Midterm Reflection
The first quarter of Spanish this year was quite difficult. I think this was because I had gone through the entire first semester without uttering a single word of Spanish, so I probably forgot some material. I am back on track, though, so things are getting a bit easier. I am also understanding much more about Spanish when it comes to grammar.
The one thing I really liked about first quarter was the review. We did not spend weeks reviewing, but we reviewed as we continued through the Spanish II curriculum, which I enjoy.
I am ashamed to say that there are some things that I could have done better on this quarter. I have trouble doing my homework in this class, so if I actually did my homework, my grade would be at least 5 points higher, which can make a large difference.
Before the end of the Spanish II course, I would like to improve on boot verbs. I have a tendency to conjugate all forms of a verb with the “boot” part, or none at all. I would also like to understand DOPs and IOPs more. I get confused between the two often, and I have a feeling that they will be used more the further into Spanish I go.
This quarter, I was exposed to a great learning strategy: learning grammar and vocabulary together. In Spanish I, vocabulary and grammar were taught separately; in Spanish II, however, we are shown how vocabulary is useless without proper grammar, and vice versa.
In communicating with the language, I can see myself improving, but I am not quite ready to speak it independently yet. I still process Spanish very slowly, so I need it to be repeated or spoken more slowly. I hope to improve on this as I continue to the higher-level Spanish classes.
I see myself as having many strengths in Spanish. It does not take long for me to catch onto grammar and memorize vocabulary. However, my aforementioned problem with homework is a very strong weakness. In the next 9 weeks, I plan to combat this laziness in order to raise my grade to an A, which is possible with enough work.
