Middle School Curriculum Guide

As students progress into the fifth-grade Modern Languages program, they continue to build upon their previous learning in French or Spanish and to develop their receptive and expressive language skills while expanding their connections to and appreciation of the people, traditions, and cultures of French and Spanish-speaking countries. Students’ grammatical awareness increases as they speak, read, and write in the target language. They are exposed to grammatical terms and concepts, start to understand the elements that make up sentences, and discover and develop awareness  of language patterns such as parts of speech,  verb endings, and agreement of gender and number while building on a vocabulary base that includes autobiographical information and terms related to sports, school, friends, numbers, weather, feelings, and emotions. Students engage in diverse learning experiences that combine speech and action, including musical, verbal, visual, kinesthetic, or game-based activities, as well as reading, storytelling, drawing, producing skits, and using interactive digital tools. Teacher-created materials such as songs, rhymes, short stories, and games are also important components of the fifth-grade experience. Special attention is given to the new students to the grade in order to facilitate a smooth integration into the program. Fifth-grade French and Spanish classes meet twice in a six-day cycle for forty-five minutes each period.

In sixth-grade French, students deepen their understanding of all aspects of the language and culture by actively engaging with French in a variety of ways.  Students continue their exploration of cultures and traditions of the francophone world in France and beyond. Students’ confidence and proficiency develop through conversations, dialogues,  songs, reading, and writing. Classes meet daily and are conducted in French. Many connections are made between French and English words and expressions. Students are encouraged to recognize cognates, as well as words with the same derivation. The core text is Adosphère 1 which is supplemented with videos and  a variety of materials.

By the end of the year, sixth-grade students should able to demonstrate reasonable proficiency as they:

• participate in an immersion environment by communicating in French with their classmates and instructor
• understand and apply the concepts of masculine and feminine forms and agreements
• conjugate and use regular “-ER” verbs in the present tense, as well as several common irregular verbs
• introduce themselves, their friends, and family orally and in writing
• talk and write about their schedules and favorite activities
• explain what they have (possessions), how old they are, what they like to do
• use context clues to aid in aural and written comprehension

In seventh-grade French, students review, refine, and enrich previously acquired skills, adding verb conjugations and new verb tenses as they continue to improve oral/aural proficiency. Classroom communication takes place in French. Daily practice in listening, reading, speaking, and writing enhances students’ confidence and ability to communicate in French. Seventh-grade students are encouraged to compare and contrast French and American cultural habits, such as school menus, clothing catalogs, and movies. Throughout the year, students work on projects and presentations that allow them to demonstrate their grammatical and oral skills and the ability to use the Internet for research. Students watch several films, including Le Petit Nicolas and Monsieur Batignole in French with English subtitles. The second film ties in with the seventh-grade Social Studies curriculum on the Holocaust. The core texts are Adosphère 2 and Discovering French Today 1 which are supplemented with videos and a variety of materials.

By the end of the year, seventh-grade students should demonstrate reasonable proficiency as they:

• participate in an immersion environment by communicating in French with their classmates and instructor in brief conversations on familiar topics
• understand and apply the concepts of gender, singular and plural forms
• conjugate and use correctly "ER" verbs, "IR" verbs, "RE" verbs, as well as several irregular verbs
• understand and write in the present, passé compose, and immediate future tenses
• write short dialogues and paragraphs with the proper sentence structure
• comprehend and respond to beginner level readings

Students in eighth-grade French strengthen all four language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - through a variety of activities including working with dialogues, songs, articles, videos, films, and reading short stories. Students continue to study the culture and traditions of France and francophone countries. They use the Internet to do research on cultural, artistic, and sporting events that span the French-speaking world. Eighth-grade French students study the passé compose and the imparfait, reflexive verbs in the present tense, and demonstrative adjectives. They increase their confidence in the use of the future tense and negative and affirmative command forms of regular and irregular verbs. Emphasis is placed on the use of direct and indirect object pronouns with all verb tenses. Vocabulary comes largely from a variety of readings in the core text, Discovering French Today 2 and includes such topics as weekend activities, going camping with friends, traveling, and ordering at a restaurant. La Gloire de mon père and Les Choristes are two feature films that students view in French with English subtitles.

