¡Bienvenidos!
Ésta es la clase web de MHASD
Here you will find resources, files, and links to
help your student in their study of Spanish.
Please check the navbar on the left. The resources page is a great place to start!
For Parents - How do I help my student? Remember that Spanish is a use it or lose it skill, it needs to be practiced constantly. They need to own it, and make it theirs. Spanish DOESN'T have to be schoolwork - it's just the same stuff you do, but in a different language. Even if you don't know it, you can help your student practice. Here's some ideas (see also the Fun Outside Resources section):
Have them teach you words and sentences - this will help them know what they don't know when they find they can't explain it to you.
Expose them to as much Spanish as possible - TV or DVD movies that they know already are great ideas. Or try the first few scenes of a new movie to see what they understand. Please limit it to 10-15 minutes at a time to avoid burn-out.
MUSIC - 1480 AM La Movida is a Madison radio station completely in Spanish. Pandora.com is also a great place for free Spanish music and some ads. This is great for 5-10 minutes of listening practice, it'll be above their heads, but what can they figure out?
Spanish books from the library (public or school library) would be a great idea too. Don't go much above a 1st or 2nd grade level though, or the grammar and vocab will be too hard.
Apps and Games - Duolingo, www.Quia.com, www.spanishspanish.com... all have some great practice activities to reinforce the concepts from class and keep it fresh as well as practice real life things we can't get to in the time we have.
Hosting!
Each summer, we have a group of 30-40 Spanish students (from Spain) who come to the US to learn about both our culture and our language. There is a group that comes in July, and another that comes in August. The stay is 28 days and your obligation to them is to simply provide them their own bed and meals and treat them as part of your family. In return they will give you an understanding of their own culture and give your student a chance to see what it is like to be on "the other side" of learning a language. We have had a lot of success with this program, with some American students (and even their families!) later traveling to Spain to visit their friend. If you think this is something your family would be interested in, please look through the links below. We will have more information in the Spring concerning this summer's trip.
Speaking Spanish at home: Quality Vs. Quantity.
Something that just warms my heart is how often parents tell me "they speak Spanish all the time at home!" That really does makes us feel like we're achieving something. My follow up question is: what type of Spanish are they using? Individual words and short phrases are great and build long-term retention; but what we really LOVE to see is whole sentences and conversations. At some point they need to move past our memorized phrases and start making language that matter to them. This is the kind of production that will lead to long-term speaking skills. Especially for those students for whom speaking in class is really hard, using Spanish in full sentences at home will make a huge difference it what they can do next year, or in 5 years. You can start with the dog and work the way up, the important thing is to be speaking out loud in your second language to someone.
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