Day 28 - Learning About Language and Culture in a Variety of Ways - MSMS Foreign Language Department

This post originally appeared on the Marshall Simonds Middle School Blog

7A Italian students are using Quia.com on their iPads to learn days and months vocabulary for an upcoming quiz.

Foreign language students use Quia.com and Quizlet.com to practice vocabulary. They use iPads as white boards to reinforce vocabulary and Google Earth to visit places in foreign countries.

Seventh grade French students are learning the numbers from zero to sixty. They can carry on a short conversation introducing themselves, giving their nationality and stating how they feel. While in eight grade, French students have learned how to use a large group of regular -er verbs in order to express activities that they do. They can also use adverbs and make sentences negative. Students can tell what they like, can or must do.

Eighth grade Italian students can now use possessive adjectives, many verbs to express their activities and are beginning a unit on the house. They will be able to tell where they live and to give a description of their house or apartment.  The seventh grade Italian students below have learned the numbers from zero to one hundred and how to tell time. Presently they are learning the days, months and how to say dates.

7A Italian students are practicing telling time with clocks.

Sixth grade French class is just getting started learning phonetics, pronunciation, and simple vocabulary. Students will be learning French numbers, colors, and days of the week. To their surprise, students will become aware of the many French words used in everyday English!

Seventh Grade spent this week reviewing for their preliminary exam that they will be taking Friday before we begin chapter one in their textbook, “¡Buen Viaje!” Because the preliminary exam covers many different topics, students are reviewing with”Jeopardy” Wednesday and Thursday in class. The four categories are: greetings and good-byes, days of the week, months of the year, and dates and seasons. Students in this picture are broken up into two teams, and are competing for bonus points on their future test! ¡Buena suerte en el examen! (Good luck on the test!)

Eighth Grade is also reviewing this week for their “Examen del Repaso” (Review Test). Students have been brushing up on their 7th grade Spanish knowledge, and will take a Review Test Thursday andFriday this week on important topics covered last year.

The foreign language department has a Quia.com subscription, which allows us to create activities, quizzes, games, and flashcards to practice and review vocabulary and grammar. Students are very engaged when they are working with Quia, and teachers can track their performance on the website as well. In these pictures, students are working in pairs on practice quizzes to prepare for their review exam. ¡Bien Hecho! (Well done!)

In Latin…

6th Grade:

We’re reading stories about Roman and Greek mythology and famous people. We are also learning to count, name days of the week and months, name some food, colors and parts of a classroom in Latin.

7th Grade:

We are learning Latin vocabulary and grammar based on stories about a Roman family that lived around Pompeii. We are also learning about Roman life in general.

8th Grade:

We are furthering our knowledge of the Latin vocabulary and grammar based on stories about a Roman family that lived in Roman conquered Gaul. We are also learning about life in Roman conquered lands.