Standard 1: Students recognize, define, and articulate their own spiritual identity, and demonstrate how it applies to their personal decisions. Standard 2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the Christian story and the centrality of Jesus in the Bible. Standard 3: Students understand both the common and unique beliefs, practices, and influence of the major religions of the world.
Chinese Studies Program Philosophy “Language and communication are at the heart of the human experience.” As members of an international school and community, we endorse this statement by the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The learning of languages encourages students to respect and to understand other cultures, and heightens the awareness of one’s own culture. It also enhances divergent thinking and self-motivated learning. Language-learning equips students to participate more actively in the global community and to be more adaptable in an increasingly interconnected world. Literacy is built upon a foundation of spoken language competence; therefore we believe that oral communicative language should rest at the heart of language instruction. Reading is gradually introduced followed by writing. The central goal of language-learning is the communication and exchange of ideas, perceptions and
needs. These skills will enable learners to meet social and informational needs in the Chinese-speaking world. The HKIS Chinese Studies program fully embraces the differentiated needs of our learners. Since the acquisition of an additional language depends on a variety of factors, HKIS's language program delivers reading/writing and listening/speaking lessons that are based on the needs of the learner. General Information All Upper Primary students participate in Chinese language instruction as a part of their daily program. Class activities are varied and include games, songs, rhymes, dances, arts/crafts, oral dialogues and excursions – all designed to immerse the students into the use of Mandarin. Additionally, homework is given to students to strengthen and practice learned skills of oral proficiency as well as the skills of reading, writing and listening. We encourage parents to actively participate and support their children's learning of this language by taking interest in the activities and projects. Proficiency-based As a proficiency-based program, starting from Upper Primary the students in the Chinese Studies are grouped based on their entry-level of Chinese language proficiency, and the curriculum will be targeting the next higher level of language proficiency with various themes and topics. The exit benchmarks for each proficiency group is based on benchmarks mapped out in the Chinese Studies R1-12 curriculum and the natural progression of language development.
Upper Primary School Parent Handbook
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