Language class at MAMS consists of advanced and intermediate French and Spanish. I am in the Advanced Level Spanish class. The course is immersive, fun, and engaging. Students participate in a variety of activities including games, music, reading, writing, interviews, films, and even cooking food! The class does a good job of teaching both the mechanics of the Spanish language as well as the culture of the Hispanic world. Having attained a strong grasp on the mechanics of the Spanish language, I have grown more interested in learning about the culture. I am glad to say that this class does a good job of exposing students to it.
For this assignment, students had to write about a childhood experience, demonstrating proficiency with the preterite and the imperfect, the two verbal tenses used for the past tense in Spanish. I chose to write about my eleventh birthday party, one of my fondest childhood memories. I found myself feeling nostalgic as I recounted the bouncy house my friends and I jumped in, the lovely food we ate, and the video games we played. If you are unable to see the file, click here.
This assignment involved the creation of memes, allowing for students to blend their artistic and linguistic talents. If you are unable to see the file, click here. The first meme is regarding the rivalry between the two citation formats used for assignments. As a STEM school, most major papers have to be in APA format. However, for Humanities, essays have to be in MLA format. As such, Mrs. Small, the Humanities teacher, is famous for her disdain towards APA. I capture these dynamics using the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme template.
The second meme relates to the emphasis the Director, Mrs. Ludes, places on proper pedestrian safety, and how most of the students (and even the faculty in some cases), for want of efficiency, are unwilling to obey common-sense rules related to crosswalks. This is something of a running gag here at MAMS, and I think Drake here does a good job helping us understand this situation.
The third meme contains a bit of self-deprecation; among my peers, it would seem that I am known for the considerable quantity of content I tend to put into my assignments. The long-term assignment on reading research articles for STEM epitomizes this, as I tend to write quite a lot in trying to understand the articles. Our skeleton buddy over here helps one understand the energy such feats take. Luckily, however, I am still able to find time for myself.