The Wood Acres Spanish curriculum is comprised of two strong cohesive elements:

A general component that incorporates the content required of all students at specific grade levels of The Wood Acres School. This refers to the school’s established curriculum and the school’s own evaluation. The special character of this program results from the fact that a significant part of the instruction is delivered in Spanish as students’ progress and the program grows at Wood Acres. The specific component does not necessarily imply increasing the amount of instruction time, but rather making an effort to integrate it into the general curriculum of our school.

A specific Spanish Language and Culture component, which includes elements of all Spanish-speaking countries and applies the National Standards for Spanish Learning:

▪ Communication in the Spanish language.
▪ Cultures of the various Spanish-speaking countries.
▪ Connections with other subjects: Thematic Unities.
▪ Comparisons of languages and cultures.
▪ Communities: Use of Spanish in and outside the school environment.

Studies Begin in the Three Year Old Program
Students at The Wood Acres School begin the study of the Spanish language and culture in the Three Year Old Program. With this early start, a formal sequential curriculum, and a proficient faculty, students have a chance to achieve academic success and that which eludes most language students- proficiency. Children are introduced to vocabulary and basic grammar to communicate about their school, home, clothes, and food.

They also learn about Hispanic traditions, culture, and geography and learn how to appreciate the diversity of an ancient yet modern culture. Even the youngest students quickly learn that Spanish is everywhere in their home and school communities, city, and state! A natural bilingual approach to the vocabulary of early reading and the acquisition of early math skills makes the creation of a growing bilingual environment possible and well supported by faculty and parents.

Curriculum for young students in the Early Childhood through second grade programs comes from an integrated model of linking Spanish vocabulary, language development, and culture directly to the curriculum. Program or grade-level curriculum is then linked with the goals of the comprehensive Spanish program. This two-way programming permits students to learn the language in both the traditional Spanish class as well as reinforcing language acquisition in the regular classroom. Programming notebooks are kept each year with improvements recommended by faculty input.

Wood Acres’ young students learn best by hearing the language well spoken (and sung and read) by native or well-qualified Spanish teachers. Speaking, seeing, exploring, and writing the language allows students to learn the nuances of Spanish and its relationship to English and other languages.

Formal Curriculum Introduced in First Grade
Beginning in first grade, the formal curriculum is introduced. Developed specifically for young learners of Spanish by language experts in Spain, the curriculum exposes students to the language through songs and games as well as shorts texts, guided speaking and listening activities, tongue-twisters, chants and written exercises. Students are provided with a student’s book for classroom work that is specially designed to encourage class participation in Spanish. Additionally, the students receive a richly illustrated workbook, which contains review activities.

In the Upper School (5th through 8th grades), students begin studying with the advanced Spanish language series. More adolescent in its approach, the material exposes students to grammar, more challenging vocabulary and texts, as well as a range of discourse types. Students are provided with both an engaging student’s book for classroom work and a workbook with review exercises. Additionally, students begin to do more extended reading in Spanish starting with short stories and non-fiction texts and culminating in chapter books. It is through this extended reading that cross-curricular learning is facilitated with the use of scientific, historical, biographical and narrative texts.

Upper School students continue their linguistic detective training to become more proficient at discovering how Spanish and English work on their own. With continued guidance, students gradually master language learning and study strategies that help them to become independent language learners. At the same time, their ongoing contact with Spanish renders them more fluent so they are able to do more “without thinking”.

At both the Grammar and Upper School levels, the curriculum is richly supplemented with additional texts and language learning materials from both Spain and other Hispanic language resources. Students also watch films in Spanish (with Spanish subtitles) and through the internet are able to watch Spanish television, news broadcasts and commercials. Finally, the internet is used both in class and out for researching topics in Spanish as well as carrying out review activities. Instructional methodology includes TPR (total physical response), pair and group work, repetition drills (usually done through songs and games), competitions, reading aloud and thematic projects. Curriculum development, scope and sequence development, instructional strategies and materials acquisitions have been driven by national and international standards.

Assessment at Wood Acres evolves from Early Childhood to Upper School. Initially it involves mainly teacher observation and authentic qualitative assessments of daily classroom performance. Gradually, formal quantitative evaluation is incorporated including, at the highest level, oral and listening exams, writing assessments, oral presentations, and unit tests. The results of both formative and summative methods of evaluation are used in grading students for report cards and progress reports to parents. With regard to external and/or official evaluation.

The Wood Acres School has a passion for education, not just schooling. This educational passion and enthusiasm embrace not just the educational destinations of high school graduation and university study, but also the journey that each student must take to get there. This journey is an international one that knows no political boundaries, just the boundaries of attitude and aptitude. To learn a language is to learn a culture. To learn a culture is to learn a people. To learn a people is to learn a country. To learn a country is to better understand your native country from another’s perspective- a global view of the inter-connectedness of the world. This is an educational imperative at Wood Acres.

Wood Acres sees no boundaries as to the integration of the Spanish language into all aspects of student learning. Wood Acres models for others the richness and depth of a well-crafted curriculum taught by talented and enthusiastic professionals who themselves are lifelong learners.