Prerequisite: None
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 8-12
French 1 is an introduction to French with an emphasis on oral communication. Topics studied include How to greet people in French and keep a conversation going, how to utilize everyday terms, and how to ask and understand basic directions when traveling. Also included are the fundamentals of French sentence structure. Students study French cultural heritage of art, history, cuisine, and customs.
Prerequisite: French 1 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 9-12
French 2 completes the presentation of the fundamentals of the French language through a conversational and communicative skills approach. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to discuss past, present and future activities. Units of particular interest include Paris, clothing/fashion and French cuisine.
Prerequisite: Level 2 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 10-12
French 3 is an intermediate level course in which students gain confidence in speaking about themselves. Listening and speaking skills are developed to include specialized vocabulary and idioms. Reading and writing activating activities stress the understanding expanded vocabulary. As major activity projects, students participate in simulated visits to French-speaking areas, sensitizing them to different customs, “survival vocabulary,” and cultural highlights.
Prerequisite: Level 3 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 11-12
Honors French 4 focuses on heightening listening and speaking skills for conversation as well as reading and writing in the language. Students use French in the classroom not only for everyday expressions, questions, and answers but also for discussing personal opinions and reactions as well as pursuing cultural topics of student interest. The reading materials include excerpts of novels, short stories, and current French magazine and newspaper articles.
Prerequisite: Level 4 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 12
Honors French 5 is conducted entirely in French. Class discussions and individual and group projects help students polish their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills into life-long assets. Materials for reading and listening include these topics: La France, Le Petit Prince, “Intrigues,” Les Arts, and selected short stories and excerpts of novels. Honors French 5 is strongly recommended for students who want to meet selective college language requirements.
Prerequisite: None
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 9-12
German 1 is an introduction to the German language and culture. Basic speech patterns, vocabulary, and pronunciation are covered through conversational dialogues and intensive oral practice. Also included are essentials of grammar, everyday culture (such as behavior patterns of native speakers, geography, etc.), and the development of listening, reading, and writing skills.
Prerequisite: German 1 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 10-12
German 2 completes the presentation of the fundamentals of the language through a conversational and communicative skills approach. German 2 continues to develop students’ ability to speak, understand, read and write German in a cultural context. Learning activities include reading of small, simple authentic texts, simple conversation, short composition, communicative grammar and cultural activities. Germans 2 students are encouraged to speak as much German as they can.
Prerequisite: Level 2 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 11-12
German 3 is the final segment of the three-part core curriculum preceding the advanced German 4 and German 5 offerings. Following extensive review, the acquisition of basic vocabulary and grammar is completed during this course. In addition, listening and speaking skills are improved through structured activities, rudimentary reading and writing skills are expanded, and cultural awareness is enhanced. In German 3, students are expected to answer written and oral questions in complete sentences. By the end of the course, many classes are taught almost exclusively in German with near-normal fluency.
Prerequisite: Level 3 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 12
Honors German 4 focuses on conversation and reading in the language as well as advanced grammar and vocabulary expansion. Students are expected to use German in the classroom not only for everyday expressions, directions, questions and answers, but also for discussion of literature, contemporary articles, and culture. German is also used by both students and the instructor for expressing personal opinions and reactions and for exploring subjects of mutual interest. Reading material includes actual literary works such as short stories and short novels as well as timely magazine and newspaper articles of moderate difficulty. Videos and tapes are used to increase listening comprehension, and writing skills are refined through assignments requiring paragraph and ultimately, essay-length responses.
Prerequisite: Level 4 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 12
Honors German 5 is conducted in German in a seminar atmosphere and features various projects designed to build upon and polish writing, speaking, and listening skills. In addition to a core literature program including short stories, several novels, and a play, reading materials are chosen by interest of the class participants. Several points of advanced grammar are also addressed in this course. Honors German 5 is strongly recommended for students who want to earn college credits for their proficiency through placement examinations at selective colleges.
Prerequisite: None
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 8-12
This beginning Chinese focuses on introducing basic Chinese in pinyin, tones, and character writing. Students will learn to differentiate the four tones in Chinese, learn character stroke orders and basic sentence and question structures. Students will study thematic units such as “May I Introduce Myself?”, “This is My School Life”, and “Let’s Hang Out”. Students will learn to play traditional Chinese games such as Mahjong and Chinese Checkers. Authentic texts and materials are used to enhance student learning. Online and classroom materials are also available for students in language acquisition. Students will be introduced how different American student’s lifestyle is different than their Chinese counterparts.