Each year, the entire eighth grade participates in a language field trip to New York City during which students visit an exhibit or cultural event related to the language they study, including, when possible, a docent-guided experience in the target language. Students then enjoy lunch in an ethnic restaurant where they interact with wait staff in the language they study. 

Successful completion of eighth-grade French enables students to enter Level 2 in the Upper School. Placement approval for Level 2 Honors courses requires a year-end average and March exam grade of 90 percent or higher and teacher recommendation. Students appropriately placed in Level 2 Honors show motivation, maturity, responsibility, and hard work, and they make consistent efforts to use solely the target language in class. They display excellence in the four main language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing - and meet all commitments in a timely manner.

The Mandarin Chinese program begins in sixth grade. Classes meet daily and emphasize listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing (both handwriting and computer writing). Students are introduced to the important links between language and Chinese culture and gain proficiency and confidence through target language activities, including songs, Chinese painting and calligraphy, skits, dialogues, and daily journaling to increase fluency of expression. Opportunities for creative expression in Chinese include projects such as taking on the role of a tour guide for a popular tourist attraction in Beijing and presenting the site to classmates, a project which creates greater understanding of the role of AAPI community in our culture, and group work such as restaurant role-play scenarios.

By the end of the year, sixth-grade students should able to demonstrate reasonable proficiency as they:

• respond to instructions in the target language
• hold simple conversations on topics such as school, family, food, possessions
• recognize and write about 200 characters
• read short texts with simplified Chinese characters
• use the Pinyin system in computer writing

The Mandarin Chinese program for seventh grade builds on previously acquired skills and develops students’ proficiency in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing (both handwriting and computer writing) of the Mandarin Chinese language. Classes are taught mostly in the target language, and students are encouraged to express themselves in Chinese. Daily practice in listening, reading, speaking, writing and cultural awareness continues with the use of DVDs, websites, songs, and presentations, which enhances students’ confidence and ability to communicate in Chinese. Grammar and vocabulary related to sports, clothing, pets and animals, transportation, asking for and giving directions, weather, shopping, body parts, and making comparisons form the major content of the seventh-grade course. Students continue their daily journaling to enhance written expression. Students engage in several creative projects that allow them to put to immediate use the concepts presented in class. For example, following the annual seventh-grade trip students write journal entries in Chinese using related grammar and vocabulary to describe their hotel, meals, and sites visited. Seventh-grade students also research one of China’s 56 ethnic groups and present their projects to their classmates. During the unit on weather, students create and present forecasts. Students all participate in a project which creates greater understanding of the role of AAPI community in our culture.

By the end of the year, seventh-grade students should demonstrate reasonable proficiency as they:

• ask questions and respond to oral commands given by the instructor in Chinese
• hold basic conversations and read simple texts on a variety of topics, including clothing, activities, comparisons, and transportation
• add to the number of Chinese characters they can recognize and write
• use the Pinyin system in computer writing
• comprehend and respond to beginner-level readings

Students in eighth-grade Mandarin Chinese continue to strengthen all five Chinese language skills - listening, speaking, reading, writing, and computer typing - through a variety of activities including working with dialogues, watching DVDs in Chinese with subtitles in Chinese or English, writing creative pieces, and reading short stories or newspaper articles that highlight Chinese culture and traditions. Projects include a presentation on a favorite character from one of the movies viewed and a travelog in Chinese that sums up students’ experiences during the eighth-grade class trip. Grammar and vocabulary studied relate to real-life situations such as eating in a Chinese restaurant, describing one’s home, making phone calls, extending invitations. Once again, students all participate in a project which creates greater understanding of the role of AAPI community in our culture. Students learn Chinese words to describe measurements and increase their skills in dictionary use. Students continue their daily journaling to enhance written expression. 

Each year, the entire eighth grade participates in a language field trip to New York City during which students visit an exhibit or cultural event related to the language they study, including, when possible, a docent-guided experience in the target language. Students then enjoy lunch in an ethnic restaurant where they interact with wait staff in the language they study.

Successful completion of eighth grade Chinese enables students to enter Level 2 in the Upper School. 

