Spanish I
Instructor: Christopher Lovins, PhD
e-mail: christopher.lovins@clayton.k12.ga.us
Course Overview
This course provides high school students with foundational skills in the modern Spanish language, with a focus on Spanish as it is spoken in Latin America. Topics include but are not limited to:
1. Basic Vocabulary
- Greetings and introductions
- Numbers (0–100)
- Days of the week and months of the year
- Weather expressions
- Colors
- Classroom objects
- Family members
- Food and drink
- Clothing
- Parts of the body
- Common verbs (e.g., tener, ser, estar, ir, gustar)
2. Grammar and Sentence Structure
- Subject pronouns
- Present tense of regular -ar, -er, -ir verbs
- Ser vs. estar
- Noun/adjective agreement and adjective placement
- Definite and indefinite articles
- Making questions and negative sentences
- Possessive adjectives
- Ir + a + infinitive (talking about the future)
3. Communication Skills
- Simple conversations
- Asking and answering personal questions
- Describing yourself and others
- Talking about likes/dislikes
- Telling time and dates
Attendance Policy
To be marked “Present”, you must be in your assigned seat. If you are inside the room but not in your seat, you will be marked absent. This is how I take roll, so I am looking at your seat to find you. If someone is sitting in your assigned seat, let me know. Third period: If you do not return from lunch within ten (10) minutes, you will be marked absent, as this constitutes skipping.
Evaluation
There are three modes of evaluation for this course: Friday oral quizzes, participation, and the libreta (notebook).
Quizzes. These are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 according to the rubric. They will be given most Fridays. You will know exactly what will be on them so that you can prepare accordingly.
Participation. Your participation grade starts at 100. You lose 10 points each time you do not participate in class. Participation includes questions to the class, group/pair activities, and oral drills. You receive credit for participation for making a genuine effort to do so. You only lose points by refusing to try. Each time you participate, you regain 5 points (up to 100). You will have about 10 seconds to answer before I move on to the next student/group/pair.
La libreta. Yourlibreta will be the only notebook you keep for Spanish class. It will be stored here in our classroom so that you do not have to keep track of it. It will be used every day except quiz days. When you arrive to class, you pick it up. When you leave, you leave it here. Each day, you will write three parts of the lesson in your libreta: the bellringer for the day, your notes (input), and your responses to written exercises (output). You will receive up to 25 daily points, 5 for the bellringer, 10 for your notes, and 10 for the exercises. You receive credit for making a genuine effort to take notes and answer exercises, whether or not your answers are correct.
Note: The bellringer must be completed within 10 minutes. I will come around the check it, and you will get points if you made a genuine attempt to answer it. Copying it down does not count. Showing me your response 20 minutes later does not count. The purpose of the bellringer is for you to do it immediately to get ready for learning.
Note: Classwork will be assigned on Canvas, but do not submit it on Canvas. All classwork should be completed in your libreta. The work is assigned in Canvas so that students who are absent know which work has been assigned.
Extra credit is not available. You might get a few extra points for exceptional participation or exceptional work in your libreta, but there are no extra credit assignments in this course.
Required Text
You have access to our class textbook, Senderos 1, on Canvas. I also have a limited number of hard copies of the text for use in class only, if you choose. Please take care of my textbooks.
Policies
- When you enter the classroom, take your libreta, sit in your assigned seat, and begin work on the day’s bellringer.
- Please do not eat during class. We have had a problem with ants in this classroom before. If you don’t want to sit in an ant-infested classroom, don’t eat in here.
- Raise your hand and be recognized before speaking. Remember that there are forty of you and only one of me. I can only help one student at a time. I will get to you as soon as I can.
- You will have to speak Spanish in this class. You cannot learn a language if you do not use it. The quizzes require you to speak in order to be graded. If you use an electronic translator (e.g. Google translate) to complete our in-class activities, you are setting yourself up to fail the quiz.
Make-up Work
Clayton County Policy (p. 25, CCPS Student Handbook): All students are provided an opportunity to make up missed assignments, regardless of the reason for theabsences. Students are responsible for viewing daily material on Canvas and completing missed work due to absences, within 3 days of returning to class. Missing assignments will receive a zero if not completed. Remember that even though you will find the missing assignments on Canvas, you do NOT submit them on Canvas. Write your responses in your libreta. If you miss a quiz, we will arrange a time for you to make up that quiz with me as soon as possible. It will be listed as a 0 until that time, so the sooner we make it up, the better.
Note: The bellringer of the day does not need to be made up. If you are absent, you are not responsible for the bellringer.
Note: This does not include suspension. Per page 39 of the CCPS Student Handbook, if a student is suspended, he or she should continue working on their assignments daily during the suspension through asynchronous instruction).