Category: Principal’s Blog

When we come to school, we only have a very limited time to interact in the language of our learning. At HIS, the language of instruction is English, except for our Japanese language classes. At school, we need to use the language of instruction - an important choice for language learners (which is everyone). In our units of inquiry, we are all learning through language. For example, if we are learning about optical art, we use English to develop our understandings of this type of art form, including its specific academic language such as the related vocabulary. English is also used to demonstrate our understanding in assessment tasks. For this reason, we need to use English in the classroom during the learning process. If we don't, academic language proficiency will not…

Last week, I introduced the idea of a Lexile measure, which is the level of difficulty of a written text. A Lexile level for a student refers the level of difficulty they are ready for. Remember that this was the critical part in matching reader to text. If you would like to find out your child's Lexile level for yourself,  there is a great site called www.readtheory.org, which provides an excellent visual for tracking Lexile measures over time. If your child is in Secondary (MYP), they will have a log-in to the site already and will be able to share their scores with you. If you have an upper-primary child, you can sign up as a teacher and make a class for them. There is a pre-test and they can keep doing the exercises,  which…

Despite popular belief, schools are not magical places, particularly when it comes to learning in an additional language. However, from what I have seen in schools over the years, I am convinced that consistent reading at an appropriately challenging level may just well be a little bit of magic. Language development doesn't just happen - there needs to be consistent action and some of this needs to be happening at home.  At HIS, our students learn language, but they also learn through language and learn about language.  This is a lot of work and requires time and dedication from both the student and the family. The partnership between the school and the family is vital for language development as it will never be possible to just send a child to school and have them learn whatever…