High School Spanish 4/5
his course is designed for fourth (and fifth) year students who have acquired the vocabulary and grammar skills to begin reading authentic Spanish literature and listening to media produced by native Spanish speakers. The class is conducted primarily in Spanish, and includes oral presentations, conversation practice, and discussions of literature. Upon completion of this course, students are able to summarize and analyze a Spanish text and convey complex information in spoken Spanish.
The class includes 30 hours of live, online instruction per semester. Each week, students study a short story or passage from a novel and listen to one hour of Spanish language media. Live class sessions focus on discussion of the weekly literature assignment. In addition each student gives a 5-10 minute presentation in Spanish to summarize the hour of media they watched during the week.
In addition to the weekly comprehension questions, written reflections, and notes on the assigned readings, students complete three larger projects over the course of the year: a three-page fictional story, a three-page literary analysis, and a brief podcast on a teacher-approved topic.
The readings in the class vary from year to year so Spanish 4 can be repeated as a Spanish 5 class. Spanish 5 students have more challenging grammar, oral comprehension, and writing assignments and are expected to demonstrate a deeper level of understanding and more advanced ability to express their ideas during class discussion of the literature selections.
High School Spanish 4 is designed for students who have completed CLRC High School Spanish 3 or are proficient in most verb tenses and able to read and write in Spanish independently.
Students are encouraged to take the National Spanish Exam and are provided with practice questions and support to prepare for the exam.
Students who wish to use the class to prepare for the Spanish CLEP exam should contact the instructor.
Taking Conversational Spanish - Cultura y Conversación as a supplement to this class is highly recommended for practice with pronunciation and conversation.
