2024-2025 School Year
Spanish 1 Honors SPT
Course Description
Spanish 1 is designed to allow secondary students, who have little to no previous knowledge of Spanish, to acquire basic proficiency of high frequency words and present tense verbs in Spanish. Rather than learning “about” the language (i.e. memorizing vocab lists and verb charts), students will be listening to and reading whole sentences in Spanish from the very first unit using an approach known as Comprehensible Input to help them understand new words and begin to acquire Spanish much like they acquired their first language. Students will consistently be exposed to present tense verbs (both regular and irregular), various subject and object pronouns, noun-adjective agreement, common classroom commands, questions words, other high-frequency vocab words, cultural/geographical information, etc., all of which will be presented in context through texts, songs, videos, co-created stories, games and more.
To be successful in this class:
Come ready to participate fully, have fun, and learn some Spanish! Students must be willing and able to 1) attend class faithfully AND pay CLOSE attention during class, 2) give their best effort towards understanding what is being presented and indicate when they do not understand, 3) do the weekly homework assignments and submit them by the appointed time. (Spanish, like mathematics, is cumulative. Each unit builds on the previous units.) Students can expect to spend at least 2-3 hours outside of class working on homework assignments.
Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Fees: $465 + $50 materials fee
Course Credit: 1 foreign language (honors)
Required Materials
Textbook:
- Printed textbook pages will be provided
Other Materials:
- Three-ring binder with dividers & loose leaf notebook paper
- Pen/pencil
- 12 pack of colored pencils
- 1 Novice Level Readers, specific title TBA
- Computer with high-speed internet access for accessing and completing homework assignments (including videos)
- A can-do attitude and a sense of humor!
All honors students will:
- Complete more challenging homework assignments/end of unit assessments.
- Complete 4 projects (2 per semester): Projects will include a presentation OR a reflection paper. Specific assignments and details for honors work will be provided by the teacher.
Meet Allyson Garrison
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Foreign Language Education- Spanish from Auburn University
Teaching Experience: Taught Spanish 1, 2 & 3 for 2.5 years in Auburn, Alabama; taught Spanish 1, 3, & 5 at Grayson High School in Loganville, GA for 1.5 years Homeschooled her three children from kindergarten onward beginning in 2015
Certifications: formerly certified to teach Spanish in Georgia
UHC courses taught:
- Intro to Spanish for Middle Schoolers
- Spanish 1
Began teaching at UHC in 2023