In 7th and 8th grade, students at Fairview have the opportunity to study Spanish. They learn the language as well as cultures and traditions of Spanish-speaking countries. In the Spanish department, we align our goals with the ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages). Our Spanish curriculum is taught with “comprehensible input” strategies. These strategies are based on the natural ways that humans learn language; by listening to the target language and seeing it in action, rather than memorizing vocabulary or grammar out of a book. After graduating from Fairview, most students are placed in Spanish 2 at Niles West.
We follow the Somos curriculum which is a proficiency-oriented, comprehension-based, acquisition-driven language instruction program. Somos units cover an overarching theme such as emotions, school, or traditions in other countries, while introducing vocabulary and grammar in an authentic and targeted way. The curriculum is interactive and students are encouraged to have fun while they are practicing the targeted words and sentence structures.