Voces y Vistas

Voces y Vistas has many pictures and diagrams that go along with the Spanish words. I found them very helpful in remembering the words, because I would just think of the picture. The activities and worksheets are not great though because they do not allow for a lot of personal creativity. You basically just follow the examples and don't get to do much word choice.

This book was my first venture into learning foriegn languages 13 years ago when I was freshman in high school. I started off in Voces Y Vistas (year 1), moved onto Pasos Y Puentes (year 2), then capped off with Arcos Y Alamedas (years 3 & 4). This series as a whole went into great detail to teach not only vocabulary and culture but I remember conjugating verbs early on as well. A great textbook is no replacement for an excellent teacher (which I had for all 4 years) or a student with a willingness to learn. Luckily all three pieces were there. This series got me so well prepared that I was able to test out of having to take a foriegn language when I got to college. Once again, I think this is a great series. My only complaint are the workbooks that go with it (they were kind of dry compared to the text) and the kind of creepy people featured on the covers of all three.

This book explains things, and leaning another language is more than vocabulary. You have to understand how to conjigate verbs and why this word son't go with that one but will go with that one. At the end of the year, you have learned more than you thought you did!

I think that schools are wasting time buying these language books when a teacher can teach just as good without one. A teacher can put the vocabulary for the chapter on the board and the children can just as easily copy them from the board. Also, the workbooks that are made from this same company are more useless. They are not needed at all, a teacher hardly ever assignes an assignment from them. In addition, the Tape manual in the back of these workbooks are hardly, if ever, used in the course of the year.