Because students at the French American School already know French, they learn Spanish at a much faster pace than their monolingual counterparts. The Middle School experience culminates with a trip to Reus Spain where they attend classes in French, English, and Spanish. Families also have the opportunity to host a student from Reus.
Sixth Grade / Sixième
In sixth grade students are introduced to Spanish as a third language. The “back up” language for this course is French and our students progress at a much more rapid pace than their monolingual counterparts. By the end of the year, students will gain several different types of competencies in the Spanish language. They will learn how to form fundamental, grammatical and communicative structures in Spanish such as greetings, speaking about themselves, offering an opinion, and asking for personal information in short dialogues by using by formal and informal language. They will learn how to describe the classroom environment through conjugating verbs in the present and the past tenses, describing themselves and others, and talking about likes and dislikes. They will be able to describe their family and friends. They will be able to conjugate in the present tense and will be introduced to past tense or preterit perfect simple. Sixth graders will learn about pronominal verbs, interrogative words, the three groups of verbs and some useful irregular verbs, as well as possessive adjectives and the use of the negative form.
Sample Yearly progression
First Trimester:
Speaking: Greetings, introducing oneself, objects in the classroom, Latin American countries and capitals
Reading: Easy Spanish Reader by William T. Tardy, Sos Se Necesita Sonrisa by
Violeta Monreal, Spanish World in Your Backpack and ¿Qué tal? Magazine
Writing: Student-created short dialogues
Lexicon: The alphabet, days of the week, months of the year, seasons, time, numbers from zero to twenty, and dates
Grammar: First verbs: the present tense of Ser, Tú and Usted forms, present tense of
the verbs in AR (first group), punctuation and capitalization, pronouns and nouns, adjectives and adjectives of nationalities
Creative writing projects: Soy, classroom crosswords, posters and PowerPoint presentations
Second Trimester:
Speaking: The names of family members, friends, character descriptions, and time
Reading: Easy Spanish Reader by Willam T. Tardy
Writing: Describing a person’s personality
Creative project: Family tree poster
Grammar: ER and IR verbs in present tense, interrogative words: cómo, cuándo, cuál, cuáles, quién, quiénes, cuánto, por qué, plural and singulars, masculine and feminine, and number
Third Trimester:
Speaking: Using the first group verbs AR, ER and IR in present tense, using
possessive adjectives and qualitative adjectives
Phonetics: Fluency, spontaneity, and intonation
Reading: Biographies (research)
Creative writing: Student-written play
Seventh Grade / Cinquième
Seventh-grade Spanish is for those students who have some previous knowledge of basic Spanish structures. They will increase their level of grammar and vocabulary and be able to express themselves functionally in various communicative contexts. Students will continue learning the use of the preterit perfect simple, the preterit imperfect, and be able to express themselves by asking about location and giving instructions. They will be able to describe characters and speak about past events. Reading activities are very important in the Spanish course. Comprehension and expression strategies are used to engage the students in interesting conversation and discussion. The students will explain to each other what they understand and share their ideas and opinions.
Sample Yearly progression
First Trimester:
Speaking: Review of daily greetings, common expressions, instructions and directions, and use of the imperative form. Storytelling
Reading: ¿Quién soy Quién soy? by Antolina Ortiz, La pena de Jonás by Juan Cruz Iguerabide and Mikel Valverde, Todos somos especiales by Arlene Maguire, Ratón y las letras by Jim Arnosky, La mejor Colección by Laura Fernández Rivera Rio, Las niñas del Mundo by Sara Ruano, Colas by Silvia Dubovoy, De la A a la Z con el agua by Rafael Cruz Contarini, La hermanita de Franklin by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark, SOS Se necesita Sonrisa by Violeta Monreal, and Cuentos Para Pensar by Robert Fisher.
