World Languages
Week of May 18, 2026
Spanish Language and Culture (Mr. Fontalvo, Ms. Gonzalez)
Last week, students learned places around the community and how to conjugate the verb to go. They also completed a formative writing assessment. In addition, They worked on an engaging class project to practice using the verb in meaningful and creative ways.
Next week, students will continue exploring the conjugation of other irregular verbs in the present tense, including estar, ser, and tener. Through interactive classroom activities and collaborative practice, students will strengthen their understanding and confidence in using these verbs in everyday communication.
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 comprehension summative assessment (for Ms. Cuffee’s classes only), 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. Following that, students will complete more practice activites.
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 (for Ms. Cuffee’s classes only) and 4SummC1.QP - ¿Qué piensas tú? Speaking Summative
Spanish II (Ms. Wooten, Ms. Henderson, Mr. Almanza)
This week, students have worked really hard on the STAMP exam. As they report their scores to you, remember that the DCPS goal for Spanish 2 students is a 3 (novice high) or 4 (intermediate low) on the ACTFL proficiency scale (1-9). Once the tests are completely scored by AVANT, we will send home score reports explaining their reading/listening/speaking/writing scores, which you can keep for your records and also share with their high schools. Next week, any students who have not finished STAMP will continue, but we are excited to get back to normal instruction! We will be learning new vocabulary in preparation for chapter 5, reading chapter 5 of La Calaca Alegre, and then starting a mural study of "Gulliver en el pais de las maravillas"- making observations and inferences before reading an interview with the artist Hector Duarte to fully understand the message of his impactful work.
Spanish Humanities, grade 6 (Ms. Balestra)
Last week students focused on the grammatical structures of the preterit and imperfect verb tenses. Students took a formative on Friday to show their mastery of verb formation in those tenses. I look forward to seeing their narrative writing next week!
French Language & Culture (Ms. Bullock, Mr. Almanza)
This week students will begin to review what they have learned ALL year in preparation for our end of year summatives (listening and writing). On these assessments, students will be writing all about themselves in French! This will be their chance to really reflect on all we have learned together.
What can we do at home?
Vocabulary is KEY to language learning. Students should be reviewing their vocabulary for at least 5 minutes every night. They are welcome to use this newly updated resource to support their learning.
French I (Ms. Balestra, Mr. Osei)
last week we continued working with demonstrative and interrogative adjectives and our clothing vocabulary. Students took a formative on Friday to show that they were not forgetting their new vocabulary words!
Next week we will revisit the passe compose. Since all classes will be meeting on all days, we will also focus more on listening comprehension.
French II (Dr. Mbayu & Mr. Osei)
Students write short paragraphs describing where they will travel and what they will do. Focus is on clear ideas, correct verb tense, and vocabulary use.
✅ Student Goal: I can write about my future vacation in French.
Chinese (Ms. Liang)
G6
Last week in Chinese class, we continued our unit on body parts and focused on reading and writing practice. Students reviewed vocabulary through interactive activities and completed a quiz last Friday to assess their progress.
Next week, we will continue exploring this topic with an emphasis on speaking and listening. Students will engage in fun partner conversations and listening exercises to help reinforce their understanding of key vocabulary and sentence patterns. We will have a formative next week.
Keep up the great work, everyone—let’s continue building our Chinese skills together!
G7
Last week, we wrapped up our speaking summative assessment and kicked off a brand-new unit on weather. Students 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 reading and writing sections of the STAMP test. Great job to everyone for your focus and effort!
Next week, we will continue with the listening and speaking sections of the test. Keep up the hard work, and best of luck—you're almost there!