Welcome to Rock Creek Forest

1
Welcome to Rock Creek Forest

• Open House
• 2006-2007

2
Agenda

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

3
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.

4
Admission

• Local Neighborhood
• Kindergarten Orientation May 11th 2007
• For Language Immersion Program
• - By lottery
• - Apply between February 1 and April 1,
  2007
• - Transportation
• - Hours 910 am 330 pm

5
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.

6
English Community Program
Spanish Immersion Program

• K-2 Small Class size
• Kindergarten Full Day
• 1st and 2nd Grade 90 Minutes of Reading Language
  Arts
• 4 5 Combine Reading Groups with Spanish
  Immersion Students
• Parent Involvement

• Full Day Kindergarten (25 students)
• 1st Grade 26 students
• K - 1st All Subjects in Spanish
• 2nd 5th 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.

7
Nature Trail Center
8
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.

9
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

10
(No Transcript)
11
HomeworkTarea

• 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 childs work.

12
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.