Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • New Chinese Immersion School At DeAvila off to a Rocking Start

    By Elizabeth Weise

    The Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila, is off to a “rocking good start,” says Nicole Hsieh, the new school’s new PTA president.

    cislogo

    The District’s fifth Chinese immersion school opened this year.  It is Cantonese-English, and will introduce Mandarin in second grade.

    The school has three Kindergartens and two first grade classes. The Kindergarten was full, though a few spots may open up as people move around the first two weeks of school. The first grade still has a few spots, Hsieh says.

    One of the Kindergarten classes is two-way immersion, with 50% Cantonese speakers and 50% English speakers. The rest of the classes are de facto one-way, with too few Cantonese speakers to make them fully two-way.

    The parents only got word they were being given spaces in a totally new school last spring and hit the ground running. “We have a ton of working committees and  fundraising going on,” says Hsieh. “We’ve already had eight events since March, play dates and picnic potlucks. We have at least 15 more scheduled on our calendar for the rest of the year.”

    The DeAvila parents have already reserved a restaurant for their Moon Festival Gala fundraiser and hope to march in the Chinese New Year’s Parade this year.

    The school’s students come from a broad range of families, from newly-immigrated Cantonese speakers to 100% Caucasian families with no connection to Chinese at all — before now. All are “really committed,” to making the school a success, Hsieh says.

    Because the families had to do so much before the doors even opened, the first day of school felt more like a triumph than a cold start.

    “My husband and I are on cloud nine,” says Hsieh. “The first day of school we were walking up and hugging parents like they were old friends already because we’ve been meeting weekly for months. A huge portion of the kids already knew each other because we’ve been having meetings in each others home, because the school wasn’t open. It feels like an extended family already.”

    It’s a thousand times better than Hsieh says she could have imagined her child’s first day of school being back in March, when she got her enrollment letter from the District saying they were 0 for 7.

    “We’re rocking and rolling!” she says.

    You can learn more about the school by clicking this link: cisdeavila.com

  • Kindergarten: What to Expect

    Monday, Aug. 24th, marked the beginning of the fourth year of Mandarin Immersion at the San Francisco Unified School District. To help incoming students and their families, parents from Starr King and Jose Ortega offer some advice on what to expect and what to do to help your child’s first weeks of immersion go well.

    ——

    On Immersion:

    Make sure they know their teachers can understand them and they can always tell their teachers in English if they feel sick or scared or need to go to the bathroom, etc., they just can’t expect their teachers to speak English.

    Your kids will be fine.  But do remind them repeatedly that their teachers understand English just fine, and they can ask/tell them whatever they want or need to.

    Some kids can get frustrated that they don’t understand what’s being said to them in class. It’s normal for immersion. It really does change at Christmas time, though- have faith! One mom wrote that her daughter had a hard first six months, though not everyone does. But she was very happy the second half of the year and now loves school. “It probably would have been true even if she wasn’t doing the immersion.”

    On eating:

    My girls did not eat their lunch for a while – too much to look at – so I made sure to have food in the car ready on the way home (or opened the un-eaten lunch box) because they were hungry!

    Kids like to get notes in their lunches even if they can’t read yet–make it simple because it’s not likely anyone will read it to them, either, but their name with some hearts, flowers, stars, whatever and an “I heart you” can be pretty comforting in this big scary place called school.

    Kindergarten lunch has a lot going on compared to preschool or lunches at home. So for kids who are easily distracted at lunch — protein breakfasts.  We made sure to have quite a bit of protein in every breakfast and it seemed to make a difference in mood at the end of the day.

    My son also seemed too busy to use the  water fountain during lunch/recess, so we learned to pack his water bottle with his lunch.

    They don’t eat…but they might like to, so try to give them something enticing, easy, and healthful, like a granola bar.

    Make sure your kid knows how to open things in her/his lunch or how to raise a hand and get help.

    Parents can go in and volunteer during lunch, which is really helpful for kids and parents alike, especially in the early weeks.

    On Being Tired:

    Your kid will be exhausted. All Kindergartners are (immersion and non immersion alike.) It can take up to a few months for them to get their stamina.
    The upside? They fall asleep easier at night.

    On Going to the Bathroom:

    See to it that they can fasten their pants (or that they have an elastic waist).

