Breaking the Barrier Spanish...reviews?

[Sue G in PA]

I followed a link that somebody posted in another thread about this program. It looks AMAZING! Does anyone have any experience with it? Could I use it with a 7th grader? It says it is equivalent to a year of high school level Spanish. Thanks.

[Matryoshka]

I followed a link that somebody posted in another thread about this program. It looks AMAZING! Does anyone have any experience with it? Could I use it with a 7th grader? It says it is equivalent to a year of high school level Spanish. Thanks.

 

Well, I can't offer BTDT yet, but I'm going to be using Level II with my 7th graders next year, and I'm very excited about it! We used Spanish the Easy Way for 1st year Spanish (did it over 2 years).

 

The explanations look really clear, and I love what he wrote on how to run the perfect Spanish class - it made it much more clear to me how the books were meant to be used. There are extra conversation starters aligned with each chapter free on the website. i also love the little Editor in Chief type exercises in each chapter!

 

There aren't a ton of exercises for each grammar concept - I'm thinking I might get a Practice Makes Perfect grammar workbook as a supplement if they need more practice, and I'm also adding some supplemental reading (which he also does with his Spanish class, as I saw in what he wrote about his class).

[Chris in PA]

Sue,

I am currently planning out Breaking the Barrier French 1 for my dds. I think if you took it slow, a 7th grader could do the Spanish 1. Have you looked at Spanish for Children? I am using it with my 7th grade ds in the fall. I wanted something to give him an intro to the language before we delve into it in 9th grade. It seems meaty enough for a Jr. High student.

[Sue G in PA]

I'm not terribly concerned about it for ds12 (7th gr). I want Breaking the Barrier for my 9th grader mostly. She completed Span. 1 in ps this past year and I want her to continue. I have SYRWTL Spanish which we will use, but I wanted something with more of a grammar focus than SYRWTL. I thought about using the text she used this past year only in Level 2, but I really don't like it! It is not "meaty" enough. For example...Level 1 of BTB goes through present, preterite, past, imperfect, command tenses and I think dd only did present tense this year. :001_huh: She should place into Level 2 of BTB but I think she would need to start mid-Level I based on what I see in the contents! Ugh. Thanks for the reviews! Any more? Oh...I can use SYRWTL with my 7th and 5th graders if BTB is too meaty.

[Matryoshka]

Level 1 of BTB goes through present, preterite, past, imperfect, command tenses and I think dd only did present tense this year. :001_huh: She should place into Level 2 of BTB but I think she would need to start mid-Level I based on what I see in the contents! Ugh. Thanks for the reviews! Any more? Oh...I can use SYRWTL with my 7th and 5th graders if BTB is too meaty.

 

I think Spanish programs have gotten watered down, and often Spanish I gets done over two years, even at the high school level. I know even back when I was in school (the dark ages), Spanish I was the first half of the Spanish I text, and Spanish II was the second half of the Spanish I text. My mom taught me "Spanish I" at home in a few months using the same text as the high school I was going to, and I took Spanish II with the second half of the book in 9th grade.

 

Spanish the Easy Way, which we just finished up, did cover all the things in BtB 1 - if you look at the Amazon reviews for the book, a few people refer to it as Spanish 1 1/2. Though we did take two years to complete the book. :tongue_smilie:

 

The beginning of BtB Level 2 does review everything from Level 1, but quickly. Maybe the not-too-many exercises in BtB 1 will be perfect for your dd, because she can move ahead quickly to catch up to where her school class left off (she was in school last year, I think?)

 

If you have SYRWTL you could always use that for the extra practice exercises or reading if you needed it.