NEWS
CALENDAR
GENERAL INFO
HANDBOOK
HISTORY
S.O.A.R.
CODE
F.L.I.P.
FOOD & NUTRITION

GIFTED PROGRAM

An Optional Program of Spanish
Grades 5

Goals

• Develop a high level of proficiency in the foreign language
• Develop positive attitudes toward those who speak the foreign language and their culture
• Develop English language skills commensurate with expectations for student's age and abilities
• Gain skills and knowledge in the content areas of the curriculum
• Enhance their minds to broaden their horizons

At Henderson, this language is Spanish.

Program Design

Partial Immersion

• Half-Day Instruction In English
  • Language Arts / Reading
  • Social Studies
• Half-Day Instruction In Spanish
  • Mathematics
  • Science / Health

• Has a positive effect on intellectual growth
• Enriches and enhances a child's mental development
• Leaves students with more flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language and a better ear for listening
• Improves a child's understanding of his/her native language
• Gives a child the ability to communicate with people he/she would otherwise not have had the chance to know
• Opens the door to other cultures and helps the child understand and appreciate people from other countries
• Gives the child a head start in language requirements college
• Increases job opportunities in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset

• Children often have the ability to learn and excel in the pronunciation of a foreign language. (Dulay and Krashen; Fathman; Krashen; Krashen and Long et al; Krashen and Terrell)
• Children who have studied a foreign language in elementary school achieve expected gains and even have higher scores on standardized tests in reading, language arts, and mathematics than those who have not. (Lipton; Masciantonio; McCaig; Rafferty)
• Children who have studied a foreign language show greater cognitive development in such areas as mental flexability, creativity, divergent thinking, and higher order thinking skills. (Foster and Reeves; Landry; Rafferty)
• Children who have studied a foreign language develop a sense of cultural pluralism (openness to and appreciation of other cultures). (Carpenter and Torney; Hancock and Lipton et al; Lambert and Tucker; Lambert and Klineberg; Broward County, Florida Schools)
• Children studying a foreign language have an improved selfconcept and sense of achievement in school. (Genesse; Masciantonio)
• Some earlier studies indicated that elementary school foreign language study had a favorable effect on foreign language study later on in high school and college. (Brega and Newell; Carroll; Dunkel and Pillet, Somerville; Vocolo)
• Brain researchers question why foreign language is deferred until high school. When small children learn a new language, "the ability to use that language is wired in the brain."
• Boyer (1995), in his recommendations for the elementary school of the future, urges that "foreign language instruction being early, certainly by third grade, that it be offered daily, and be continued through all the grades."
• Lipton, Morgan, and Reed (1996) report that on the 1995 Advanced Placement French Language Examination, students who began their study of French in grades 1-3 and 4-6 out performed those who began in grade 7 or later.

• Criteria For Enrollment:
  • Child’s Interest
  • Parental Support
  • Long-Term Commitment to the Program