World Languages and Cultures

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: None

This introductory language course immerses students in simple, comprehensible interactions in Chinese. The teacher and students together create conversations and stories that are interesting, relevant, and memorable. Priority is given to high-frequency, high-interest vocabulary and structures that give students the power to express themselves in Chinese. A variety of games and activities are used in class to reinforce and consolidate students’ grasp of the language. Over the course of the year, students learn to narrate events, describe people and things, and share their opinions. Students learn to read and write simplified characters and are able to write short stories and essays by hand by the end of the year.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Chinese 1.

In this course, students learn to express their experiences and opinions about their daily lives, including topics such as home and family, school, sports, arts, clothing, food, technology, and transportation. At the same time, they also explore the daily life of students in Chinese-speaking countries, comparing and contrasting in ways that shed light both on Chinese culture and their own. Emphasis is placed on high-frequency vocabulary and structures that empower students to describe, narrate, compare and explain in greater detail in writing and speech.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Chinese 2.

In this intermediate course, students explore the geography of the Chinese-speaking world, delving into topics such as climate, cuisine, housing, and travel. They investigate regional differences and begin to situate their evolving cultural knowledge into a geographical framework. Videos, films, images, podcasts and songs help bring the culture to life, and a Chinese novella provides extensive reading practice. Students use the language to draw connections, compare and contrast, and express and support their opinions with increasing precision. They complete small research projects on living and traveling in various locations in China and present their findings in a variety of creative formats.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Chinese 3.

In this high-intermediate course, students explore the stories that have shaped the Chinese worldview over thousands of years. From origin myths to philosophical allegories, romantic legends to battle sagas, martial arts epics to propaganda campaigns, tales of emperors and tales of commoners, well-known tales in text, audio, and film formats are used as entryways to important moments and concepts in Chinese history. Students increase their language proficiency as they develop their cultural and historical knowledge. They demonstrate their understanding by analyzing the stories for the perspectives and values they promote, and comparing and contrasting them with stories from other places and times. Student work takes the form of class discussions and debates, creative and analytical writing tasks, and research projects presented in multimedia formats.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Chinese Topics in Chinese Literature and History.

In this advanced course, students investigate various facets of Chinese culture and society past and present. Pedagogical materials, authentic online resources, podcasts, and films illuminate cultural topics and serve as a basis for discussion and analysis. As they deepen their understanding of Chinese culture and society, students continue to hone their listening and reading comprehension skills, expand their vocabulary, and strengthen their grasp of grammatical structures, allowing them to communicate in Chinese in greater depth and with growing precision. Students undertake independent reading and extended research projects using Chinese language sources and create multimedia presentations to share their findings with the class.

Year - 6 credits

Students will be immersed in simple, comprehensible conversations and stories that will allow them to begin to talk about themselves and their daily lives in French. Priority is given to high-frequency vocabulary and structures that will enable students to discuss common interests and events. Emphasis is placed on listening and reading comprehension with the understanding that students will develop accuracy in speaking and writing over time. Over the course of the year, students learn to narrate events, describe people and things, and express their opinions as they learn about people, places, products, and practices around the francophone world.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of French 1.

In this course, students will expand their ability to communicate in French about topics such as school, hobbies, health, hometowns, food, childhood, and travel. They will compare and contrast facets of daily life throughout the francophone world, brought to life through images, videos, blogs, news reports, novellas, art, music, and film. Emphasis is placed on high-frequency vocabulary and structures that increase students’ abilities to describe, narrate, compare and explain in writing and speech. Students are introduced to popular francophone singers, a free reading program, and online exchanges with francophone peers to encourage their engagement with francophone cultures outside of the classroom.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of French 2.

In this intermediate course, students explore topics in both francophone and American cultures and societies. Students articulate their own identities through discussions of childhood memories, future plans, and hypothetical situations. Novellas, films, and graphic novels from the francophone world bring diverse characters, locales and time periods into the classroom and serve as the basis for class discussions, writing assignments, presentations, and projects.

Students expand their ability to use French to draw connections, make comparisons, and express and support their opinions with an increasing range of verb tenses and moods. Continued exposure to popular francophone singers, current events, a free reading program, and online exchanges with francophone peers encourages engagement with francophone cultures outside of the classroom.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of French 3.

In this class students will explore the diverse perspectives, experiences, and identities in the contemporary francophone world through compelling narratives in film, short stories, graphic novels, songs, and news reports. Students develop their language proficiency as they deepen their cultural understanding of the francophone world. Units are developed around cultural topics of interest to the students, and the class follows and discusses current events throughout the year. Students demonstrate their growing competence through creative and analytical writing, class discussions and debates, research projects, and multimedia presentations.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Exploring the Francophone World or AP French Language and Culture

Students study key issues in the contemporary francophone world through videos, news reports, literature, films, podcasts, and songs. Themes center around contemporary social issues, such as immigration, identity, politics, the environment, and health. Students gain a deeper understanding of a variety of global challenges, as well as the specific ways they play out in various francophone countries. They demonstrate their understanding by engaging in class discussions and debates, writing analytical and persuasive essays, and presenting their research to their classmates. In addition, students undertake individual or small-group research projects in order to hone their communicative skills while pursuing personal interests.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Exploring the Francophone World

Students study key issues in the contemporary francophone world through videos, news reports, literature, films, podcasts, and songs. Themes center around contemporary social issues, such as immigration, identity, politics, the environment, and health. Students gain a deeper understanding of a variety of global challenges, as well as the specific ways they play out in various francophone countries. They demonstrate their understanding by engaging in class discussions and debates, writing analytical and persuasive essays, and presenting their research to their classmates. Throughout the course, students will polish their communication skills in preparation for the AP exam and continued study at the college level.

