Elementary School
The district offers opportunities for students to begin study of another language in some of the elementary schools. There are six language immersion program schools and two FLES program schools.
Students at Chugiak and Government Hill (Spanish), Sand Lake (Japanese), Turnagain (Russian), and Rilke Schule Charter School (German) are immersed for half of their school day in a second language environment while learning the core subjects, i.e. science, social studies, and math. Students have a ‘team’ of two teachers, a native or near-native speaker of the second language and an English-speaking teacher.
Scenic Park Elementary students receive bi-weekly lessons in Chinese language and culture with a native speaker teacher. There is also a Spanish FLES program at Aquarian Charter School in which kindergarten through sixth grade students receive two-three weekly Spanish lessons. |
Middle School
In the middle school program, students enroll in two-year elective courses that are taught with district-adopted curriculum and materials. Students who complete the two years at middle school are prepared for high school Level II or III. Exploratory semester-long courses are offered at some schools in which students receive an introductory experience to language and culture.
High School
At the high school level, the World Languages Program offers various language options to secondary students. All high schools offer French, German and Spanish. Japanese, Russian and Chinese are offered at some schools.
Charter Schools
Aquarian, Family Partnership and Rilke Schule charter schools all offer some form of world language options.
Foreign language learning is no longer a luxury reserved for the elite but rather a necessity for all students to meet the demands of today's society and workplace.
-Council of Europe, 2002
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