Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

This is from a parent at Lincoln High School in San Francisco.
Lincoln has long had Cantonese immersion students from Alice Fong Yu (K-8) and West Portal (K-5) feeding into it. Here are some of what they learned worked and didn’t work. It’s a useful bit of information as the newer (read: most of us) Mandarin immersion schools work our way on up to high school. They’re looking for feedback on what content  class would be for immersion students at high school?  We’d love feedback from programs that are already up to high school. What works and what doesn’t?

Some background:
1. 1997-1999: Lincoln’s Chinese immersion program used integrated science (Cantonese) as the content class for immersion students. It was very successful.

2. 2000: Lincoln used Algebra I as the content class and it didn’t work. The main reason was that not all students’ math level was the same. The teacher had to deal with math problem, as well as language problem.

3. Some parents did not want the core content class (math, science, social studies) to be taught in Chinese. This is an offshoot of Alice Fong Yu’s model: students only get Chinese in their Chinese language classes  after 7th grade. (one Cantonese and one Mandarin). But of course this model won’t work for Mandarin immersion middle school program since students will not learn Cantonese. It will not work for high school, either, although Lincoln is capable of doing that. (Lincolnhas a Chinese language art track for native speakers of Cantonese. Currently many immersion students choose that track, too.)

4. Current proposal at Lincoln: 9th grade: Geometry as the content class. Language class will be based on students’ proficiency level: they may choose the regular Chinese track or immersion track or native speaker track. 10th grade: students take AP Chinese only.