Foreign Language in Block Schedule

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
1

I’m trying to help my 8th grader get her schedule set up for next year. Our high school uses the 4x4 block schedule, i.e. 4 year long equivalent classes in the fall, then 4 year long equivalent classes in the spring. Our language progression is Spanish 1, 2, 3, 4, and AP. Daughter has already taken Spanish 1 in middle school. Typically students take one spanish class a year.

I’m wondering about doing the 4 remaining semesters in order, i.e. Spanish 2-3 as freshman, then Spanish 4-AP as a sophomore. DS 19 is taking them the typical way at our high school. Having a 8-12 month break between language classes in giving him some difficulty (however, this is his hardest subject, so I’m not sure how much this is a real issue and how much is him just complaining about talking foreign language).

My biggest concern is that she will then have no foreign language for her last 2 years of high school. If she can test out of taking it in college with the AP or SAT Subject test, she will be fine. And some colleges don’t require it at all, especially if you take 4 years in high school. For local schools I think she is fine, but I have no idea where she will want to go in 4 years.

Anyone have experience with this either way?

2

As a person coming from a 4x4 block schedule school, I feel that you don’t need to rush your daughter into taking AP Spanish at sophomore year (which I have never heard of). This year, I am a sophomore and I am doing Spanish 2 and Honors Spanish 3 and it has been a lot of work. Because of these two classes taking up a whole space in the schedule, I have not had the chance to classes that I want to take (like Accounting) and wish I did Spanish 2 over the summer. And in my opinion, I don’t think it’s wise to rush your language classes. And if you are worrying about your daughter not retaining information from previous classes, I can tell you that the first week in language classes are review.