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Homeschool spanish academy spanish 2 question


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Does anyone have a child taking Spanish two through the Homeschool Spanish academy? My ds mastered Spanish one with a high A through another provider last year - doing both a TON of written and oral work. However he is really struggling this year. He's been doing 50 min classes twice a week since Oct. and is only on lesson 4. He took his first exam and made. 50 today. I've sat in on his classes and to me it sounds like he isn't doing too bad so I'm at a loss. As far as pacing goes I really feel like I'm wasting my money and am at my wits end. He's a good student and is taking college level courses and making As in everything else. Any advice or experience would be helpful

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Does he have a different teacher this year? You should be able to send an email to his teacher and ask what they think.

When DD took some lessons this summer, I did talk to mic to the teacher a couple of times, but mostly I emailed (easier to be understood).

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That sounds really frustrating for both of you! Did they start with review that he may have struggled with? Is he always working with one or two teachers or is it more random? Looking at their syllabus he has spent these however many weeks in stem-change verbs?

 

I agree with RootAnn that you should start asking what is their view of what is going on. Email is probably the easiest way to go in case you end up interacting with multiple people.

 

Hopefully they can explain what they think the problem is/was and lady it a plan to get him back on track.

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Last year we used a completely different online provider for Spanish 1. For Spanish 2 so far, with Homeschool Spanish Academy he always has random teachers due to the way they have it set up and scheduling. The thing is, his daily grade/homework average is 100% but he took his first exam and got a 54! The daily work is based on the oral classes he does weekly with his live teachers so aim very confused as to what is going on. He took the exam with two teachers he has never had before but from what I can tell this is just the way the Homeschool Spanish Academy operates. ??

You are right, I'm frustrated because we are now at the end of the first semester and not even to the end of the first semester of Spanish 2 work. Plus his average is now horrible--after being an A+ student.

Is this normal pacing for this of you who have experience with them? Because it seems very odd.

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Homework grade only tells you if it was turned in on time, not whether it was correct or not. They go over the homework during the class time. If he’s struggling with the material, they may be taking more class time to review the material, which may be why he’s not going through it as fast as expected.

 

Is he downloading and practicing the new material often?

 

As for scheduling, we tried a bunch of teachers until DD found one she loved, and now we only schedule with that one. Sometimes that means we have to pick a different day or time than we had hoped, but that’s okay. I do like the continuity in teacher because she knows where to take more or less time. If you’re set on a particular time and day, you may get a variety of teachers.

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I don't know many providers that would let you jump in at this point.

 

Ray Leven offers private Skype tutoring - but it is very pricey. I have heard of him doing a "placement" Skype interview - possibly for free? The only time I remember seeing how this worked was that Ray tutored the young man until he was ready for the next level of class.

 

Ray comes highly recommended by some WTMers that I trust, but there have been a couple of other kids of WTM boardies who had a negative experience with Ray as a teacher. Teacher-student fit is very important for my kids. (DD#1 found a Homeschool Spanish Academy teacher that she liked & we only scheduled with him. It meant sometimes she had three lessons in one week and other weeks didn't have any. She only used HSA over the summer, however.)

 

I've heard of people jumping in mid-year to La Clase Divertida but there is definitely a learning curve to Senor Gamache's class plus a pricey textbook & code. (DD did Span 1-3 with Sr Gamache & still misses his classes. However, he's not the teacher for everyone!!! I will be the first to admit that he has his negatives as an online class provider.)

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My daughter is doing Homeschool Spanish Academy but we do all the scheduling  so that we can stay with only one or two teachers. She has only ever had classes with those two teachers.

I'd email and ask questions. It seems strange that you've been doing it this long and only on lesson 4 - we are only on Spanish 1, but always do a lesson each time. Sometimes, they are ready to move on, but we ask to review specific things more before moving on. 

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We are also in HSA 2 this year and doing well. We completed HSA 1 in less than a full school year last year and my ds is moving well through HSA 2 this year. I chat with his teacher every couple of weeks during class and she always says he's doing great. We began HS2 in September - and are currently on H2AL8 - so lesson 8.

 

I think having the same teacher every time is key. Having to take time to introduce yourself every single time and having someone try to 'get to know you' every time takes time away from the one-on-one nature. We work hard to have the same instructor and sign up early in the year for the whole school year. You can easily change your schedule yourself - it's really online-friendly. Find 1-3 instructors you've liked this year and go see if you can find whole swatches of availability with said instructors from here until end of year. We are using the same instructor as last year (but we started with 2 others until we found her and like her best). We went a month with a substitute in Oct due to non-availability but also found someone we could have the same 'substitute' the entire 4 weeks.

 

 

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My son did Spanish 2 with HSA and didn't have that problem.  His Spanish 3 teacher did move slowly with him through the material, but not that slowly.  I think that had to do with how much effort ds was putting into learning the vocab, etc.  Have him review the lessons (most are on Quizlet).  The 50% is a bit baffling, I agree. I found they reviewed before the test and didn't test him until he was ready.  Is he not trying at all?  Have you asked him if he knows why he got a 50%.  I kinda thought they were easy graders (different teachers) b/c my son (an indifferent Spanish student, but bright child) barely scraped an A in Spanish 1 with me and yet had no trouble in Spanish 2 or 3 and he didn't prioritize Spanish at all.  I'm not saying this to make you feel badly, but to suggest you talk to your student about what is or is not happening.

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We jumped in at HSA at Spanish 2. After a couple months I realized my student hadnt started their Spanish 2 material. They were still reviewing. I set up a meeting with her main tutor and we worked out an accelerated plan to have her finish the Spanish 2 material by the end of the school year and the end of my purchased lessons. They were easy to work with. I just had to have my student agree to a slightly higher courseload to get it done. It worked out just fine and she ended with a 95ish I think. I would set up a meeting and see if they can help you figure out a solution.

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