Foreign languages at FCPS not until middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FLES is not effective. It does give the classroom teachers additional planning time, but an extra recess monitored by aides would be more valuable for the students.

Kids are not going to learn a language with FLES. It is an expensive "nice to have."

Its

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FLES is not effective. It does give the classroom teachers additional planning time, but an extra recess monitored by aides would be more valuable for the students.

Kids are not going to learn a language with FLES. It is an expensive "nice to have."

It's not supposed to make the students fluent in a foreign language. It is effective at giving students exposure, and can be a good program with a good teacher. With a bad teacher, it's a waste of time, but that's not a reason to scrap it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shrevewood does Chinese. Waste of time. I wish it was Spanish.

Soon to be Shrevewood parent here -- how often is the Chinese instruction?

[Anonymous]

There is no language at our school!

[Anonymous]

Wolftrap has Chinese starting in 1st grade. My children both liked it in first and then didn’t afterwards. It is mandatory. Spanish or extra recess would be more beneficial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wolftrap has Chinese starting in 1st grade. My children both liked it in first and then didn’t afterwards. It is mandatory. Spanish or extra recess would be more beneficial.

All the kids I know from Wolftrap hate the Chinese, unfortunately, though I haven't exactly understood why. Spanish would be easier for most parents to support at home, not to mention more useful, but there seems to be no rhyme nor reason in how FCPS allocated FLES languages across schools.

FCPS now has another program for after-school foreign language instruction in elementary (GLOBAL PLUS), but the school has to apply to the program. There is also additional cost but it is cheaper than a vendor-led program, and many schools have already enrolled.

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/global-plus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has FCPS dropped foreign languages from all elementary schools or just certain schools? I'm aware of the immersion program but we sadly were not selected in the lottery. When does language instruction pick up?

you have until the end of second grade for the immersion. I was waitlisted at #35 and got in the first year. Don't give up yet. Also have classmates that got in later. Don't give up on immersion. My DC is a sophomore, we passed up AAP to stick with immersion. Best thing we did. Immersion worked for my AAP kid and my IEP kid. both rocked it.

[Anonymous]

If your school references Language Through Content (LTC) instead of FLES, they are pretty much the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid had it 2x week at his center elementary school and I felt it was a waste of time and only there to .ake the school look good.

Taking Spanish for 40 minutes 2x week is basically worthless.

I completely disagree. You will find out in years to come that I was right on this.

[Anonymous]

No language at our school, and I consider it to be one of the more significant weaknesses. We give DS lessons separately.

[Anonymous]

Our school doesn't have it, but that might be because it is an immersion school? We aren't in spanish immersion, but the school does offer a special called STEAM, which my kids really, really like. I've seen the class and it's cool to see that they get to do STEAM projects twice a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wolftrap has Chinese starting in 1st grade. My children both liked it in first and then didn’t afterwards. It is mandatory. Spanish or extra recess would be more beneficial.

All the kids I know from Wolftrap hate the Chinese, unfortunately, though I haven't exactly understood why. Spanish would be easier for most parents to support at home, not to mention more useful, but there seems to be no rhyme nor reason in how FCPS allocated FLES languages across schools.

FCPS now has another program for after-school foreign language instruction in elementary (GLOBAL PLUS), but the school has to apply to the program. There is also additional cost but it is cheaper than a vendor-led program, and many schools have already enrolled.

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/global-plus

I wish Wolftrap would do away with the FLES Chinese program which most kids don't like and do more steam and actual math and science instruction in the native language like they do at schools without FLES. Although my kids are one of the few who actually aren't bothered by Chinese. We have friends whose kids took FLES Spanish and now they hate Spanish, so I'm glad in a way that Wolftrap didn't offer Spanish because I want my kids to take Spanish in high school. FLES seems to have some curriculum issues whatever the language taught. Wolftrap has offered Spanish afterschool but it hasn't been a popular option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My second grader has Spanish twice a week and had it three times a week last year.

As part of the deal of getting rid of half day Mondays, FLES was supposed to be rolled out at all schools, instead of only the some that already had it.

This was not part of the deal. Full day Mondays was an increase in cost. If anything, FLES should have been reduced to offset the cost of the longer schedule.

It makes up for, in part, the loss of planning time. You are thinking like a taxpayer instead of a school administrator or teacher.

Thank goodness someone is thinking like a taxpayer! The FCPS budget is bloated beyond belief - so much waste and bureaucratic inefficiency.

[Anonymous]

Why can't we just go back to half day Mondays?

[Anonymous]

Haycock has 2x a week Spanish (as a special).