World Languages

Graduation Requirements

Certain academic pathways will require a minimum of 2 credits of world language.

The courses listed below are not necessarily taken in the grades indicated.  This chart indicates the overall depth of world language courses offered.

Click a course title to jump to a description

Courses

Spanish

Honors Spanish I

Academic Pathway: Honors

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Spanish 1 students will develop communication skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension. Cultural topics will be embedded in communicative activities. Emphasis is on using the present tense, including irregular and reflexive verbs. Topics may include the alphabet, numbers, colors, calendar, weather, descriptions, classes, food, ordering in a restaurant, family, places, sports, house, likes, and dislikes. This class will move at a faster pace and will include some additional topics not included in Spanish 1 CP.

Spanish I

Academic Pathway: Advanced College Prep

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Spanish 1 students will develop communication skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension. Cultural topics will be embedded in communicative activities. Emphasis is on the use of the present tense. Topics may include the alphabet, numbers, colors, calendar, weather, descriptions, classes, food, ordering in a restaurant, family, places, sports, house, likes, and dislikes.

Honors Spanish II

Academic Pathway: Honors

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Spanish 2 students will continue to develop communication skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension. Cultural topics will be embedded in communicative activities. Emphasis will be placed on communication in the present tense (regular, irregular, and reflexive verbs) as well as communication in the past tenses of the preterite and imperfect. Commands will be introduced as well as future tense, and present perfect tense. Topics may include daily routine, extracurricular activities, clothing, shopping, cooking, childhood, disasters, news reporting, travel, and celebrations. This class will move at a faster pace and will include some additional topics not included in Spanish 2 CP.

Spanish II

Academic Pathway: Advanced College Prep

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Spanish 2 students will continue to develop communication skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension. Cultural topics will be embedded in communicative activities. Emphasis will be placed on communication in the present tense, including reflexive verbs as well as communication in the past tenses of the preterite and imperfect. Commands will be introduced as well as future tense. Topics may include daily routine, extracurricular activities, clothing, shopping, cooking, childhood, disasters, news reporting, travel and celebrations.

Spanish III

Academic Pathway: Honors

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Spanish 3 students will continue to develop communication skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension. Cultural topics will be embedded in communicative activities. Emphasis will be placed on communication in the present, past, future and conditional tenses. Some experience with subjunctive, perfect and progressive tenses as well as additional grammar will be introduced. Topics may include health, environment, technology, art, music, politics and current events. Practical applications required for travel will be included.

IB Spanish Year 1

Academic Pathway: IB

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Teacher recommendation required to take this course. Spanish 3 students will begin the requirements for IB WORLD LANGUAGE SPANISH. 

Students will investigate the 5 topics of the International Baccalaureate curriculum: Identities, Experiences, Human Ingenuity, Social Organization, and Sharing the Planet. Grammar and culture will be embedded in the investigation process. Students will be expected to read, write, speak, and understand native speakers. Emphasis will be on global thinking, problem-solving, and communication. Students will be expected to complete work in class and at home.

IB Spanish Year 2

Academic Pathway: IB

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Teacher recommendation required to take this course.

Grammar and vocabulary will be introduced as needed as students explore the topics of Identities, Experiences, Social Organization, Human Ingenuity, and Sharing Our Planet, all within a global context. Connections will be made with other academic disciplines. Students will be expected to research, read, write, and speak in Spanish. Instruction will be primarily in Spanish.

Spanish IV

Academic Pathway: Honors

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Spanish 4 is a rigorous academic course that allows students to develop their abilities to read, write, speak, and understand the language.  In addition to grammar and vocabulary,  the class emphasizes communication in Spanish through cultural and global topics. The objective of the course is to develop a higher level of fluency in the language.

American Sign Language

American Sign Language I

Academic Pathway: CP

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of American Sign Language used by the Deaf Community, including basic vocabulary, syntax, and fingerspelling. We will also focus on communicative competence, developing gestural skills as a foundation for ASL enhancement. They will be introduced to cultural knowledge and increase their understanding of the Deaf Community. The class will provide intensive practice in comprehension and production of fingerspelled words and numbers with emphasis on clarity and accuracy and focus on lexicalized fingerspelling and numeral incorporation as used by native users of American Sign Language.

American Sign Language II

Academic Pathway: CP

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

A continuation of ASL I, this course builds upon the vocabulary and grammatical rules of American Sign Language. Students will focus on facial grammar and non-manual markers, conversational competence, and starting some production skills.  There will be assignments both inside and outside of the classroom.

American Sign Language III

Academic Pathway: Honors 

Term: year-long course

Credit: 1 world language or elective credit

This course expands on the skills of ASL I and ASL II to further develop an understanding of the grammatical rules of ASL. Students will develop a greater understanding of Deaf culture. As students will develop advanced American Sign Language comprehension and production skills, they will become more proficient in expressive and receptive use of ASL. This course encourages contact with the Deaf community.

FACULTY