Nice article in the Seattle Times about their Mandarin immersion school – Beth
Math lessons in Mandarin? Local schools go global
In a growing number of Seattle-area classrooms, students spend half their school day immersed in a language other than English. One example is Beacon Hill International School in Seattle, where kindergartners can study in Spanish or Mandarin Chinese.
Mandarin-immersion teacher Ying Ying Wu offers instruction to first-grade students Abby Zhou, left, and Cyrus Davies at Beacon Hill International School.
KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Nat Beaumon, a Beacon Hill International School first-grader, listens to his teacher’s instructions in Mandarin, a Chinese language. The class is part of the school’s language-immersion program.
For nearly an hour, no one speaks a word of English in this first-grade math class.
Not the teacher, Ying Ying Wu, who talks energetically in Mandarin’s songlike tones.
Not the students — 6- and 7-year-olds who seem to follow along fine, even though only one speaks Mandarin at home.
Even the math test has been translated, by Wu, into Chinese characters.
At Beacon Hill International School, many students learn a second language along with their ABCs by spending half of each school day immersed in Mandarin Chinese or Spanish.
The private school started a Chinese immersion program for kindergarten students in 2009 and had plans to eventually expand it throughout the school, which teaches students in prekindergarten through grade 12 on two campuses on the Northside.
Starting in 2010, students can take Mandarin Chinese from a native-speaking teacher, said Stacy Gruen, associate director of external relations.
The mission of the Princeton International Academy Charter School is to nurture and enable young people to acquire dual language fluency in Mandarin Chinese and English within the International Baccalaureate curriculum framework.
The vision of Princeton International Academy Charter School (PIACS) is to educate young people of all backgrounds consistent with the highest ideals of human development, participatory democracy, and social justice with fluency in two international languages–Chinese and English–to promote a peaceful, ethical, and equitable world. PIACS students will be advocates, leaders, and change agents skilled as thinkers, communicators, and risk-takers who are knowledgeable, caring, and reflective in asking important questions and collaborating wisely, creatively and effectively for answers.
On January 11, 2010, the New Jersey Department of Education approved PIACS application to begin the admissions process to open our doors in September of 2010 for K-2nd graders who reside in our region, which is comprised of Princeton Regional, South Brunswick, and West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional school districts. We invite you to peruse our website and go to our Admissions page for the admissions information and application, to the Schedule page to attend an upcoming information session, and keep up to date at our In The News page.
In March 2009, I went to the Chinese Language Bridge Cup Contest in San Francisco to watch my first grader participate in a poetry recital. He was contestant #478 – I couldn’t believe so many kids would show up on a Saturday morning to recite poetry!
I saw a friend there who encouraged us to check out another Mandarin speaking event called the CLTAC (Chinese Language Teachers Association of California) Annual Mandarin Speech Contest. She said that since the speeches are written by elementary school students (rather than poets from the Tang dynasty) he should be able to understand what the other students are saying. We only had six weeks to prepare, but my friend’s fourth grader from CAIS volunteered to help my son, so we signed up.
Our friend suggested that we pick a simple topic and make notes about it in English first. Once we had an outline, we could start writing the Chinese. The application form had suggested sample topics such as Learning Mandarin, Family Life, or Favorite Sports, but my son thought those sounded too dull. Instead, the topic he chose was the tiny red eared slider turtle that his aunt had just found on her farm and decided to keep as a pet. We interviewed her, and he wrote what we thought was a simple speech in English. Once he began trying to translate it to Chinese, we had to throw out parts where the vocabulary was too difficult, such as describing the pattern on its back or the warming light she used in its aquarium.
Transcribing the speech in Chinese was more difficult than I estimated because my son could speak more words than he could write. We wanted to use the words he was familiar with, so he would attempt to translate a sentence verbally and I would look up the characters for what he was saying in an online dictionary. We ended up with holes where he didn’t know the proper connecting phrases to use, so we passed the speech off to our 4th grade friend, who filled in the gaps and corrected the grammar. It looked like his speech was going to be shorter than the minimum two minutes, so we told him to speak s..l..o..w..l..y.
