From: Xinhua

by Angela Efros

SAN DIEGO, the United States, May 12 (Xinhua) — A crowd of over 1,300 fell silent as 13-year-old Kamila Carter told her story of being raised by deaf parents from two different countries and how she crosses U.S.-China barriers in the world of sounds and silence.

To communicate with her father, mother and grandmother, Kamila had to learn three different languages. A 7th grade student at Tierra del Sol Middle School, she was the youngest speaker at the 2019 National Chinese Language Conference in San Diego in western U.S. state of California. On a Friday’s panel titled “Student Study Abroad Experience: Impact and Best Practices,” young Kamila spoke about conquering her fears to travel to China all alone.

The annual National Chinese Language Conference is the largest annual gathering in North America that brings together leaders and practitioners in the fields of Chinese language and culture education and U.S.-China education partnership.

“The mother is from Mexico, she’s totally deaf. The father is from the United States, he is totally deaf. He uses the American sign language, and she uses the Mexican Spanish sign language,” a mentor and teacher, Lilly Cheng, PhD, director of the Confucius Institute at San Diego State University, told Xinhua.

Kamila talks to her father in American sign language, to her Mother in Spanish and Spanish sign language and to her grandmother in English.

Please read more here.

An interesting article. The important point is this:

Dr. Muñoz makes the point that children are only sponges when they get deep and meaningful exposure to the language. “You need a high frequency of input, of good quality,” she said. “You have to live with the language, use the language and function in the language.

Immersion is that deep and meaningful exposure. It’s why a taking Mandarin classes in elementary school (called FLES, for Foreign Language in Elementary School and usually 3-5 hours a week) doesn’t do much at all.

The article also reminds us that children go through a silent period when they’re absorbing  a new language. We don’t notice it when they’re babies because, well, they’re babies. But we do notice it when they’re give.

And yet pay attention to how much of what’s being said in your child’s classroom they understand. Do they get up when the teacher says to get up? Do they go to the sink to wash their hands when their teacher says to? Do they take out their math books and not their science books when asked? That means they’re understanding — even if they couldn’t say those sentences themselves.

It’s also true of English, when you think about it. Kindergarteners don’t say things like, “Could you please get me a cup of water when you’re finished doing the dishes?” But they understand us when we say, “Put your Legos away and after that you can bring me a book and I’ll read it to you.”

Do Children Soak Up Language Like Sponges?

A pervasive idea assumes that young children can absorb new languages with minimal effort, but it turns out that the science is more complicated.

When my husband and I decided to pack up our comfortable lives in Austin, Texas, to move to Barcelona, Spain, we had a dream for our then-3-year-old son: He would become trilingual. In Barcelona, most people speak Spanish and Catalan, the regional language. Speaking three languages seemed like a big goal for a small person, but we believed it was possible because of one phrase: Children are like sponges.

Whenever we told people about our plans to put our son in a Catalan school, they told us about sponges. Children learn languages quickly, they said. He’ll be speaking like a native in no time.

But that’s not what happened. In September, our son started school. It wasn’t until March that he uttered his first full sentence in Catalan: “M’he fet mal” (I’ve hurt myself). But that didn’t open the floodgates of language. His teacher assured us that he understood everything — he followed directions well, and he was learning. But he stayed mostly silent. I began to worry that my child was not as sponge-like a learner as I’d been led to believe.

Please read more here.

[The Mandarin immersion school is listed further down in the story, click to “Please read more link” to read it.]

From The Houston Chronicle

Fresh after getting a new principal, West University Elementary School finds itself among the top of the heap in a new list of Houston ISD schools.

School rankings were announced by Children At Risk, rating thousands of schools in the state and assigning letter grades to each campus. In Houston ISD, 274 campuses were rated with grades running from A-plus to F.

Children At Risk has offices in Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth. Founded in 1989 in Houston, it touts itself as a “non-partisan research and advocacy organization dedicated to addressing the root causes of poor public policies affecting children.” It is now a “statewide organization impacting all children in Texas, speaking out and driving change for Texas’ most vulnerable youth for over 30 years.”

