Spanish immersion Gunston vs HB-Woodlawn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI APS Middle Schools no longer offer 6th graders a language. They have to wait until 7th. This was new last year- a HUGE bummer.

That’s not correct; TJ and HB do start with a world language in 6th grade and it’s not optional.
The other MS currently offer a short elective type-course in 6th and then truly start in 7th.

The short "elective" is like 6 weeks.

At Kenmore, it’s a semester of Spanish in 6th grade (at least this year) not 6 weeks.

That wouldn't be a good use of time for a kid that's already spent 6 years in Spanish immersion.

[Anonymous]

HB offers "Spanish for Fluent Speakers" full year Spanish classes for kids who went to immersion schools and native speakers, as early as 6th grade, and moving up the years. Nothing like Gunston's immersion program in terms of the amount of Spanish spoken, but the Spanish itself (for that one class) is at the appropriate level.

Other kids take a semester of beginner-level Spanish, French, or Latin in 6th, then move on to HS level language classes in 7th/8th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HB offers "Spanish for Fluent Speakers" full year Spanish classes for kids who went to immersion schools and native speakers, as early as 6th grade, and moving up the years. Nothing like Gunston's immersion program in terms of the amount of Spanish spoken, but the Spanish itself (for that one class) is at the appropriate level.

Other kids take a semester of beginner-level Spanish, French, or Latin in 6th, then move on to HS level language classes in 7th/8th.

This is 100% accurate. The Key/Claremont kids are not taking the semester intro class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB offers "Spanish for Fluent Speakers" full year Spanish classes for kids who went to immersion schools and native speakers, as early as 6th grade, and moving up the years. Nothing like Gunston's immersion program in terms of the amount of Spanish spoken, but the Spanish itself (for that one class) is at the appropriate level.

Other kids take a semester of beginner-level Spanish, French, or Latin in 6th, then move on to HS level language classes in 7th/8th.

This is 100% accurate. The Key/Claremont kids are not taking the semester intro class.

Is that option available at other APS middle schools? What about Kenmore, Swanson, Hamm or Williamsburg?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI APS Middle Schools no longer offer 6th graders a language. They have to wait until 7th. This was new last year- a HUGE bummer.

That’s not correct; TJ and HB do start with a world language in 6th grade and it’s not optional.
The other MS currently offer a short elective type-course in 6th and then truly start in 7th.

The short "elective" is like 6 weeks.

At Kenmore, it’s a semester of Spanish in 6th grade (at least this year) not 6 weeks.

That wouldn't be a good use of time for a kid that's already spent 6 years in Spanish immersion.

Right, so continue with Spanish Immersion at Gunston, then continue Spanish immersion at Wakefield. I would be surprised if your child is not native-level fluent by graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB offers "Spanish for Fluent Speakers" full year Spanish classes for kids who went to immersion schools and native speakers, as early as 6th grade, and moving up the years. Nothing like Gunston's immersion program in terms of the amount of Spanish spoken, but the Spanish itself (for that one class) is at the appropriate level.

Other kids take a semester of beginner-level Spanish, French, or Latin in 6th, then move on to HS level language classes in 7th/8th.

This is 100% accurate. The Key/Claremont kids are not taking the semester intro class.

Is that option available at other APS middle schools? What about Kenmore, Swanson, Hamm or Williamsburg?

Spanish for fluent speakers is available at ALL APS middle schools, but it is not Immersion Spanish, it is a world language class, and not all of them offer it from 6th grade on. At Jefferson and HB they do, at Hamm and Williamsburg it’s offered from 7th on. PP mentioned at Kenmore it’s one semester in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Our kids are at Key and now Gunston. I have a friend whose kid went from Key to HBW. It is true they have one class of advanced spanish a day but it really isn't enough to make the kind of progress kids can make at Gunston. That said, HBW is great and for one of my kids the tradeoff would have been worth it. But it is a tradeoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB offers "Spanish for Fluent Speakers" full year Spanish classes for kids who went to immersion schools and native speakers, as early as 6th grade, and moving up the years. Nothing like Gunston's immersion program in terms of the amount of Spanish spoken, but the Spanish itself (for that one class) is at the appropriate level.

