Seventeen years ago the author had left teaching secondary school Spanish at Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey, to create a FLES program at that same school. It's been a labor of love and a work in progress ever since. Along the way she has become convinced of a few things: an early start, long sequence, proficiency target and strong evidence are all essential. It is precisely those things that, she believes, have made the FLES program at Dwight-Englewood strong. The importance of producing evidence that students have moved along the proficiency spectrum cannot be overstated. The most important tenets of the author's planning has become knowing exactly what she expects students to be able to do at the end of a unit, designing activities that will equip them to meet her goals and communicating these goals clearly to the learners. Assessments are important because through them she provides evidence that builds support for her program. The Dwight-Englewood FLES program terminates in grade five. The grade five curriculum incorporates four units of study: Let's Meet, Meet Dwight-Englewood, Let's Talk, and Don Quixote. In this article, the author shares an overview of the first three units and the culminating assessments associated with each one.