Re: Textbooks No to Santillana!

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Spanish Teachers Chatboard

Textbooks

by J. Hughes

Apr 5, 2016

Hi! We are looking at adopting a new program. Our three options at this points are Avancemos, Descubre and Santillana. Is anyone currently using any of these programs? Do you have any insight, good or bad? Mil Gracias.

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Shakira Knot :) On 4/05/16, J. Hughes wrote: > Hi! We are looking at adopting a new program. Our three > options at this points are Avancemos, Descubre and > Santillana. Is anyone currently using any of these > programs? Do you have any insight, good or bad? > Mil Gracias.

It's that time of year when textbooks have to be considered and I sh...See MoreOn 4/05/16, J. Hughes wrote: > Hi! We are looking at adopting a new program. Our three > options at this points are Avancemos, Descubre and > Santillana. Is anyone currently using any of these > programs? Do you have any insight, good or bad? > Mil Gracias.

It's that time of year when textbooks have to be considered and I shared in previous post about Santillana. If you don't find an earlier post I made referring to this series let me share again. After 20+ years of teaching Spanish the textbook we are stuck with (probably the cheapest deal our county selected ) Espanol Santillana is not acceptable. Its pretty bad. Now we are stuck! For Level 1 there are no / not enough activities to provide paired verbal communicative practices, not enough guided written practices , listening activities do not even provide directions on the audio it just jumps into the listening portion so you have to be sure the students have read the directions in the book before you hit play, the ASSESSMENTS ARE A JOKE. Supplemental materials all on line through the county's Schoology which we have not even bothered as there are times its not functioning or takes forever to load. The manner in which the vocab is presented at the beginning of a section leaves a lot to be desired. The grammar sections do not provide a clear explanation nor give examples for the students to be able to read and understand on their own. Some students claim that they cannot access the textbook online. You are fortunate you have a say in what series you pick we didn't( a committee made this selection for us!!!!)

I feel as if I am building my own textbook to better explain vocab and grammar, provide examples so the students can build conversation, etc. The "culture section" provided as video to enhance the theme is a joke. There are still pictures with audio to go along with it....how cheap...It takes more time to set up the Desafio sections than to play it....Less than a minute or two and its over. The kids don't like the desafio sections. I am going to Youtube and other sources to find stuff that my students will appreciate. I know what I will be doing during summer vacation. I want to scream!!!

Apr 9, 2016

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MSteacher On 4/09/16, Shakira Knot :) wrote: > On 4/05/16, J. Hughes wrote: >> Hi! We are looking at adopting a new program. Our three >> options at this points are Avancemos, Descubre and >> Santillana. Is anyone currently using any of these >> programs? Do you have any insight, good or bad? >> Mil Gracias. > > It's th...See MoreOn 4/09/16, Shakira Knot :) wrote: > On 4/05/16, J. Hughes wrote: >> Hi! We are looking at adopting a new program. Our three >> options at this points are Avancemos, Descubre and >> Santillana. Is anyone currently using any of these >> programs? Do you have any insight, good or bad? >> Mil Gracias. > > It's that time of year when textbooks have to be considered > and I shared in previous post about Santillana. If you don't > find an earlier post I made referring to this series let me > share again. After 20+ years of teaching Spanish the textbook > we are stuck with (probably the cheapest deal our county > selected ) Espanol Santillana is not acceptable. Its pretty > bad. Now we are stuck! For Level 1 there are no / not enough > activities to provide paired verbal communicative practices, > not enough guided written practices , listening activities do > not even provide directions on the audio it just jumps into > the listening portion so you have to be sure the students > have read the directions in the book before you hit play, the > ASSESSMENTS ARE A JOKE. Supplemental materials all on line > through the county's Schoology which we have not even > bothered as there are times its not functioning or takes > forever to load. The manner in which the vocab is presented > at the beginning of a section leaves a lot to be desired. The > grammar sections do not provide a clear explanation nor give > examples for the students to be able to read and understand > on their own. Some students claim that they cannot access > the textbook online. You are fortunate you have a say in what > series you pick we didn't( a committee made this selection > for us!!!!) > > I feel as if I am building my own textbook to better explain > vocab and grammar, provide examples so the students can build > conversation, etc. The "culture section" provided as video > to enhance the theme is a joke. There are still pictures with > audio to go along with it....how cheap...It takes more time > to set up the Desafio sections than to play it....Less than a > minute or two and its over. The kids don't like the desafio > sections. I am going to Youtube and other sources to find > stuff that my students will appreciate. I know what I will > be doing during summer vacation. I want to scream!!!

I have taught age 3 through grade 12 Spanish through the years. I recently moved to middle school (again). The book we are using for 7th and 8th grade Spanish (= Spanish 1 high school course) Good points: Good grammar explanations and a good "supersite" overall. I like the fact that an absent student can watch a video explanation of grammar, and native speakers can be challenged on the site. Things I compensate for: Chapters have WAY too much information. For example, my eighth graders are slogging through Leccion 6. I just gave a "test" that I pieced together from the online tests. It included lots of vocab., saber/conocer, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns. Still in the chapter: the regular preterite and forming spelling change preterite! I plan to teach that separately and have a different assessment. A lot of the activities are difficult, expecting students to understand the whole "Estructura" part, rather than starting with the basics. A couple of years ago, I used the old Avancemos book. I liked it better, but have not seen a recent edition.

Overall, Descubre is a good program, with a good and helpful supersite. I just have to make adjustments for my students...which I think teachers always do anyway.

Apr 17, 2016

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gloria Although our material is all online and we use no textbooks currently, we used Avancemos and based our online material on that series. As you know, there is no perfect textbook and you will always have to revise and adjust. However, Avancemos is a very good framework. I REALLY like the listening activities and the way the activities to go along wit...See More

Apr 27, 2016

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