Day 1 and already stressed about Spanish 4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

In a lot of the US, the pathway to AP is all in HS - Level 1, 2, 3, AP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It doesn’t really top out at Spanish 5 — there’s AP Spanish and Spanish Literature after that. I don’t think even the kids getting 5 of the AP are truly fluent - I’d call them more highly proficient. So expecting a kid to follow along with 100% Spanish at full speed at the START of Spanish 4 seems a little much to me. Slowing down a bit seems appropriate, with the goal of getting to normal speed by end of Spanish 4 or into Spanish 5. Fwiw, my kid took AP Spanish as a sophomore, got an 5, and then did two more years of Spanish in HS. And I still wouldn’t really call her fluent, although she’s pretty capable.

[Anonymous]

My kid is in Spanish 4 in MCPS and has had one awful teacher as after another. All As along the way and probably couldn’t order himself a taco. His Spanish 4 teacher has a reputation for being all the kids’ favorite and definitely isn’t speaking all or mostly in Spanish. It bums me out and makes me worried for what will happen when he gets to IB Spanish.

I do remember though being totally intimidated in high school when I switched to where the teacher spoke all in the language. It was super scary! I think it’s natural to feel that way, but also the best way for them to actually learn and the teacher will adjust to help kids be successful. I’d encourage them to stick it out and be grateful they are in a position where they’ll be forced to accelerate their learning of a useful skill (unlike my kid who doesn’t seem set up to learn much this year).

[Anonymous]

It's totally reasonable to speak only Spanish in Spanish 4. Most teachers ease up on this. At our HS in MCPS they switch teachers in Semester 2 so my kid had two teachers.

Spanish is probably his hardest class because it doesn't come naturally and he doesn't love studying. Nevertheless he got an A as a Freshman. Well, he got a B Semester 2, but that averages to an A supposedly though in HS GPAs are done by Semester so it was a slight ding to his GPA. He will survive. Your kid probably will too.

[Anonymous]

I took Spanish from 7th grade through college and I don’t understand all Spanish if someone is speaking fast. Op, I understand your worry!

I think a tutor is a good idea for now, and maybe your kid can watch Spanish soap operas or something to just have them be attuned to the language

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in Spanish 4 in MCPS and has had one awful teacher as after another. All As along the way and probably couldn’t order himself a taco. His Spanish 4 teacher has a reputation for being all the kids’ favorite and definitely isn’t speaking all or mostly in Spanish. It bums me out and makes me worried for what will happen when he gets to IB Spanish.

I do remember though being totally intimidated in high school when I switched to where the teacher spoke all in the language. It was super scary! I think it’s natural to feel that way, but also the best way for them to actually learn and the teacher will adjust to help kids be successful. I’d encourage them to stick it out and be grateful they are in a position where they’ll be forced to accelerate their learning of a useful skill (unlike my kid who doesn’t seem set up to learn much this year).

That was all 3 of my kid's experiences in MCPS and it is actually embarrassing since we have such a high Spanish speaking population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It doesn’t really top out at Spanish 5 — there’s AP Spanish and Spanish Literature after that. I don’t think even the kids getting 5 of the AP are truly fluent - I’d call them more highly proficient. So expecting a kid to follow along with 100% Spanish at full speed at the START of Spanish 4 seems a little much to me. Slowing down a bit seems appropriate, with the goal of getting to normal speed by end of Spanish 4 or into Spanish 5. Fwiw, my kid took AP Spanish as a sophomore, got an 5, and then did two more years of Spanish in HS. And I still wouldn’t really call her fluent, although she’s pretty capable.

Thank you for this insight.

[Anonymous]

You should ask other parents in the same school for a sense of grade distribution, etc.

But I wouldn't assume that only speaking spanish in class is a hint at difficulty/grades. This is the best way to teach a language-- my kid's MS spanish teacher did this more or less from Spanish 2 onward. She used powerpoints that were in English so kids could figure things out. But said literally zero words in english the whole year. (At parent night, she spoke english, but told parents not to tell the kids-- she was telling the kids she didn't know any english, so they had to speak spanish.). it was super intimidating at first, and a great way of learning in the long run. (And didn't associate with difficult grading.).

[Anonymous]

You don't need a tutor for foreign language.

The concepts aren't complicated.

You need hours and hours of practice: reading, writing , listening, and speaking

All videos and music should be switching between English with Spanish subtitles, and Spanish with English subtitles.
Get Google Lens and translate text from English to Spanish and vice versa. Constantly.

[Anonymous]

My kid took Spanish 4 last year in 9th. Languages do not come easily and he has ADHD which can make it hard to sustain focus in class. He did end up doing well in the class but he worked really hard--like nightly practice. We tried to focus on learning the language and not just the grade. But yeah, it was tough. Worth it, I hope?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It doesn’t really top out at Spanish 5 — there’s AP Spanish and Spanish Literature after that. I don’t think even the kids getting 5 of the AP are truly fluent - I’d call them more highly proficient. So expecting a kid to follow along with 100% Spanish at full speed at the START of Spanish 4 seems a little much to me. Slowing down a bit seems appropriate, with the goal of getting to normal speed by end of Spanish 4 or into Spanish 5. Fwiw, my kid took AP Spanish as a sophomore, got an 5, and then did two more years of Spanish in HS. And I still wouldn’t really call her fluent, although she’s pretty capable.

My kid's Spanish 3 teacher spoke to them in Spanish. Stop blabbing about stuff you don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It doesn’t really top out at Spanish 5 — there’s AP Spanish and Spanish Literature after that. I don’t think even the kids getting 5 of the AP are truly fluent - I’d call them more highly proficient. So expecting a kid to follow along with 100% Spanish at full speed at the START of Spanish 4 seems a little much to me. Slowing down a bit seems appropriate, with the goal of getting to normal speed by end of Spanish 4 or into Spanish 5. Fwiw, my kid took AP Spanish as a sophomore, got an 5, and then did two more years of Spanish in HS. And I still wouldn’t really call her fluent, although she’s pretty capable.

My kid's Spanish 3 teacher spoke to them in Spanish. Stop blabbing about stuff you don't know.

At Westland Middle School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It doesn’t really top out at Spanish 5 — there’s AP Spanish and Spanish Literature after that. I don’t think even the kids getting 5 of the AP are truly fluent - I’d call them more highly proficient. So expecting a kid to follow along with 100% Spanish at full speed at the START of Spanish 4 seems a little much to me. Slowing down a bit seems appropriate, with the goal of getting to normal speed by end of Spanish 4 or into Spanish 5. Fwiw, my kid took AP Spanish as a sophomore, got an 5, and then did two more years of Spanish in HS. And I still wouldn’t really call her fluent, although she’s pretty capable.

My kid's Spanish 3 teacher spoke to them in Spanish. Stop blabbing about stuff you don't know.

DP. Stop being an aggressive idiot.

[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??

The teacher will adjust to the class.

It's OK if your kid doesn't understand. This is how learning works.

He can look to peers to follow instructions. He can raise his hand and say "No comprendo." Like a tourist, learn some key phrases for asking for help.

He needs to hear the Spanish to learn it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

In a lot of the US, the pathway to AP is all in HS - Level 1, 2, 3, AP

That's rare. Usually 1,2,3,4,AP for non heritage speakers.

You don't need AP Spanish. You can take Spanish in college.