¡Aquí hablamos español! At Carroll Creek Montessori, we offer students PK – 8th the opportunity to learn Spanish at an early age and to develop awareness and appreciation of other cultures. In Spanish class, students receive rich experiences through which they can absorb, interact with, and use the new language.
“I completely forgot I was listening to you read in Spanish. I was, like, just enjoying the story and wondering what would happen next!” – Carroll Creek Upper Elementary Student
Our Spanish environment promotes a gradual, natural language acquisition process. We utilize Comprehensible Input methods and teaching strategies so that from day one students are surrounded by the target language at a level that is understandable to them. At Carroll Creek, we recognize that improvement in fluency comes from supplying engaging and understandable input and not from forcing early production. We present lessons that encourage students to Experience, Understand, Do, Read, Speak, or Write at levels and pacing that are appropriate for each learner’s language ability.
Once students reach middle school, they are enrolled in Spanish I or Spanish II classes and can earn high school credit. Our school follows the FCPS curriculum for these classes, so students are meeting graduation requirements for high school right here at Carroll Creek. At this level, we enter into a more formal study of grammar, vocabulary, and culture while still keeping the language of instruction 90% or more in Spanish and at levels that are understandable to students.
Staffing is an integral part of achieving our instructional goals. As of the 2017-2018 school year, 100% of CCMPCS classroom teachers are either MACTE-certified Montessori guides or are enrolled in a MACTE-certification program. We also continually strive to increase the percentage of the CCMPCS staff who are bilingual. We do currently have a number of bilingual staff members, including native speakers. The top priorities for placement of fluent Spanish-speaking staff are our primary classrooms to create a strong foundation for our youngest students and our Spanish classroom to provide strong Spanish instruction for all CCMPCS students. Every primary classroom has at least one fluent Spanish speaking staff member and the Spanish classroom is staffed by a full-time Spanish teacher and full-time Spanish assistant who are both fluent in Spanish.
For more information about Spanish at CCMPCS, contact the Education and Curriculum Committee at Education@CarrollCreekMontessori.org.