Teaching with an elementary Spanish curriculum can be the best thing you do for yourself and your students. A quality program will make teaching easier and more enjoyable. It will give you everything you need to create an engaging and effective learning experience for your students. And, it will guarantee you results!
A quality elementary Spanish curriculum will teach students more than just vocabulary and phrases. It will develop their ability to understand, speak, read, and write in complete sentences. It will teach them the mechanics of the language too. They will be able to use those skills to expand their use of the language and to learn other languages in the future.
Benefits of Using a Quality Elementary Spanish Curriculum
Here are some of the benefits of using a curriculum versus piecing things together yourself:
- Establishes and organizes content to optimize learning and facilitate advancement.
- Lays out a methodical path of learning objectives.
- Provides you with lesson plans and all materials needed to meet those objectives.
- Offers an organized way to record the content and skills students learn each year or semester.
- Frees up time so you can focus on teaching and add your own creative touches.
- Gives you peace of mind.
Added Benefits of the Spanish for You! Teaching System
Spanish for You! gives you added benefits because of its unique themed design, flexibility, skillfully planned lessons, and content scope. Students build skills and knowledge with each school-year-themed course they complete. Here are some of the added benefits for you and your students:
- You can mix new and returning students together every year. New students are seamlessly integrated!
- Different ages can learn together. The themed courses come in grade groups 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8 indicative of grade in school, not Spanish experience. And, they’re flexible to use. Check that out here.
- The curriculum is open and go. Everything is organized and laid out for you. All you have to do is follow the lessons step by step.
- You can adapt activities easily or change them completely to suit your needs.
- Makes teaching and learning fun! Every class lesson plan or home lesson contains a variety of easy-to-implement activities and games.
- Supports non-Spanish teachers so that if you have an unexpected leave of absence your students can continue learning.
- Easily transitions for online use so students can continue learning from home. They can even continue independently if needed.
- Flows into any high school curriculum. Some students who complete 3 to 4 of the themes can begin second year high school Spanish.
- You get access to many free extra resources such as listening videos, conversation dialogs, games and activities, and review worksheets.
- You get direct support at no cost while using the curriculum should you need it.
How to Use My Elementary Spanish Curriculum for Classes
Using a curriculum should be easy. It should provide you with everything you need to be successful. Spanish for You! does this by providing year-long themed courses complete with all lesson plans and materials needed. To use any of our themed courses, you just follow these 3 steps:
Step 1: Begin with the Week 1 One-Hour Class Lesson Plan. Check out this sample curriculum.
- Follow the lesson plan, step-by-step for your first class.
- Prep materials as per the lesson plan.
- Lesson plans are low-prep with easily taught activities.
- Print any worksheets attached to the lesson plan.
- Normally 0-2 worksheets per lesson plan.
- Answer keys are provided
- Lesson plans are easily used by non-Spanish teachers!
Step 2: Follow With the Week 1 Lesson Guide and use it for in-class or as homework.
- Contains 4 days of lessons, 20-30 min/day
- Step-by-step daily instructions
- Includes a variety of activities and games
- Check out this sample.
Step 3: Continue like this in Week 2 and so on. That’s it!
Go at your own pace if you’d like. Just follow the lessons in order.
Any additional materials needed to do activities are everyday items like card stock, index cards, dice, paper, items to mark Bingo cards or use as game pieces, etc.
How to Use for Homeschool
Using Spanish for You! for homeschool is easy too! It works the same as above minus the one-hour class lesson plans. To learn more about implementing Spanish in your homeschool, check out my blog post here.
Materials Needed for Using My Elementary Spanish Curriculum
There are 6 school-year-long themed courses. Students build skills and knowledge the more themed courses they complete. Each themed course is available in grade groups 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8. These indicate student grade levels in school, not Spanish experience. They are flexible to use as you can read here.
To teach a class for the school year, you would need the following items:
- 1 x Themed Teacher Package in the Grade Group of your choice
- 1 x Themed Student Book per student or one classroom set
- All materials are reusable!
You would need one themed book per student if you assign homework requiring use of the book. All the lesson plans and materials needed for the course come in the teacher package. Check out the contents here.
To teach at home for the school year, you would need the following items:
- 1 x Themed Homeschool Package in the Grade Group of your choice
- All materials are reusable.
Skills Students Learn
A quality elementary Spanish curriculum will teach students to understand, speak, read, and write skillfully. It will do this by using a variety of teaching methodologies. Using a combination of different methodologies ensures reaching students of different learning styles. It also allows each student to experience learning the language in different ways. This deepens what they understand about the language.
Also, it will teach the language mechanics and do it in a way suitable for younger students. Teaching students how the language works allow them to use that knowledge to expand their use of the language. It also helps them with learning other languages in the future.
Spanish for You! does just this. Take a look here to see specifically what students learn. Download and print the PDF. Use it as a guide of what learning results to expect in an elementary Spanish curriculum.
Conclusion
After learning with a quality elementary Spanish curriculum, your students should be able to continue in any high school curriculum and succeed. If you’re using a program like Spanish for You!, many of your students will be able to begin high school Spanish beyond the first year.
Choosing to teach with an elementary Spanish curriculum is a worthwhile investment. If you use a quality program it will make teaching easier and more enjoyable. It will contribute significantly to your success.
If you have any questions about teaching with an elementary Spanish curriculum, please feel free to drop me an email. I’d be happy to help you!