New to DCI-Anything we should know?

[Anonymous]

DC is going to be in DCI French track for 6th grade this year. We don't know any one else going or anyone who has gone. We did a tour and have talked to the administration, but any advice, etc that people who have DCI experience would share?

[Anonymous]

Following! I'm very curious what the experience is like for new kids in the French track. How does it all work with incorporating them into the group of Stokes students, and do they also spend time with the Spanish and Chinese track kids?

[Anonymous]

Your DC will take French 1 unless they test into a higher-level class. Their other classes will be in English with kids from any of the three language tracks. The language programs are not self-contained.

It's a large school, can be chaotic at times (but so are all middle schools). Homework is basically unfinished classwork.

I recommend doing more with French (even if it's just Duolingo, watching a French-language show, listening to music), otherwise the going will be slow, in terms of language acquisition. If you ever thought about taking up French, now is the time.

[Anonymous]

I'm just curious: you don't know any other people going to DCI from Stokes? How is that possible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm just curious: you don't know any other people going to DCI from Stokes? How is that possible?

My kid didn't go to Stokes. Got into the DCI off the waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm just curious: you don't know any other people going to DCI from Stokes? How is that possible?

Right now Stokes doesn't have enough graduates heading to DCI to fill up the French slots, so kids who didn't go to Stokes can get in. Which isn't to say you don't know anyone who goes to Stokes socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just curious: you don't know any other people going to DCI from Stokes? How is that possible?

Right now Stokes doesn't have enough graduates heading to DCI to fill up the French slots, so kids who didn't go to Stokes can get in. Which isn't to say you don't know anyone who goes to Stokes socially.

Yep! OP here. I don't know anyone who goes to Stokes socially.

[Anonymous]

OP, what you should know is that French is the weakest language track at DCI by a country mile. No need to take the French too seriously if you don't want to. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, what you should know is that French is the weakest language track at DCI by a country mile. No need to take the French too seriously if you don't want to. Sad.

This is news to me-new poster. Any specifics?

[Anonymous]

No surprised there. Stokes doesn't offer real French immersion, there are hardly any natives speakers in the program and there's no real commitment to immersion on the part of admins or the parent community, and it shows at DCI.

Even the most advanced Stokes graduates tend to speak French poorly (I know this from having volunteered at DCI at several French events in recent years). If your kid didn't attend Stokes but has had real immersion experiences in French for any length of time, they vault to upper-level middle school classes easily enough.

[Anonymous]

To the PP- you have no idea what you are talking about. My child went to Stokes, there are plenty of native french speaking families there. Stokes is dual-language and has never claimed to be immersion past prek4.

Several DCI HS kids were just awarded seals of bi-literacy in French.

[Anonymous]

NP. This is BS. There aren't plenty of native speaking families at Stokes. In fact, there are hardly any, maybe 2 or 3% of the students. You speak French? We do. Partial French immersion at DCI just isn't a serious thing. We wish things were different.

[Anonymous]

DCI has never claimed to be immersion.

You clearly are not a DCI or Stokes parent if you are maintaining that only 2-3% of families in the French track speak French at home. In the class of Stokes kids who were my kid's cohort, there were at least 3 French speaking parents out of the only 20 in the class. That is not 2-3%.

[Anonymous]

French is certainly the smallest language program at DCI because Stokes is the only feeder program and the only half of their program is French.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCI has never claimed to be immersion.

You clearly are not a DCI or Stokes parent if you are maintaining that only 2-3% of families in the French track speak French at home. In the class of Stokes kids who were my kid's cohort, there were at least 3 French speaking parents out of the only 20 in the class. That is not 2-3%.

We know all about French at Stokes and DCI. There are more French-speaking parents than kids at Stokes. A good many of the French-speaking parents aren't trying to raise the kids bilingual. Their commitment to bilingualism is weak. If don't speak French fluently and don't talk to "native speakers" at Stokes, you don't know how good the kids' French is. There simply aren't high standards for speaking, reading and writing French at Stokes or DCI. Not even close. If you're looking for serious public school French, you need to look to the burbs. A small number of DCI families do take French instruction seriously.