Welcome to Week 5 of Spanish 3!
with Señora Melo
Welcome to Week 5 of the course! July 15-19, 2019
Welcome to week 5 – July 15 - 19. This week we will be completing Unit 5. We will be learning about computer hardware & software, how to do things online, how to use a cell phone, & the future of technology.
- Pacing – There is a total of 16 assignments this week (including the Live Class, which students may have already attended last week). This means that students should aim to complete a minimum of 3 graded assignments per day to stay on pace. It is *critical* for students to stay on pace this week as this week marks the 5th week of our 8 weeks course. Believe it or not, we will be finishing this course in just a few short weeks! Please see the list of assignments below.
Unidad 5 - La Tecnología
Unidad 4 - 5 Required Live Class (during week 4 or week 5)
Lección 1
_____ Notas (con actividades para practicar)
_____ Prueba de Vocabulario
Lección 2
_____ Notas (con actividades para practicar)
_____ Prueba de Vocabulario
_____ Actividad Cultural
_____ Hablar
Lección 3
_____ Notas (con actividades para practicar)
_____ Prueba de Vocabulario
_____ Leer
_____ Escribir
_____ Hablar
Lección 4
_____ Notas (con actividades para practicar)
_____ Prueba de Vocabulario
_____ Escuchar
_____ Proyecto Final: Leer y Escuchar
· Remember that these notas assignments (con actividades para practicar) are critical for students to complete. They contain ALL of the cultural lessons, ALL of the vocabulary presentations and practice, ALL of the grammar presentations and notes, etc. If students are skipping these, they are setting themselves up to be at a loss for understanding the course material and to be successful on their assignments.
- Live Classes - There are only 2 live class sessions being offered this week, so please have students attend one of the following sessions: Monday 7/15 @ 8 p.m. Sra. Myers and Tuesday 7/16 @ 9 a.m. Sra. Gillen
- Peer Tutoring Center – Do you know if your child/student feels like they're constantly behind in their work and need a helping hand to better organize their time to change that? If so, a Virtual Buddy from the Peer Tutoring center sounds like a perfect fit. Please let me know if they are interested in being paired up with a Virtual Buddy!
- Final Project concerns - One area of concern that I have with the final projects students have been submitting is that they do not seem to be reading the instructions carefully. I am not able to award the amount of points students would hope to see if they are missing required elements of these projects. When the instructions say they must include ALL of the mentioned grammar and vocabulary topics and they do not do so, their grade is lowered because of this. Please stress to your child/student(s) that they need to read these instructions with a very discerning eye so that they can earn the maximum number of points.
- Culture Café sessions – There are several culture Cafe sessions coming up soon. Students are required to attend ONE Culture Cafe session this summer. The upcoming sessions are: Kanji 101 Tues., July 16 @ 7 p.m., Tour de France Thurs., July 18 @ 8 p.m., University Cities in Spain Tues., July 23 @ 4 p.m., A Trip to Japan Wed., July 24 @ 7 p.m.,
VERY IMPORTANT! UNITS 1-4 CLOSING PERMANENTLY SOON!
What can you do to help your student/s succeed?
- If your child is struggling with time management and submitting their work in a timely fashion, please ask me to get them paired up with a Virtual Buddy from the Peer Tutoring Center. This is an NCVPS student trained in helping your child to get back on track with their work. Please contact me for more details!
- Remind them to read the course announcements DAILY. This is their lifeline to the course and contains critical information and instruction.
- Make sure that you and they are familiar with the Spanish Dept. Guidelines. A link is posted to these in the announcements and they are available under "Start Here!" module/section.
- Make sure that they have printed off the "Schedule of Assignments" under "Start Here!" module/section. You can also access it here. This document has every assignment on it and when it is due. The students should use this as a check-off list to keep track of what they have done and what they have left to do. It's critical that assignments are completed in the order listed on (or ahead of) time.
- Make sure that they complete *ALL* assignments, to the best of their ability and on time. The Canvas Spanish courses are set up as "conditional" where *all* assignments are open/available, but can't be accessed until completing the previous activity/assignment (with certain scores being required for certain assignments). This means that students may work as quickly as they'd like, but they must complete the prior assignments before moving forward. Any assignments that are not completed will earn a zero. Again, this is why the "Schedule of Assignments" is so important. It keeps them on track, completing work, in order, and on (or ahead of) time.
