SYRWTL Spanish 1 - how much to schedule?

[Renaissance Mom]

My oldest dd will start this soon. I just got it in my hands over the weekend. For those of you who have used this for high school, how have you paced it? If it is equivalent to a year of introductory Spanish, it seems you would only do an exercise or two each day. That doesn't seem like enough to award a full credit. Have you moved at a faster pace and been able to actual learn it? Or do you supplement?

 

Thanks,

[Colleen in NS]

My oldest dd will start this soon. I just got it in my hands over the weekend. For those of you who have used this for high school, how have you paced it? If it is equivalent to a year of introductory Spanish, it seems you would only do an exercise or two each day. That doesn't seem like enough to award a full credit. Have you moved at a faster pace and been able to actual learn it? Or do you supplement?

 

Thanks,

 

I started to use this with my son when he was younger, but had to drop it because it was too much alongside doing Latin. I know high school kids can do courses like this more easily than younger kids can, though. I can't remember how many pages/exercises per week I had planned out, or how long I intended to take to get through the book (probably more than a year because of his age, if I recall). But what I do remember is supplementing with lots of memory work. I would write out, from the book, new vocab, sayings, and grammar forms on flashcards; and have him recite them every day. I was modeling it after what I had seen MP do with Latin study, which made sense to me. And I remember that SYRWTLS had LOTS more vocab in shorter amounts of time than the MP Latin study books, so that meant a lot of memory work in a short amount of time. So, I'd say that if it seems the exercises are skimpy, you may want to make sure the memory work is being done every day, to make the exercises easier in the long run and later courses.

[Renaissance Mom]

Thanks, Colleen. My dd is in her second year of Latin studies this year. She has developed a thorough system of making and reviewing her vocab flash card. She does the same for conjugation and declension charts. I think that all that groundwork will help her tackle a modern language, too. You're absolutely correct that mastering all that vocab is key!!!

 

Thanks!

[Colleen in NS]

..For those of you who have used this for high school, how have you paced it? If it is equivalent to a year of introductory Spanish, it seems you would only do an exercise or two each day. That doesn't seem like enough to award a full credit. Have you moved at a faster pace and been able to actual learn it? Or do you supplement?

 

Just bumping this up for you, as I don't think my answer really answered your questions. Also, you might want to pm Laura Corin and Patty Joanna, who've had experience with this.

[StephanieZ]

Yes, an exercise a day (or so) and so, a book a year.

 

There is reading and understanding in between the exercises -- takes time. Some exercises take longer than others.

 

You also need to study vocab lists regularly -- an hour or so a week seems to do it. Drill however desired. Drilling verb conjugations would be great too, although we've never done that.

 

If you want to supplement, I suggest supplementing with oral/aural practice. I have just started using this series: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/092972447X/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01 that I read about here, and it seems great.

 

Another thing that you could supplement would be cultures/geography studies of spanish speaking countries. SYRWTLS doesn't cover much of that compared to American programs (and AP exams, etc.)

 

HTH