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    Winston Churchill Middle School

    An International Baccalaureate School

    School Language Policy

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    Language Philosophy

     

    The language of instruction at Winston Churchill Middle School is English, and all students are expected to become proficient in the language of instruction. However, all languages are respected. Language is critical for success in learning; therefore, all teachers are language teachers within their discipline.

     

    Language Policy Review

     

    The language policy will be reviewed annually by the IB Education Team with input from other staff members.

     

    Language Profile

     

    Winston Churchill Middle School has a diverse population of students with varying language needs.

    Languages used in the school community

    Languages of teaching and learning

    Language and literature: English

    Language acquisition: French, Spanish, Chinese, and English

    Languages of communication used in the school and outside the classroom

    English


    At the time of writing, the following mother tongues are represented in our student population: Arabic, Bengali, Dari, Cantonese, Dutch, Filipino, French, Gujarati, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Marathi, Pashto, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Kurdish, Punjabi, Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, Armenian, Burmese, Lao, and Uzbek.




    Our English Language Learners levels are defined as follows:

     

    • Newcomer/Beginner/ELD 6-8 - non-English speakers
    • ELD II - second year in the United States; they receive two periods with an ELD teacher English II and English Support and they can get an elective
    • ELD III - this is their third year. They receive English and history core and one period with an ELD teacher in ELD III instead of an elective

     

    Course Offerings

    English Language Learner Program

    Course

    Course Description

    ELD Newcomer

    Students learn the foundations of the English language; alphabet, phonics, vocabulary development

    ELD English II

    Students continue to build on their skills from the ELD Newcomer; students begin to apply their skills to the study of language and literature

    ELD English III Support

    Students get an extra period of English support. The focus is on reading and writing to support students in their mainstreamed courses.

    ELD Directed Studies

    This course is for long-time English language learners who have been in the United States 5+ years. The focus in this course is writing and group work.

    ELD English II Support

    ELD English II students continue to learn how to read and comprehend text and practice their writing skills.

    ELD English 6,7, 8 (I)

    Students in this course have been in the United States for 3+ years. The focus in this course is to move students to a higher level of reading comprehension and writing.



    Language Acquisition Pathway *

    Year

    Course Description

    1

    Students are enrolled in a rotating schedule between Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and French.  The focus of these courses is to expose students to the language and culture of all three languages so that students may select a language for the remainder of the IB


    2

    At the end of year 1, students select a language B course that they prefer to study for the remainder of the IBMY Program. Students may select Mandarin Chinese I, Spanish I, or French I.

    3

    Students continue level II of their language acquisition choice.

    * Students enrolled in the Diplomat program are automatically enrolled in the language acquisition pathway.  However, students enrolled in the Ambassador program are only offered a language acquisition course if there is room in the language B classes that year.

     

    Monitoring & Revision

    The school language policy will be reviewed and updated annually by the Churchill MYP Education team using input from Churchill staff.

     

     

     

     

    IB MYP