Departments & Programs

Elementary Spanish Program

This 2011-2012 school year, CCS offers its award-winning elementary Spanish program to all kindergarten, first, second, third, and fourth grade classes.

What does the CCS FLES program look like?

Our program is a sequential FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools) model that is tailor-made for our division.  It started with kindergarten and first grade classes during the 2008-2009 school year, and we have added a grade level each year thereafter.

Our goal is for all kindergarten, first grade, second, third, and fourth grade students to receive two 30-minute sessions per week with a Spanish teacher. FLES teachers also are available as resources and interpreters for elementary classrooms and teachers.

What does the CCS FLES curriculum look like?

The division is not using a conventional textbook or video series. Instead, experienced Spanish teachers and curriculum writers have created an original program as a reinforcement of the CCS core curricula. Our FLES curricula are also aligned with the Virginia Standards of Learning and the National Foreign Language Standards.

Each grade level of CCS FLES curriculum contains four thematic units. Each unit includes:

  • Performance objectives and correlating assessments
  • Cultural integration/information
  • Thematic/linguistic focus (with essential vocabulary and suggested activities)

Each subsequent school year, CCS FLES staff will build on the previous year’s curriculum adding greater detail, rigor, and breadth. 

FLES instruction is proficiency-oriented. This means that there is a greater focus on meaningful communication than on grammatical structure. Students are encouraged first to understand and then to produce in the language. Throughout a lesson, students and teachers use the target language as much as possible.  CCS FLES is not an immersion program.

What are the goals of CCS FLES?

  • To enhance the development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in English and Spanish
  • To develop higher order cognitive skills
  • To support academic content area instruction
  • To promote global awareness and cross-cultural understanding
  • To develop increased functional proficiency in all aspects of the language with each year of study
  • To meet district, state, and national foreign language standards

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How can I learn more?

  • Please feel free to contact us with your questions and feedback:
  • We have archived newsletters and ‘curriculum at a glance’ documents for each grade level and a program flyer below. 
  • If you are a CCS Kindegartenr-4th grade parent, please check your child’s folder. We send home hand-outs with student work, notes, and useful vocabulary lists from time to time. 
  • If you are a CCS faculty or staff member, we have our curricula and materials available to you at our Moodle site. 

Communication