Van Meter Spanish Curriculum:
Mission Statement - We inspire and guide students in language acquisition by creating safe, engaging and compelling settings where language is acquired naturally.
Our Van Meter Spanish curriculum is based on delivering engaging, compelling, comprehensible input to students. In order to promote engagement in class and make connections with students, we strive to find what is compelling to our students while reinforcing the most useful words in daily communication. We have built our curriculum around real-life phrases, giving students what they would be able to use daily in their own lives.
We are a proficiency based program in a standards based grading system. Natural language acquisition takes time. We have thus developed a two-year rotating curriculum, assessed through reading, writing, listening and speaking, which allows students to spend two years in Novice Mid - Intermediate Low. This allows our students to progress in their own personal language acquisition journey at their own pace. We look at each student’s individual performance and evaluations to determine which level is suitable for their needs.
During their senior year, our students have the opportunity to qualify as biliterate and receive the Seal of Biliteracy. At the end of the 2019 - 2020 school year, of the 32 students who chose to take the STAMP exam, we recognized 22 who were awarded the Seal of Biliteracy. The 2020-2021 School year proved to be a larger success with 32 students taking the assessment and 26 earning the Seal of Biliteracy! All of the students achieved a level of Intermediate Mid in at least two areas; 2021-2022 and '23 school years 100% of the students assessed demonstrated proficiency at their learning level, with 30 of the 47 students assessed earning the Iowa Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish and English. One student additionally earning the Global Seal of Biliteracy in working fluency in Spanish and English and one earning the Global Seal of functional flunecy in French and Spanish.