This trimester the Novice Middle and High School classes finished their reading of the short novel Llama en Lima by Katie A. Baker. In addition to continuing to develop their reading and pronunciation skills, they kept improving their writing skills by studying a wide array of vocabulary words and grammar concepts. Some of the topics covered were: gender (femenino, masculino, neutral) and number (singular, plural) in nouns and articles, and definite and indefinite articles. After finishing Llama’s original adventure, students wrote, illustrated and recorded one additional chapter to the book. After completing this unit, the class read the short story “Soy” by Argentinian writer Raquel Cané. The story is narrated from the perspective of Roberto, an independent and outspoken rabbit who tells us his diverse family by highlighting and distinguishing himself from their physical and personality traits. Students went on to learn how to describe their physical appearance and their personality traits. They did so by learning the usage and conjugations of the verbs ser and tener in the present tense. To conclude this short unit of study, they wrote short poems and created collages about themselves or others.
The last trimester of Novice High Middle school was a time for students to consolidate on past knowledge and learn new tools to prepare to enter the Intermediate level class. The main theme we focused on was Health and Daily Routine, through the lens of Paraguay and Bolivia. Using reflexive verbs and the structure “acabar de”, students learned to describe their day in detail, as well as family members’ and friends’. This culminated in their first project of the trimester, El Cuerpo en Arte. As the class had been focusing on Paraguayan and Bolivian cultures, students were given a list of art-work from artists in both countries. Each student was asked to select the piece which spoke to them most and label every visible body part (consolidating the newly learned vocabulary for the body). Once the students had acquainted themselves with the painting, they were asked to recreate the piece, through their own eyes and in whichever format they’d like, including drawing, painting, or photography. They then came up with their own short description of what was going on in their piece, what had just happened and what was going to happen next, using the near future. Additionally, students reviewed the use of demonstrative adjectives and pronouns and practiced using them aloud, in several oral activities. Ultimately, the student’s last project consisted in a “mini-play” called “La venta”, in which students wrote their own dialogues, using their creativity and everyday items to display their progress using these adjectives and pronouns.