Ven Conmigo!: Holt Spanish Level 1 (Spanish Edition)[BOOK ONLY]

Ven Conmigo is a good introduction to Spanish and has a variety of written, oral, group, reading, and grammar exercises. The teacher edition and lesson planning ancillaries create a complete, comprehensive package that teachers can either use heavily, if they are just beginning, or use as a guide and support, if they are seasoned.

I am a high school Spanish teacher. If only my school had enough to buy new texts. This one is very poorly done. I thought the old Vallette-Vallette Spanish for Mastery was bad until I saw this one.

I taught with this book for a while. I really had to supplement the students with my own charts and information because they information is presented in a very chaotic and disorganized way. I think they are trying not to overwhelm the students with too much information, but they are not very good in editing the actual information. Pronouns, for example, are introduced not all at once, but only a few at a time whereas most students just seem to want to know them all when they are trying to activate their use of verbs. This disorganization actually harms the weaker students who seem to benefit from organized and coherent explanations; whereas the stronger students pick it up anyway. There is a definite stress on Latin American Spanish in the textbook and audio materials.
The vocabulary sections are good and I found that the supplemental DVD was something that could definitely be used to encourage student interest.
Overall, I would say that I would choose a different book, especially if you are going to learn on your own, but for class it is o.k. as long as you are ready to do the extra materials.

I will use this book for the first time this school year to teach Middle School Spanish. In planning, I have been impressed with the resources the publisher offers for teachers.

The book focuses on culture, connections, and communication and excludes in-depth explainations of the fine points of grammar, making it an ideal roadmap to a dynamic exploratory (or connections) class.

The publisher offers many resources to bring the language to life for students in a classroom setting.
Many ideas for promoting discourse are included.

Again, it seems ideal for an intro level class for adolescent students.

The Ven conmigo series seems to be quite extensive and presumably it is widely used. I have the level 1 book which has a lot of attractive illustrations but there are many places where the reader is given the direction "Escuchemos" and the set of CDs or audiocassettes for Level 1 is listed on the publisher's web site at over $250. I can purchase other Spanish courses for a lot less.