Foreign Language

Spanish: Prekindergarten - Grade 8

Students as young as Prekindergarten through grade 2 receive weekly Spanish instruction. In third through sixth grade, students explore the Spanish language and culture twice weekly. Students speak, hear, read, and write in Spanish. A variety of instructional methods are used by a native speaking teacher to facilitate student understanding and appreciation of the material in interactive and engaging manners. In the seventh and eighth grades, students receive Spanish instruction four times each week with a focus on grammar and fluency.

Latin: Grade 8

Students in grade 8 may choose to take Latin as their foreign language option. Latin is offered four times a week and is an academic subject.

Students will learn Latin based on an inductive approach whereby they will begin by reading Latin first and move from the concrete to the abstract, deriving general principles from particular facts. They will read whole passages for content and grammar simultaneously. Students therefore will begin to discover for themselves, in a more meaningful way, the grammar before it is systematically analyzed allowing them to formulate it first in their minds. Their learning of Latin will focus on the development of the interrelated skills of reading, listening, speaking, and writing , all situated in the context of an ongoing story as well as the cultural and historical background. Throughout the course, the students will make comparisons and contrasts between Latin and English which will help them understand the mechanics of English better and will provide the foundation for further study of Latin. In addition, the students will develop their vocabulary skills in both Latin and English and will receive instruction in Latin word formation and in derivation of English words from Latin. Finally, the students will read cultural and historical essays with the purpose of providing a broad, interdisciplinary approach to the Latin language. Essays about Roman culture and history allow the students to experience learning Latin as more than just the mechanics of the language. It also provides the students with a view into the world of the Romans thus bringing it alive for them. Works of mythology as well as the reading of Homer’s Odyssey will also be incorporated into the class.