At the Hyde School of Health Sciences and Sports Medicine we offer three Spanish courses. Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 are the more traditional Spanish courses with Health Science units embedded within while the third course is Spanish Medical Terminology.
Spanish 1 begins by focusing on basics such as: numbers, telling time, greeting people, and identifying body parts, as well as introducing the students to the different Spanish speaking countries across the Americas and Europe. Soon after in the second quarter, the focus turns to phrases such as the types of things one likes to do and describing personality traits of friends. The second quarter ends with students being able to describe their school day, including their entire schedule, as well as their feelings about particular classes that they take. The second half of the year focuses on two things; first, the ability to identify foods, the ability to describe what foods are healthy and which are not and how to order food at a restaurant. Finally, the focus turns to the students' families and being able to describe them with some detail. Grammatically students learn how to conjugate verbs in the present tense and they learn how to use pronouns with some degree of accuracy.
Spanish 2 focuses much more on grammar while building vocabulary and using the vocabulary from Spanish 1. The main focus of the first half of the year is to introduce the various versions of past tense. In Spanish these conjugations differ much more than in English so it can be challenging for many students. The second half of the year focuses on introducing the future tense. By the end of the year students should be able to create narratives about what has happened and also make predictions about what is going to happen.
Every course at the Hyde School of Health Sciences and Sports medicine must have a certain amount of dosage of Health Sciences and Sports Medicine curriculum embedded within them. As a Spanish teacher whose curriculum comes pre-determined this can be a daunting task at times. In both Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 there is a unit on food. In this particular unit I include vocabulary about calorie intake and healthy choices. Topics like these are easy to incorporate; however when I get to the clothing unit in Spanish 2 for example, including health science curriculum without over stretching becomes increasingly difficult.
Spanish Medical Terminology is a new course at Hyde. It is a class designed for students who have excelled in Spanish 1 and 2 and is considered an honors class. There are 6 units in Spanish Medical Terminology including; Nutrition, Anatomy, Emergency Situations, At the Hospital, Health Careers, and Healthcare Systems around the Hispanic World. Each unit focuses on expanding the vocabulary of each student and learning phrases from the perspective of a healthcare professional as well as from the perspective of a patient or victim. For students who qualify, they will take an exam at the end of the year that will get them HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) certified. This will allow them to volunteer at hospitals and clinics and practice their Spanish with patients who have trouble speaking English. This can lead to volunteer and job opportunities. The difficulty of this course discourages many students from taking it. This introductory unit is designed to encourage students from Spanish one to become more interested in the language so that by the time they enter Spanish Medical Terminology they are committed and willing to put in the extra effort.