Parents in the western Canadian province of British Columbia are working full out to create Mandarin immersion programs there. They’ve got several web sites up, and a really nice wiki article up on the University of British Columbia web site  here.

It’s a good model for parents in other parts of the world who want to work to create Mandarin immersion programs.

St. Cloud school district looks to expand immersion program

By Dave Aeikens • daeikens@stcloudtimes.com • October 2, 2010

Sixteen third-graders in the immersion program at Madison Elementary School sang in Chinese with their teacher last week.

Almost three years from now they will leave Madison for middle school, ready for the next stage of the St. Cloud school district’s language immersion program.

Four years into immersion programs that provide instruction mostly in Mandarin Chinese at Madison and Spanish at Clearview Elementary School, efforts by St. Cloud school district and its partners are turning toward what happens when the children who have stayed in the programs hit middle school and high school.

“What the discussion needs to be is how is it going to run in the middle levels?” said Bob Huot, principal at North Junior High School, where Madison’s immersion students will go in three years. “We just need to find out what is the best programming for students.”

Read more here.

Charter school offers immersion in Chinese, Spanish

Nelson Garcia 3 hrs ago

DENVER – In the old Whiteman Elementary building, teachers are doing something never done before in the Mile High City. They’re teaching kids every subject in Mandarin.

“We really felt that there was definitely a strong demand here in Denver for this kind of program,” said Kristy Fantz, co-founder of the Denver Language School.

Within the Denver Language School, nearly half the students are enrolled in a full immersion program teaching them Mandarin Chinese. The other students are in a full immersion Spanish program, all tuition-free as a Denver Public Schools charter.

“We use the language 100 percent in teaching not only the language arts, as well as other subject contents,” said Jian Lin, Chinese program director.

Students learn math, social studies, and science all in Mandarin. Students are not allowed to speak English in class.

“We use the interactive white board to show the elements,” said Lin. “The hands-on activities always help the kids to understand.”

The Denver Language School currently has grades kindergarten through second grade. It will eventually be a K-8 school as the program adds a level each year.

Read the rest of the article here.

Oct 30: Shu Ren Fall Festival and Bilingual Book Fair

Come celebrate fall with Shu Ren International School’s Fall Festival and Book Fair!
Join us for a day of fun and games to support the East Bay’s Mandarin/English dual immersion school:
– Magic Show! (at 11 am)
– Bouncy House and other games and prizes for the whole family
– Homemade snacks
– A bilingual book fair featuring a wide selection of hard-to-find Chinese children’s books, DVDs and educational games, and English books for all ages provided by Scholastic.

The festival will be held at Shu Ren, 1333 University Ave., Berkeley from 10:30-4:00 on October 30.

Shu Ren is also offering school tours every other Wednesday throughout the fall starting October 6, and will host several open houses. The first Open House is on October 21.

Learn more about Shu Ren’s exciting dual immersion curriculum for Pre-K through 3rd grade, after school program, summer camp and adult Mandarin classes at http://shureninternationalschool.com

I had no idea their program was so big, and so well-established. They have 12 schools involved, from elementary to high school. They started  in 1982, just a year after the Chinese American International School in San Francisco. I believe this makes them the oldest on-going Mandarin immersion public system in North America.

From their website:

At the elementary level (Grades 1 to 6), the subjects taught in English are: English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. Subjects taught in Chinese are: Chinese Language Arts, Mathematics, Art, Health, and Physical Education. Music may be taught in both languages.

Chinese Language Arts is an optional course at the Junior High (Grades 7 to 9) and Senior High (Grades 10 to 12) levels designed to improve listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Chinese with emphasis on conversational skills. Studies include a variety of short stories, novels, plays, and poetry. Art and cultural activities are also included. Computer skills in Chinese word processing are practiced when possible. Chinese Language Arts carries the same credits as other optional courses.

Chinese Language Arts at the Senior High level meet the language requirements of the International Baccalaureate (I.B.) Program of studies. Students who wish to write the I.B. Exam in Grade 12 will have that option. This course may also be taken as an option for credit towards a High School Diploma and may be accepted for entrance requirements at post-secondary institutions.

Very impressive.It also looks as if their parent organization, the Edmonton Chinese Bilingual Education Assoc., is really strong and supportive. Check out their web site here.

We’d love to hear from anyone in Edmonton about the program, how it works and how it’s progressed. And because you’ve got K – 12 students, we’re very interested (always) in what reading material your upper grade students like.

Of course our friends up in Canada have a different school system to contend with (and decades of strong immersion programs in French and English to point to) but it’s still interesting for folks in the United States to look at how parents can organize to push for Mandarin immersion in their schools.

===

http://www.mandarinforbcschools.org/

Welcome to MandarinForBCSchools.org! This website was created by parents for parents to share information about bilingualism and to help bring a K-12 Mandarin bilingual education program to our public school system.  We are presently three parent groups, located in North and West Vancouver, Vancouver, Tri-Cities, Burnaby and Richmond.  If you would like to give your child the gift of bilingualism, join us!

You can see their meet up page here.