martes, el nueve de diciembre del dos mil ocho

Español Uno (1):

Collected: (2nd hour only): Yesterday's completed test reflections.

Today’s Learning Objectives:

1. Practice spelling unknown words in Spanish. Many of you are catching the accent marks now. WOW!
--ma-que-ta
--pre-ci-pi-tó
--pró-xi-mos
--dur-mien-do
--es-plén-di-das

2. Listen to the first of our two new songs of the week: “Lágrimas”. Nice job catching the first three missing words: fuiste, viste, estás.

3. Learn some new chapter 4 gestures, and practice our old gestures.

4. Tackle a second reading for my research on your decoding skills. Great work! Thank you for being so thoughtful with your answers.

5. Begin the homework.

Homework: Workbook pages 4-1 & 4-2 with everything additionally translated to English.

Español Dos (2):

Today’s Learning Objectives:

1. Learn one of the fundamental rules to applying accent marks in Spanish.

Accent marks are meant to HELP us correctly pronounce Spanish. We are lucky to have them in Spanish. Correctly pronouncing unknown words in Spanish, in this regard, is far easier than pronouncing unknown words in English.

All words (in Spanish & English) have a natural flow to how the word should be said. All words have a natural stress—one sound that gets the biggest emphasis. Think about the word “hippopotamus.” We know, by sound, that we say “hippoPOTamus.” We know, by sound, that it wouldn’t sound right to say “HIPpopotamus” or “hippopotaMUS.”

The same concept applies to Spanish. Every word has just one stress.

There are rules to where the stress should go.
---If a word follows the rule, there’s no accent mark needed.
---If the word does not follow the rule, we need an accent mark.

Initial steps for deciding whether an accent mark is needed:
Step One: Break the following words into syllables.
--entraron
--enemigos
--investigando
--decenas
--trataba

Step Two: Listen to the word and circle the syllable where you hear the stress:
--en-TRA-ron
--en-e-MI-gos
--in-ves-ti-GAN-do
--de-CE-nas
--tra-TA-ba

**You see a pattern: The natural stress always goes on the second to last syllable of the words above.

**RULE #1 FOR ACCENTS: For words ending in n, s or a vowel, the second-to-last syllable is naturally stressed. When a word follows the rule, no accent is needed. When a word doesn’t follow the rule, an accent is needed.

2. Listen to our new song of the week: “Te busqué”. Good job catching the first five missing words: di, fue, vi, mío, eso.

3. Review yesterday’s preterite/vocabulary review worksheet.

4. Begin the homework.

Homework: 4-1 & 4-2 in the workbook, with everything additionally translated to English.