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World Language

Students satisfy their graduation requirements in a foreign language through successful completion of two years in the same language during high school.  Christchurch offers Spanish from CCS instructors but students are able to take Chinese, French, American Sign Language, or Latin through our partnership with One Schoolhouse as a way to meet the graduation requirement.  The World Language Department has organized its courses in three distinct levels. The first level (Beginning) is meant to achieve linguistic competence, and can take up to three years.  The second level (Advanced) is dedicated to applying that linguistic knowledge in specific areas, expanding the types and complexity of language production, and incorporating the language skills into the large context of the school and the world.  The third level (Honors) is to embed language skills in a particular topic or focus.



 

  • *Foundations of Spanish

    Foundational Spanish (1 course that can take 1, 2, or 3 years) Because language learning is a skill all individuals do dramatically differently, Christchurch has developed a course called Foundational Spanish, which treats each student as an individual and meets them where they are in their language journey. The material in the course covers what most colleges teach in their SPA 101-102-201-202 sequence: the basics of language structure, tenses, and vocabulary, as well as cultural elements and linguistic competencies. We emphasize student expression, and teaching and learning in Spanish for the majority of the class. Because this is an adaptive curriculum, a student can complete the sequence in one, two, or three years. The majority of students at CCS will take two years, but an adept learner can complete the coursework in less time and thus move on to the advanced classes to develop specific skills. By the end of the course, each student will have developed a portfolio which demonstrates specific mastery of competencies needed to succeed in using the language in the real world.
     

  • *Adv. Spanish: The Hispanic World

    Advanced Spanish: The Hispanic World is a year-long course designed for students who have completed Introductory Spanish. In this class, students will practice their inductive skills by exploring authentic resources, such as literature, informational readings, videos, music, and film, in Spanish. Students will learn more about the Hispanic world through the trimester themes of geography and the environment, unity and diversity, and the arts. Students will choose a country for which to do a deeper exploration of these themes and will report their findings through various portfolio products throughout the year. 

  • *Adv. Spanish: The Spoken Word

    Advanced Spanish: The Spoken Word is a year-long course designed for students who have completed Foundational Spanish. The focus is on developing speaking and oral comprehension skills, increasing proficiency in dialogue and developing knowledge of Spanish-speaking cultures. It is designed to expand and deepen the student’s ability to narrate, describe, discuss, and react to given topics in all time frames. The students will learn frequently used idiomatic expressions and grammatical structures. They will expand their vocabulary in a wide range of contexts through reading, written exercises, and conversation in specific and varying contexts. They will use real world materials (podcasts, TV and radio, movies, etc.) to improve their ability to understand native speakers. In addition to practice in small groups, there will be formal presentations, debates, and topic specific tertulias. Speaking skills will be assessed in private oral interviews, evaluated in class based upon speaking performance, and by the individual and group oral projects. The primary objectives of the course are to stimulate the comfortable and spontaneous use of spoken Spanish in a conversation, develop the student’s ability to sustain connected discourse on a broad range of topics, and achieve improved pronunciation and aural comprehension.

  • *Adv. Spanish: The Written Word

    Advanced Spanish: The Written Word is a year-long course designed for students who have completed Foundational Spanish. In this class, students will learn to use writing to accomplish specific tasks in Spanish. We will maintain blogs, publish a series of on-line and off-line written pieces, write a communal novel, create web pages, write advertisements, and complete a variety of other projects utilizing the written word. Students will create and maintain a file of problematic grammatical issues, which we will work on individually, with other classes, and with outside specialists. Students will learn to read stories, news articles, scripts, and other realia.

  • *Honors Spanish Seminar: Food/Art/Music/Culture

    Honors Spanish Seminar: Food, Art and Culture is a course that will investigate the different culinary and artistic traditions of major Hispanic Cultures. It is a one-year course designed for students who have completed Advanced level courses in the department. It will focus on three main cultural traditions: Spain, South America, and Central America and the Caribbean. For each segment, we will study the culinary traditions looking at the sources of ingredients and the reasons behind the importance of those ingredients, the confluence of cultural traditions encapsulated in food, and the connections between national and international culinary traditions. For each segment we will link the study of culinary arts to the study of the plastic arts—painting and sculpture, primarily. Students will be expected to maintain a diary during the whole semester in Spanish, to create and perform a series of presentations related to each one of the areas of study, and to create for the class one whole meal that ties into and/or expands one of the culinary traditions we are investigating. 

