-school Night.

In our experience (immersion) it takes a very talented teacher to be able to do this. They need to be patient, speak slowly at times, gesture and repeat certain things with the gesture. All the while speaking 100% in the language.

Teacher in the OP just sounds incapable at the most generous, and a-holey at the least generous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's 8th grade Spanish 3 teacher spoke Spanish at the class about 90% of the time. It was a jolt on that first day of class, and my daughter panicked as well! But actually she had straight As that whole year.

Just because at first it seems scary to be talked to in a language you don't understand, doesn't mean you can't pick things up from context clues. That first week, DD realized she could fill in all the words she didn't know from her teacher's gestures, and over the year, it became easier as class routines become ingrained. So it wasn't actually difficult to follow.

Please reassure your kid, OP! His teacher is doing him a favor. Creating as immersive an environment as possible is the only way to learn.

And he should be careful to memorize all the vocab lists and grammar irregularities. This is what's going to get him good grades. DD's 8th grade teacher told them this at the beginning of the year and repeated it to us parents at Back-to-school Night.

In our experience (immersion) it takes a very talented teacher to be able to do this. They need to be patient, speak slowly at times, gesture and repeat certain things with the gesture. All the while speaking 100% in the language.

Teacher in the OP just sounds incapable at the most generous, and a-holey at the least generous.

Or OP's kid was given an inflated sense of mastery in Spanish 1-3 and isn't quite yet ready for Spanish 4 and is realizing it once the switch was flipped to 100% Spanish. There are definitely bad Spanish teachers in MCPS, but they tend to be more at the introductory levels than the higher ones.

[Anonymous]

We dropped the Spanish this sophomore year. Heard Spanish 4 is super hard and he just had zero interest. Gave my DS room to take a class he really wants to do that otherwise would not fit in his schedule. We are planning to try and take another language in MC as dual enrollment in Junior and Senior year (not offered in our HS), but will see how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's 8th grade Spanish 3 teacher spoke Spanish at the class about 90% of the time. It was a jolt on that first day of class, and my daughter panicked as well! But actually she had straight As that whole year.

Just because at first it seems scary to be talked to in a language you don't understand, doesn't mean you can't pick things up from context clues. That first week, DD realized she could fill in all the words she didn't know from her teacher's gestures, and over the year, it became easier as class routines become ingrained. So it wasn't actually difficult to follow.

Please reassure your kid, OP! His teacher is doing him a favor. Creating as immersive an environment as possible is the only way to learn.

And he should be careful to memorize all the vocab lists and grammar irregularities. This is what's going to get him good grades. DD's 8th grade teacher told them this at the beginning of the year and repeated it to us parents at Back-to-school Night.

In our experience (immersion) it takes a very talented teacher to be able to do this. They need to be patient, speak slowly at times, gesture and repeat certain things with the gesture. All the while speaking 100% in the language.

Teacher in the OP just sounds incapable at the most generous, and a-holey at the least generous.

OP here. He actually said the teacher seems nice. I just think she's a native Spanish speaker who probably thinks students coming out of Spanish 3 know more Spanish than is the case, so she just speaks Spanish to them like she would to anyone else. For the poster who say my kids was given an inflated sense of mastery in Spanish 3, I'm not sure he thought he'd mastered it. He just didn't expect Spanish 4 to seem like it's several levels above Spanish 3!