In sixth-grade Spanish, students deepen their understanding of all aspects of the language and culture by actively engaging with Spanish in a variety of learning experiences that combine whole class instruction, independent and group work, sing-alongs, ludic activities, skits, audio and video presentations. Technology is infused with the use of digital tools and virtual activities including online games and interactive collaboration tools that allow students to write and record responses to visual and written prompts. All activities in the sixth-grade Spanish classroom use modern comprehension-based methods of language instruction which help students acquire vocabulary, approximate native-like pronunciation and develop confidence to engage in conversation in Spanish. Students demonstrate applicable knowledge through quizzes, written classwork, class participation, oral questioning, homework, grammar worksheets and oral comprehension activities. Classes meet daily and are conducted in Spanish.

By the end of the year, sixth-grade students should able to demonstrate reasonable proficiency as they:

• participate in an immersion environment by communicating in Spanish with classmates and instructor
• use basic vocabulary introduced throughout the course (topics such as school, family, clothing, colors, telling time, dates, descriptions of people, and numbers)
• correctly apply concepts of gender and number agreement and possession
• introduce themselves, their friends, and family orally and in writing
• talk and write about their schedules and favorite activities
• use context clues to aid in aural and written comprehension.

In seventh-grade Spanish, students review, refine, and enrich previously acquired skills, adding verb conjugations and new verb tenses as they continue to improve oral/aural proficiency. Classroom communication takes place in Spanish. Work on listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills as well as cultural awareness continues with the use of DVDs, websites, songs, short readers, and oral exercises. Students prepare projects on a variety of topics including pastimes, sports, and interpretations of stories that have been read and discussed in class. Students also create their own menus and perform skits in a restaurant setting. Throughout the year, students discuss and analyze short stories to enhance their vocabulary as well as their ability to produce increasingly sophisticated sentences. Students act out scenes to enhance their ease of expression and write plot summaries to develop their writing skills. They also work on multimedia projects and presentations to demonstrate their growing grammatical and oral skills as well as the ability to use the Internet for research. Work on many grammar topics, including pronouns, adjectives, direct objects, and prepositional phrases coincides with similar study in the Language Arts curriculum.

By the end of the year, seventh-grade students should demonstrate reasonable proficiency as they:

• participate in an immersion environment by communicating in Spanish with classmates and instructor in brief conversations on familiar topics
• understand and apply the concepts of gender and number agreement of many more words through the identification of their endings, and learn exceptions to gender rules.
• form and use the present and immediate future tenses of regular and many irregular verbs
• write short dialogues and paragraphs with the proper sentence structure
• comprehend and respond to beginner-level readings
• use large numbers to express the cost of items

Students in eighth grade Spanish strengthen all four language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing - through a variety of activities. Students will view and listen to videos and Spanish web-based programs with native  speakers, and will write and present skits as they role play a wide variety of real-life situations that involve increasingly complex dialogues. Students will read short stories and novels as well as news articles. Students' comprehension of these materials will be constantly assessed in both oral and written fashion. They will write short essays related to their readings to practice describing what they understand, how they interpret what they read, and how they feel about characters and plots. Students will work on spontaneous language interactions, including describing events and images or re-enacting a plausible situation. They will gain proficiency using a wide variety of verb tenses, including the immediate past, the command, the present progressive and the preterite verb tenses to communicate about actions that occur at different points in time. They will hone their skills communicating in a more authentic manner by using direct and indirect object pronouns and be able to use reflexive verbs and ordinal numbers to describe their daily routines. The core text is Así Se Dice, supplemented by many other materials created by the teacher and others. Students will take a language trip to New York City to a museum to be exposed to art of Hispanic and Spanish art, when possible with a docent speaking in the target language. They will be exposed throughout the year to the meaning and significance of Hispanic holidays and cultural traditions, food, and music.

Successful completion of eighth-grade Spanish enables students to enter Level 2 in the Upper School. Placement approval for Level 2 Honors courses requires a year-end average of 90 percent or higher. Students appropriately placed in Level 2 Honors show motivation, maturity, responsibility, and hard work, and they make consistent efforts to speak solely in the target language during class. They display excellence in the four main language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing - and meet all commitments in a timely manner.