PYP Language Policy

Fremont International Academy

Philosophy

At Fremont International Academy, we believe language is acquired and mastered through holistic practices that reflect the transdisciplinary nature of language. We value all languages and encourage the development of all forms of communication in our effort to promote the international mindedness of the students and adults in the school community.

Our Fremont Family (staff, faculty, students and families) believes that languages should be valued, shared, taught and learned through literature and authentic experiences with varied languages and nonverbal communication forms. All teachers support the development of listening, speaking, reading, writing, presenting and viewing language across the curriculum.

Our belief is that we need to foster robust communication and literacy skills in children as they become confident communicators.

We strive to:

• develop effective speakers and writers who are able to clearly communicate their thoughts and ideas and understand the thoughts of others.
• develop communicators who recognize their audience and use appropriate “voice” to appeal to their audience.
• develop communicators who are able to use different mediums and languages to voice their thoughts and ideas.
• articulate that all teachers are language teachers.
• offer language instruction throughout the curriculum in all subject areas and to value the language of each subject group.
• exemplify how language is one element of culture that can help us understand and connect with others.

Language Acquisition Instruction

At Fremont, students are introduced to Spanish language and cultures. Learning culture is valued equally with learning the language. Spanish instruction begins in kindergarten. Students receive a minimum of 100 minutes of Spanish instruction per week. Instruction is differentiated to support individual levels of understanding within the language. In the homeroom classroom, teachers support frequent use of vocabulary in both English and Spanish.  Classrooms include bilingual signage, books and classroom resources. Students have opportunities in all of their classes to study various cultures through research projects and multiple learning activities.

In addition to Spanish instruction, classroom teachers help students to develop their understanding and use of the English language. Drawing from multiple research-based curricula, students receive daily English language instruction in reading, writing and phonics. Students are formatively and summatively assessed regularly as per our assessment policy. Students requiring additional language support are identified and receive targeted individual and small group instruction based on need.

Home/ Personal Language Support

Families complete a survey when they register their students in the district so we are aware of all home languages spoken in our school community. Our school represents a diverse socioeconomic community. While the majority of our families are native English speakers, our school serves a small percentage of families who speak Spanish and Burmese as well. We honor these languages, including English, by encouraging students to share in their home languages, celebrating the special days of those cultures, respecting the cultural norms, and gathering resources and materials in these languages.  We invite multilingual families to share cultural and multilingual opportunities in the school through our units of inquiry and school events. The school, both internally and with district support, will continue to work with families whose language is not English to provide the best form of communication.

This language policy will be collaboratively reviewed annually. The most recent date of review was November 2022.

Acquire Skills - Develop Skills - Transfer Skills