David and I began his review for his Midterm exam.

We went way back to the material from the start of the year. David recited the alphabet (had it been a test his recitation today would have earned a high B or low A). We spoke of weather and season terms. This information did not come as quickly to his mind. We spoke of key terms and questions dealing with this material.

We also reviewed the verb Ser and its forms in the present.

David used this information to answer a series of questions.

Kaitlin and I briefly spoke about our review from yesterday.

We then moved on to the material to be reviewed today. This included the verb tener, family members, using tener with age, possessive adjectives.

When we spoke of tener, Kaitlin was told several basic sentences using tener.

Kaitlin then was responsible for using this information to complete a series of questions.

She should continue to study for her midterm exam next week.

David submitted his homework assignment early!! Great job David. So, I will grade it early and allow him to make any corrections needed to get a perfect grade before his final submission.

David and I then discussed the work he will need to do prior to the day of his midterm exam.

We created some supports for him including segmented submission dates, notes on the work detailing where to find answers and the like.

David and I then discussed his reading from yesterday. We filled out a chart detailing where different dishes are consumed.

Kaitlin and I went way back in time to the preliminary chapters and chapter 1.

We spoke about questions dealing with time, the weather, indefinite and definite articles.

She interpreted a couple of sentences using the verb ser. She copied down the verb tree for ser in the present.

We discussed how she should study her vocabulary.

We discussed the difference between the formal and informal versions of you in Spanish.

David did an excellent job today.

During his review, he worked on answering some questions about typical meals. It was a productive 3 minutes.

We then discussed the conversation that David read yesterday. David searched the source material (the text of the conversation) to find his answers for each question.

We then read about what some families eat in Spain and Nicaragua. This included dishes like gallopinto and churros.

We started to translate the paragraphs we read but were not able to finish the translations before the session ended.

Kaitlin spent today working on multiple items that she is trying to finish before the Holiday break.

She answered some questions about a reading that we did in this chapter. She answered questions that are designed specifically to prepare her for her coming test covering the material of this chapter.

David practiced forming slightly more complex sentences today. He was required to form multiple sentences using the format I am going to _____ because _______. This exercise took David a little bit of time.


It seemed that as soon he would figure out one part of the sentence, he would forget another part of the sentence. So, as an example he figured out how to say "I am going to eat" and then when he went to figure out how to say "because I am hungry," he forgot how to say the first part. In an effort to help him, I started to write sentences down on the board as he would figure them out.

Once written on the board, he was able to progress much faster. He created a number of sentences successfully.

We then read a conversation between two students discussing their plans and obligations for the evening.

Kaitlin and I took a moment to talk about a new phrase that I used to tell her what pages we will reading in her book. She had gotten good at reliably understanding one way that I say it, so we introduced a little variety to build on her understanding. We discussed the verbs used in this different phrase.

Kaitlin and I read four paragraphs about where students of different grade levels tend to eat.

Today, in an effort to build increasing student independence, we did not do a word for word translation of the sentences when we finished the paragraphs. Instead, we pointed out key items along the way and then let Kaitlin answer questions written in Spanish using her Spanish.

This style did lead to her asking more questions at the end, but ultimately she was very successful.

We continue to increase the amount of Spanish that is used in the classroom everyday. We discussed this so that she can know that it is a deliberate effort on both of our parts.

David was taught two key phrases that precede the use of an infinitive form of a verb in Spanish.

These phrases included: Tener que, Ir a, and Acabar de.

We read about the phrases in the text. We read example phrases.

I explained the phrases further. We copied two of the phrases into his notebook. David answered a series of questions that required him to use these phrases.


We wrote a number of his answers down to help him remember them.

Kaitlin reread the conversation from our last class and answered questions about that conversation.

She was able to answer the questions but did require some support from her teacher regarding where to find the answers in the text.

We then read several paragraphs together comparing the daily meals of two families. One family being from Spain and the other Nicaragua.

We discussed the meals detailed in the reading and compared them to Kaitlin’s meals. We pointed out vocabulary from the chapter along the way.

Kaitlin displayed a solid understanding of the text during our conversation.