Writing: Constructing a story in Spanish
Creative Project: Spelling Bee Competition
Grammar: Verb review of ser, estar, poder and gustar, study of the present tense (three groups), regular and irregular verbs, and the preterit (el pretérito)
Second Trimester:
Speaking: Using the recent past, telling stories
Reading: Cuentos para Pensar by Robert Fisher, Querido Hijo: Estas Despedido by Jordi Sierra I Fabra, and Qué tal? Magazine
Grammar: Review of preterit perfect simple of the verbs ending in AR, ER and some IR verbs, Introduction of the Preterit Imperfect for the three groups of verbs, and
Contractions: Al / del
Writing Project: El Cid a small student-created play
Third Trimester:
Speaking: Storytelling using the two preterit combined and discussions regarding
their student-written, full-length play
Writing: Descriptive writing: Comparing sports teams in the United States and
those of the Spanish-speaking world.
Research Project: The Spanish world in my backpack
Grammar: The two preterit tenses: perfect simple and imperfect, stem-changing verbs like: Interesar, aburrir, and gustar, the comparative form, adverbs, the preterite tense of AR, ER, IR verbs, and the direct object pronouns: Lo, la, los, las
Phonetics: Fluency, spontaneity, and intonation; the consonants s, c, z, v/b
Reading: Qué tal? Magazine, the epic poem El Cid, La tierra de las Adivinanzas by Cesar Villarreal Elizondo, and La Camisa de Margarita by Ricardo Palma
Eighth Grade / Quatrième
Eighth-grade Spanish is for those students who have already acquired an amount of skills and Spanish grammatical structures, which permit them to communicate in real-life situations. They will increase their level of grammar and vocabulary and be able to express themselves in various communicative contexts. They will learn about Hispanic culture and habits—both negative and positive—in order to understand their reactions in American society. They will be empowered to interact with Latinos they meet. The students will hold conversations with each other, express their ideas, beliefs, agreements and disagreements, and be able to give and follow directions. They will practice ways to describe and compare places, people, and activities, as well as clothing and preferences.
Sample Yearly progression:
First Trimester:
Speaking: Welcome back: conversation regarding activities during summer vacation and travel around the world
Reading: La Casa en Mango Street, “Mi casa Propia” and “Mi Nombre” by Sandra Cisneros, Hispanic culture in the United States, Christopher Columbus Expeditions and Discovery in Latin America, the Mestizaje in Latin America, and ¿Qué Tal? Magazine
Writing: Hispanic culture in the United States and research on America’s discovery, descriptive, narrative, and comparative writing
Creative Project: PowerPoint Presentation on Christopher Columbus’ expeditions and discovery
Grammar: Present and preterit perfect simple tenses, a review of AR ,Er,Ir verbs, present participle or gerund (Estar + present Participle) and verbs “ser” versus “estar”
Lexicon: Language level/words connotation and social dimensions
Oral and Written Project: Self timeline
Second Trimester:
Speaking: Food: the food pyramid, restaurant vocabulary, recipes, and cooking
Reading: La Casa en Mango Street “ Una Casa Propia” and Niños and Niñas by Sandra Cisneros, Querido hijo: Estas despedido by Jordi Sierra I Fabra, ¿Qué Tal? Magazine, XVIe Century Spanish novel: El Lazarillo de Tormes Versos Sencillos by José Martí, and Primer Dia de Clase by Hugo Beker
Writing: Una Casa Propia by the students (play) based on “La casa de Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and The Hispanic World in Your Backpack
Creative Project: Geographic and culinary arts (video)
Grammar: Preterit imperfect AR, ER and IR verbs, the conditional tense, irregular verbs, adverbs, expressions with the infinitive: ir a, tener que, acabar de, and stemchanging verbs: tener, querer, preferir, poder, venir, reir.
Lexicon: Music of the 21st century
Creative Project: Hispanic TV commercial and Hispanic movies
Third Trimester:
Speaking: Conversation in creation of student-written play
Reading: La casa en Mango Street “No Speak English” by Sandra Cisneros
Lexicon: New words in context
Grammar: Introducing the imperfect tense in Ar, Er and Ir, imperfect of irregular verbs, how to use the imperfect, the conditional tense
Writing: Dialogue for Spanish play, eighth-graders edit the play, short stories, constructing an argument: debate, convince, persuade, acknowledge the positivity of diverse ideas about a topic
Creative Writing Project: Write your own Versos Sencillos, in José Martí’s style