What do they mean for you?

Communication means that we will speak Spanish as much as possible. You and your classmates will practice dialogues, give short presentations, do role playing of possible real situations you might encounter, etc. Therefore, your participation is extremely important in order for you and your classmates to practice Spanish. I expect you to try to speak Spanish as much as possible in class as well as outside the classroom if it's possible.

Culture -Probably you have heard before that in order to learn a language you have to learn about the culture as well. This is very true. You can learn vocabulary and put it together with grammar rules, but soon you will realize that there are many things you cannot understand with just grammar rules and vocabulary. Therefore, we will study the wide cultural diversity that makes up the Hispanic world.

Connections means that we will study other subjects in Spanish! We will study common themes like environment, reading strategies, geography and others. We will probably review what you already know in other subject areas.

Comparisons -you are expected to compare and contrast languages (Spanish and English for most part) and cultures (Hispanic cultures and your culture). You will discover patterns, make predictions, and analyze similarities and differences across languages and cultures. You will definetely come to understand your native language and culture better through such comparisons.

Communities means that we will have activities that extend your classroom learning like: field trips, use of e-mail to communicate with others in Spanish.

Do you want to know how many people speak Spanish in your vecinities? Go to the language map. You can find updated information on languages spoken in the United Sates by states or even by counties or zip codes!

If you want to know much more about Spanish, there is a lot about the history and other interesting facts about Spanish in the United States at Wikipedia.