    My son never wanted to miss out on anything, so he would put off going to the bathroom (all day sometimes!). Ask about their bathroom trips, and you may need to have them pick a regular time to go, such as before snack or after lunch.

    On Expecting the Unexpected:

    Let them know what a fire drill is and something about what to expect–one happened during K lunch on the second day of school last year.

    On Clothes:

    Use permanent market to put your child’s name on any clothing they might possibly remove at school

    However, one mom notes: As a Kindergartener, my daughter “lost” her jacket almost every month. Sometimes we found it (usually on a chair in the cafeteria or on a bench outside – never in the lost and found or in the classroom), and sometimes it was lost for good. Didn’t matter that it had her name on it. Lesson learned: don’t let your child go to school in outerwear that is valuable (i.e. grandma’s hand knit sweater) to you.

    On the Trials of White Shirts:

    Both Starr King and Jose Ortega are uniform schools.  At Starr King, the shirt must be white. There’s no hope of keeping those white shirts really white. Give up and embrace the mottled look and you’ll be a happier person.  At Jose Ortega, the shirt may be either white, light blue, or navy.  For the reasons outlined above, stock primarily navy shirts, but purchase one or two white shirts and use them on any of the 10 or so days a year that are hot and sunny.

  • DeAvila Chinese Immersion School

    The “SFCitizen” blog has some first day of school photos from the “Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila”, San Francisco’s newest Chinese immersion program.  Like Alice Fong Yu and West Portal, this school will be Cantonese immersion.   As the children move to second grade, the plan is to also introduce Mandarin, with the goal of gaining proficiency in three languages: English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

    The Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila:  http://cisdeavila.com

    The San Francisco Examiner also published a nice story about the school…

    New year brings new immersion school

    By: Will Reisman
    Examiner Staff Writer, August 25, 2009

    Off and teaching: The new immersion school will initially offer instruction to kindergartners and first-graders, but hopes to expand. (Mike Koozmin/Special to the Examiner)

    SAN FRANCISCO — Some four-plus decades separate the two, but Carlos Garcia and Emma Hsieh displayed much of the same reactions Monday on the first day of school.

    San Francisco’s public schools superintendent and the 5-year-old Hsieh were both celebrating the inauguration of the district’s new Chinese immersion school at DeAvila Elementary on Haight Street.

    Click here for the full article.

  • Mandarin’s everywhere

    Check out this article from Scholastic Administrators magazine from 2007, then take a look at the list of Mandarin immersion schools under our U.S. and Bay area tabs. We’ve come a long way in just two years.

    www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3746848

    Year of the Chinese Language

    Is your district or school considering Mandarin instruction? These five early adopters have found it a fortunate choice indeed.

    Two years ago, Starr King Elementary principal Chris Rosenberg was faced with an awful possibility: His San Francisco Unified school was on the chopping block, slated for potential closure. Enrollment was down sharply: 151 students in 2005 compared to 406 in 1993. Eleven classrooms sat vacant. And despite seven years of steadily rising test scores, Starr King, flanked by housing projects, hardly had parents and students flocking to its doors.

    Fast-forward to September 2006. Starr King now hosts one of a handful of K–5 Mandarin-immersion programs in the country. “It’s been fantastic,” says Rosenberg, himself a former Spanish bilingual teacher. “It’s a totally different thing now.” In the fall of 2006, 24 families signed up for total-immersion kindergarten classes, in which the children received all instruction in Mandarin. The Mandarin program will likely save Starr King.

    Across the country, the demand for Mandarin immersion is so great that districts from Massachusetts to Minnesota are jumping on the Mandarin bandwagon.

  • Meet the Starr King 2009-2010 Mandarin Immersion staff

    Principal

    Mr. Rosenberg was a teacher at Starr King for eight years before becoming its principal five years ago, in 2003. He speaks English and Spanish and has learned to sing Happy Birthday in Chinese. He ably guides Starr King’s four strands — English, Spanish bilingual, Mandarin immersion and Special Education.

    “I like helping kids construct meaning.”

    Bilingual Literacy Support Teacher

    (for both Starr King and Jose Ortega):

    MaryAnn Skrivanich

    Ms. Skrivanich has over a decade of English teaching experience in Oakland, majored in Chinese in college, and has spent the summer studying in China.

