My son has had 2 years of Spanish in middle school (the first one with a horrible teacher) and is currently registered for Spanish 2 (CP1/not honors) for next year. He’s an average 8th grade student in a highly competitive school district, with Spanish and Math his least-favorite subjects. I’m wondering if I should encourage him to change his registration to Spanish 1 for next year, so he’ll have an easier time getting a good grade. (Middle School grades are not shown on high school transcripts in our town, nor are they factored into high school GPAs.) Any thoughts? Do competitive colleges really care which level of foreign language kids starts with in high school? (As long as they stick with it for 3 years)
If he is ready for Spanish 2, then starting in Spanish 2 will let him complete Spanish 3 after only 2 years instead in needing 3 years.
The highest level completed is what many colleges look at.
I would go with the recommendation of your school’s guidance dept.
Most colleges care about the level, not the # of years. I like @happy1’s suggestion, but if you feel they haven’t given it as much thought as you have, then you should make the decision considering whether he needs another shot at Spanish 1 to master the basics or whether he’ll be bored repeating it, whether he wants the time as an upperclassman to do something he likes more, and whether Spanish 2 will be so hard for him that it’ll suck away his time and effort from other subjects. Sorry, not a really definitive answer – it sort of depends on his level of maturity and what other demands are made of him.
Colleges care about level reached, so if your son started in Level 2, he would be done for selective colleges at the end of sophomore year, and if he’s aiming for more selective colleges (especially Flagship) or Honors College, it’d count positively for him to have Level4.
Can your son take a placement test to gauge if he is ready for Spanish2?
This might be worth a conversation with the high school guidance counselor.
If your son is unsure about whether he’s ready for Spanish 2, he (or you) might want to talk to the counselor about whether it would be easy or difficult for him to switch to Spanish 1 if his preparation turns out to be inadequate. If switching is easy, he could start out the year in Spanish 2 and then move down to Spanish 1 if he finds out that he’s in over his head.
Not sure, but thanks for the idea @wisteria100
Muchas gracias for all your input. Very helpful!!
I dealt with with French, not Spanish, but similar issue. D was recommended by her 8th grade French teacher to start with French II. This was based on the curriculum they had covered in 8th grade vs. what was being offered in the high school for the I and II classes. The teacher recommendation was pretty spot on, she did well in French II.
She had also been recommended to take honors Biology, but D insisted on taking level I. Yes, she aced the course but she was not challenged at all.
So in our case, the teacher recommendations turned out to be spot on.
Agreed. Almost all HS’s will have a placement test for math and foreign language. If the placement recommended by the test turns out to be less than accurate, most schools will adjust placement up/down during the first couple of weeks. As everyone else said, in foreign languages, it’s the level reached that matters, not the number of years to get there.
We had a slightly different experience, in this exact same situation. DS - a bright but unmotivated student - took Spanish 2 as a freshman because he’d had two years in middle school. He did not do well and wound up retaking it. In retrospect, it would have helped his GPA, his confidence, and my nerves, to just repeat Spanish 1.
I think the deciding issue might be whether the student is the type who chafes when they are not challenged, or whether they are happier to have an easy class so that they have more energy for the more difficult ones.
“it would have helped his GPA, his confidence, and my nerves, to just repeat Spanish 1” - LOL, this is exactly what I was wondering about. Thank you for your sharing this @calla1
WHY is Spanish a least favorite subject? If it is because he’s always having a hard time grasping what’s going on, possibly due to a bad start in 7th grade, then Spanish 1 may be a good idea. The more time with the language, the more ingrained it becomes. I’d bet that a year of feeling more relaxed and confident would help him a lot.
What is his Spanish teacher adivisng? The teacher knows the curriculum and knows whether or not your kid is going to be ready for Spanish 2 at the HS. It is the teacher’s job to know this kind of thing!
When my DD started HS she had the choice between Spanish 2 and Spanish 3. Like your son, spanish was not her favorite thing (mostly due to specific teachers). However, she was taking Honors Bio, Honors Geometry, Honors History, Honors English etc. so i told her is she wanted to slack in an area, then she could do it in Spanish.
She ended up finding it tremendously easy and slow paced.
But I think you are right…it is more about the number of years for most students.
A lot of this really depends on the high school rigor. My DS had a difficult adjustment to freshman year. He was placed in French 2 honors, and made it through with a tutor. But in hindsight, the placement was incorrect. If math is also your child’s least favorite subject, I would be inclined to recommend Spanish 1, if the school allows,so that he has more time for math and other classes, and can maintain a good GPA.
You also mentioned he is average in a highly competitive school district. Same here. Average kids have strengths and weaknesses and are going to need a bit more insight from a parent regarding placement that an honors type kid. DS is now a happy junior , but it took us some time to sort it out. He is now in CP French 4, and will be his last.
Within a school, yes. Between a middle school and a high school, perhaps not.
The teachers at my kids’ middle school were not able to be much help to kids who were trying to decide between regular and honors courses at the high schools. Apparently, the high school teachers weren’t sending them feedback on how their former students were doing.
Check with the high school to see what the foreign language offerings are. Sometimes, especially in small high schools, foreign language is not funded as fully as other courses so schools may only offer what is needed for the student to meet the school’s graduation requirement.
Up to what level does your high school offer foreign language? If he starts with level 2, will he be able to take Spanish 2, 3 and 4 (in order to have 3 units of Spanish which many more selective schools recommend)?
Check with your high school and your state regulations because there is a difference between levels and years of foreign language.
For example in New York state you need 3 years of foreign language along with passing the LOTE exam in order to received an advanced regents diploma. In the example that you presented (your child will not receive high school credit for middle school Spanish, I would have him take Spanish 1, 2, 3 (if that is only what my high school offered), to maximize his chances of graduating with an advanced regents diploma.
However, if your school offered AP Spanish, then I would have him start with Spanish 2 (if he is comfortable and capable of doing the work), 3 and then AP Spanish.
Something else he could do is switch languages, if something else is available and is more appealing. This could backfire, since Spanish is an easier language to learn than many others, but if he is actually interested in another language…