Reply to Start language in 6th grade or 7th?

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[quote=Anonymous]We are at North Bethesda.  Our home school, Ashburton, recommended very few for Foreign Language in 6th Grade.  (IMO I think the AES teachers have good intentions, but worry more about stressing out the kids than they should.)  The bulk of students start language in 7th grade, if they start in MS at all.

My 6th Grade kid is in Spanish 1A/1B.  It is a challenging class in that the kids are required to do things like memorize vocabulary and take frequent quizzes, which are new learning skills.  When combined with the other 6 MS classes that also have more frequent quizzes than ES, this can turn out to be a lot - 2 or 3 quizzes on the same day, especially at the mid point and end of the quarter. I am not implying that this is unreasonable, but it is a big jump in responsibility compared to AES 5th Grade.  My 6th grader has required assistance in figuring out how to manage time through the week when this has occurred, not to mention needing assistance learning how to study at all, because it was never necessary in ES, plus how to study specifically for language class - like 50 vocabulary words for different foods, or school supplies, what does it mean to conjugate a verb, etc.  Students have struggles in Spanish significantly in NBMS, to the point where they have added special Spanish help sessions to the regular homework help lineup.

I think next year the 6th Graders will only have the option of doing 1A.  This would move pretty slowly compared to our experience in 1A/1B this year.  Depending on your kid, that could be a good or bad thing.  My child had the 1A content first semester, and has not learned all that much in 1A - just barely the conjugation of a few verbs. I can't imagine that content spread out over the whole year.  My child would find that extremely slow moving and tedious.  Seventh graders will continue to have the option of doing 1A over the full year, or !A/1B over the year. (This is new, NBMS did not previously offer the 1A full year option at all)

This plan means that the current 6th Graders are the last students who will have the option of doing Honors Spanish 3 at NB.  The teacher told the class that Honors Spanish 3 is "Hard."  That is all I know about it.[/quote]

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