• Study Tips:

    • Schedule a time every day to study Spanish (e.g. every day at 4pm).  This way it becomes a habit.
    • Spend at least 10 min. every day reviewing old vocab and grammar concepts.
    • Sit in a comfortable place away from distractions (i.e. no TV; put your phone in another room so you’re not tempted to look at it)
    • If you listen to music when you study, make sure it is just instrumental (you want to eliminate any additional language exposure because your brain wants to process it, even if you think you aren’t paying attention)
    • Plan out your week and schedule a time to complete each homework assignment, so you aren’t completing all the week’s homework on Thursday night.

     

    Study Strategies:

    • flashcards (make your own or use Flippity; making your own gives you additional practice with writing it out) - review these flashcards whenever you have a few extra minutes to fill (riding in the car, waiting for a table at a restaurant, doctor’s waiting room, etc.)
      • recognition quiz - study Spanish to English
      • production quiz - study English to Spanish
    • post-it flashcards - write your flashcards on post-its and place them around the house so you can study while completing daily tasks around the house
    • production quiz - write out the words multiple times (make sure you double check with your guia after writing it once, then repeat)
    • create sentences using vocab and grammar concepts - putting them in context can help with retention
    • chunk vocab words - you usually have a lot of vocab to learn at once - it helps to break it up into smaller chunks to focus on over the span of a few days (i.e. focus on 6-8 words each night and quickly review the words from previous nights).  Breaking it up like this helps with retention and it actually doesn’t take as long as you’d think - just a few minutes each day rather than a huge cram session the night before.

     

    Practice:

     

    Skill Practice:

    • Interpretive: 
      • Watch shows on Univision or Telemundo
      • Set the language on Netflix and other streaming services to Spanish
      • Set the language on your video games to Spanish
      • Whenever you see something written in Spanish (it’s everywhere!), take a minute to see how much you understand (cereal box, shampoo bottle, cleaning products, etc.)
    • Interpersonal:
      • Have conversations with your friends in Spanish
      • For chapter objectives, think about what you would say regarding those objectives and what questions you might ask someone
    • Presentational:
      • Look at pictures in magazines (or wherever) and talk about (in your head or out loud) or write about what is going on in the picture (just for a couple minutes)- who the people are, what they’re like, what are their interests, what they’re wearing, what they’re doing, etc.
      • Scattergories - come up with some general themes (i.e. school, hobbies, sports, etc.) and give yourself 1-2 min. to brainstorm vocab you know in each category.

     

    Opportunities to Boost Your Grade:

    • Quiz Retakes - Requires a retake form, complete with parent signature and study log. You must also review the quiz with Sra. Boelter prior to the retake so we can review concepts and talk about study strategies.
    • Corrections on Graded Homework - For any homework assignment for which you missed points due to not understanding directions or due to errors, you may make corrections and resubmit for points back.
    • Late Homework - You can get half credit on late assignments.
    • Late Homework Passes - Earned throughout the year with various class challenges. These passes allow you to get full credit for a late homework assignment.
    • Enrichment Activities - For some units, you will have the chance to do an optional Enrichment project to apply vocab and skills learned. These opportunities are 20/20 summative grades.
    • Palabra del día - On quizzes and tests, show me a word of the day from the current unit
      • Español 2 - Write Spanish and all English definitions for a palabra del día at the top of your quiz
      • Español 3 - On the top of your quiz/test, write a sentence in Spanish using a palabra del día. The sentence must demonstrate your understanding of the word.
    • Estampillas - On quizzes and tests (excluding interpretive tests), you may redeem one of your stamps for a free answer or vocab word.

     

    Extra Help:

    • Explorer Period - Come in to work with me or with a peer tutor from Hispanic Honor Society.
    • NHS Tutoring - Thursdays 3-4:30 in A110