Can anyone explain Reading class in middle school?

[Anonymous]

Our experience was same as pp -- our son tried out the full-strength Spanish course and did not seem ready or interested, particularly at a new school. Switched to reading and it has been fine though a little disappointing in content with minimal homework (Spanish had lots of homework). One advantage is that starting a language in 7th grade gets you into a slower language class, which will mean that you won't be in the accelerated group in high school but for many students that will not matter much.

[Anonymous]

I must be missing something.
In 6th grad back in the 9s we all took a quarter each of German, Spanish, French and Russian (French teacher taught this too). Then in 7th and 8th grade you took the one language of your choosing. By the time high school came you could continue on with the same language or choose another.
No one died doing a language class in middle school! And if you continued on in high school, you could get to try AP level by junior or senior year, and/or take really interesting literature classes in that language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I must be missing something.
In 6th grad back in the 9s we all took a quarter each of German, Spanish, French and Russian (French teacher taught this too). Then in 7th and 8th grade you took the one language of your choosing. By the time high school came you could continue on with the same language or choose another.
No one died doing a language class in middle school! And if you continued on in high school, you could get to try AP level by junior or senior year, and/or take really interesting literature classes in that language.

Sounds great. When I was in middle school we did the same thing, and the 2 years of middle school Spanish or French counted as one year in HS.

But MCPS is doing something different. If you take a language in 6th grade it's a full speed High School Class. The kids who start language in 6 are going into Honors Spanish or French or Chinese 4 in 9th grade, which puts them at an AP level in 10th. For some kids that's great. For other kids, including bright kids, it's too much pressure.