Topic title: My family and pets
Year group: 7
When taught: January to March
What are we learning?
- The vocabulary for the most common pets.
- The colours and other adjectives to describe animals, e.g. ‘big’ and ‘small’.
- All forms of the verbs ‘to have’ (tener) and the 3rd person singular and plural of the verb ‘to be called ‘ (llamarse).
- Noun and adjective agreements with regards to number and gender.
- The most common word order of nouns and adjectives in Spanish.
- The vocabulary for family-members.
- The vocabulary to describe hair, eyes and facial features.
- The possessive pronoun ‘my’ (mi) and its agreements with nouns re. singular and plural.
Why is this important to know?
- Pets and family are an important part of the students’ world, and they need to learn the vocabulary to name different family members and talk about their pets.
- Colours and description adjectives are a basic feature of languages, and they are used in a wide range of contexts.
- The practice of the verb ‘to have’ helps students to understand the concept of irregular verbs, whereas the verb ‘llamarse’ introduces the reflexive element.
- The focus on grammatical features that are typical of the Spanish language, in particular the different word-order and number and gender agreements between nouns and adjectives, sharpens the students’ understanding of the differences between English and Spanish. It is essential for accuracy in the active use of the language. It also helps with a correct understanding of Spanish spoken and written texts.
Where does this link into our past and future learning?
- This topic links to the previous topic of ‘Introducing myself’, in which students learned to talk about themselves, e.g. their names, ages, birthdays.
- The focus on adjectives links to the initial introduction of adjectives to describe school-subjects. To describe people and pets, students now learn a wider range of adjectives.
- Students have already learned the formation of the regular present tense. The focus on ‘to have’ and ‘llamarse’ widens their understanding of verbs with regards to irregular and reflexive verbs.
How will we be assessed on this topic?
- The Year 7 exam will assess the productive and receptive skills of the students in a Listening and Speaking assessment.
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
- A wide range of vocabulary, for example with regards to the use of adjectives.
- Accurate spelling of words, also regarding the correct use of accents.
- The accurate use of adjective, noun and verb agreements re. number and gender.
- The frequent expression of opinions and giving justifications for these, using ‘because ‘ (porque)
- Using other key-connectives and especially the conjuctions ‘however’ (sin embargo), ‘but’ (pero) and ‘on the other hand’ (por otro lado), which require students to look at the other point of view, as well.
What key words are there in this topic?
The vocabulary of this unit can be found in the quizlet links below:
What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?
- Using a range of website to practise the listening, reading, speaking and writing skills with regards to this topic.
- For example, BBC Bitesize:
- For example, Easy Spanish:
