• Curriculum and Instruction
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  • wl     dli

     

    More than forty years of research consistently documents the power of immersion to help students attain high levels of second language proficiency. In an immersion program, the teacher only speaks in the target language so that students quickly acquire second language skills. No other type of instruction, short of living in a second-language environment, is as successful in helping a child learn another world language. 

     
    Kindergarten  
    McIlvaine Early Childhood Center is home to Caesar Rodney's "Littlest Riders." One hundred of the 550 students attending McIlvaine participate in the school's Chinese immersion classrooms while an additional 100 students participate in a Spanish Immersion Program.  Students in these classrooms spend 50% of their day learning content in English and the other 50% of the day learning content in either Chinese or Spanish. 
     
    Elementary 
    After their Kindergarten immersion experience at McIlvaine Early Childhood Center, students graduate to first grade at either Allen Frear Elementary School or W.B. Simpson Elementary School to continue their Chinese Language experience or at either Nellie Stokes Elementary School (grade 1) and David E. Robinson Elementary School (grade 2 and 3) or at W. Reily Brown Elementary School to continue their Spanish Language experience.  The Immersion day in grades 1 - 5 is structured similarly to the day in Kindergarten; 50% of the day students learn content in English and the other 50% of the day students learn content in either Chinese or Spanish. 
     
    Middle School
    The Chinese Immersion Continuation Program started at Fifer and Postlethwait Middle Schools in August 2018; students whose home schools are Air Force Base or Magnolia will attend Chinese Immersion at Postlethwait.  The Spanish Immersion Continuation Program started at Fifer Middle School in August 2020.

    *** Starting in the 2023 - 2024 school year, students in the middle school immersion continuation program will learn the language through literacy only, not through an additional content class.  More information can be found HERE.

     
    High School
    The World Language program enables a student to begin to develop language fluency in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. The program also provides an understanding of the roots of a civilization that gave rise to our own. All language courses comply with the current state and national frameworks. All language courses are of equal difficulty. Most colleges require 2 or 3 credits in the same world language. 
     
    The Chinese Immersion Bridge Program matriculated Caesar Rodney High School in August 2021.  Students in the Chinese Immersion Bridge Program will take AP Chinese Language and then have the opportunity to either complete Dual Enrollment courses taught in Chinese (and the possibility to earn both high school and college/ university credit) or to begin to learn another language.
     
     
     
    If you have any questions regarding the Caesar Rodney School District's World Language/ Immersion program, please contact:

    Dr. Darren Guido, Supervisor of Instruction: darren.guido@cr.k12.de.us