AP Spanish Language and Culture is a mandatory year-long course that TCS students must take in Grade 10, Norberto Villa teaches it. He has been at TCS for more than two decades and has taught Spanish subjects in both middle and high school during his time at TCS. Also known as Advanced Placement, this is a college-level course offered to students in Grade 10 in preparation for applications to higher education. “
Norberto, for me, was an introduction to AP because I had never taken one before. Norberto has a more welcoming feeling to his class and he explained very well what an AP is,” Pablo Nicholls, Grade 11, said.
The course emphasizes communication skills and applying interpersonal and presentational skills through cultural awareness and communication strategies. Moreover, it develops habits for reading in Spanish and news gathering, while also engaging students in an exploration of culture in both historical and contemporary contexts.
“Norberto always makes us read Spanish and cultural books from Colombia, and that makes us feel incorporated with culture and everything about Colombia,” Samuel López, Grade 10, said.
During the school year, students will read different books from renowned Colombian and Latin American authors and gather habits for writing, news gathering, and many other communicative skills that the syllabus proposes.
“For me as a student, he makes it more dynamic as he makes us read alone. Sometimes, he does the reading himself in class, so everybody is more engaged and makes us think about reading a lot more,” López said.
This course seeks to adequately prepare students for the AP exams in May, should they choose to present them. The AP Exam recapitulates all the content seen throughout the school year and is offered to students from Grade 10 onward. These exams have an additional cost and, again, are not mandatory. Villa, through his class, seeks to prepare students for the test. To achieve this, he puts in place a set of different exercises and dynamics to evaluate learning.
“Like I said, one of the main aspects of his teaching is to be more in touch with students and become friendly with them. For example, he always made us bring in news at the beginning of the week to present to the class,” Nicholls said.
Villa stands out for being one of the most interactive teachers, with his lessons focusing more on conversations with the class than a conventional lecture that students can see in other classes more frequently.
“He makes people laugh in class and makes it dynamic while also making the class as friendly as possible,” López said.
Through these moments of dialogue, Villa also observes the progress of his students concerning the curriculum.
“He evaluates learning by listening and making you respond based on all the criteria and through projects in class. He speaks for most of the class and asks everyone questions,” López said.
Norberto, by paying attention closely to the student’s development, is also very fair with the workload and distributes evaluations and activities through different platforms. From handwritten assignments to Schoology lectures, Norberto is resourceful when it comes to the application of learning.
“To be honest, Norberto is very organized with his assignments, and if I had any doubts about any homework or assignment, I didn’t hesitate to send him an email and he would respond very quickly,” Nicholls said.
