If a student takes an above poster's approach and takes spanish 1a in sixth, spanish 1b in seventh, and spanish 2 in eighth, then I assume the recommended continuation of that path is to take spanish 3 in ninth grade and spanish 4 in tenth grade. At that point, can a college-track student switch to a new language or is it recommended to continue to spanish 5 or spanish lit or whatever advanced offerings are available?

If I had it to do over again and my MS had better choices for kids who did not take a language, my child would not have started till HS. He could have had 4 years of language in HS without being in AP. Language is a week area for him and ended up hurting his gpa and taking time away from other classes which will be more related to his future education.

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.

Anonymous wrote:FYI - Colleges want to see a minimum of 2 years of a foreign language in high school. No matter how far your child gets in foreign language in middle school, they will need to take at least two years in high school to meet the college acceptance requirements for many schools.

Can you name a specific college where this is the case? I have heard that this is not really true. If your DC takes 3 years in MS and Language 4 in HS I have heard that this is fine for any college. They do not need to take Language 5.

FYI - Colleges want to see a minimum of 2 years of a foreign language in high school. No matter how far your child gets in foreign language in middle school, they will need to take at least two years in high school to meet the college acceptance requirements for many schools.

Anonymous wrote:FYI, this might be middle-school specific but the for lang department at our "W" middle school is weak. It isn't such a bad thing to rush into for lang, particularly if your student is on the edge.

I disagree with this a bit. The kids should be learning languages but just not taking the high school credit classes. So what if in two years they just get enough to start Language 1 or 2 in HS - with no HS credit so that they must take 2 years in HS . At least they have a foundation. DS in middle school and is finishing Spanish 3 but cannot really speak it, but gets As. He doesn't even have to take it in High School but I am going to push him to retake 2 and 3 in HS and then 4 so that he really can speak it. That is the purpose right?

Anonymous wrote:I think its more than just reading level. The 5th grade teachers make the recommendations and also base it on the child's organizational and study skills. There is no specific middle school foreign language curriculum, 6th graders in a language are taking exactly the same class as the high school kids and the grade will end up on your child's high school transcript.

Ridiculous punitive system. MoCo should encourage kids to learn languages in middle school by keeping them from worrying about what appears on HS transcripts. Buck it by enrolling your kid in language classes outside of school, or teach the kid a language you speak.

FYI, this might be middle-school specific but the for lang department at our "W" middle school is weak. It isn't such a bad thing to rush into for lang, particularly if your student is on the edge.

PP here. Meant to say Completely Objective...

MAP-R has nothing to do with the teacher and is completely subjective.

Thanks. I find the reading level things sort of mystifying. She was reading two grade levels ahead of grade a year or so ago, but her last report card, she was just exactly on grade level. I think the teachers are not really consistent with how they do the reading assessments since it seems to bounce around a lot year by year.

Sounds correct. Out MS require map r higher than 220 last year. Since language grades count for high school gpa it's best to wait for some kids.

I think its more than just reading level. The 5th grade teachers make the recommendations and also base it on the child's organizational and study skills. There is no specific middle school foreign language curriculum, 6th graders in a language are taking exactly the same class as the high school kids and the grade will end up on your child's high school transcript.

Reading at grade level or higher was the requirement for taking foreign language at our MS.

My 5th grader informed me the other night that the MAP-R administered this week is used to determine if you have to take that basic reading class (can't remember what they call it) or can take a language in 6th grade. Is that correct? If so, does anyone have a sense of how high one needs to score to be able to take a language? And when they tell kids? I just want to manage her expectations. I was totally not clued into this, but apparently she is thinking about it.