Course Syllabus

Office Hours for Sra. Kaufman in room 241:

Block A:

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2:30 - by appointment (just email or speak with your teacher to let her know you'd like to come after school).

 

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Welcome to Spanish 2!

 

Course Description

Students continue to work to develop their competence in Spanish across the three modes of communication:  interpersonal, presentational, and interpretive, in the context of the themes of Teenage Life and Connecting With Others through technology, food, sports and arts.  Interpretive listening and reading tasks are focused on literal comprehension with increasing emphasis on inferential interpretation.  Practice is provided regularly, both within the classroom and at home.  Students continue to explore the culture of Spanish speaking places in new contexts.  Upon completion of this course, students will be prepared to enter into Spanish 3.  The expectation is that the communication in the classroom (teacher-student and/or student-student) takes place primarily in Spanish. 

Unit 1 - What is teenage life?

    • I can discuss teenage pop culture trends in my culture and compare them to the target culture
    • I can compare and contrast teenage life now and teenage life years age

Unit 2 - How do I connect with others?

    • I can justify whether technology and social media brings people together or not
    • I can explain how food brings people together
    • I can express my opinion on how common interests (specifically: arts + sports) bring people together.

 

 

What do I need for class?

• computer with a full charge

headphones / air pods    <--   ***very important***

• your class workbook

• a pen or pencil

• a folder or binder to file away classwork, worksheets, assessments.

 

 

What should I do if I am absent from class?

• Click on your class calendar to see what we did in class and make it up.

• If you missed an assessment, email or speak with your teacher to schedule a make up assessment . 

You have two school days to make up assessments that you miss due to an excused absence.  After 2 days the assessment will be assigned a score of zero if you have not contacted your teacher to make it up.

 

 

How will my progress be evaluated this year?

In the World Language Department we use Evidence Based Grading.  This means that your work will be evaluated on how closely it meets a standard.  The standard is the proficiency level for this course, which is Intermediate Low, and moves to Intermediate Mid in Semester 2.  Each Performance Assessment has a rubric so you can see exactly what you need to show that you can do to meet or exceed the standard.  You will have lots of practice, see/hear examples of past student work and get lots of feedback via Formative Assessments before you take the Performance Assessments which determine your term grade.  You will also have the opportunity to build your skills with practice and Achievement Assessments prior to taking the Performance Assessments.

We will spend our first few days of class learning about all this, so don't worry if it seems confusing right now.

 

How is my term grade computed?

90% = performance assessments 

10% = achievement assessments

 

What is a Performance Assessment? (90% of your term grade)

These include:

Interpretive Performance Assessments  

Examples include:

              • Watching a video or listening to an audio recording and answering questions about what you saw or heard
              • Reading an article and answering questions about what you read. 
              • Looking at an infographic or chart and answering questions about it.  

Presentational Performance Assessments 

Examples include:

              • Answering a prompt (question) by recording a monologue using video or audio software. 
              • Answering a prompt in writing.

Interpersonal Performance Assessments

Examples include:

              • Having an extemporaneous conversation with one or more people. The conversation is often in response to a prompt.

There are no retakes on Performance Assessments.  

 

What is an Achievement Assessment? (10% of your term grade)

These include short skill building assessments such as vocabulary or grammar quizzes, classwork and homework to be sure you are the skills that you will need to perform well on the Performance Assessments.  On Achievement Assessments any grade (letter or percentage grade) is possible.  In Señora Kaufman's class, you may retake each Achievement assessment once to improve this grade.  Just come before school (block A) to your Spanish room to retake them.  Once the term is over, you can't retake assessments from the previous term.

What is a Formative Assessment?

This is a practice performance assessment.  You will get feedback from your teacher, and often a grade, but it does not compute into your term grade.  It's to let you know how you're doing and how you can improve as we go along in the unit and before you take the performance assessments.  It often takes the form of a short flip grid video or a short piece of writing (digitally or on paper).  Formative assessments are a part of standards based grading because they help students understand how close they are to meeting the standard before they take the assessment and give them feedback on what they need to do to meet the standard.

 

What about homework?

You will have homework most days.  It is always posted on your class calendar.  Homework is due at the beginning of the next class and will be recorded in the 10% portion of your term grade.  Homework completion is a necessary part of the course because it gives you the opportunity to build and practice your skills.  Your teacher will be communicating with your family if you do not complete the homework.

 

How is my end of year grade computed?

Term 1 = 12% of your year end grade

Term 2 = 19% of your year end grade

Term 3 = 26% of your year end grade

Term 4 = 31% of your year end grade

Final Assessment = 12%

 

The rationale for this increase in percentages is that what you learn in Term 1 will need to be remembered and used in Term 2, and so on, so by Term 4 you'll be required to use all the skills and information you've learned over the year.

 

Keep a portfolio

You should save your assessments and rubrics (essays, letters, audio recordings, video recordings, projects -> anything that is assessed and graded).  In January and in June you will have a portfolio reflection which will be your mid year and end of year assessments.  You are responsible for being able to show your progress over the year with evidence.  You will show this through written reflections and an interview with your teacher.  You may make an electronic (Google Drive) portfolio or keep papers at home and recorded items on your desktop.

 

What is the difference between Honors and Advanced College Placement (ACP) in this classroom?

In this Spanish 2 classroom, some students registered for Spanish 2 Honors and others registered for Spanish 2 ACP.  Here is what you will  notice:

- All students will use the same workbook, receive the same instruction and participate in the same classroom activities.

- Students will take the same performance assessments.  If a student Meets the Standard, this is calculated as a B for Honors and as an A for ACP.  In order for an Honors student to score an A, they need to Level Up on the rubric.  All rubrics can be found in your class workbook.

- There may be some differentiation between Honors and ACP on Achievement Quizzes, Canvas Quizzes and daily homework assignments.

 

At the beginning of the school year all students are registered for Spanish 2 Honors.

If you want to change levels within Spanish 2, here are the deadlines:

    • October 15, 2022 - Last day to add a class to your schedule.  Last day to move up a level (move from ACP to Honors in a course).
    • November 23, 2022 - Last day to move down a level (move from Honors to ACP)

How can you switch from Spanish 1 Honors to Spanish 1 ACP?

    1. Have a conversation with your teacher to say that you're interested in switching.
    2. Have a conversation with your caregivers (parents/guardians) to say that you want to switch and explain why.
    3. Email your school counselor and copy your teachers and caregivers to say that you want to change levels.

 

 

 

How can I get extra help in Spanish?

Click on your class calendar and see the yellow calendar at the top.

What do I do when I go to the Language Support Lab (room 155)?

• If you would like a peer tutor, email your teacher for more information.  A peer tutor is an upper class student in Spanish 3H or above who has volunteered to tutor Spanish 1 and 2 students.  Generally you meet once a week.  This is a very useful support system for students who want some individual support.  There is no charge for this tutoring and the peer tutors do it because they love Spanish and/or need community service hours.

 

 

Questions?  Email Sra. Kaufman at any time:

kaufmank@wellesleyps.org

I encourage any students or family members to email me at any time to check in, ask questions, or ask for help.

 

 

 

Here is a Canvas Guide for Students

 

Here is a link to the CML (Classical and Modern Languages) Technology Help Site