Reply to Middle School language classes

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Middle School language classes"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Back in the stone age when I was in my backwoods HS, the first two years of HS language covered ALL the necessary grammar for either French, Spanish or Latin so that you could start over if you didn't like the language you took in middle school.

French and Spanish were offered in middle school starting in the 7th grade but they covered as little grammar as they could get away with.  What everyone hated about middle school language was that SPELLING counted from day one.  This meant that you had to had to learn to spell words using letters when you didn't even know what sounds they made for most of the first semester.

MCPS seems to have some of the same ideas AND they have dialed down the spelling issue so that you can get a low A and consistently spell 40-50% of the words wrong.

Where some MCPS clusters break this mold is when the teach ALL of Language (French, Spanish...) 1 level to 6th graders so that they end up taking Language 3 as 8th graders.

I would say that unless your child has actual reading issues, they could take half of a HS language class in both 6th and 7th grade and Language 2 in 8th grade.

3 years of language in MS does three things that add stress to those who are not strong in language.

First, 6th grade is made more difficult even though it is already hard with all the changes related to leaving the comfort of one/two teacher(s) and needing more executive functioning skills.

Second, 8th grade is made more difficult because Language level 3 races through lots of grammar compared to level 1 and 2.

Third, most colleges want AT LEAST two years of language ACTUALLY taken IN HS which now means you have to go through level 5 and basically be ready to take an AP exam.

Level 5 goes beyond grammar and starts actual reading of texts in the language and is really difficult for those whose background and/or desire is not strong.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics