New at Churchill School for the coming year is Dual Language, a type of foreign language immersion program that is highly successful in helping children become truly fluent in a foreign language. This program will start in the 2013-2014 school year in kindergarten (in addition to regular kindergarten), and will "roll up" with these students as they progress through school. This program is only offered at Churchill and is different than our regular foreign language instruction. In a nutshell, here's what happens in a Dual Language kindergarten:

• The class will be half children who have grown up speaking English, and half children who have grown up speaking Spanish.
• Children will spend half their time learning in English, half their time each day learning in Spanish.
• Children will be learning the regular curriculum and will be very well prepared to succeed on all the typical measures of student progress.
• Children will benefit especially in their language development in both English and Spanish.
• Parents are strongly encouraged to commit to Dual Language for their child's whole elementary experience. By the time they are ready for Hadley, these children will be well on the way to being able to speak, read, write and understand two languages. Research shows that Dual Language is more effective than traditional foreign language instructional approaches.  

For more information, you may want to review the Dual Language FAQs. By attending the parent meeting, you will be fully informing yourself of all your options for kindergarten; attending the meeting is not a commitment to enroll your child. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

  

 

Sincerely, 

 

Katie McCluskey
ELL and Bilingual Director (630) 534-7206  
 kmccluskey@d41.org