Spanish

About this course

The language taught here is Spanish. Eighth grade consolidates everything from the earlier years and then pushes into territory most beginning courses never reach. The first grammar unit is a thorough review and extension: present tense, ser and estar, the preterite for all three verb families with its irregulars, the imperfect, the contrast between the two, direct and indirect object pronouns, and reflexive verbs. The second grammar unit, late in the year, adds irregular preterite stems for poder, poner, and saber, then introduces the subjunctive mood, with how it is formed, the four situations that trigger it, contrastive pairs such as Se que ella viene against Espero que ella venga, and the irregular forms of ser, ir, estar, haber, tener, poder, and hacer. It also introduces the conditional tense for hypotheticals and polite requests. Vocabulary this year is adult in range, covering personality and character, academic and opinion words, news and technology, medical terms, travel, and regional differences across Spanish-speaking countries.

One thing that sets this grade apart is that the reading passages are printed in the lessons rather than assigned from outside. Your student reads El Buen Samaritano, a country profile of Mexico and another of Colombia, a biography of Simon Bolivar, an original short story called El Abuelo y la Tormenta printed in full Spanish with a vocabulary list and comprehension questions in Spanish, the Sermon on the Mount, newspaper headlines, the Venezuelan declaration of independence, and a Pablo Neruda poem. The Neruda lesson names plainly that he was a Communist and an atheist and asks your student to admire the craftsmanship while rejecting the worldview. The writing unit is the most demanding so far, working through a formal letter, a multi-paragraph essay, a compare-and-contrast essay on two Latin American countries, a narrative essay, a critical response to a text, a position paper, a character study of a biblical figure, adjusting tone for an audience, a summary, and an original short story, ending with a portfolio reflection.

There are 108 lessons in 9 units of 12, at about 30 minutes each. Units 7 and 8 revisit vocabulary and conversation with fresh lessons that lean more heavily on regional and cultural differences, and unit 9 carries the grammar past where unit 3 stopped. Each lesson is a structured reading with vocabulary tables, examples, and a written exercise, then a ten-question quiz that grades itself. Pencil and paper are all that is required. There is no audio, so the conversation and etiquette lessons work as scripts to read aloud with someone rather than as listening practice, and pronunciation still depends on your family. A handful of lessons suggest looking something up online with a parent's help, but far less than the previous grade. It assumes a working knowledge of the present tense, ser and estar, and basic vocabulary coming in, since unit 3 reviews these before building on them.

What the course covers

• Advanced vocabulary: character, academics, news, technology, medicine, travel
• Preterite and imperfect, including irregular stems and the contrast between them
• Direct object, indirect object, and reflexive pronouns
• The subjunctive mood: formation, triggers, and irregular forms
• The conditional tense for hypotheticals and polite requests
• Conversations for restaurants, doctors, hotels, shopping, and travel planning
• Reading Bible passages, country profiles, biography, news, and poetry in Spanish
• Reading an original Spanish short story with literary analysis
• Essay writing in Spanish: narrative, compare-and-contrast, position, and summary
• Culture: respeto and familismo, colonization and independence, art, missions, and literature

What your student will be able to do

• Use the preterite and imperfect together to tell a full story in Spanish
• Form the subjunctive and explain why a sentence requires it
• Use the conditional to make polite requests and describe hypotheticals
• Place direct, indirect, and reflexive pronouns correctly
• Read an unadapted Spanish passage and answer questions about it in Spanish
• Write a multi-paragraph essay in Spanish with an argument and supporting detail

Scope and sequence

All 9 units of Spanish for Grade 8, in the order they are taught.

Every lesson, by title

All 108 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 108 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.