Other kids take a semester of beginner-level Spanish, French, or Latin in 6th, then move on to HS level language classes in 7th/8th.

This is 100% accurate. The Key/Claremont kids are not taking the semester intro class.

I have a kid at HB and there are many kids there who came from immersion. The immersion kids take a higher level Spanish class than the other kids in their grade. So my kid (non immersion) is in a Spanish class with a kid two grades younger who was in immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, having thru the elementary Spanish immersion, the level appropriate program (in terms of academic Spanish) are available at Gunston, and Spanish offered at HB would not match up with that?

Or, would the school shuttle students from HB to Gunston just for the spanish class (somewhere online I might read about this, but dont remember exactly)?

Umm, no. Are you kidding?

The school is not going to transport your child to another school for one class. If you want your child to take Spanish at Gunston, don't go to HB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, having thru the elementary Spanish immersion, the level appropriate program (in terms of academic Spanish) are available at Gunston, and Spanish offered at HB would not match up with that?

Or, would the school shuttle students from HB to Gunston just for the spanish class (somewhere online I might read about this, but dont remember exactly)?

Umm, no. Are you kidding?

The school is not going to transport your child to another school for one class. If you want your child to take Spanish at Gunston, don't go to HB.

It's not so much about the Spanish class. It's having social studies and science in Spanish at Gunston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI APS Middle Schools no longer offer 6th graders a language. They have to wait until 7th. This was new last year- a HUGE bummer.

That’s not correct; TJ and HB do start with a world language in 6th grade and it’s not optional.
The other MS currently offer a short elective type-course in 6th and then truly start in 7th.

We are moving to Arlington and kid will start at TJ for 7th, will they be far behind in language because everyone else started in 6th already? Or will they put them in the 6th grade class as a 7th grader?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, having thru the elementary Spanish immersion, the level appropriate program (in terms of academic Spanish) are available at Gunston, and Spanish offered at HB would not match up with that?

Or, would the school shuttle students from HB to Gunston just for the spanish class (somewhere online I might read about this, but dont remember exactly)?

Umm, no. Are you kidding?

The school is not going to transport your child to another school for one class. If you want your child to take Spanish at Gunston, don't go to HB.

It's not so much about the Spanish class. It's having social studies and science in Spanish at Gunston.

Sooooo you want APS to transport your kid from HB to take social studies and science in Spanish at Gunston? Sorry, that ain't gonna happen. If you want that, stay with Immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, having thru the elementary Spanish immersion, the level appropriate program (in terms of academic Spanish) are available at Gunston, and Spanish offered at HB would not match up with that?

Or, would the school shuttle students from HB to Gunston just for the spanish class (somewhere online I might read about this, but dont remember exactly)?

Umm, no. Are you kidding?

The school is not going to transport your child to another school for one class. If you want your child to take Spanish at Gunston, don't go to HB.

It's not so much about the Spanish class. It's having social studies and science in Spanish at Gunston.

Sooooo you want APS to transport your kid from HB to take social studies and science in Spanish at Gunston? Sorry, that ain't gonna happen. If you want that, stay with Immersion.

I'm the PP you were responding to. I wasn't arguing that. I was arguing that when you pick HB over Gunston you are missing out on having several classes in Spanish. Of course Arlington can't send you back to Gunston for Three academic classes. That would make no sense. You have to choose. You can't have your cake and eat it too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI APS Middle Schools no longer offer 6th graders a language. They have to wait until 7th. This was new last year- a HUGE bummer.

That’s not correct; TJ and HB do start with a world language in 6th grade and it’s not optional.
The other MS currently offer a short elective type-course in 6th and then truly start in 7th.

We are moving to Arlington and kid will start at TJ for 7th, will they be far behind in language because everyone else started in 6th already? Or will they put them in the 6th grade class as a 7th grader?

That’s a good question. Were you able to make it to information night? The staff appears very accessible and to have each student’s best interest in mind. Realistically, if they don’t have any foreign language background at all, they would have to start at the beginning, so I would assume in the class with the 6th graders, but I would check directly with them.