Galore Park "So You Really Want to Learn Spanish" for High School?

[Guest Danakimmoss]

We've been using Rosetta Stone and it just isn't working for us.  I've seen good things about Galore Park's "So You Really Want to Learn Spanish".  Does anyone know how the 3 levels would compare to high school spanish?

Thanks!

Kim

[Renaissance Mom]

I've compared the grammar topics for SYRWTLS 1 to a few other first year high school Spanish courses. It seems that it covers everything except preterite tense. We are doing about 3 exercises per day plus one additional worksheet from their assessment pack per day, vocabulary drill daily, weekly vocabulary quizzes, and daily conversation practice. I allow a couple of days at the end of each unit to do the deberes and have 3-4 Destinos episodes per unit. All things considered, I figure we will finish the text and all the extras by March or April, and I will give her an intro and practice in the preterite tense. With all of this, it is easily a solid high school credit. I haven't checked the other two levels with the same degree of detail, so I can't say how they measure up. I can say that after the first unit of book 1, I am impressed with the amount and kind of both grammar instruction, practice, and vocabulary.

 

HTH,

Monica

[Angie in VA]

StephanieZ has used this series. Maybe she'll see this or you can send her a PM (and get her to post here?).

 

 

[StephanieZ]

I've been happy with it, but I have no real idea how it compares to other programs. Someone who knows Spanish should do a formal comparison/write up on how it correlates! (GP should do it as marketing, lol)

 

I think one level per year is a good pace for 6-9th grade ages (or so), and it can move a bit faster or slower for older or younger children. 

 

My eldest wrapped up the 3rd (final) level last year and moved into "Honors Spanish 4" with Ray Leven smoothly this year. (I think his classes are comparable in level to high caliber advanced high school classes.) 

 

My 2nd child (14 yo son) was midway through the 3rd level when we moved him to the "Honors Spanish 2" with Ray this year. I think he is very well prepared. If he were more diligent and ready to work really hard, I think he could have gone a level higher, but he is a 14 yo boy who'd been butting heads with me a LOT, and I have opted for an easier load this year.

 

So, I think that doing GP 1-3 would work well to at LEAST cover two, probably three, years of high school spanish. I'd think you'd probably want one (maybe two) years of additional instruction before jumping into an AP level class, though, IME.

 

FWIW, my kids have also always had the benefit of a couple-times-a-month Spanish tutor, so that made GP go very smoothly. Dh and I don't speak Spanish AT ALL, so we needed some tutor to smooth through the hard spots. The tutor access also helps a lot with verbal fluency, I believe. 

 

HTH

[Renaissance Mom]

I wanted to update my post above now that we have finished Spanish I this year. Although I very much like the grammar approach to learning another language, I've concluded that there isn't enough in the first level to be a complete high school credit. Not only was there no instruction on the preterite tense, demonstrative pronouns, direct object/indirect object pronouns, and a couple of other grammar topics were also absent. I have no doubt that they are covered quite well in subsequent levels, so if you continue on with the series, everything would balance out. Since I wasn't happy with any of the tutor options I had found, we decided to enroll in an online class for next year. Dd and I have gone through the topics the online course covers in year 1 using Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Completle Grammar to fill in the gaps so she can jump in to Spanish II in the fall.

 

My conclusion is that SYRWTLS is an excellent approach...the first level would be a great year long course for middle school. For high school, it needs some supplementation unless you will stick with it all the way through. Even then, I suspect that 3 levels of GP would equal two strong high school credits, not 3.

 

So, this is all FWIW...maybe nothing, but I wanted to update my opinion based on our experience.

[Kim C]

I wanted to update my post above now that we have finished Spanish I this year. Although I very much like the grammar approach to learning another language, I've concluded that there isn't enough in the first level to be a complete high school credit. Not only was there no instruction on the preterite tense, demonstrative pronouns, direct object/indirect object pronouns, and a couple of other grammar topics were also absent. I have no doubt that they are covered quite well in subsequent levels, so if you continue on with the series, everything would balance out. Since I wasn't happy with any of the tutor options I had found, we decided to enroll in an online class for next year. Dd and I have gone through the topics the online course covers in year 1 using Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Completle Grammar to fill in the gaps so she can jump in to Spanish II in the fall.

 

My conclusion is that SYRWTLS is an excellent approach...the first level would be a great year long course for middle school. For high school, it needs some supplementation unless you will stick with it all the way through. Even then, I suspect that 3 levels of GP would equal two strong high school credits, not 3.

 

So, this is all FWIW...maybe nothing, but I wanted to update my opinion based on our experience.