- Remind them to take their time to read through and learn the material and not to rush. There should always be a focus on quality. Students may redo any assignment that isn't a quiz, test/final project or auto-graded assignment (with one attempt).
- Remind them to go ahead and mark their calendars to schedule when they will attend additional their "Required Live Classes". While students are required to attend a total of 6 (Getting Started, Unit 1, Unit 2/3, Unit 4/5, Unit 6/7 & Unit 8/Final Project). They are more than welcome and encouraged to attend more! These are live classes with me and/or other Spanish 3 teachers to go over the unit's major topics, assignments, present/discuss the material in detail, practice, ask/answer questions etc., just as you would in a regular classroom.
- Encourage them to ask questions, seek help, and communicate with me as much as possible. Communication is critical in an online class. Texting is the quickest/best way to communicate with me when I'm not online. However, they can also send me Canvas messages, or call me.
- Remind them that the use of external sources (such as online translators, native speakers, other students, etc.) is forbidden and considered cheating. Everything that the students need should be in the course and he/she should use the material from the course for his/her answers. If he/she wants to know how to say something, he/she should ask me. The only approved reference is www.wordreference.com and this can only be used for a vocabulary word in isolation, not translating word-for-word, verb conjugation or for sentence structure. Please make sure that you and they know all of the details of the academic honesty policy and the consequences of not following them, as stated in the Spanish Dept. Guidelines (link above).
- Ask them how they are doing and have them show you their grades in the course. Moreover, ask them what they are learning and why they are learning it. If they can't answer these questions in detail, please let me know, as they may need extra help. Grades (and feedback) are always available for them to view in their account on Canvas. Specific feedback is provided for assignments, so make sure that they check over completed assignments to learn from any mistakes. If your student/s and/or you have questions/concerns on any of the grades/feedback, please let me know.
- ELAs are responsible for checking and reporting grades to the students/parents on a bi-weekly basis after NCVPS grade reports have been sent to the schools.
- Feel free to contact me via email (at erin.melo@ncpublicshools.gov) anytime and by phone/text (at 919.346.3889) before 9 p.m.
Grading, Rubrics & Feedback
The course grade is comprised of 2 parts (Course work the Final Project/Exam). The final course grade is made up of: Course work = 80% and the Final Project/Exam Average=20%. Progress reports are completed and submitted to schools every week. Students in NCVPS Spanish courses are graded based on their Spanish-language proficiency. It's the school's/ELA/s responsibility to provide them to the students/parents. Please see the rubrics below for complete details. NCVPS only reports numerical grades, not alphabetical grades due to the variance among different schools/districts. All assignments receive specific feedback. It's critical for the students to check their grades/feedback daily and inquire with the teacher if they don't understand something or feel that there is an error. Assignments not attempted/completed receive a 0.
Grading Rubrics:
Below, are the grading rubrics that will be used to evaluate your performance/proficiency throughout the course. You should refer to these often, so that you know at what proficiency level you are performing and what you need to do to move to the next level. I have seen many students this past week not be able to move to the next level based on items I asked them to revise from their first attempt to the second attempt in looking at the rubrics. This could be something as simple as using cohesive devices in your speaking or writing. A list of cohesive devices was posted in this announcements for students to show up this week.
- Writing Rubric
- Speaking Rubric (original text production)
- Speaking Rubric (reproduction of existing text/speech)
- Listening & Reading Rubric
- Rubric - Required Synchronous Session
- Rubric - Actividad Cultural
- Rubric - Proyecto(s) Final(es)
- Rubric - eLinguaFolio
- Rubric - Culture Cafe Extra Credit
Proficiency Levels and Examples:
Often students have misconceptions on what they will learn/be able to do by the end of the course. For world language, please note that you will not be fluent after one or two levels. It takes time to develop and increase in proficiency.
- Click here to see the overarching grid of proficiency levels and outcomes.
- Click here to see samples of Novice level speakers
- Click here to see samples of Novice level writers
- Click here to see samples of Intermediate level speakers
- Click here to see samples of Intermediate level writers
- Click here to see samples of Advanced level speakers
- Click here to see samples of Advanced level writers
- (Click here to see samples of all levels of Listening)
- (Click here to see samples of all levels of Reading)
Students Who Need Help
Click Here for the NCVPS Virtual Support Center!
About Me
Email: erin.melo@ncpublicschools.gov
Location: Holly Springs, NC, United States
Phone: 919-346-3889
Twitter: @srameloncvps