Repeating Spanish 3 in 9th?

[Anonymous]

HS Spanish 3 is very difficult. I’d have my kid take it again freshman year. Why not? They’ll do 3 and then 4, and then they can start another language if they enjoy foreign languages.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We’ve been wondering the same for a kid on a similar academic path. He meets with the HS counselor tomorrow and is supposed to ask whether there’s a placement test he could take. We figured the HS would know their own course expectations best. I’ll report back!

Good to know about the AP lit ceiling in 12th, though.

Was able to confirm that language placement tests are available and to call the HS counseling dept to arrange for the test. In the meantime, the counselors said to sign up for level 4 and then contact them afterward to drop down as necessary. HTH.

OP here - thanks for reporting back. Our HS counselor said her gut reaction was to repeat the class, but she forwarded our question to the head of the language department for input and we're waiting to hear more. I think my kid is likely to sign up for Spanish 3 again and just consider this year as Spanish 2.5 (since it's not being taught at the full HS level).

How can people find out of their MS language class is being taught at the full HS level?

My kid said the teacher literally told the class that he wasn't teaching at the full HS level and that the class as a whole probably wouldn't do well if he did do the full HS expectations And I have an older kid taking the same class in high school, so we could compare experiences. Probably checking with the MS teacher is the best way to find out.

Curious, the Spanish 3 teacher at TPMS says it's a hard class because they it is an honor HS class. Parents whose kids have gone through this and went on to HS claim it's actually harder. Now I don't know about that but it is my magnet kid's hardest class.

[Anonymous]

Spanish 4 is your magnet kid’s hardest class? Oof. Also is anyone else not concerned about colleges seeing that Spanish 3 was repeated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been wondering the same for a kid on a similar academic path. He meets with the HS counselor tomorrow and is supposed to ask whether there’s a placement test he could take. We figured the HS would know their own course expectations best. I’ll report back!

Good to know about the AP lit ceiling in 12th, though.

Was able to confirm that language placement tests are available and to call the HS counseling dept to arrange for the test. In the meantime, the counselors said to sign up for level 4 and then contact them afterward to drop down as necessary. HTH.

OP here - thanks for reporting back. Our HS counselor said her gut reaction was to repeat the class, but she forwarded our question to the head of the language department for input and we're waiting to hear more. I think my kid is likely to sign up for Spanish 3 again and just consider this year as Spanish 2.5 (since it's not being taught at the full HS level).

I asked this question last night to Einstein staff, and fwiw they advised to stay on the 4-level track, especially for kids on the IB pathway. They believed if your child was succeeding in level 3, then the curriculum for 4 was the appropriate next step, even accounting for differences in rigor between MS and HS.

OP here. After I posted last time, we heard back from the language department head, who said to continue on to Spanish 4 and that they would be prepared to support kids coming in with different backgrounds from the different middle schools. And my kid's current teacher also told them to go ahead to Spanish 4, based on my kid's work habits and performance in class. So I think we will move forward with Spanish 4 after all. It was valuable to see everybody else's thoughts and input in this discussion thread, too!

One of the PPs here: For further confirmation, DC (in Hon Spa3 in 8th) sat in on a Spanish 5 class at RMIB's shadow day and reported being able to keep up with much of the class, so he thought Spa4 would in fact be the right next step.