The French program at the Rutherford middle schools is designed to foster the students’ growth as language learners and to instill in them a love and passion for the language. The program is developed to allow students to develop communication skills by immersing them in the sounds and images of the language. In the seventh and eighth grades, students will communicate in the target language for the entire class period. They will learn to express basic needs, use common expressions, and answer questions in French. They will also begin to use vocabulary and verb structures. They will be able to express emotions, ask questions, and conjugate regular verbs. Students will also improve their writing skills. In seventh grade, they will move from writing sentences to writing paragraphs in French.
As students move up in grade levels, they write increasingly complex pieces. In eighth grade, they move from writing paragraphs to entire compositions in French, as well as giving commands and using irregular verbs. Students will learn to speak in the simple past tense by the end of their eighth grade year.
In addition, students will continue to increase their cultural awareness of French-speaking countries through the use of technology, music and various age-appropriate cultural projects.