 

Thanks for updating your post! I have been considering SYRWTLS 1 for 9th grade in the fall, but wasn't sure if it was thorough enough.

 

Kim

 

[Laura Corin]

 

My conclusion is that SYRWTLS is an excellent approach...the first level would be a great year long course for middle school. For high school, it needs some supplementation unless you will stick with it all the way through. Even then, I suspect that 3 levels of GP would equal two strong high school credits, not 3.

 

So, this is all FWIW...maybe nothing, but I wanted to update my opinion based on our experience.

 

That makes sense - I think it was designed for middle school, as that is when foreign languages are often initiated seriously in UK schools.

 

L

[sagira]

We're working on Book 1 in 5th and will finish in 6th. Ds10 is also using Duolingo and Rosetta Stone. I need to practice conversational Spanish more with him. If your dc has never had Spanish, it's a good program to work on a foreign language, even in high school. You can always add more time spent on for the high school years. Here we do 30 min, you can spend 1 hour on Spanish a day.

[JadeOrchidSong]

I've been happy with it, but I have no real idea how it compares to other programs. Someone who knows Spanish should do a formal comparison/write up on how it correlates! (GP should do it as marketing, lol)

 

I think one level per year is a good pace for 6-9th grade ages (or so), and it can move a bit faster or slower for older or younger children.

 

My eldest wrapped up the 3rd (final) level last year and moved into "Honors Spanish 4" with Ray Leven smoothly this year. (I think his classes are comparable in level to high caliber advanced high school classes.)

 

My 2nd child (14 yo son) was midway through the 3rd level when we moved him to the "Honors Spanish 2" with Ray this year. I think he is very well prepared. If he were more diligent and ready to work really hard, I think he could have gone a level higher, but he is a 14 yo boy who'd been butting heads with me a LOT, and I have opted for an easier load this year.

 

So, I think that doing GP 1-3 would work well to at LEAST cover two, probably three, years of high school spanish. I'd think you'd probably want one (maybe two) years of additional instruction before jumping into an AP level class, though, IME.

 

FWIW, my kids have also always had the benefit of a couple-times-a-month Spanish tutor, so that made GP go very smoothly. Dh and I don't speak Spanish AT ALL, so we needed some tutor to smooth through the hard spots. The tutor access also helps a lot with verbal fluency, I believe.

 

HTH

How is the Spanish journey of dc going now?

My younger son asks to abandon Latin and do Spanish. I don't think we have funds to do online Latin at this point. So I am trying to find something I can teach. I am always a step ahead of dc in foreign language though I haven't learned Latin or Spanish myself because languages seem very easy for me and I can teach them pretty well.

As for a tutor, what did you ask the tutor to do with your dc for the twice a month arrangement? Was it mainly to converse? I would like this approach and I can find a tutor for my boys.

Thanks a lot for the info!

[StephanieZ]

How is the Spanish journey of dc going now?

My younger son asks to abandon Latin and do Spanish. I don't think we have funds to do online Latin at this point. So I am trying to find something I can teach. I am always a step ahead of dc in foreign language though I haven't learned Latin or Spanish myself because languages seem very easy for me and I can teach them pretty well.

As for a tutor, what did you ask the tutor to do with your dc for the twice a month arrangement? Was it mainly to converse? I would like this approach and I can find a tutor for my boys.

Thanks a lot for the info!

 

Our Spanish journey has been chaotic but successful. 

 

Eldest dd took Spanish 3 Honors (or whatever it was) with Ray in 11th grade and then just used an online Spanish tutor a dozen or so times her 12th grade year. She tested well enough on the CLEP to get 11 hours (3 semesters worth) of credits for her college, so that was great. The in-person and later online tutors were mostly for conversation, helping with and checking their Galore Park assignments, reading books, etc.

 

DS#2 is going into 12th grade. He really muddled around last year not doing much Spanish, but is taking Honors 4 Spanish this coming year at our local high school. I'll have him take the CLEP this spring, and I'm sure he should do well.

 

DD#3 is going into 8th grade. She's been doing Galore Park and various other supplemental things recently, and she'll do Galore Park 3 this coming year and then I'll have to figure out what to do for high school. 

 

We took the family to Costa Rica for 10 days in May and that was great Spanish practice. Since dh and I don't speak any Spanish and we were on a self-guided trip, the kids had to do a lot of conversing with shopkeepers, etc. If I had all the money in the world, I'd travel to Spanish speaking countries each year, lol.

 

All in all, I think that for us, Galore Park + tutors have been the most valuable parts of our Spanish studies. FWIW.