Spanish 6 AP: a rigorous, albeit one course with only five students

Most students who enroll in Spanish 2 their freshman year usually end up taking Spanish 5 AP their senior year. Some students, however, make the choice to enroll in an obscure alternative, Spanish 6 AP Literature.

This year, five seniors Nikhil Goel, Rick Roy, Ruchi Jain, Krishna Unadkat, and Mostafa Rohaninejad are enrolled in this selective course taught by language department head Arnaldo Rodriguex. 

       "The course is really independent and since it runs concurrently with my Spanish 5 AP class, I don't really get much time with them, which is unfortunate," Rodriguex said.

  To take this class, a student must either do a Spanish course over the summer or skip one year of Spanish based on a teacher recommendation.  

At the beginning of each class period, Rodriguex assigns the Spanish 6 students a reading assignment, and the students read the text, analyze and answer questions about it on their own. The students complete their work as a group in a casual setting such as the school library, the quad or even an open classroom.

Readings usually consists of poetry, old Spanish works and different types of literature.  After reading the assignment, they study it and bring it back at the end of class, similar to an English literature course.

Jain, one of the five students, feels that the class is challenging because it forces her to apply her Spanish knowledge to the text. 

“Speaking and learning grammar techniques is one thing, but analyzing text is a whole other thing,” Jain said. “We learn about rhetorical analysis because we have to learn how Spanish texts are written with different literary devices.”

Like Jain, Roy was able to enroll in this course since he was in an advanced course previously. Roy took a Spanish 2 Pre-AP class, freshman year in Texas. Once he came back he was able to skip into Spanish 4 honors.

Roy thinks the small class size helps the students  form strong ties.

 “I enjoy this course because our little group of five students get to work together,” Roy said. “The text we read is really complex, so it’s nice to have some extra support from peers.That’s how an advanced class should be.”