Spanish in High School

[Anonymous]

My child has taken Spanish in middle school, currently in Spanish honors in 8th grade (private school K-8 transitioning to public high school). What level Spanish would make sense in 9th grade? What does Spanish 4 look like - is it too hard or manageable given the level of exposure in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Contact his counselor. No one is really going to know what Honor 8th grade Spanish at an unknown private school is like

[Anonymous]

Check with the high school counselor and/or the Spanish lead teacher at the high school, if you can find their contact.

My kid took Spanish 1-3 at a MCPS middle school and chose to repeat Spanish 3 in ninth grade, which was a good decision that helped to firm up her foundation. Now in Spanish 4 in 10th and doing well, but it is a challenging class.

[Anonymous]

Serious question, how far does you kids want to go in Spanish and how many years do they want to take? I’d work backward.

It becomes challenging at the top end and kids who want to do four years get stuck on a pathway they might not want.

[Anonymous]

Spanish 4 is incredibly challenging, at least at my DC's high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Contact his counselor. No one is really going to know what Honor 8th grade Spanish at an unknown private school is like

+1 My kid took a Spanish placement test in August when they joined MCPS. They put him in the appropriate class according to the test results. The counselor will tell you these things.

[Anonymous]

Spanish 4 is really challenging. My oldest do it as a freshman but she was pretty committed to learning the language — had taken after school programs in ES, listened to Spanish podcasts, did Duolingo in her spare time, set her iPhone settings to Spanish, etc. she’s a Spanish minor now in college.

My other kids did Spanish 3 as 9th graders—that’s more typical. Spanish 3 is where they solidify a lot of grammar and basically move to speaking in full sentences/paragrpahs, so if she’s not there already, she’d be better on Spanish 3. That track puts you on course to take AP Spanish lang in 11th or 12th grade, and can take AP Spanish lit (a very hard course) in 12th if you skip Spanish 5. Id skip Spanish 5 rather than skip Spanish 3.

[Anonymous]

I will say that it does seem to be a lot of native Spanish speaking kids in my kid's Spanish 3 class in 8th grade. I think that cohort would potentially make it harder for Spanish 4.

[Anonymous]

I would echo the above. Unless your child is a native speaker, World Languages (particularly Spanish) is the one subject where I'd deliberately have a kid slow their path in order to ensure they aren't hitting the hardest levels before their study skills catch up.

Spanish 4 is a very difficult course, particularly in schools with a fair number of native speakers.

[Anonymous]

My son was in Spanish immersion since first grade and is now in Spanish 4 as a freshman and says it's really hard. It's frustrating for him. He got a B first semester.

This is a kid who watches his favorite anime in Spanish just because he really likes the Mexican dub. He knows Spanish, but Spanish 4 grammar is hard.

I hear Spanish 5 is easier, and hopefully AP will be sane. I hear AP lit is very intense with a lot of classic literature and poetry. It would be nice to have an easy entry into literature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spanish 4 is really challenging. My oldest do it as a freshman but she was pretty committed to learning the language — had taken after school programs in ES, listened to Spanish podcasts, did Duolingo in her spare time, set her iPhone settings to Spanish, etc. she’s a Spanish minor now in college.

My other kids did Spanish 3 as 9th graders—that’s more typical. Spanish 3 is where they solidify a lot of grammar and basically move to speaking in full sentences/paragrpahs, so if she’s not there already, she’d be better on Spanish 3. That track puts you on course to take AP Spanish lang in 11th or 12th grade, and can take AP Spanish lit (a very hard course) in 12th if you skip Spanish 5. Id skip Spanish 5 rather than skip Spanish 3.

Did your oldest skip Spanish 5? My son is in Spanish 4 as a ninth grader. I'm leery of not being ready for AP if he skips 5. But then he'd have two years for another language. We also hope he minors in Spanish too, so don't want him to take too long a break. (And AP Spanish lit as a senior does not sound fun.) So many decisions.

[Anonymous]

What HS? My kid came from private, too Spanish since kindergarten, and the counselor put them in Spanish 2 “as a placeholder” until the RT did placement testing over the summer. I watched the counselor email the Spanish RT in February with my child’s student ID and my contact information.

We never received info about a placement test. Sent many emails all summer with a different reply giving an excuse as to why the Spanish RT wasn’t doing it yet. My spouse actually showed up at the school in August to basically ask WTF? This was because the phones were coincidentally not working the week befofe pre-service week. Counselor gave my spouse ANOTHEr story and put them work on the Spanish 2 teacher.

My kid suffered through Spanish 2 for 2 weeks until they got a worksheet that was called a placement test during class and bumped up to Spanish 3. By November, the Spanish 3 teacher shared how advanced my kid is and shocked that my kid can understand everything the teacher says.

My kid found that a friend in their math class, who came from a different private school, had the same horrible experience with a different WL.

I don’t know why this RT wasn’t held to their job description. I predict the counselors were using these new students to fill lower level classes to help balance the allocation of specific teachers (I.e. justify staffing a teacher with 5 different classes versus 4 classes kind of thing).

Friends in Bethesda schools coming from private state that their kids took WL placement tests in the spring of 8th grade. Just more thing different between schools that makes a big impact on kids.

[Anonymous]

You should know that 1 and 2 are required for graduation so they are made to be pretty accessible to all kids. 3 is a big bump. 3 is also not offered at some MSs so the logistics to take it at the HS get complicated.

[Anonymous]

My kid has done 2 years of Spanish at private but the first year was useless.
We were told that what we’ve done is similar to Spanish one in mcps so I’ve signed DD up for Spanish 2 in mcps.