Summer Spanish Opportunities:
Lots of fun is planned for Summer Spanish Camp. Come join us for arts and crafts, projects, scavenger hunts, painting, games, reading, writing, songs and FUN!!!! See the attached Spanish Camp information for more details!
Interested in a little extra support this summer for your Spanish Immersion student?
The following Spanish Immersion Teachers are planning to offer tutoring this summer:
Sra Diaz 616-307-8555
Sra. Joaquin 616-560-8114 (Kindergarten, Preschool, Y5's)
Spanish Immersion
NPC Elementary offers Spanish Immersion Preschool (for 3 and 4 year olds) and 3 or 5 Full-Day Kindergarten (for 5 year olds), First Grade, and Second Grade (beginning 2013-2014). NPCS has contracted with Add.a.Lingua, an organization that helps schools design and implement Spanish immersion programs. NPCS is committed to adding an additional Spanish Immersion grade each year until the program includes 5th grade (target date of September 2016). The curriculum used in these classes is aligned with state and national standards of excellence, based on the latest research and child development teaching methods.
All NorthPointe Christian Spanish Immersion teachers are Michigan certified educators. Additionally, teachers have had overseas experience studying, living or mission work in various Spanish speaking countries. Native speaking paraprofessionals are present in our Spanish Immersion classrooms to enhance the educational needs of the students and create an environment for broader language exposure.
What is Spanish Immersion?
Spanish Immersion is a proven method of educating children. Students learn NorthPointe Christian and Michigan core curriculums standards (Language Arts, Math, Science, etc.) in Spanish. Spanish is the medium of instruction, rather than the subject of instruction.
The curriculum framework is aligned with national and state standards as well as current with Second Language Acquisition theory. This is then put into practice and tested at a beta site school before we teach it.
Students Immersed in the Spanish Language:
• Learn receptively, much as babies acquire their native language. NPC teachers use many visuals, actions, songs, repetition, movements and other strategies to reinforce new learning.
• Attain developmentally appropriate bilingualism by 5th grade.
• Begin traditional classrooms at 6th grade.
• Will be able to maintain their fluency in middle/high school by taking several courses in their second language.
Why choose Immersion for your child?
The ability to understand and speak more than one language is not the only benefit of immersion education. Research shows that students gain additional cognitive, academic and employment benefits.
Immersion programs are the fastest growing and most effective type of foreign language program currently available in US schools (Met, 1998). Students in immersion programs acquire their second language naturally, in much the same way as they acquired their first language.
Young children tend to absorb a language through massive amounts of input and exposure. They do not learn by translating between Spanish and English; rather they begin to think in Spanish, and then read, write and speak in Spanish as well.
Will this program affect my child's literacy skills in English?
No, almost all aspects of literacy transfer across languages. When your child learns to read in one language, those skills transfer to another language quite easily. Research clearly shows that students in a language immersion program often times score higher on standardized reading tests in English than those students who are only taught in one language. Throughout the language acquisition process, immersion students may be able to read better in one language than the other. However, this is a normal part of learning to read, and eventually immersion students read at or above grade level in both languages.
When is English introduced?
The layout of the K-5 component of the Spanish Immersion program is as follows:
Kindergarten: 100% Spanish
First Grade: 100% Spanish
Second Grade: 30 min of English Instruction per day
Third Grade: 45 min of English Instruction per day
Fourth Grade: 60 min of English Instruction per day
Fifth Grade: 90 min of English instruction per day
Our commitment:
We are committed to immersing children in the Spanish language and its various cultures in order for them to be better equipped to demonstrate Christ’s love in our increasingly global community.
Tour the campus to experience the whole school!
From preschool through 5th grade, we invite you to see it for yourself.
Call Rita Johnson at (616) 363-4869 to set up your tour!
