Welcome to Rock Creek Forest Open House

Agenda  Introduction  Mission  Admission  Community and Spanish Programs  Staff  Curriculum  Homework  Questions  Tour

Mission The mission of Rock Creek Forest Elementary School is to provide all students with knowledge, skills, goals, and work habits that will enable them to become productive members of society. We work to create a warm, caring atmosphere, where all are nurtured and stimulated to learn. We establish and maintain an environment with high expectations, multicultural awareness and sensitivity to one another. We believe that all students can achieve. Rock Creek Forest is a school where it is safe to take risks and learn from them, safe to explore, safe to share, and safe to succeed.

Admission  Local Neighborhood  Kindergarten Orientation: May 11 th 2007  For Language Immersion Program - By lottery - Apply between February 1 and April 1, Transportation - Hours: 9:10 am – 3:30 pm

Staff  For Immersion Program : teachers are native Spanish speakers and have certification in elementary or early childhood education. Teachers need to have some fluency in English, as well, so that they can communicate with parents and also take advantage of local county in-service or college courses.  For English Community Program : teachers are highly certified in elementary or early childhood education.

English Community Program  K-2 Small Class size  Kindergarten: Full Day  1 st and 2 nd Grade 90 Minutes of Reading Language Arts  4 – 5 Combine Reading Groups with Spanish Immersion Students  Parent Involvement  Full Day Kindergarten (25 students)  1 st Grade 26 students  K - 1 st All Subjects in Spanish  2 nd – 5 th Daily Reading in English  Immersion method of foreign language instruction- students spend part or all of the day learning a variety of disciplines in the Spanish language. Spanish Immersion Program

Nature Trail Center

Immersion Students Performance in English  Results of several research studies show that: Although total immersion students lag behind initially in spelling and vocabulary in English, they equal or surpass their monolingual peers after two years of English language arts instruction.  MCPS total immersion CTBS results support the same findings: In total immersion program where English instruction begins in Grade 4, the CTBS results from Grade 4 students show a net progress as compared to those from Grade 2. The most recent MSA results confirm the same findings for Grade 5.  Two important facts: 1.- Language skills transfer from one language to another. 2.- It take one to two years for language skills to transfer.

Curriculum  Reading Language Arts (small guided reading groups as well as teacher reads aloud)  Daily Writing  Daily Math and small group differentiated  Science and Social Studies (Units)  Specials (Art, Music and P.E.) - Upper grades: Instrumental or Chorus

Homework Tarea  Homework is an opportunity for you to be connected to what students are doing in school.  Homework is sent from Monday through Thursday (K- 5).  In addition to homework, we suggest you read with your child every night.  We encourage parents to help with homework. The final product should be the child’s work.

Continue… The teachers try to go over the routine assignments so students know what to do. Long-term projects are outlined so parents can help their children meet the deadlines and acquire the materials. Parents can buy Spanish primary dictionaries, English dictionaries and bilingual dictionaries.