Specialties

Spanish is taught as a foreign language in 5th through 8th grades. The goal of our Spanish program is that students will graduate with basic conversational and written Spanish that is comparable to the first year of Spanish in high school.  Graduating 8th graders who desire a challenge and are ready take the Spanish entry test at their high school to pass in to Spanish II as a freshman.

The TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) method in all Spanish classes.  In 5th grade, students start taking Spanish.  On the first day of class, they learn actions that go along with vocabulary and how to put the new vocabulary in to sentences.  Vocab is taught in context starting on day one and continues to be taught in this way throughout their middle school experience.  By the end of fifth grade, students are reading and writing half-page stories with humorous characters and fun actions.  Grammar concepts such as gender, number, and verb conjugations are introduced along with vocab words.  Additionally, sentence structures that differ from sentence structures in English are practiced daily.  As well as creating, telling, acting out, and writing stories, we play many games and listen to a variety of songs that help with vocab acquisition. 

In 6th-8th grade students continue learning more advanced sentence structures and building on the grammar concepts and vocabulary that they know.  In each grade level, students read a chapter book: Brandon Brown versus Yucatan in 6th and Esperanza in 7th.  In 8th grade students read a variety of novels in literature circles.  We also review vocab through games and music, and we do many engaging grammar and vocabulary activities.  Students regularly write and perform skits and short stories in class, so look for your child bringing these home and he/she can translate for you.

All Washington State K-12 World Language Learning Standards from OSPI are addressed at ASB throughout the 4 years that students take Spanish.

Washington State K-12 World Language Learning Standards from OSPI and which standards go under which skills at ASB:

• Shows evidence of understanding written and spoken Spanish

1.2 Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics

4.1 Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own

5.1 Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting

• Communicates effectively through speaking and writing

1.1 Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions

1.3 Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics

3.1 Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the world language

5.1 Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting

• Demonstrates understanding of culture

2.1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied

2.2 Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied

3.1 Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the world language

3.2 Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the world language and its cultures

4.2 Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own

5.1 Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting