World Languages, week of Sept. 9

This week in our classes!

Spanish Language and Culture (Mr. Fontalvo, Ms. Gonzalez)

Last week our students learned about Spanish- speaking countries, greetings, farewells, and personal information questions. Next week, we will continue exploring how to ask and answer questions. Students will also take a formative assessment covering basic greetings, questions, and responses. We are excited to see their progress as they build their foundational communication skills in Spanish.

Spanish I (Mr. Donaldson, Ms. Cuffee)

It’s been a great week with Spanish I scholars! We have officially started our first unit, Viajando en la ciudad (Traveling in the City), which included the exploration of vocabulary related to rooms and furniture in a house/home. The majority of student scholars successfully signed up for SpanishDict.com and completed their first three homework tasks on that platform. Student scholars also completed their first listening assessment. Way to go!

Next week, we are extremely excited to celebrate and kickoff Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15th to October 15th. Scholars will continue using the unit’s new vocabulary while learning about and delving into possessive adjectives, the verb “estar”, and prepositions in order to express where items are located in a house/home and where items are located in reference to other items. Students will complete new SpanishDict.com assignments due on Friday based on the topics learned this week.

En unidad,

Sra. Cuffee & Profe. Donaldson

Spanish II (Ms. Wooten, Ms. Henderson)

I hope this message finds you well! This week in Spanish 2, we’ve been continuing to build strong relationships while also practicing strategies for maintaining Spanish as the primary language of communication during class.

I encourage you to ask your student about some of the key strategies we've been using, like circumlocution (finding ways to express an idea when they don’t know the exact word), Story Asking, and how students should show they've understood what’s being said in class.

In addition, we've been reviewing high frequency vocabulary (the sweet sixteen verbs)- the foundation upon which we will build our vocabularies this year! As always, thank you for your continued support and don't hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Spanish Humanities, grade 6 (Ms. Balestra)

This week we have focused on writing strong paragraphs about ourselves and our classmates. First we formulated questions, then did oral work asking and answering the questions, then we turned these answers into a paragraph about our classmates. We talked about similarities and our differences. Students also did some warm up activities that focused on reading comprehension.

Spanish Humanities, grade 7 (Ms. Henderson)

Hello! I hope this message finds you well. This week we have been studying the stages of "The Hero's Journey," a narrative pattern that appears in many stories and myths from cultures around the world. This week, students are collaborating in groups to develop each stage of the Hero's Journey for a fictional character.

Next week, we will continue with this topic, using the Hero's Journey to learn about some of the most influential figures of Latin America. This will help us to connect concepts learned in class with the history and culture of the region.

As always, thank you for your support and don't hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Hola! Espero que este mensaje les encuentre bien. Esta semana hemos estado estudiando las etapas del "Viaje del Héroe", un patrón narrativo que aparece en muchas historias y mitologías de diversas culturas. Esta semana, los estudiantes estan colaborando en grupos para desarrollar una de las etapas de la historia de un héroe ficticio que hemos creado en clase.

La próxima semana seguiremos explorando este tema, utilizando el esquema del "Viaje del Héroe" para conocer algunas de las figuras más influyentes de América Latina. Esto nos permitirá conectar los conceptos aprendidos en clase con la historia y la cultura de la región.

Como siempre, agradezco su apoyo continuo. No duden en ponerse en contacto si tienen alguna pregunta.

Spanish Humanities, grade 8 (Ms. Wooten)

This week in 8th grade Spanish humanities, students reflected on the language input they are exposed to in their daily lives, thinking about what input that are exposed to in both Spanish and English. We expressed agreement to different phrases about our identity and language experience and practiced summarizing and analyzing how that information impacts how we will learn as a community. We are now beginning to read our first identity poems and craft our first poem. Next week we will also kick of Hispanic Heritage Month. If your student wants to volunteer to be a bilingual guide at next Wednesday’s Back to School Night, please have them sign up with Ms. Wooten.

French Language and Culture (Ms. Bullock, Mr. Almanza)

Last week in Introduction to French, students continued to learn about their classmates in French. We’ve been strengthening our foundation by learning how to ask and say how we are feeling. Next week we will be learning to talk about where we live and our nationalities. We will also have our first listening formative where students will see how well they can understand spoken French. Middle schoolers can be slow to share what they’re learning at school but encourage your student to teach you some French. All homework assignments are posted on Canvas daily!

French I (Ms. Balestra, Mr. Osei)

We have continued our review of concepts introduced last year. This includes a thorough review of ETRE, AVOIR, telling time, date, and talking about our likes and dislikes. We are reviewing the present tense of regular -ER verbs and have begun with new vocabulary that focuses on places found in a city.

French II (Dr. Mbayu)

We continued the review of concepts: Les articles définis et indéfinis. We completed 2 diagnostic quizzes. Next week we will complete Rappel 2: Les objets et les endroits.

Chinese (Mr. Zhi, Ms. Liang)

Grade 6 Chinese class this week focused on learning high-frequency words through their etymology. We completed our first oral assessment - introduction of yourself and your classmates. Students were given Textbook Volume I in class this week. We will start learning lesson two - pinyin, numbers, and greetings next week.

Grade 7 Chinese classes worked on two summative assessments about expressing their routines this week. We will start learning Lesson 2 - time and activities next week.

Grade 8 Chinese classes worked on two summative assessments related to daily school life this week. We will start learning Lesson 2 - transportation and traveling next week.