| Overview
| | Early Childhood Center
| | Lower School
| | Middle School
| | Upper School
| | The Arts
| | Physical Education
| | Foreign Language
| | Wilderness Education
| | Library
| | Technology
| | Christian Education
| | Athletics
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Foreign Language at CES (Currently only Spanish is offered at all levels; however, as the high school grows, other foreign languages will be added.)
Foreign Language Philosophy and Overview The teaching of foreign language at CES is congruent with the "National Foreign Language Standards and Goals," which focuses on five goal areas, "the five C's": Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. At CES, the foreign language program addresses these goal areas and operates off the statement of philosophy originally developed in 1993 by the National Foreign Language Standards and Goals Task Force: "Language and communication are at the heart of the human experience. The United States must educate students who are equipped linguistically and culturally to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad. This imperative envisions a future in which all students will develop and maintain proficiency in English and at least one other language, modern or classical." Through consistent practice and through mastery of the cultural contexts in which the language occurs, students at CES become speakers, readers, and writers of the target language. The CES foreign language program seeks to create an environment in the classroom in which students are given the opportunity to interact spontaneously in the target language. Students think analytically and creatively, such as when describing a scenario in the target language to convey the meaning of an unknown word. In order to communicate effectively, students are challenged to apply the vocabulary, grammar and usage, and sentence structures they have learned. While total physical response techniques are used to some degree at all grade levels, students function within an immersion environment beginning at the middle school level. For both middle and upper schools, the six basic areas of preparation/study include language structure/grammar, word study/vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, speaking/conversation, writing (both creative and non-fiction), and culture (content information). However, the main goal is to promote the application of the target language through content-based learning so that authentic acquisition occurs. In this way, CES students leave with the ability to speak the target language, not just comprehend, read, or write it. The end product of participating in a CES foreign language program is that students achieve near fluency or fluency. Foreign Language Learning Goals Strong Spiritual and Moral Character that Strives to Imitate Christ...is at the heart of all learning at CES. The manifestation of God in the world is evident in other cultures, and the plurality of cultures and diversity in God's world evidence His goodness. Intellectual Curiosity and Lifelong Learning...are sparked by questioning the inner workings of a language and by gaining a deeper understanding of that language and culture. The nature of language is more accessible through the comparison of the language studied to one's own language, and the nature of culture is further revealed by foreign language instruction as comparisons are made. Distinctive points of view are particularly available via foreign language study (through the mediums of language structure, reading, writing, speaking, and culture). Critical Reasoning, Problem Solving, and Independent Thinking...are developed as students analyze language structures and then apply what they have learned both in and beyond the school setting. Conversation is promoted as the main focus of communication, "the heart of the human experience." At CES, the learning environment is conducive to encouraging student risk-taking. If students do not use what they learn, they will never actually acquire the target language. Therefore, mistakes are invited as students embrace the risk-taking with language application. It is only through mistakes that students grow. Effective Communications and Strong Interpersonal Skills...once again are "the heart of the human experience." Students engage in Spanish conversation to provide and obtain information, to exchange opinions, and to express emotions and feelings (in other words, to express oneself overall). Students are provided opportunities to present information and ideas to an audience of listerners, thereby developing interpersonal and presentational language skills in the target language. Broad-based Knowledge...is sought in the demonstration of usage competence, which comes from performance in conversations, in listening and reading comprehension, and in writing. The negotiation of meaning and then response in a variety of mediums is important to overall language acquisition. Content-based learning is key to reaching the goal of broad-based knowledge. Culture is one of the main content components, along with art, politics, literature, etc. Through foreign language study and a content-based approach, students reinforce and expand their knowledge in other disciplines.
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Spanish First and Second Grade
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First and second grade Spanish classes are held once a week for thirty minutes per session. Focus is mainly on vocabulary acquisition and on student exposure to the language. Vocabulary is taught through games and hands-on activities. Topics include but are not limited to the following: the weather/calendar, the seasons, clothing, numbers, the family, colors and other adjectives to describe according to size and shape, commands, emotions and feelings, and basic conversational expressions. |
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Spanish Third and Fourth Grade
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Third and fourth grade Spanish classes are held two times per week for thirty minutes per session. Students learn and use vocabulary and expressions that permit them to become familiar with a second language through a varied methodology that includes games, songs, videos, readings, and other recreational activities carried out in a fun and interesting environment. In this way, students come to know that the study of a foreign language is not only an academic endeavor but also a cultural one. |
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Spanish Middle School (5th - 8th Grades)
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All Middle School classes (5th-8th grades) are conducted in the target language. Students are exposed to an immersion environment with content material. Content material includes topics such as traditions and customs in both Latin America and Spain, artifacts from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries, literature, art, historical topics, movies, and the like. Students are presented with the content material in the target language, and in the context of learning the content, students learn grammatical and structural frameworks, in addition to vocabulary. Students use the material to comprehend, speak, read, and write Spanish. With each year of progression, students are expected to speak more often and more consistently in the language. By the middle of the eighth grade year, students begin to respond only in Spanish, and by the end of the eighth grade year, students receive a Spanish I high school credit. Fifth grade Spanish classes are held once a week for fifty minute sessions. The study of Spanish in fifth grade is intended to give the student an opportunity to use the vocabulary and expressions learned at the lower school level, but in a more advanced way. Students use pronouns, verb conjugations, adjectives, and other grammatical structures in a more communicative form, spoken as well as written. Sixth and seventh grade Spanish classes are held three times a week for fifty minute sessions. Eighth grade Spanish classes are held four times a week for fifty minute sessions. In the middle schools, the goal is to create an environment for authentic learning, where the focus is on communication through speaking, reading, and writing in the target language. As the students study and apply language structures and vocabulary through the various forms of communication, they also gain insights into the culture. |
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Spanish Upper School (9th - 12th Grades)
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Upper School classes are held five days a week for fifty minute sessions. Currently, Spanish II, III, and IV are offered on the high school level. Once again, classes are conducted in the target language, and also like the middle school classes, instruction is content-based. In Spanish II, students are required to speak mainly in Spanish. In Spanish III and IV, students may only speak in Spanish. By the time students enter Spanish II, almost all verb conjugations have been taught, and by Spanish III, all verb conjugations have been taught. Almost all grammatical structures and variations in sentence structure have been taught by the end of Spanish III so that by the time students enter Spanish IV, students focus on communicating only in Spanish. The content in Spanish IV shifts more towards literature, with a unit on poetry and short stories, followed by a unit on movie analysis, and culminating with a research project and paper (in Spanish) on a particular cultural aspect that pervades the Spanish-speaking world. Students also write their own creative pieces in Spanish, such as poetry and short stories. In the upper schools, the goal is to create an environment for authentic learning, where the focus is on communication through speaking, reading, and writing in the target language. As the students study and apply language structures and vocabulary through the various forms of communication, they also gain insights into the culture. |
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| Foreign Language Faculty |
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Dawn Cox
B.A. University of the South, Sewanee, 1990
Allison Mercante, 2007
B.A. Southern Methodist University, 1992
M.A. Southern Methodist University, 1994
Angela Nunez
B.A. Universidad de Caldas-Colombia, 1996
Patti Daigle-Brown
B.S. Loyola University, 1978
M.Ed. Loyola University, 1979
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