The good people at  CARLA,the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota, have put together a really stellar list of language resources for Chinese immersion programs.

You can find their full list here.

CARLA is  a tremendous resource. They’ve also got an excellent catalog of books and teaching materials I just got in the mail. Some of the books that might make a great present for your principal or teacher include:

Two-Way Immersion 101: Designing and Implementing a two-way immersion education program at the Elementary school level

Realizing the vision of two-way immersion: Fostering effective programs and classrooms

Guiding principals for dual language education

Profiles in two-way immersion education

The dual-language program planner: A guide for designing and implementing dual language programs

Learning together: Two-way bilingual immersion programs (DVD)

Implementing two-way immersion programs in secondary schools

Check it out here. Looks like she just started, so it will be fun to follow.

By BEN WORTHEN

SAN FRANCISCO—When kindergartners arrive at the Presidio Knolls School next week for their first day of class, they will be allowed to speak English only on the playground and at a few other times. Most classes will be taught in Chinese.

“There’s a real demand for this kind of learning,” says Alfonso Orsini, the head of the school, which is adding a kindergarten after several years as a Chinese-language preschool. Construction crews are working to finish the school’s campus, a former run-down church on 10th Street. The plan calls for eventually enrolling students through eighth grade.

The Bay Area is now home to 23 such Mandarin Chinese-immersion schools, according to one count, many of which have opened in the last few years. Some of the schools are private—Presidio Knolls among them—while others are public. Still others are charter schools, which are privately operated but receive public funding.

There are approximately 125 Mandarin-Chinese immersion schools in the country, according to Beth Weise, who runs a website for parents of Mandarin-immersion students. Five are in San Francisco, including Presidio Knolls and Aptos Middle School, which also begins a Mandarin-immersion program this fall, as well as a Cantonese-immersion school.

Please read more here.

I’ve posted the list of Mandarin immersion schools we’ve been collecting and updating for several years now on its own page on this blog. You can either click here or just look at the pages above and click on Full Mandarin Immersion School list.

It’s based on MIPC updates going back several years, information from parent who’ve emailed me, web searches and a list begun by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition.  It’s as complete and accurate as I could make it, but it needs your help (to paraphrase Dora the Explorer.) If your school isn’t here, please send me information about it. If it is but something’s incorrect, please send me corrections. I’ll keep updating and reposting.

Don’t forget the International tab at the bottom if you happen to be outside the United States.

Hopefully this list will be a resource for families as they look for immersion schools nearby, and also a way for families to find new schools if they need to move for work.

I hope to eventually put it into a nice, searchable format with help from better programmers than I. Until then, here it is in all its ragged splendor. It’s meant to be a resource for our whole, growing, Mandarin immersion community.

Beth

Immersion 2012:
Bridging Contexts for a Multilingual World

Download Conference Brochure (PDF)

October 18-20, 2012
Crowne Plaza Riverfront Hotel
St. Paul, Minnesota

Conference Description

Language immersion education continues to evolve as a highly effective program model for launching students on the road to bi- and multilingualism and intercultural competence. School-based immersion programs commit to a minimum of 50% subject-matter schooling through a second, world, heritage, or indigenous language at the preschool and elementary levels with varying amounts of subject-based language learning support throughout secondary and post-secondary education. Program models include one-way world language immersion, two-way bilingual immersion, and indigenous/heritage immersion for language and culture revitalization. While each model targets distinct sociocultural contexts and educational needs, all embrace language, literacy and culture development through subject matter learning.

Under the leadership of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota (CARLA), the fourth international conference on immersion education brings these models together to engage in research-informed dialogue and professional exchange across languages, levels, learner audiences, and sociopolitical contexts. Four themes provide the framework for discussion:

Theme 1:  Immersion Pedagogy and Assessment
Theme 2:  Culture, Identity, and Community
Theme 3:  Program Design, Leadership, and Evaluation
Theme 4:  Policy, Advocacy, and Communications

Conference Sponsors:

The conference is sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota. The conference is cosponsored by the Minnesota Advocates for Immersion Network and the following University of Minnesota units: College of Education and Human Development; College of Liberal Arts; Global Programs and Strateg y Alliance; Department of Curriculum and Instruction; Second Languages and Cultures Education; Department of French and Italian; Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Institute for Global Studies; European Studies Consortium; and the Center for International Business and Research.

Conference Planning Committee:

Conference Chair: Tara Fortune (CARLA).
Committee Members: Heidi Bernal (Adams Spanish Immersion Magnet, Saint Paul Public Schools), Nicole Boudreaux (Lafayette Parish Foreign Language Immersion Programs), Helena Curtain (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Ann Marie Gunther (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction), Ana Hernandez (CA State University-San Marcos), Brian McInnes (University of Minnesota- Duluth), Kathleen Mitchell (University of Minnesota), Silvia Romero-Johnson (Nuestro Mundo Community School, Madison, WI), Julie Sugarman (Center for Applied Linguistics), Sandra Talbot (Utah State Office of Education), Diane Tedick (University of Minnesota), Ofelia Wade (Utah State Office of Education), Alysse Weinberg (University of Ottawa), Molly Wieland (Hopkins Public Schools), Amy Young (University of Minnesota).

Mandarin immersion school gears up for first year

Photo by Alan Warren

Mandarin immersion school gears up for first year

Bryan Bordelon is the principal of the Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School that will open this fall in Bellaire.

Posted: Friday, August 3, 2012 4:00 pm | Updated: 5:02 pm, Fri Aug 3, 2012.

By CAROLINE EVANS
The Examiner

Though he wears a pressed shirt and tie during the summer off-season, Bryan Bordelon doesn’t look like a school principal. His youthful demeanor, soft voice and the Green Lantern coffee mug he keeps on his desk make him seem downright puckish. But don’t let his nice guy image fool you: Bordelon comes from a bloodline of disciplinarians.

“They called my mom ‘Bulldog Bordelon’ because she was such a strict teacher,” Bordelon said in his tiny temporary office in what used to be Maude W. Gordon Elementary School in Bellaire.

Bordelon, a former Scarborough High School teacher and teacher development specialist for Houston ISD, was recently hired to be the principal for the district’s new Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion School, which will open with pre-kindergarten through second-grade pupils this year.

Please read more here.