Scheduling SOS Spanish I?

[Trina in TX]

Hi everyone,

 

We just got SOS Spanish 1 and so far I really like it. I was wondering how long you take to do one lesson. Do you break it out over a few days and spend some days just working on vocabulary? Do you know how many lessons are on the cd rom? Is this a one year high school course that counts as 1 language credit?

 

So many questions!!

 

Thanks,

 

Trina

[Jan P.]

Trina,

 

My children haven't used SOS Spanish 1, but my ds used SOS Spanish 2. I'm sure it is set up similarly. I think that there were times when my ds took two days to do a lesson. Usually he only took one day to do a lesson, but since he had trouble with Spanish then he might spend close to an hour and a half or more on a lesson. I guess it depends on your dc's aptitude for Spanish. I would simply have your dc go at his own pace. See how long one lesson takes. If it drags onto two hours, then put a time limit on your Spanish class. That way the student doesn't get frustrated. Jean in Wisc. had her oldest child use SOS Spanish. It is an advanced Spanish course. Even if your dc doesn't finish SOS Spanish 1 this year, then simply continue it next year. Your dc would still deserve a high school credit in Spanish. My ds had trouble with SOS II because we started with a different Spanish program (Speedy Spanish -- I highly do not recommend this program). I wished, wished, wished that I had started my ds back at square one with SOS Spanish 1. Instead I jumped over to Spanish is Fun simply because I owned a used copy.

 

HTH,

Jan

[Jean in Wisc]

Hi everyone,

 

We just got SOS Spanish 1 and so far I really like it. I was wondering how long you take to do one lesson. Do you break it out over a few days and spend some days just working on vocabulary? Do you know how many lessons are on the cd rom? Is this a one year high school course that counts as 1 language credit?

 

So many questions!!

 

Thanks,

 

Trina

 

 

My dd did this by herself, and she did it rapidly. After having done all of SOS I and half of SOS II, my dd tested out of the equivalent of 3 years of high school Spanish in her college placement test. She had taken a year of high school Latin prior to Spanish, which I'm sure helped her. She took 3rd semester Spanish in college--nothing was new in the class.

 

This year my son is doing SOS I. He is not as much of an independent language learner as my dd was, so I sit down with him and we read through the lesson together. I have him translate the paragraphs and we talk about the grammar. He then goes on to do the exercises and games on his own. I've started having him make flash cards of some of the most used verbs and nouns (tener, querer, estar, ser...) He goes over these on Monday as well as running a 3x5 card down the side of his notebook (Spanish on one side, English on the other for all the vocab), using his notebook as a type of flashcard, reviewing as much of the notebook as he can. Then we go back to doing the lessons Tues-Friday, one lesson per day. If he seems to be bogging down on the lessons, I am not against his taking an extra day to get it figured out.

 

There are 13 lessons in each "chapter" and there are 10 chapters =130 lessons. I gave my dd 2 credits for the 1.5 CD's that she finished, although I had wanted her to finish a couple more chapters (imo, there are a few concepts she missed which I would count as Spanish II, but obviously, it did not hurt her in her college work). If my son gets all of SOS I and II finished and a book of the Bible translated, I will give him 3 credits.

 

BTW, I have always allowed my dc to do the quizzes and tests open notebook--whatever they copied down into their notebooks can be used. This program has an unending vocabulary list--it is just impossible to learn it all (well, maybe not impossible, but what's the point?). My dd did well in college even with the open notebook testing. My ds still misses questions on the tests--if he doesn't understand it, the notebook doesn't help him. FWIW.

 

HTH.