    Third Grade

    Chiao-li Wang

    aka Wang Laoshi

    Ms. Wang taught elementary school in Taiwan and specialized in early childhood education.

    Sing-ing Chen

    aka Chen Laoshi

    Ms. Chen recently taught Kindergarten and First grade Mandarin Immersion at Ohlone Elementary in Palo Alto.

    Second Grade

    Yi Zeng

    aka Zeng Laoshi

    Ms. Zeng is a native Mandarin speaker with experience teaching in China and is a graduate of California State University-Fresno.

    Esther Chau

    aka Chau Laoshi

    Ms. Chau is from Taipei in Taiwan. She has been a teacher for 12 years. She has taught in both private and public high schools, as well as teaching at two charter schools in the Bay area. In addition, she owned a learning center that offered science, math, art and Mandarin enrichment. This is her first year at Starr King.

    “Teaching really fulfills me. I can use it to help kids, especially because Mandarin is difficult so learning it is a big accomplishment. I take education very seriously. I have a passion for education and teaching, as a way to reach out to many children.”

    First Grade

    Sandy Sung

    Aka Sung Laoshi

    Ms. Sung is from Taipei, Taiwan. She came to the United States 15 years ago and taught in Los Angeles before coming to Starr King as a Mandarin immersion teacher in 2007. She has been a teacher for seven years, teaching both Chinese and piano. In Los Angeles she taught at Hacienda La Puerta school.

    “Teaching is so wonderful because you help the children and you get to . see the light bulb turn on in their head! And we learn so much from each other every day.”

    Helen Tong

    aka Tong Laoshi

    Ms. Tong is originally from Canton, China. She speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin. This is her fourth year of teaching. Her first year in the San Francisco Unified School District was teaching at Alice Fong Yu Elementary, the Cantonese immersion school. She came to Starr King in 2007.

    She loves teaching “because every day is something new. It’s so fun when the kids are trying to express themselves in Mandarin.

    Kindergarten

    Angelica Chang

    aka Zhang Laoshi

    Ms. Chang was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She’s been a teacher for ten years, three at Starr King in the Mandarin immersion program. She began by volunteering a San Francisco Saturday Chinese school. She got her teaching credential and B-CLAD four years ago.

    “I like everything about teaching. I was making a big tooth as a prop for class one day and I turned to my husband and I said ‘I can’t believe I’m getting paid for this!’”

    Ina To

    aka To Laoshi

    Ms. To is originally from Hong Kong. She has been in the United States for 18 years, 13 as an elementary school teacher. She went to college and got her teaching certificate in New York City and then came to the Bay area.

    “Children are so open-hearted!” she says of her students.

  • San Francisco State gets important Chinese Program

    This is excellent news, as it means when our students graduate from high school, there will be a program right here in town that will be at their level in Chinese. One problem districts with Mandarin immersion programs have found is that their students graduate above the level of most university courses, leaving them nothing to do in college. It also opens up the possibility of more cross-fertilization between the San Francisco Unified School District and San Francisco State.

    — Beth Weise

    See also

    Chinese Flagship Partner Program

    San Francisco State University

    The San Francisco State University Chinese Language Flagship Partner Program (SFSU) is an honors undergraduate program in advanced Mandarin Chinese in partnership with the well-established University of Oregon Chinese Flagship Program that draws on the curricular innovations of other Chinese Flagship centers and partners, as well as its own experiences and perspectives.

    The program’s goal is to assist highly motivated and dedicated undergraduates to reach ILR 3 Chinese language skills, and at the same time to build advanced competency in their choice of academic and professional disciplines.

    The program is supported by the following key elements:

    • a vigorous existing Chinese language program at SFSU, and multiple additional avenues for China study;

    • Second Language Acquisition/Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language expertise within the Chinese program, assisted by an Advisory Board of experts;

    • a university with over 85 Mandarin speakers among the tenured/tenure-track faculty;

    • a regional setting where there is a high concentration of Chinese speakers, and wide-ranging opportunities for intercultural exchange.

    Eligibility The Flagship Program is open to SFSU students whose cumulative G.P.A. is at least 3.25, and is by application. The core curriculum is designed to guide a select cohort whose Chinese proficiency is at least ILR 1/1+ (intermediate-mid/intermediate-high) to ILR 3 (superior) in three intensive years of study.