Prerequisite: Chinese I or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 9-12
Chinese 2 is second-year introductory course to Chinese. Chinese 2 follows Chinese 1 in studying character writing, tone differentiation, and pinyin. Students are expected to write short essay, focusing on building vocabulary (characters) and simple grammar rules applied in the sentence/question structures. Students will study thematic units such as “Let’s Go Shopping”, “What do You Want to Eat?”, “It’s a Date!”. Students will work in pairs, groups and independently. Students will study how the Chinese philosophy is reflected in the Chinese tradition and home life. A variety of authentic online materials will be used to enhance student understanding.
Prerequisite: Chinese II or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 10-12
Chinese 3 continues the study of Chinese language. The focus in this course will be to build student vocabulary in Chinese, introduce complex grammar rules, study provincial expressions, and write long essays. Thematic units for this course will include “I Need to See a Doctor!”, “My Summer Job and Future Career Plans”, and “Let’s Take a Vacation!” Students will make presentations and research based on thematic units. Students will learn to differentiate different parts of China geographically and its ethnic cultures and traditions. Students will also use the textbook Integrated Chinese Iî for grammar application sections.
Prerequisite: Chinese III or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length:
Grade Level: 11-12
Chinese Honors 4 focuses primarily on grammar. Students will interact with other Chinese students in the study of performance, and to build vocabulary knowledge using the college textbook Integrated Chinese I, Part I. Students are expected to use the online resources and the audio files provided by the textbook, guided by the instructor, with bi-weekly assignments due. Social websites and group chats are used for class interaction and group support. In sum, this course focuses on text reading and journal writing to enhance the learning and usage of Chinese.
Prerequisite: Honors Chinese IV or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 12
AP Chinese is an intense college-level 5th-year Chinese language course. This course is designed to prepare students to participate in the Student-Exchange Program with our sister-school in China, and to take AP Chinese in May. Students will use Integrated Chinese II, Part 1 and Part 2 in class, with an emphasis in reading and writing. In this college-level course, students are expected to speak Chinese as much as they can in class to build their oral proficiency for the AP Chinese Exam. Students are also expected to read news articles and student writings from online resources to familiarize themselves with authentic Chinese writing and language application. Clips of Chinese news videos and student activities are shared to enhance student’s language skills.
Prerequisite: Native speaker of Spanish
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 10-12
Spanish for Native Speakers is designed to meet the unique needs of native Spanish Speakers. It will move at a faster pace than the traditional Spanish class. Students will improve their writing skills with more accurate spelling and writing. Cultural studies will allow students to learn more about their personal heritage and that of other students in the class. Students will continue to develop their speaking and reading skills with cultural materials and authentic texts. This course is taught in Spanish and students are expected to speak Spanish in the classroom. Students must complete a placement test in order to take this course.
Prerequisite: None
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 8-12
Spanish 1 is an introduction to the Spanish language and culture. Basic speech patterns, vocabulary, and pronunciation are presented through conversational dialogues and oral practice. Also included are essentials of grammar, everyday culture (such as behavior patterns of native speakers, geography, etc.), and the development of listening, reading, and writing skills. Students are expected to use Spanish as much as they can.
Prerequisite: Spanish 1 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 9-12
Spanish 2 continues the presentation of the fundamentals of the language on a more complex level, expanding vocabulary and grammar while improving the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are encouraged to speak as much Spanish as they can at this level.
Prerequisite: Spanish 2
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 10-12
Spanish 3 is an intermediate level language course. Students will improve their proficiency levels in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Topics studied include Vacationing, When I was Little, Technology among Hispanic youth, and Food! Students will read authentic texts such as advertisements, news articles and short stories as well as listen to native Spanish speakers in commercials, interviews and television programs.
Prerequisite: Level 3 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 11-12
Honors Spanish 4 focuses on speaking, reading, writing and listening in the language. This course is taught entirely in Spanish and students are expected to speak only Spanish in the classroom. They will use Spanish for everyday conversations, questions and answers as well as for oral summaries of articles and films, discussions of personal opinions and reactions and presentations of topics of student interest. A cultural emphasis will be placed on Spain as students study its geography, art, music, customs and foods.
Prerequisite: Level 4 or equivalent
Credits: 1
Length: Full Year
Grade Level: 12
Honors Spanish 5 is conducted in Spanish in a seminar atmosphere with frequent class discussions and projects. Students are expected to work on perfecting their oral proficiency, written proficiency and interpretive skills. Material for reading and listening is chosen by interest of the class participants from topics such as: “La búsqueda de trabajo,” “Los problemas internacionales,” “El arte moderno,” “La literatura española,” and Nuestro mundo. Honors Spanish 5 is strongly recommended for students who want to meet selective college language requirements. Readings and projects may be assigned over the preceding summer and must be completed according to deadlines listed on the high school website.
