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By Heather Clydesdale

In evolutionary terms, it’s called a catastrophism: a sudden event forces species to adapt quickly and dramatically. Since their introduction in 2010, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been adopted by 45 U.S. states, reshaping the American educational ecosystem. As schools and districts scramble to adjust, it’s not surprising that teachers of Chinese, and avid watchers of their programs, often perceive CCSS as a threat.

Some language classes are endangered as administrators hunt for more time for reading and math, and teachers may suddenly find themselves adapting to new habitats, such as assisting with math and reading intervention. Yet Yan Wang, a teacher at Dixie Magnet Elementary School in Kentucky’s Fayette County Public Schools, insists that CCSS is an opportunity for teachers to root even nascent programs more deeply in their schools, and to demonstrate that they, and their Chinese language program, are important assets in the Common Core endeavor.

Wang, who is also past president of the Kentucky Association of Chinese Language Teachers, says teachers should support the implementation of CCSS and outlines several survival strategies for embedding the standards in Chinese language curriculum and instruction. First, she advocates becoming familiar with the CCSS and monitoring how other teachers use them in their classes. Teachers can encourage colleagues in the same grade to post their long-range plans on bulletin boards in common areas. They can also create an online hub to access the plans of other grades, so that everyone can track articulation of skills and content from year to year. By seeing how others teachers at their school plan to incorporate the CCSS, language teachers can embed the same standards into their own lessons, reinforcing what children are learning in other subject areas

Please read more here.

Tiny Naselle, Washington is getting a Mandarin immersion program. According to the Chinook Observer, about half of the incoming Kindergarten class has opted to sign up for Mandarin. The program is also open to students from out of state, which presumably means those coming from nearby Astoria, Oregon. Having driven the bridge between Washington and Oregon there, it would make for one of the most beautiful school commutes in the nation.

The final day to sign up is August 12th.

You can read more about the program on the school district’s web site here. It will be at the district’s single school building, the Naselle K – 12 School.

For more, see a previous article from the Chinook Observer

Never too early to learn Chinese?

Naselle Kindergarteners could be headed that way

 Doss Holds Chinese Immersion “Boot Camp” for Incoming Students

by Lelan Miller

Doss Elementary School in Austin, TX concluded a Chinese “boot camp” for first and second grade students today on July 31, 2013. This boot camp was for first and second graders who are slated to enter the Chinese immersion program that will begin operating this August. First and second graders had camp for three mornings from July 29^th through July 31^st. The kindergarten students are scheduled for two mornings of boot camp on August 1st and 2nd. The primary focus of the boot camps will be classroom language, math vocabulary, and learning about writing in Mandarin.

As you can see from the photos below, only Chinese is permitted in the boot camps. The class schedule is posted in Chinese as well. Since many of the children are just starting to be exposed to Chinese, the teachers use a great deal of pictures, drawings, repetition, and gestures to assist in understanding.

The teachers for this session were Nancy Chiu and Connie Soong. Connie Soong will be teaching kinder and first grade and Nancy Chiu will be teaching second grade in the Chinese immersion program this fall. Janna Griffin is the principal of Doss Elementary School who was instrumental in getting this program established at Doss. Congratulations, Doss Owls!

The lion says, “Stop, Chinese only!”

The class schedule is in Chinese supported with pictures to help with comprehension.

Lelan Miller, 孟乐岚  is the founder of Mandarin Matters in Our Schools in Texas (MMOST) and master’s candidate in Chinese Language Pedagogy.

Comic Book Snacks that Talk Back in Two Languages
JANUARY 22, 2013 ⋅ POST A COMMENT

(Photo: Patrick Cox)

The other day, I was in Chinatown in New York City, eating dim sum with Yen Yen Woo and Colin Goh. They’re a married couple, transplants from Singapore.

For reasons that’ll soon become clear, I couldn’t help imagining that those little Chinese snacks we were eating were…alive. Now, some Asian food items really are alive when you put them in your mouth—but that’s a different story. The dishes we we’d ordered weren’t moving, except for the fact that I’d just viewed them in another form—walking, talking and fighting.

Here’s a taste of Goh and Woo’s creation, Dim Sum Warriors: “Their bravery and skill have inspired millions worldwide, while the mere mention of their names causes enemies to quiver like tofu.”

Dim Sum Warriors is a comic book that started as an iPad app. It started online, and now is out in book form, the reverse of most tech-savvy comic book series.

Goh and Woo created Dim Sum Warriors partly for their daughter, Kai Yen Goh. She’s learning to understand both English and Chinese by using the app.

“We felt especially because we were bringing up a daughter in America we wanted something that would represent her mixed-up cultural heritage,” says Goh.

On an iPad, you can read Dim Sum Warriors in English or in Chinese. Or, you can flip between the two languages. If you want to hear the audio, you tap a word balloon. If you hold your finger on the balloon, you get a translation—script and audio.

Please read more here.