Once we got to the event, we saw this breakdown of contestants in my son’s category (1st grade students with experience in an immersion or bilingual Mandarin program):
The parents were allowed to sit in the room and observe, so I got to hear all 20 speeches. Some kids were nervous and spoke very quickly. One girl gave a humorous speech. Two kids couldn’t be coaxed to go on and passed on their turn. (The judges were very understanding when this happened and offered some advice: “If you find yourself in front of an audience and forget your speech or get too nervous to go on, just smile sweetly, say “xie xie ni”, bow, and scoot off stage.”) A few kids delivered their speeches with amazing confidence and poise for first graders. Even though I understand very little Mandarin, I accurately guessed the winner based on her captivating delivery.
Many of the speeches were based on the theme of “My Family”. I could somewhat follow these simple speeches that went along the lines of: “There are 4 people in my family: my father, my mother, my sister, and me. My father has brown hair. He likes to walk our dog and eat ice cream…” In hindsight, I should have encouraged the family theme for my son’s speech, which would have eliminated much of the work doing dictionary lookups.
My son understood when we started the project that he wasn’t expected to win anything, so when his group was finished, we listened to some of the entertainment in the talent show and left before the awards ceremony to get an ice cream.
Here is the speech he gave. Please keep in mind that it was written by a first grader with help from a 4th grader and a non-Mandarin speaking parent. Also, in a few places the pinyin may not match the characters because we made some last minute simplifications.
Auntie’s Tiny Turtle
姨妈的小乌龟
yímā de xiǎo wū guī
by 区正杰
My auntie has a very small red eared turtle.
我的姨妈有红色的耳朵乌龟。
Wǒ de yímā yǒu hóngsè de ěrduo wūguī.
One day my auntie was riding her horse
有一天我的姨妈骑马
Yǒu yītiān wǒ de yímā qímǎ
looking for a four leaf clover
寻找四叶草的时候
Xúnzhǎo sì yè cǎo de shíhou
and she found a tiny turtle in the grass.
她找了一只小乌龟在草地上
Tā zhǎo le yī zhī xiǎo wū guī zài cǎodì shàng
The turtle was lucky because she did not step on it.
小乌龟很幸运因为没有被姨妈踩到。
Xiǎo wūguī hěn xìngyùn yīnwèi méiyǒu bèi yímā cǎi dào.
The turtle has red ears.
小乌龟有红色的耳朵
Xiǎo wūguī yǒu hóngsè de ěrduo
He is light green and dark green.
它的身体是浅绿和深绿色的。
Tā shì qiǎn lǜ sè hé lǜ sè
Because it is a baby, it is 5 centimeters long.
因为它是宝宝，它是五厘米长
Yīnwei tā shì bǎobǎo ，tā shì wǔ límǐ cháng
She does not know if it is a girl turtle or a boy turtle.
她不知道小乌龟是公的还是母的。
Tā bù zhī dào shì nǚhái guī háishì nánhái guī
She does not know where the turtle came from.
她也不知道小乌龟是从哪里来的。
Tā yě bù zhīdào xiǎo wūguī shì cóng nǎlǐ lái de.
She thinks a bird dropped the turtle.
她想鸟投下了乌龟
Tā xiǎng niǎo tóuxià le wūguī
She gave the turtle lots of food.
她把小乌龟带回了家，还给它许多食物。
Tā gěi xiǎo wūguī xǔduō shíwù 。
Her cats like the turtle a lot.
小猫很喜欢小乌龟
Tā de xiǎo māo hěn xǐhuan xiǎo wūguī.
The turtle is a red eared slider.
这只小乌龟的品种是红耳龟。
Xiǎo wūguī shì yī gè hóng sè ěr duo huá zǐ
He can live for 40 years.
它可以活四十年。
Tā kěyǐ huó sìshí nián 。
His name is Duncan Monarch of the Glen.
它的名字是峡谷邓肯君主
Tā de míngzì shì dèngkěn guó wáng
She will let him go back to the pond when he gets bigger.
等小乌龟再长大些后姨妈会把它放回到池塘里。
Děng xiǎo wū guī zài zhǎngdà xiē hòu yímā huì bǎ tā fàng huídào chítáng lǐ 。
Congratulations to all our Jose Ortega and Starr King students who participated in the 6th Annual Confucius Institute Chinese Language Bridge Cup Competition.
This year marks the second year that Starr King students were in the winners circle but has increased its number of winners.
This year also marks the first time there is a winning student from Jose Ortega.
We hope more students will enter this competition next year. If you are interested in learning more about it, we can talk about it briefly at the next Mandarin Immersion Parents Council (MIPC) meeting on Monday, April 5th (5:30-7:30 pm) at Starr King Elementary School.
