This course is for beginning students who are interested in starting to learn to speak, read and write Spanish. It is designed to prepare students for the second year of Spanish Language at Paly.

Texts:
DIME Uno (text)
DIME Cuaderno de Actividades (workbook and exercises)
(students are encouraged to obtain the right to write in the workbook by donating $20.  This can be done through the Auditor by check written to Palo Alto High School.  Otherwise, workbooks must be returned at the end of the year without any marks on them.)

Materials:
Recommended: Spanish or Spanish/English dictionary
Recommended: Standard tape recorder

Expectations: Paly has a well-written Student Handbook with a detailed description of the expectations for the interaction of students and staff on this campus. These expectations and consequences apply to this class as to anywhere else. A few special points to emphasize in this class are:

        Attendance. "If you aren't there, you can't learn." is true in a foreign language class. Work missed by cutting cannot be made up. Even tardies    retard learning (and you cannot make up any quiz you miss because of an unexcused tardy).VERY IMPORTANT:

 It is up to the student to fill out the tardy log when late.  Failure to do so will result in a cut.  For every two tardies, one hour of detentention will be be assigned. Detention is to be served in Room P-1 after school the following Friday. After 8 tardies, a student will be dropped from the class for the next tardy.  Also, it is school policy that a student will be removed from a class for having more than 5 cuts.  In neither case may a student switch to another section of the course he/she has been dropped from.

        Food. Don't bring it. Any of it. Ever. (This especially means chewing gum).  Approved class projects are of course excepted.

        Honesty.  Cheating hurts everyone.  The student handbook explains the Paly policy.  To summarize: in the first instance a student receives a zero on the test/assignment and the parents are called.  In the second, the consequence could be removal from the class.

        Materials.  Bring them. All of them. Every day.  You can lose participation credit by not bringing text and exercise book.

        Participation. Everyone is expected to participate when called on. This has an impact on your grade, but it also just makes Spanish more fun!

        Respect. An appropriate attitude and general self-control are expected of students and staff. Mutual respect by everyone is the best atmosphere for learning.

        Evaluation:  Students are evaluated on samples of their listening and reading comprehension, speaking and writing,  Cultural knowledge is also tested and performance on homework is also factored in.  The language skills constitute the following percentages of the total grade:

                        Oral (listening and speaking)25%
                        Written (reading and writing)25%
                        Structure of Spanish25%
                        Participation and Culture25%

Letter grades are generally assigned for points achieved out of points possible: A 100-90; B 89-80; C 79-70; D 69-60 ; F 59 and below. Class average is taken into account by assignment.  Late assignments are only accepted with approval of the instructor and never for unexcused absence.

Special events:  Throughout the year there are opportunities to either practice Spanish or show how much language you know.  Not all apply to your level.

Spanish Camp (Saratoga)-Mar. or Apr.
Advanced Placement Spanish Lang.-May

Help: I got into teaching because I discovered I like helping people. Please use the information at the top of the page to get in touch with me whenever you need help, have a question or just want to know how its going.