After completing the 7^th grade Spanish course, students will have an understanding of the differences and similarities among the Spanish language and culture with their own language and culture. They will also develop an appreciation and continuing interest for learning another language.

Students will not only work to answer the following essential questions, but they will also work to develop their own:

How does the environment affect my daily life?

In what ways can I experience cultural diversity in the U.S.?

What will I need to know and do in order to fit in a culturally different environment?

In what ways would my family life be different if we lived in another country?

Students will be assessed and reassessed by demonstrating their mastery of the standards through summative assessments, projects, tests, quizzes, use of coaching and holistic rubrics and peer editing. Students will be given extra time and help to complete any of the above given tasks in order to ensure successful completion and mastery.

The following topics will be covered this year: Weather, geography, activities, family structure, professions, food, location, buildings, and food shopping.

During the course of the year, students will be expected to present a weather forecast, write an essay describing their family and a culturally different family, act out a restaurant scene, and have a telephone conversation in Spanish, among many other activities.

These topics are aligned with the Cherry Hill and New Jersey Core Content Standards, along with the Cherry Hill Life Skills. Please visit the Cherry Hill District Web Site for a complete list of the World Language Standards and benchmarks at:

http://www.chlive.org/home/standards

Students will acquire the following skills and use them in their performance assessments and daily activities: Map reading and writing, identifying and describing cultural differences in family, country, and language, and developing aural, oral, and writing skills.

All students have different learning styles, therefore, in order to meet these various needs, several opportunities will be presented for students to succeed in this course. Some of these opportunities are, but not limited to, extended work and testing time, the use of visual and oral cues, study guides, reassessment, extra help, and hands on projects.

The following resources and materials will enable students to succeed in this course:

Notebook/binder, web site, rubrics, planner use, internet, the Media Center, and the computer lab.