Middle School Russian 1
his introduction to Russian language and culture for middle school students is intended to introduce students to functional, communicative Russian and the Russian culture. Middle school Russian allows students to complete the equivalent of High School Russian 1 over the course of two years (Middle School Russian 1 & 2).
Stress will be placed on pronunciation, communication, and basic grammar. This is intended to introduce the middle school age student to the language, or to enhance heritage-Russian speaking students’ knowledge. Students will be challenged to develop the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Russian. Speaking will occur from day one, discussing surroundings, and will progress to home and family life, school, expressing daily needs, mealtimes, professions and everyday activities. This will also be the basis for learning vocabulary, orthography, and basic grammatical structures.
Basic grammar will be introduced to include the cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Instrumental, and Locative/Prepositional; personal and possessive pronouns; adjectives and gender; and present and past verb tenses (including verbs of motion). Students will find that this study of Russian also deepens their understanding of English - its grammar, syntax, and vocabulary.
It goes without saying that one cannot study a language without studying its culture. Typical and atypical customs will be discussed, as well as some comparisons between Russia of old, the former Soviet Union, and present day Russia. Geography, fairy tales, famous Russians, and more will help to bring to life this very fun and engaging foreign language. Free online apps, age appropriate and entertaining movies/videos, music, and art will be incorporated into the lessons and homework as well.
This class will meet once a week, providing 22.5 hours of live, online instruction per semester. Classes are one and a half hours in length. Students will be assigned weekly written and oral exercises, and will also be expected to continue to learn and practice vocabulary through interactive resource links provided.