    Yet in order to attract the best possible students regardless of language background, the Program also supports instruction at the elementary and intermediate-low levels, in order to assist interested students to reach required entrance proficiency. Ongoing assessment will help identify which of the communicative modes (interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational) and which of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) present particular challenges for each individual student. Individualized instruction will be given to address students’ areas of need.

    Program Description — A typical curricular path for an incoming freshman student with no background in Chinese will be as follows:

    • Summer Intensive Elementary Chinese – The equivalent of one year of Elementary Chinese will be offered in an 8-week (150 class hours) program at SFSU. In addition to receiving language training, introduction of electronic media using Chinese, such as email, internet, blogs and forums, and texting, will encourage students to become self-learners.

    • Year 1 – students enroll in regular intermediate Chinese courses, and also in special Flagship Preparatory sessions for accelerated work in reading and writing. A conversation partner system will be instituted, and students will meet with Chinese-speaking Faculty Mentors in their specific disciplines. • Summer in Qingdao – upon verification of ILR 1/1+ proficiency, and acceptance to the Flagship cohort, students attend intensive language courses at the Chinese Flagship Qingdao Center in eastern Shandong Province.

    • Year 2 – at SFSU, students enroll in two Flagship courses per semester, a demanding Content-Area Course taught by a Chinese-speaking faculty member (topics will vary), and a related Language Strategy Course in the Chinese Program.. They will also meet regularly with Faculty Mentors in their major discipline.

    • Year 3: The “Capstone Year” – at the Chinese Flagship Overseas Center at Nanjing University in Jiangsu Province, students undertake a challenging semester program that combines special advanced Flagship courses with direct enrollment (for grades) in regular Nanjing University courses. Subsequently they are placed in four-month internships in various locations in China to gain practical experience working in their disciplines in Chinese-speaking environments.

    • Year 4 – at SFSU, Flagship students complete culminating projects with the assistance of their Faculty Mentors. In addition, they will take advanced courses in Translation and Interpretation, on the premise that these are skills that need to be developed for accurate cross-cultural communication.

    The SFSU Chinese Flagship Partner Program is designed to engage both instructors and students in a common enterprise. Instructors will benefit from involvement in a program reflecting the most recent methodologies for language teaching, and students will be provided multiple avenues for language-in-use and cultural interaction, in order to keep them focused despite the accelerated pace and academic pressure.

    Students who successfully complete the Flagship Program, fulfill all university requirements as well as those in their undergraduate majors, and attain Chinese proficiency levels of ILR 3 or above as verified by summative assessment, will be awarded Flagship Certification along with their baccalaureate degrees. Certification will indicate our confidence that the holders have the cultural, academic, and linguistic tools to take on leadership roles in the US-China relationship in the coming decades.

    Financial Assistance Flagship Scholarships will be available to qualified students, and program staff will also help students to identify and apply for additional financial support, from both public and private sources.

    Contact Dr. Charles Egan, Director San Francisco State University Flagship Partner Program Email: chega@sfsu.edu

  • 好久不见 (Long Time, No See)

    好久不见 (hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn, Long Time, No See)

    by a Jose Ortega parent

    At the close of the school year, SFUSD’s Mandarin Immersion program first graders from Starr King and Jose Ortega schools gathered at a San Francisco playground to play, picnic, and solve a little mystery. This was a special day because they were meeting their 笔友 (bĭ yŏu, pen pals) face-to-face for the first time and they were curious to see who they’ve been writing to throughout the school year.

    Pen Pal Playdate
    Spotting gophers at the picnic

    While kindergartners learn to write approximately 70 characters, they master writing some 200 Chinese characters (汉字, Hànzì) by the close of the first grade. They are capable of recognizing many more characters than this. Writing complete sentences in Chinese, maintaining journals, and composing letters are all a part of what they learn at this level.

    Pen Pal Letters
    Pen Pal Letters

    According to one of the teachers, writing to a local pen pal was a fun way to start writing “with a purpose.” This project was so successful that Mandarin Immersion teachers will launch it again with next year’s incoming first graders and plan to continue this exchange through fifth grade.

    For more information about the 笔友 program, please contact miparentscouncil.