    Honors Spanish Seminar carries Dual Enrollment credit through Virginia Wesleyan University.

  • *Honors Spanish

    Honors Spanish is a year-long course that deepens the students’ knowledge of the Hispanic world by focusing on an in-depth study of three particular aspects of the cultural production of Spain and Latin America.  These areas could include culinary culture, in which students would study and then create foods of specific areas of the Hispanic world, and then make a bilingual cookbook based on their study. It could also include a study of filmic culture, looking at the principal directors and filmic traditions in the Hispanic world and comparing them to the Anglo world, culminating in an Oscar presentation in which students would be expected to evaluate each film in a variety of areas like Best Acting, Best Directing, and Best Cinematography.  Other areas could include music, history, the environment, immigration, and literature.  The emphasis of these investigations would be twofold: first, to gain a deep appreciation of the cultural area under study, and second, to create a real-world product that takes their knowledge and applies it to a problem or idea.

  • *Honors Spanish Seminar: Environment, Film, and Fiction

    Honors Spanish: Environment, Film, and Fiction is a year-long course that deepens the students’ knowledge of the Hispanic world by focusing on an in-depth study of three particular aspects of the cultural production of Spain and Latin America.  This coming year the three areas will be the Environment, Film, and Fiction. It will focus on four main traditions:  South America and the Amazon Basin, Central America, Mexico and the US, and Spain.  The emphasis of these investigations would be twofold: first, to gain a deep appreciation of the cultural area under study, and second, to create a real-world product that takes their knowledge and applies it to a problem or idea.
     
    Honors Spanish Seminar:  Environment, Film, and Fiction carries Dual Enrollment credit through Virginia Wesleyan University

  • *Teaching Practicum for Spanish Speakers

    Teaching Practicum for Spanish Speakers is designed for students with native or near native proficiency in Spanish.  It will combine research, observation, and in-class teaching experience.  When completed, students should be prepared to complete the Praxis Spanish:World Languages exam; be able to prepare, execute, and evaluate a complete lesson plan; and have a highly developed teaching philosophy.  One of the main objectives of the class is to have students investigate and prepare for the future of language education, exploring the intersection of technology and in-class teaching. At the end of the year they will present their teaching philosophy to their mentors and teachers they have interviewed, and elicit feedback.  They will also prepare a major project for a beginning, intermediate, or advanced Spanish class and have CCS students carry out the project, followed by a feedback session involving students and faculty.  Prerequisite for the course: permission from the head of department.

  • Advanced Spanish: Español en el mundo de hoy

    Advanced Spanish: Español en el mundo de hoy is a year-long course designed for students who have completed Introductory Spanish. In this class, students will extend their understanding of the Spanish language by exploring the linguistic diversity of Spanish speakers around the world. In the Anglo world, we see Hispanics as a homogenous block; in the Hispanic world, everyone sees the differences between
    national and ethnic origin, class and social status, and personal preference in relation to the non-Hispanic world. Students will discover what a Puerto Rican thinks of a Spaniard, how that is a function of the history of oppression and colonialism but also a function of having a personal language inherited from the oppressor. Students will think deeply about what self-expression is, and the different levels of personal expression that create personality and identity. The class will spend time understanding the complex geography and history of the Hispanic world, and how the opposing forces of assimilation and revolution formed the linguistic identity of the countries we are studying. Finally, students will look at the changes in language that generational development have imposed on the rich fabric of the Spanish language, and how young people are reforming Spanish itself to express their own cultural identity.

Faculty

Christchurch School

49 Seahorse Lane,
Christchurch, Virginia 23031
804.758.2306