In ranking schools, Children At Risk “ranks and grades Texas public schools to help parents, educators, and community members understand how schools in their community are performing and spark dialogue on the quality of public education across Texas.”

Schools are assigned ranks and grades based on “student achievement on standardized tests, student growth year-to-year, and how well schools support economically disadvantaged students. High schools are also evaluated on how well they prepare students for college and career.”

Please see more here.

What stands out to me in this article is a side note pretty far down, about what some families are willing to do to get  immersion:

“The only difficulty is when students move away,” he said. “When, say, a fourth grader leaves, we can’t just put another kid in that classroom. They wouldn’t understand what was going on. But a lot of parents really love the program. We’ve had a family alternate weeks between here and North Dakota because they wanted their kid to stay involved in the program.”

From: Oil City News

DUAL LANGUAGE IMMERSION STUDENTS PREPARE FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR

By Brendan LaChance on January 27, 2019

Paradise Elementary students [in Casper, Wyoming] are preparing their performances for the Chinese New Year Friday, January 25.

The students will be at the Nicolaysen Art Museum on the following Friday, February 1 to celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year. This year’s animal: the pig.

Fourth graders were crowded into the gym on Friday, preparing music and dance for their performance. They’ll put their efforts on display at PV on January 31 before the school heads over to the Nic for their February 1 activities. PV’s Chinese New Year celebration at the Nic will help raise funds for a student trip to China and the Nic. There will be performances, a cultural presentation, art sale, raffles, traditional Chinese crafts plus food and drink.

Please read more here.

Redwood City, Calif, in the heart of Silicon Valley, has faced declining enrollment for several years, leading to a significant funding gap within the district. This is partly due to the area losing middle and working class families as Silicon Valley real estate prices have gone through the roof and priced them out of the area, while wealthy families increasingly choose private schools. 

A story about the district’s woes is here.

A bright spot is John Gill Elementary, which opened a Mandarin Immersion program in 2015 and which has been a draw for students in. That program continues to do well and was saved in the latest round of school closures, which are detailed below. I’ve spoken at the school several times and it’s got engaged, strong parents and a wonderful principal. A nice example of how immersion can keep families in local schools. 

From: Climate Online Redwood City

Redwood City Schools’ “Downsizing” Moves Ahead

Two Redwood City School District alternative programs will have new principals next fall as part of the district’s downsizing from 16 schools to 12.

Warren Sedar, principal at Selby Lane and a 20-year district teacher and administrator, will remain in his position as his school absorbs the Adelante Spanish Immersion Program, which moves from its campus on Granger Way west of Alameda de las Pulgas.

Katherine Rivera, principal at John Gill for five years, also will keep her job when the Orion parent participation program moves to John Gill to share the Jefferson Avenue campus with the district’s Mandarin Immersion program, established at John Gill in 2015. Orion will vacate its current home on Allerton Street near downtown.

In making his announcement by email to district parents, Supt. John Baker said current Adelante principal Christine Hiltbrand and Orion principal Julie Guaspari “have done an exceptional job at their current sites and we plan to have them continue with us as part of the district’s leadership team.”

Please read more here.

From John Hilton, a Mandarin parent in Utah, who has some nice suggestions for Chinese language TV shows that work for kids.

Recently my family has enjoyed watching the Chinese Drama series “A Love So Beautiful.” It’s a fun, squeaky clean show that follows the story of five high school students in China. English subtitles are available (and for most students will be necessary for full comprehension). But it’s a fun way to practice Chinese listening skills and some cultural insights will come as well. Consider having a Chinese movie night where you watch an episode or two together. Hopefully your children will like it enough to keep going!

Another great series is “Love 020.” This series is a little more intense than “A Love So Beautiful” as it takes place on a college campus and includes scenes that take place in a fantasy world, but it’s still very clean and my kids have loved it so far.