Using the last of the money from the Mayor’s Office, which was designated specifically for outreach to Mandarin-speaking families, the MIPC launched an ad this week that will run in SingTao Daily for the next two weeks, encouraging Mandarin-speaking families to consider Starr King and Jose Ortega. The purpose of the ad is also to raise awareness of our schools and our Mandarin immersion programs in the Chinese community.
Special thanks to translators Wai Yip and Lisa Huang-Symmes.
The San Francisco Unified School District’s School Board voted Wednesday night to approve a new Seal of Biliteracy for graduating high school seniors.
The seal, which will come with a certificate seniors can use when applying for jobs or applying to colleges, will honor those students who through their studies or testing have proven they are bilingual or biliterate in one of the many languages taught in SFUSD schools.
The new program is not expected to cost anything extra, as it will be based on already-existing testing.
Supporters of the Seal of Biliteracy at the School Board Meeting
Kudos to Margaret Peterson, of SFUSD’s World Languages Dept., who spear headed the effort.
And a huge thanks to Starr King parent Carmen Cordovez, who stayed until 9:45 PM last night waiting for the vote, which unfortunately was moved after the budget discussion. Carmen (whose children will be trilingual in Spanish, English and Mandarin) didn’t get to speak for the proposal as she had to get home, but she waited in the overflowing room for more than three hours, which is above and beyond the call of duty.
And a shout out Ijnanya Foster, another Starr King MI parent, who was on call to speak but also had to in the end give up due to the stronger call of getting her kids to bed at a reasonable hour.
More from the District:
District to Award Seal of Biliteracy to Eligible Future Graduates
March 24, 2010 (San Francisco) – Last night the Board of Education voted
unanimously to include a Seal of Biliteracy or Seal of World Language
Proficiency on diplomas of students who prove proficiency in two or more
languages upon graduation.
“This distinction will honor the linguistic and cultural treasures of our
students,” says Superintendent Carlos Garcia. “Achieving high levels of
academic competency in both English and at least one other World Language,
including students’ home languages, is an integral part of making our vision
of 21st century learning a reality.”
The seal will be awarded to students who have mastered standard academic
English and any other language, including American Sign Language.
This adoption furthers the 2006 board commitment to prepare all of its
students for a multilingual/multicultural world by taking full advantage of
the rich linguistic and cultural diversity and assets of San Francisco, and
provide every student the opportunity to graduate proficient in English and
at least one other language.
The idea of the seal has been promoted by a group known as Californians
Together, a statewide coalition of parents, teachers, and education
advocates.
“This exciting program will recognize the biliteracy skills of our
students,” said Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, the group’s executive director.
“Students who receive the Seal of Biliteracy become highly attractive to
future employers and college admissions offices. It is our goal to have at
least fifty school districts awarding Seals of Biliteracy by this June”
Speigel-Coleman said.
According to Californians Together, programs for the seal already are
underway at a number of California school districts including Glendale
Unified, Ventura Unified, Rowland Unified, Sweetwater Union High School
District, and Eastside Union High School District. In addition, Albuquerque
Public School District in New Mexico also has instituted the program.
To receive the Seal of Biliteracy or World Language Proficiency, seniors
must demonstrate proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in
one or more languages in addition to English.
The Seal of Biliteracy will likely require at least one of the following: a
pre-advanced or intermediate high assessment of their second language skill,
a minimum score of 4 on an AP Foreign Language exam, successful completion
of the fourth year of the language course with a 3.0 GPA or above,
successful completion of a subject matter course taught in a language other
than English (e.g., Biology taught in Chinese, US History taught in Spanish)
with a 3.0 or above, and school records or other official documents
indicating that the student successfully completed five or more years in the
target language where the second language was the medium of instruction.
The Seal of World Language Proficiency will likely require at least one of
the following: an intermediate-low level assessment of their second language
skill, passing the AP Foreign Language Exam with a score of at least 3,
passing the SAT II at the UC admissions designated level for the target
language, successful completion of the fourth year target language course
with a 2.5 GPA, successful completion of a subject matter course taught in a
language other than English (e.g., Biology taught in Chinese, US History
taught in Spanish) with a 3.0 or above, and school records or other official
documents indicating that the student successfully completed three or more
years in the target language where the second language was the medium of
instruction.
Both seals require students to complete all UC A-G course requirements for a
high school diploma, including all English Language Arts requirements and
passing the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), and an overall GPA of
2.0.
KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 