How to make up Spanish 2B

Anonymous
My upcoming 8th grader was enrolled in Spanish 2B and learned almost nothing from the long term sub Jan-June. This is despite getting an A (the pandemic P pushed her B up to an A...). Many complaints, but the school could not get another teacher. So, I enrolled her in MCPS virtual summer school Spanish 2. Well, as you can imagine, it's way too fast and she's really struggling to learn at this speed virtually.

Any other thoughts on how to help her catch up? Repeat Spanish 2? When I tried a tutor before, she gave her assignments on Duolingo but that didn't work to well (DC said the teaching was different) or helped with her assignments. Its like my child needs a well organized self teaching approach or a teacher with a structured curriculum that is going slow, especially through verb conjugation.

I was told summer school grade wouldn't be on the transcript if it is lower, so I'm tempted to push her to continue. But, she is struggling and can't keep up enough to get to the next module so it's still really frustrating and she wants to quit.

Is it true Spanish 3 is much harder, so we should just repeat Spanish 2 rather than attempt Spanish 3 remotely?

Anonymous
Yes, Spanish 3 is much harder. Lots of kids struggle, even if they did fine in Spanish 2. Some drop back to Spanish 2. I’d say just let her retake Spanish 2 next year. DL is going to be hard enough.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:My upcoming 8th grader was enrolled in Spanish 2B and learned almost nothing from the long term sub Jan-June. This is despite getting an A (the pandemic P pushed her B up to an A...). Many complaints, but the school could not get another teacher. So, I enrolled her in MCPS virtual summer school Spanish 2. Well, as you can imagine, it's way too fast and she's really struggling to learn at this speed virtually.

Any other thoughts on how to help her catch up? Repeat Spanish 2? When I tried a tutor before, she gave her assignments on Duolingo but that didn't work to well (DC said the teaching was different) or helped with her assignments. Its like my child needs a well organized self teaching approach or a teacher with a structured curriculum that is going slow, especially through verb conjugation.

I was told summer school grade wouldn't be on the transcript if it is lower, so I'm tempted to push her to continue. But, she is struggling and can't keep up enough to get to the next module so it's still really frustrating and she wants to quit.

Is it true Spanish 3 is much harder, so we should just repeat Spanish 2 rather than attempt Spanish 3 remotely?



Don't repeat it. I'm sure next year they'll review a lot due to the circumstances in spring. Spanish 3 is much difficult so if she's in for the challenge go for it!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:My upcoming 8th grader was enrolled in Spanish 2B and learned almost nothing from the long term sub Jan-June. This is despite getting an A (the pandemic P pushed her B up to an A...). Many complaints, but the school could not get another teacher. So, I enrolled her in MCPS virtual summer school Spanish 2. Well, as you can imagine, it's way too fast and she's really struggling to learn at this speed virtually.

Any other thoughts on how to help her catch up? Repeat Spanish 2? When I tried a tutor before, she gave her assignments on Duolingo but that didn't work to well (DC said the teaching was different) or helped with her assignments. Its like my child needs a well organized self teaching approach or a teacher with a structured curriculum that is going slow, especially through verb conjugation.

I was told summer school grade wouldn't be on the transcript if it is lower, so I'm tempted to push her to continue. But, she is struggling and can't keep up enough to get to the next module so it's still really frustrating and she wants to quit.

Is it true Spanish 3 is much harder, so we should just repeat Spanish 2 rather than attempt Spanish 3 remotely?

It's great that your daughter is willing to take summer school Spanish. The text that they use in MCPS is Realidades by Prentice Hall. Perhaps you can find a tutor by posting on an online tutoring site, contacting a tutoring service, or posting on Nextdoor for someone who can teach Realidades 2. You can find additional practice materials for Realidades online, too. I think it would be very boring for your daughter to repeat the entire class for a 3rd time, especially since she must be an advanced students to be placed in Spanish 2 in 7th Grade, but you know her best.
Anonymous
Repeat in the spring because it won’t be offered in the fall probably.
Anonymous
I have had really good results hiring a Spanish tutor through Preply.

https://preply.com/en/skype/spanish-tutors


I searched for a tutor who specialized in AP Spanish, even though my daughter isn't at that level yet, because I was looking for a teacher, not just someone to have conversation with.

Read the reviews and find someone who is an experienced teacher and has been tutoring for a while. You can find a native speaker, or a Spanish high school teacher if you want.

Students can make so much progress with one to one instruction, even online.

Anonymous
My kid is moving to private, but I am having him repeat Spanish II. Distance learning spanish did not go well, despite getting an A.

If your daughter enjoys spanish class and has interest in getting to as high a level as possible in high school then I would enroll her in 3 and work with tutors. If she is just trying to get enough credit to graduate, I would not hesitate to have her repeat 2. It's highly likely they'll be distance learning in the fall. I haven't heard one person who thought distance learning foreign language in high school was as good as in person.
Anonymous
To help her with Spanish, ask her if she'd like to watch telenovelas, or Spanish-language movies with subtitles. That really helps - with Spanish. It doesn't necessarily help with Spanish 2B.

For what it's worth, I put my kid in summer school math to repeat the class, for the same reason, and I'm telling myself that they must be learning more this time, because they could hardly be learning less.
Anonymous
Also know that there is Spanish 3 honors and regular. She could enroll in regular...or Spanish II round 3. I would see what she thinks.
Anonymous
FWIW, my DS retook French 2 in HS. It was a disaster and he dropped French after that. There are very few Lang2 classes in HS. In our school the worst, most inexperienced French teacher taught it and the less academically inclined kids took it. The combination was a mess. DS learned nothing.

The transition to French 3 was harder after a year of a poor teacher and now DS was stuck with this teacher because there was only one section of French 2, so no way to switch out to another teacher.

In retrospect, it would have been much better to not repeat Fr2 and just pay for a tutor and help DS structure daily language practice (flashcards for vocabulary, daily practice talking, etc.)


Anonymous
She clearly just needs to spend more time on it. Sign up for Rosetta Stone, get an online one-on-one through ISL
also rent movies in Spanish, tv shows, get Spanish magazines.

There is plenty you can do to improve the basic understanding without repeating. Also if she got an A/B a repeat would be ridiculous. Only a D would warrant that.
Anonymous
If IIB is hard that may mean things were missed in IIA. She should take them both again as an 8th grader.

Our DD took 7 years of FL from 6-12. Since some MS have 3 years and ours only had 2 years, she had to skip a year to take AP level as a senior.

It worked out fine.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Also know that there is Spanish 3 honors and regular. She could enroll in regular...or Spanish II round 3. I would see what she thinks.


Not sure about the OP’s school, but our MS only offers Spanish 3 Honors. You can only take Regular in HS. Same with other HS level classes like Geometry.

I suggested retaking 2 earlier, but she could probably start in 3 and drop back to 2 if needed. Talk to her counselor.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Also know that there is Spanish 3 honors and regular. She could enroll in regular...or Spanish II round 3. I would see what she thinks.


No, spanish 3 is just honors, no regular.
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