Spanish Update

In seventh grade Spanish, students have been learning to talk about the clothing that they and others wear. To incorporate their past learning about expressing their opinions, using frequency adverbs, and describing colors, students had conversations and wrote about what kinds of clothes they usually wear or clothes that they never wear. To learn more about traditional clothing, students contributed to a group presentation where they researched and described different articles of clothing that people in the Spanish-speaking world wear traditionally or for special occasions. Students spent time comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between the articles of clothing and the colors represented by looking through what their classmates found in their investigations.

As we wrap up this unit, students are working on a mini-project in which they choose three different Spanish-speaking countries, describe their traditional dress, express their opinions about the clothing they find, and illustrate the clothing they wear. This work will culminate in a simulation in which students will express their own opinions on the traditional clothing of different countries and talk about how often they might wear the clothing they see.

Over the last month, eighth grade Spanish students have been learning about art, artists, and graffiti from the Spanish-speaking world. They have used a wide variety of adjectives and nouns to describe different works of art, including artwork created by their classmates. To hone their ability to use the vocabulary associated with this unit, students have played guessing games in which they describe a certain work of art in order for their classmates to guess which one they are describing, have created lists of nouns and adjectives for their classmates to include in art pieces, and have expressed their opinions about specific elements of artwork.

Now that our eighth graders are artists with their own art proudly on display, they are ready to curate a collection for an art gallery of their own! As we end this unit, students will explore an art gallery from the Spanish-speaking world and select six works of art to describe and showcase. They will participate in an art gallery simulation in which they will look at the different works of art selected by their classmates and have conversations about what they see in the artwork and talk about what they think about the art.