How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century - Guilderland ...

• Enable students to recognize that which is common to all human experience and to accept that
which is different.
• Enhance students’ abilities to analyze, compare and contrast, synthesize, improvise, and
examine culture through a language and perspective other than their own.
• Begin language study as early as possible in an interdisciplinary environment in which all
students are included.
Rationale
Starting instruction early does more than allow students to develop proficiency through
their years of study. Recent research shows that it facilitates learning at a time when their brains
are most readily adaptable to the task (Steir, Washington Post). “The research is clear that any
language a child learns through age 10 is stored in one part of the brain where it can be
distinguished early. After that it gets stored in a different part.” (Tollefson, ASCD Curriculum
Update). This is why high school students have to switch back and forth translating from
English to the foreign language being studied (Robinson, 1998). Dr. Susan Curtis, professor of
linguistics at U.C.L.A. has found that, “the power to learn language is so great in the young
child... they can learn as many spoken languages as you can allow them to hear systematically.
Children just have this capacity. Their brain is just ripe to do this.” (Curtis, 2004) When
language begins earlier, it allows for more practice, thus leading to greater fluency and
understanding.
The Guilderland program will be designed to meet the characteristics of effective
elementary school foreign language programs:
1. Access and Equity
All students, regardless of learning styles, achievement levels, race/ethnic origin,
socioeconomic status, home language, or future academic goals, have opportunities
for language study.
2. Program Goals and Program Intensity
Program goals are consistent with the amount of time actually provided for
instruction. The desired program outcomes determine time allocations for
elementary school programs. FLES programs are designed to provide a sequential
language learning experience aiming for some degree of language proficiency.
3. Extended Sequence
Elementary and middle/junior high school foreign language programs are the
foundation for a long, well-articulated sequence of carefully developed curricula
that extend through grade 12. Students in such programs can develop increased
language proficiency and cultural competence.
4. Articulation
Articulation of the extended sequence is both vertical and horizontal, including the
elementary school, the middle/junior high school, and the high school. This
articulation is the result of consensus, careful planning, and monitoring among
language teachers, administrators, and parents at all levels. Students in these
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