Year – 6 credits

This course introduces the student to the basics of the Latin language and to life as it was lived in diverse areas of the Roman Empire. The focus is on reading Latin rather than simply memorizing endings, and so students begin reading extended passages of Latin at the outset. As their skill develops, the passages become longer and more challenging. Their developing skills in reading Latin will include grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. Through their readings they will become acquainted with life in Roman Italy, the agrarian and turbulent province of Britain, and cosmopolitan Alexandria, Egypt.

Year – 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Latin 1.

Students will continue to build on the work they did in Latin 1, to enhance their ability to read more complex passages of Latin. They will learn new vocabulary and syntax necessary for that task. Students will be introduced to the literary style of Classical Latin literature. The passages they read will broaden their knowledge of life and culture in Imperial Rome by learning about the organization of the Roman army, life in the court of the Emperor Domitian, and the siege of Masada and its aftermath.

Year – 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Latin 2.

In this course, students will complete their study of the main features of Latin syntax and inflectional forms. The first six chapters of their book form the end of the “novel” that students began reading at the beginning of Latin 1. Students will subsequently read un-adapted passages from authors such as Pliny, Cicero, Ovid, Horace, Catullus, Sallust, and Vergil.

Year – 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Latin 3.

The texts for this course are selected in consultation with those students of Latin 3 who intend to pursue a fourth year of study in the language. Half of the course is devoted to poetry, and half to prose. Poetry may include selections from Vergil, Ovid, Catullus, Horace, Lucretius, or Terence. Prose selections may include Livy, Cicero, Caesar, Curtius, or Petronius. Grammar and inflectional forms are reviewed and exercised regularly.

Year – 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Reading Latin Literature.

This course provides a student the opportunity to read challenging and substantial passages of Latin that are not covered in previous Latin courses. In this course students will consult secondary literature on the selected author(s) and, because much of the focus is on the legacy of Classical culture in general and Latin literature in particular, they may also be expected to read literature from beyond the Classical period.

Year - 6 credits

Spanish 1 is a course designed to introduce the student to grammar, reading, writing, and listening skills. Cultural information is provided and taught throughout the course. Emphasis is placed on conversation, vocabulary and correct usage of the language. This requires a daily emphasis on listening and speaking while developing the ability to write and understand basic Spanish paragraphs or dialogue on a familiar topic in order to function in everyday situations.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Spanish 1.

Spanish 2 builds on the fundamental language elements taught in Spanish 1 and continues to focus on the four language skills, which are reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the target language. Through this course, students expand their knowledge of Spanish grammatical structures and vocabulary allowing them to freely communicate ideas using various tenses.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Spanish 2.

Students will learn to support opinions with more spontaneity and accuracy, and to describe and narrate using broader vocabulary and more complex sentence structures on familiar topics, both in written and oral forms. They will be able to create and combine new material with greater ease and understand conversations and texts on cultural topics from authentic sources.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Spanish 3.

This class is designed to give students a high level of cultural competence of the cultures of Spanish-speaking peoples. Students will read a wide variety of texts, including textbooks, poetry, essays, short stories, and at least one novella and one full play. Students will gain cultural content knowledge through reading class materials and completing research using contemporary sources such as online documents, movies, music, paintings, sculptures, architecture, magazines, journals and newspapers. In order to continue developing their communication skills, students will compose short and long critical and expository essays, create examples of creative nonfiction writing, write at least one long research paper, and deliver several in-class presentations. Students will finish the class by presenting their research on a topic of contemporary importance, centered in a culture of the Spanish-speaking world. This course will cover grammar only as needed by individual students in the class.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of The Culture and History of the Spanish-Speaking World

Students will polish and master their linguistics skills in preparation for the AP examination. An increased amount of authentic materials in the target language, such as newscasts, movies, newspapers, and magazines, will be used to help students practice listening, reading, and speaking skills. Students are trained to converse freely and write about everyday, abstract, and hypothetical topics.

Year - 6 credits

Prerequisite: Successful completion of The Culture and History of the Spanish-Speaking World of AP Spanish Language and Culture

This class is designed for students with a strong interest in the contemporary cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. By “culture” we mean the totality of the human experience, from which we will choose our focus according to students’ interests and important current events. Hence, we may cover subjects such as: visual and performing arts, literature, politics, economics, the sciences, philosophy, and sports. Students will choose a specific social issue to research, study, and present through the year. Some social issues may be: access to water, food, or housing, child poverty, national education or health, international relations of Spanish-speaking countries, the environment, urbanization and its challenges, ethnic, gender, or economic minorities, or any subject of interest to the student.

Students are expected to present their research results publicly at the end of the academic year. The presentation format could take the form of a video produced by the student, a public oral presentation in a TED Talk format, or another format approved by the instructor.