Glendale Immersion / German

                            Learning another language is 2nd nature to our children.

                       We offer them opportunities.

• General Program Description
• School Service Area
• Prospective
• How Immersion Proceeds

GENERAL Program DESCRIPTION

The program falls under the direction of the Glendale Unified School District http://gusd.net/

It was started in September 2008 with a preschool and kindergarten.

New students and grades will be added annually until the school reaches a full K-6 program.

The program's competitive advantage lies in offering a language immersion program with a well-balanced international elementary curriculum. The school can take advantage of successful role models, such as the German-American School of Milwaukee, a thirty­year-old blue ribbon public immersion school, or the Albert Einstein Academy San Diego, which after 4 years is among the top 2% of elementary schools in the San Diego School District.

FLAG - German will integrate both Californian and European/German curricular requirements into the bilingual curriculum, which will actually exceed the California requirements. The curriculum will also incorporate aspects of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program.

School Service Area

FLAG-German at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School will is a Language Magnet School open to all students of the Glendale Unified School District and neighboring districts who are interested in the program. No knowledge of the target language is required. Priority will be given to students for whom Franklin is their home school. Dual language programs are more successful when there are speakers of the target language in the classes; therefore, those students with mastery of the target language (German) shall be also be given preference. However, it is expected that the number of these students will probably not exceed 20% of all students.

Prospective

FLAG-German may eventually become the basis for a K-12 multilingual program, offering American high school diplomas, and, possibly, International Baccalaureate diplomas and/or German University preparatory diplomas at the high school levels.

Program Essentials  

• Children are be taught bilingually in all content areas.
• There is be a lively exchange and interaction among the school community to enrich intercultural experiences and encourage reciprocal respect and appreciation of other languages and cultures.
• The program is developed according to the California standards and requirements, combined with the experiences of successful existing German-American schools in the USA.
• The German language content also follows curriculum requirements from Germany.
• Tutoring, athletics, enrichment classes, and day care may also be offered to students in the afternoon on a volunteer basis.
• An option for preschool is offered on the campus.
• Preschool classes are entirely taught in German to immerse the children in that language and culture in a non-threatening environment which attunes them to the language and better prepares them to participate in the dual language format beginning in Kindergarten.

How Immersion Proceeds

• In Preschool the children are immersed a 100% into German in a playful manner (English only used for comfort or emergencies)
• In Kindergarten and First grade the children receive 90% of their instruction in the target language (German) in Kindergarten
• 80% in Second
• 70% in Third
• 60% in Fourth grade
• In Fifth and Sixth grade students will receive 50% of their instruction in German and 50% in English.
• Language will be taught through content-based (math, science, social studies/history, art, music) lessons.
• Research has shown that content learned in one language can be easily transferred to another.
• Increasing amounts of English will prepare students to participate in the required American assessments.

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Last modified: 01/25/09