Russell Braman's blog

Just wanted to send an update as we begin the new trimester!

All classes have been working this week on a holiday webquest to learn about winter holiday customs in the Spanish-speaking world.  The sites which I recommend are on the post immediately below this.  On Thursday, we will be singing holiday songs in Spanish during class-time.  This gives us another chance to look at the culture of the Spanish-speaking world during the holiday season.

7th grade classes will be learning city vocabulary and focusing on the verbs ser and estar (both of which mean to be)--more on the difference later.  We are studying the words for places in a city (pg. 90) and will be moving on to transportation vocabulary (pg. 100).  A quiz will be coming on all these words middle of next week.  When we return from the winter holidays, we will begin our project planning a trip to either Mexico City or Madrid using that city's metro system.  Details to follow...

 

8th grade classes are focusing now on accent marks and the rules for using them.  That should take us through the middle of next week with science field trips this week.  After learning all about accents, we will look at pasttimes and talk about what we do now and what we did in 6th, 4th, and 2nd grades.  When we get back from winter holidays, we will really focus on the past tenses in Spanish and how they work.

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and will have a meaningful holiday season and new year!

 

¡Feliz navidad, Feliz Hanukah, and Feliz Año nuevo!

 

Profe B.

Here are the sites to use for the Christmas in the Spanish-speaking world webquest:

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/christmas.html

http://www.cyberspain.com/life/navidad.htm

http://www.nacnet.org/assunta/nacimnto.htm

http://www.californiamall.com/holidaytraditions/traditions-spain.htm

http://www.californiamall.com/holidaytraditions/traditions-mexico.htm

http://twilightbridge.com/festivals/christmas/samerica.htm

Hola a todos,

  Trimester examinations will be in 7th and 8th grade classes on Tuesday, December 1.  Students will be able to come into class with a list of 10 key words to help them write their rough draft answers to their exam question.  I will give 20 minutes to write the rough draft, 10 minutes for peer editing, and the remaining 20 minutes to compose the final draft to turn in.  The questions are:

 

7th grade: ¿Cuál es tu clase favorita y por qué?--Which is your favorite class and why?  (at least 4 sentences)

 

8th grade: ¿Cómo es tu casa?--What is your house like?  (at least 6 sentences)

 

Buena suerte,

Profe B.

 

Here is the application for the Costa Rica trip Summer, 2010

Here is the assignment sheet and the parent permission form for the Cribs en

Español Project:

 

Any and all tests and quizzes may be corrected (Trimester Exams excepted). 

Here are the rules:

1.) You have one week (7 Calendar days) from the return of a test or quiz to make corrections.

2.) Test corrections must be handed in on a separate sheet of paper stapled to the original test.

3.)  For each question you got wrong, please re-write the question.  Then write out, in complete sentences, why you got the question wrong.  Explain your thinking.  You can say that I took a wild guess.

4.) Then, give the correct answer.

5.) Finally, please say where in your textbook or notes you found the correct answer.

6.) By doing this assignment completely, you will receive back half of the points you missed on the test or quiz.  For example, if y ou earn a grade of 68, you missed 32 points.  I will raise your grade by 16 points, giving you a final grade of an 84.  I will take any extra credit away and re-add it to your corrected score.

 

EXAMPLE:

2.) Buenos D Normal 0 ías--I thought Buenos D Normal 0 ías meant good day because d Normal 0 ía means day.  The correct answer was N, good morning.  (Pg. 18/37).

The 7th Grade Chapter 1 test has been moved to Tuesday, 10/27.

 Profe B.

Hola a todos,

The seventh graders have been focusing on learning greetings vocabulary, telling time, and have just started learning about Spanish verbs.  They will be taking their Chapter 1 (Greetings, Alphabet, #s 1-30, Time, Where are you from, etc...) test on Monday, 10/26.  We will review on Friday to make sure that all students are ready.  Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be finalizing our Yo soy poems.  These are poems where students learn to describe themselves in Spanish.  They take this form:

Me llamo _________(My name is)

Yo soy __________, _________, y ________.  (I am 3 adjectives which describe them.)

Yo soy de _________ (I am from ________.)

Me gusta _________, _________, y _________. (I like _____).

Me llamo ________. 

 They should not need to work on these at home, but should bring in a picture of themselves tomorrow (Thursday) if possible.  Otherwise, I have taken pictures of those who didn't think they'd be able to take care of this.

 

8th graders have been learning about kitchen and food vocabulary.  They made lists of different things that one might need to cook breakfast, soups, salads, cakes, and sandwiches.  That list will be added to our other vocabulary concepts to round out what we can say about food.  Next week, we will come back to food and create our own recipes.  Then, we will actually bake cookies using a recipe in Spanish to practice the vocabulary another way.  This Friday, for Grandparents' and Special Friends Day, the 8th grade Spanish students have decided to sing La Bamba.  We are working on learning the lyrics and translating them so we can sing for our guests on Friday, the 23rd.

As November approaches, we will transition into the vocabulary of the house and the students will begin to work on their Cribs project.  Much like the MTV show of the same name, students will be working in groups, shooting a video describing and showing the rooms of one group member's house.  More specific directions will be coming later. 

I am enjoying working with your students and look forward to meeting with all of you during parent conferences week in November.  If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me: rbraman@pps.k12.or.us

Gracias para todo (Thanks for everything),

Profe B.

For 8th grade students and parents interested in the Summer, 2010 Costa Rica trip, the information meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 28, at 7:00 PM in the Sellwood Middle School Library.

Here is the information and the fact sheets for the Spanish-speaking countries project.  Remember, you are also meant to find an outline map of your country and label 10 cities and 10 physical features.  This will be due on 10/19/2009.

 

Here are the websites I gave you in class. 

University of Texas Libraries Map Collection

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps

BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk

RefDesk (Links to many newspapers)

http://www.refdesk.com

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com

Multnomah County Public Library (Many databases here for library card holders)

http://www.multcolib.org

 

 

Profe B.