Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
Signing your kids up for language immersion education is a leap of faith, especially if you don’t understand the language they’re going to be spending the better part of the day speaking at school.
Read the whole article by Beth Weise here…
http://portal.sfusd.edu/data/news/pdf/School%20Times%20-%20Winter%2009%20ENGLISH%20final.pdf
Hello, I do not have a comment but a question or maybe a concern. Our district is starting one Mandarin immersion classroom for kindergartners to launch their K-5 immersion program. This first class would remain together over their whole K-5 experience. I am a little concerned that it could limit my son’s social opportunities. Any ideas on this? Thanks much.
Well, one of our two schools, Jose Ortega, only has one Mandarin class, so they’re in the same situation.
Generally the immersion classes start to mix with other classes in the school as they get older and go to a more 50/50 English/Mandarin model. For example at Starr King our third grade next year will begin having mixed English classes with the English and Spanish bilingual students.
Where is your district, and how many other non-Mandarin classes are there?
One thing to remember is that many private schools only have one class per year all the way through eight grade and their students do okay. It’s nicer if you can mix and match, but generally it works out. And people pay big money to be in those schools, so it can’t be too bad a thing!
At Jose Ortega our son gets to know other kids in several ways: (1) English class is mixed with the students in a different language program, (2) Lunch and recess is mixed with all K-2 students, (3) Phys-ed class is mixed with a general ed first grade class, and (4) The class is matched with a fourth grade “big buddy” class that they do projects with. He mentions the names of many of these children outside his class so I know that he is really getting a variety of social opportunities.
I guess it boils down to how your principal structures the program and its relationship to the other classes and programs in your school.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
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