General Information
In Private ABC Schools, considering the concepts of intercultural awareness and valuing different cultures and languages among the fundamental principles of the International Baccalaureate Education Program, a language policy has been developed with the understanding that our native language, Turkish, should be learned and taught with the necessary importance. Following this, English, taught as a second language, is aimed to be acquired as a means of communication through natural methods and real-life situations. The commitment to this policy can be observed in the implemented practices.
With the goal of structuring English in a way that is similar to the natural process of acquiring our native language, we prefer to use storybooks instead of textbooks. In this process, we determine the content of the lessons based on our own achievements that we have developed within the framework of the inquiry program. As a result, as Private Ankara ABC Schools, we follow our unique curriculum for Second Language instruction.
In our bilingual class hours, our class teachers and second language teachers work together to enable students to use both languages simultaneously. This way, students discover that language is not a goal to be reached but a means of communication.
While following our curriculum based on literature, we use various techniques, methods, and strategies, especially "Story Telling." To monitor student progress, we adhere to our measurement and evaluation policy and use various measurement techniques and strategies, keeping these documents for analysis and reporting. In addition to the reports we provide to parents, we also welcome them to our school with "Portfolio Presentation" events where we showcase our work, allowing students to share what they have learned throughout the process, providing an enjoyable time together.
Since the activities vary depending on the grade level, they are expressed separately below.
1st Grade
Our goal is to assist students in developing their reading, writing, and foundational skills in English. By the end of the first grade, students will be able to respond to simple questions with actions or words, comprehend picture books, participate in guided reading, and use single and two-word patterns within context. We primarily support listening and speaking skills by selecting videos and songs that are suitable for our unit.
We initiate the reading and writing process alongside the native language, using Sight-words for this purpose. We enable word and sentence readings through the photographic memory method. We ensure that grammatical structures are used in conjunction with these sentences.
We structure our work around the student's ability to express themselves in the second language.
Starting from the 2nd term, we support writing skills by conducting dictation exercises every week.
We read selected storybooks together using an online reading platform. Students mostly engage in listening and later reading activities using visuals.
We believe that language can be acquired through imitation and regular repetition, so we allocate a portion of each day to our routines (circle time) and conduct activities to make basic English more permanent.
Through video recording tasks, students have the opportunity to share what they have learned in the classroom with their classmates in their home environments.
We collaborate with parents by sending regular parent letters through our school's portal.
Bilingual education increases the amount of exposure students have to English. Students can answer and comment on questions in both English and Turkish, allowing them to express themselves in both languages.
2nd Grade
We create a structure according to the content of the inquiry unit and lesson objectives. We choose videos, songs, materials, and games based on this structure.
We believe that language can be acquired through imitation and regular repetition, so we allocate a portion of each day to our routines and conduct activities to make basic English more permanent. By using routines, we ensure that students unknowingly use grammatical structures.
At the end of the selected book for the theme, we allow students to produce products that encourage them to use their creativity.
We share selected storybooks from our online reading platform with the students in the classroom. We ensure that they understand and interpret the story by asking open-ended questions.
We support learners' writing skills by conducting dictation exercises at regular intervals.
We encourage students to use their research skills and prepare presentations to share with their classmates.
We share online supplementary materials related to the topics we have worked on throughout the week for extra study over the weekend with our parents.
We collaborate with parents by sending regular parent letters through our school's portal.
3rd Grade:
We prepare our lesson plans based on the content of the inquiry units, determining target vocabulary and structures that are suitable for this content.
We support vocabulary with visuals and videos. During the inquiry process, we ensure that students are exposed to these words continuously.
We enable practical application of what we have studied with worksheets consisting of open-ended thought-provoking questions.
We support the development of writing skills by conducting dictation exercises every week.
We share theme-related books from our online reading platform with all students. We conduct presentations and evaluations based on the template we have prepared.
We design all lesson plans around the selected storybooks and identify vocabulary and grammar structures determined in the curriculum from the content of these books.
We provide opportunities for students to prepare presentations and share them with their classmates.
We collaborate with parents by sending regular parent letters through our school's portal.
4th Grade:
We provide target structures through stories and encourage students to discover and use these structures by following examples.
We highlight new words from theme-appropriate storybooks, expand our vocabulary, and play various games to reinforce it. We incorporate inquiry through games.
We select books from our online reading platform that are appropriate for students and share them with them.
Students narrate and convey what they have read using various techniques. These activities (presentation, video, poster) are shared and reinforced in our classrooms.
Book presentations are prepared by students under the headings of "the subject of the story, the place it takes place, the characters."
Students also write a summary of the book, take notes on the words they have learned, and evaluate the book.
We continue dictation exercises that have been ongoing in the first three levels by conducting free writing exercises in the fourth grade.
We address global issues in our lessons and engage in writing, reading, listening, and speaking activities related to the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to these issues.
We collaborate with parents by sending weekly parent letters through our school's portal.
