World Languages

Week of May 26th

Current 7th grade families -

Next Year's 8th Grade World Language Trips

As part of Deal's commitment to inspiring excellence, curiosity, and compassion in our students, Deal Middle School will once again plan optional international trips as a supplement to our world language program. 8th grade students enrolled in Spanish, French, Chinese, or Spanish Humanities will have the opportunity to join their designated trip. These trips are entirely optional, funded by families, chaperoned by Deal staff, and open only to Deal 8th grade students in good academic, attendance, and behavioral standing. We find these trips to be a powerful experience for all involved.

To register for the world language trips, families will need to complete two steps:

Submit a signed permission slip to the trip's sponsor by Friday, May 30th. Permission slips should be turned in to your student's language teacher or emailed directly to the trip sponsor:

Once the trips are approved by DCPS, families will need to register with the travel company. We anticipate registrations will early in the 2025/2026 school year.

Please note, completing the permission slip gives your student permission to travel and expresses interest in the trip, but is not a guarantee of attendance on the trip. Once the trip is fully approved by DCPS, families will need to complete the tour company's registration process, including paying for the trip and turning in all required documents.

Please note – The dates on the permission forms are for DCPS approval purposes only and are likely to change. Families will be required to complete an updated form once dates are finalized.

If you are considering joining the trip at all, please submit the permission slip Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to sharing this experience with our students.

This week in our classes!

Spanish Language and Culture (Mr. Fontalvo, Ms. Gonzalez)

Last week in Spanish class, our students continued developing their language skills by learning how to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense. They also took a listening formative assessment to practice their comprehension skills. Next week, we will build on this foundation by learning how to ask and answer questions about extracurricular activities. Students will use verb conjugations in meaningful contexts to practice their speaking and writing in Spanish. We're excited to see their continued growth!

Spanish I (Mr. Donaldson, Ms. Cuffee)

In Week 6, students will complete their listening and speaking summative assessments about food, meal, restaurant, and health-related topics. In the listening summative assessment, they will answer questions about food, meals, restaurants, health-related vocabulary, and scenarios. The next day, for the speaking summative assessment, they will describe issues and give advice regarding food, meals, restaurants, and health-related scenarios.

No more SpanishDict.com homework for the rest of the year.

The following summative assessments are included this week: 4SummA1.RS - Restaurante y supermercado Listening Summative and 4SummC1.QP - ¿Qué piensas tú? Speaking Summative

Spanish II (Ms. Wooten, Ms. Henderson)

Spanish 2:

We have successfully wrapped up the STAMP testing season! If your student has not yet finished, please encourage them to speak with their teacher to arrange a time and place to complete it. This week, we analyzed murals from the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, exploring how public art reflects and shapes community identity. We also spent time reviewing vocabulary in preparation for continuing our novel next week.

Coming up: Chapter 6 . Will Carlos find his mother? The mystery deepens...

Spanish Humanities, grade 6 (Ms. Balestra)

Last week we finished our hard work on the formation and differences between the two past tenses: preterit and imperfect. Students worked hard, powered through, and showed me on a Formative that they understood.

This week we will finish our work on Oda al Tomate by Pablo Neruda and begin creation of our own ode, "Oda a la Leche." I am excited to see what the students create! We will have a celebration on June 5th where students will present their ode and we will all enjoy treats made with milk! Think: tres leches, arroz con leche, helado, flan...

I will be sending an email for families to sign up to contribute treats. Stay tuned!

Spanish Humanities, grade 7 (Ms. Henderson)

After a busy week of 7th grade field trips, we’ve finished Chapter 9 in our novel. However, the test originally planned for mid-week has been postponed to this coming week. Unlike the last test, this one will focus more on the author and their stylistic choices. Students will be asked to reflect on how the author builds meaning and engages the reader.

Después de una semana llena de excursiones para los estudiantes de séptimo grado, hemos terminado el capítulo 9 de nuestra novela. Sin embargo, el examen que originalmente estaba planeado para mediados de esta semana se ha pospuesto para la próxima semana. A diferencia del examen anterior, este se enfocará más en el autor y sus decisiones. Se les pedirá a los estudiantes que reflexionen sobre cómo el autor construye significado y capta el interés del lector.

Spanish Humanities, grade 8 (Ms. Wooten)

In 8th grade humanities, students spent the week working on the stamp exam. I have been very proud of their efforts on what is quite a long test. Students should already know their speaking and listening scores, and avant will be grading their productive skills (writing and speaking) in the next few weeks. As they finish, I am evaluating their responses and putting the 2 summative grades in ASPEN. We will have one last full-class testing day on Monday, and after that I will help individuals finish as needed, but we will return to reading our class novel. When AVANT publishes the full score report, I will send it home with students. IMPORTANT- students have had homework to read and annotate chapters 6 and 7 of the book during testing. I will check this in class on Tuesday. Expectations for annotations are on canvas.

French Language and Culture (Ms. Bullock, Mr. Almanza)

This week in introduction to French, students will be using their feedback from our yearbook writing to level up and complete a final draft. We've learned so much this year-now is the time to shine. As always, encourage your student to review daily. Need a vocab resource? Voilà

French I (Ms. Balestra, Mr. Osei)

Students took a Listening Formative on Friday and worked all week on different parts of their final Summative, a writing assignment. Their final draft is due this Friday, the 23rd. All work is being completed in class.

French II (Dr. Mbayu)

This week we started Unit 3: Le weekend, les loisirs, et les spectacles. We will complete a reading performance activity (criterion B): le metro et vive le jazz.

Next week we will delve into weekend activities in the city and the countryside from a comparative perspective.

Chinese (Ms. Liang)

G6

Last week in Chinese class, we continued exploring body part topic with an emphasis on speaking and listening. Students engaged in fun partner conversations and listening exercises to help reinforce their understanding of key vocabulary and sentence patterns. We will have a summative speaking and writing next week. Keep up the great work, everyone—let’s continue building our Chinese skills together!

G7

Last week, we learned common weather vocabulary and practiced new sentence patterns through engaging speaking and listening activities in class. Next week Friday, we will continue building on this foundation and have an in-class formative assessment to check for understanding. Keep reviewing your notes and practicing at home to prepare!

G8

Last week, our Grade 8 students completed the listening and speaking sections of the STAMP test. Great job to everyone for your focus and effort! Keep up the hard work, and best of luck! Grades will be ready next week.