Harding University Partnership School

An International Baccalaureate School

Language Policy

Updated April 2016

Philosophy

At Harding University Partnership School we believe that all teachers are teachers of language and therefore, language is at the center of all teaching and learning. Language is a means to access information, enhance intellectual growth, foster communication, develop social skills and values, and broaden social and cultural awareness.

At Harding University Partnership School, we believe that the learning process involves learning language, learning through language, and learning about language. It is language that is the connections between all subject languages and is demonstrated within our Programme of Inquiry.

Practices

The primary language instruction that is taught at Harding is the American English Language. In the classroom we explicitly teach and support student’s growth in three main areas of communication:

-Oral Communication: listening and speaking

- Written Communication: reading and writing

-Visual Communication: viewing and presenting

The process of teaching and learning at Harding includesassessing and evaluatingstudent understandings and abilities from information and data that is gathered. Teachers plan student learning thatreflects developmentally appropriate best practices. Teachers continue to use evaluation to differentiate instruction to reach the language needs of each student. Evaluating and moving through the cycle of teaching and learning is important at Harding in order to keep language the focus in every classroom.

At all grade levels, teachers choose from a variety of teaching strategies after considering the assessed level of readers that supports that challenges of texts being used, these include:

-Interactive Read Aloud- Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop

-Whole Group Mini-lessons-Student small/ whole group presentations

-Small Group Mini-lessons-Literature Circles/ Book Clubs

- Guided Reading and Writing-Independent Reading and Writing

-Whole/small Group Spelling-Reading/Writing Intervention

Teachers work to include spelling all throughout the daily instruction, as well as individualized systems with learning new words, which encourage students to deepen their understanding of the English Language and broaden their vocabulary.

Teachers strive to incorporate literacy text (narrative and expository) that supports their unit of inquiry being taught as well as represent ideas and people of diverse races and cultures. These novels are meant to challenge and deepen the students understanding our three areas of communication: written, oral, and visual communication.

Harding has supported teachers with off-site IB professional development in: Reading and Writing through Inquiry, Literacy and Reading in the Early years, Assessment in the PYP, and Written Curriculum. The IB coordinator continues to provide on-site professional development supporting teachers by connecting reading and writing to IB.

Parents at Harding are provided the opportunity to attend on-site “Literacy Nights,” which occur twice a year. This night is designed to help parents to learn how to best support their child’s language skills while working with them at home.

Students are provided opportunities to deepen their literacy skills using technology through the following district adopted programs:

-Lexia

-Accelerated Reader

-Reading Plus

-DreamBox

Library???

English Language Development Program

Spanish Language Development

Harding University Partnership School offers a world language to all students. First through sixth-grade students participate in weekly Spanish Language Development (SLD) classes focuses on the Santiallana Curriculum. The primary goal of the SLD program is to develop proficiency in the four key language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The program identifies an articulated progression of what students are expected to know and be able to do at each stage of language development using the Santaiallana Curriculum,that is based on the Standards for Foreign Language Learning.

This curriculum allows students to develop the Spanish language through communication, cultures, comparisons, communities, and connections. The SLD program promotes a multi-modal approach to language learning, including: cooperative learning, hands-on experiences, Total Physical Response, comprehensible input, and visual and auditory materials such as games, flashcards, stories, poems, songs, videos, story books and worksheets.

Grade / Spanish Instruction with Spanish Teacher
First / 35 minutes per week
Second / 45 minutes per week
Third-Sixth / 50 minutes per week