The Anchorage School District’s Japanese Language Partial Immersion Program is a “school-within-a-school” program at Sand Lake Elementary School. The Japanese Immersion Program continues into Mears Middle and Dimond High Schools. This is a program of choice for parents who would like their children to have the advantage of becoming proficient in two languages (English and Japanese) by the time they complete the kindergarten through 12th grade sequence of the language immersion program. Beginning in kindergarten, students have a “team” of two teachers, an English-speaking teacher and a native-speaking Japanese teacher. Students are “immersed” for one-half of their school day in a total Japanese language experience within a multicultural setting. Students acquire Japanese language in a natural way in everyday classroom situations while developing listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. In the immersion model, students learn content, i.e. science and social studies in Japanese. Students become proficient in both English and Japanese.

For more information please visit the World Languages website (https://www.asdk12.org/Page/5409) or our school website (http://www.asdk12.org/sandlake).