Day 1 and already stressed about Spanish 4

[Anonymous]

Spanish is widely available here to everyone since birth. We learned to understand Russian, German, and Finnish just by watching tv. Spanish would have been piece of cake.
Learning should be happening all the time and not just in classroom. I speak Spanish after two semesters.
So many words are the same as in English and many are only few letters different. Tv, youtube, tik-tok blast Spanish day and night.
Your kid is just not into 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 am an immigrant so maybe take my anecdata with a spoon of salt.

I got a tutor for Spanish for my kids before they even started Spanish in MS because MCPS (and most of USA) sucks for Math, Science and Foreign Language

So, we hired a fantastic MCPS Spanish teacher at the end of 5th grade and started in the summer after 5th grade. Used all the textbooks too. My kids were always ahead in Spanish and covered more syllabus than the normal school year allowed. They finished their AP Spanish in 10th grade. In MS they did Spanish 1, 2 and 3. 9th grade was Spanish 4/5 and 10th grade was Spanish 5/AP. They were straight A, magnet STEM students who are not native Spanish speakers. Spanish never became a problem. I could personally tutor my kids in all subjects from k-12, but I do not know Spanish, Chinese and French. The languages that was offered to the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spanish is widely available here to everyone since birth. We learned to understand Russian, German, and Finnish just by watching tv. Spanish would have been piece of cake.
Learning should be happening all the time and not just in classroom. I speak Spanish after two semesters.
So many words are the same as in English and many are only few letters different. Tv, youtube, tik-tok blast Spanish day and night.
Your kid is just not into it.

OK, so? Do you let your kid do poorly in a subject because he/she is not into it? When grades matter for going to college? What nonsense comment is this? It does not matter if OP's kid is interested in a subject or not. He needs to do well in it, regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

I'm the PP who said your kid was given an inflated sense of mastery. I'm not saying it's your kid's fault, but Spanish in high school tops out at Spanish 5, I believe. So it makes sense that Spanish 4 would be 100% in Spanish and truly be advanced. Your kid's Spanish 3 teacher didn't prepare your son adequately for Spanish 4.

[Anonymous]

Would it make sense for him to repeat Spanish 3? Mine repeated Spanish 3 and it made a world of difference when he get to level 4 (which was the last year he wanted to take it). It gave him two years in high school so it all worked out.

[Anonymous]

Lol to all the parents asking teachers to speak more slowly. Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol to all the parents asking teachers to speak more slowly. Seriously?

I know. I cringed when I read that. Like you're at the 4th level of a world language. Speaking slowly at that stage is a sign you have not made the kind of progress you should have in learning and mastering the language.

[Anonymous]

For my older kid Spanish 3 was the point where there was a big jump and they spoke only Spanish in class. Transitioning to Spanish 4 was no problem. He starts Spanish 5 today.

My younger child just started Spanish 2 and the teacher announced that she will be teaching all in Spanish and they are expected to speak Spanish 90 percent of the time. He’s freaked out by this but it will be good for him,

The problem here is that your child Spanish 2 and 3 teachers didn’t prepare them for Spanish 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol to all the parents asking teachers to speak more slowly. Seriously?

I know. I cringed when I read that. Like you're at the 4th level of a world language. Speaking slowly at that stage is a sign you have not made the kind of progress you should have in learning and mastering the language.

How exactly is this the kids fault if the previous teachers didn't prepare the students for the rigor, pacing etc., of Spanish 4? If your child is getting As and Bs that should be an indication that your child is doing well and ready to move to the next level. If that's not the case then the teachers are at fault for not communicating which kids are ready for the next level. I'm sorry but in this case its on the prior teachers.

[Anonymous]

DD's teacher gave them a first day assignment that asked for answers to open ended questions with vocabulary none of the students had ever studied.
Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

I think tbh it would look weird on HS transcript to repeat Spanish 3. PPs’ advice about getting tutors/repeat Spanish 3 in summer, or switching languages all sound preferable.

[Anonymous]

OMG it is the FIRST DAY.

Please calm yourself and see how the first few weeks shake out.

Also get a tutor. His Spanish teacher will have access to a list of MCPS teachers who can help (who do not teach at the same school).

We did this for our kid who struggled in French and it really helped, just to have someone spend a little more time going over stuff, explaining things that might have been missed in a busy classroom etc.

[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??

If at all possible, for liberal arts colleges, you should take the language through the first AP level. This is not only for admission, but, often, language is a graduation requirement. If you know that your student is going to focus on STEM and not at a liberal arts college, you can consider dropping. Get the tutor.

[Anonymous]

This is why we shouldn’t be pushing WL so quickly in MS. MCPS should go back to a year of WL in MS being equivalent to a semester in HS. Kids clearly aren’t retaining from MS and MS teachers are forced to infinitely reteach/retest and inflate grades.

[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??

If at all possible, for liberal arts colleges, you should take the language through the first AP level. This is not only for admission, but, often, language is a graduation requirement. If you know that your student is going to focus on STEM and not at a liberal arts college, you can consider dropping. Get the tutor.

You are talking top expensive liberal arts schools. Taking Spanish for 5 years is not the norm.