My notes from our planning conversation say to use Rocket Spanish, but the planning packet gives details for Rosetta Stone. Which do I go with? If I use Rocket Spanish, which do I purchase: Level 1, Levels 1 and 2, or Levels 1, 2, and 3?

Either one. Rosetta Stone and Rocket Languages have both proven to be great, approachable choices for high school language study, and both prepare a student well for college work in the language. If your notes name one and your Academic Packet names the other, that is not a conflict to resolve: it simply means your advisor considers both programs sound. Choose the one that suits your student and your budget, and begin.

The same recommendation holds for every modern language STAA accepts. Whether your student is studying Spanish, German, French, or Italian, either program will serve.

Why these programs and not a vocabulary app

Programs built mainly around vocabulary drill, such as Duolingo, are not eligible for high school credit. What a student needs is a structured, orderly introduction: one that begins with conversational language and then moves deliberately into more advanced grammatical structures and into reading and writing in the language. Rosetta Stone and Rocket Languages are both built that way. A vocabulary app can be a pleasant supplement, but it will not carry the course.

It is our understanding that Rosetta Stone offers more features and carries the student through more advanced levels than Rocket Languages does, and that it also tends to cost more. Both are worthy; the difference is one of reach and price rather than quality.

Which level to purchase

Start with the very first level, whichever program you choose. There is no advantage to buying ahead. A student who works steadily through Level 1 will have earned a clear sense of whether the program suits him before you spend anything further, and the later levels will still be there when he is ready for them.

For a family asking about Rocket Spanish specifically: purchase Level 1 only. Levels 2 and 3 are for later years of study, not for a student beginning the language this fall.

Have your student track his hours

Because these programs are self-paced rather than divided into graded assignments, hours are how the credit is earned. Ask your student to keep a simple running log of the time he spends in the program each day, and to total it as he goes. He will report those approximate hours as part of his semester reporting, and the academy issues credit on that basis.

The figures worth knowing: a language course asks about fifty minutes daily across ninety school days, and seventy-five or more hours in a semester earns full credit. The STAA diploma requires two full years, or three hundred hours, in the same language. A log kept faithfully from the first week makes the semester report simple to complete and keeps the credit secure.

When to add a written workbook

The computer program is enough on its own at the beginning. After a student has completed about seventy-five course hours in the program itself, which for most students means the close of the first semester, we recommend adding a written workbook at the conversational level, such as a title from the Practice Makes Perfect series in the language he is studying.

The purpose is a written hunt for the words he has been hearing and speaking: a chance to see them on the page, read them, and write them out by hand. That work sits alongside the computer program rather than replacing it, and it is what carries a student from recognizing the language to using it.

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