Dear prospective Special Topic students,
Taking Special Topics is an experience in the class itself. After taking AP Spanish
you are most likely to think that you have had enough Spanish to last your lifetime, but if
you do not take the next class you are missing out. In Special Topics you take all the
information that you have learned in AP Spanish and apply it. In AP you practice how to
listen, write, read, and speak, and even though you do that a thousand times you are still
beginning to learn them and just going through the movements just because you have to
pass the class. In Special Topics you take all that information and understand it. You
understand more in depth what that five minute listening passage means, you write more
details in the interpersonal passages instead of just the minimum, you understand more of
the little details in the passages you have to read, and you know what to say more fluently
in the speaking. In Special Topics you do not just learn how to just get the gist of a
passage; you get more of the meaning. When you take Special Topics you can see all the
hard work that you did in AP Spanish and you feel proud of yourself. Taking Special
Topics is an advantage because not only does it look good for colleges, you know the
Spanish language more in depth and you can understand much more.
If you plan on taking Special Topics after AP Spanish, I would highly encourage
writing questions that you have on Spanish grammar when you are not in school.
Sometimes I would think how I would say certain sentences in Spanish and be totally
stumped. So I would write them down and ask Mrs. Mattingly and she would explain
how to say it and why you would say it that way. This really helped expand how I
thought about Spanish grammar.
I also started to get involved in listening to Latino music like Fanny Lu and Kris Angel. It
is a great feeling when you can listen to a song and understand what they are saying. Not
only did I listen to music, I started to read more Spanish books. For example, I read
Twilight in Spanish and absolutely loved it. Even though it was the same story line as the
English one, you feel extremely accomplished.
If you are taking Special Topics you are in for a treat. Special Topics is not easy
but it helps you comprehend more Spanish. I would highly recommend you take the class
because you can go way above and beyond the American expectations of what the
government has as guidelines on what learning a language is. You will feel good that you
took Special Topics and feel much more fluent in the language.
Bueno Suerte
Ashley Turner