Full immersion and math?
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Anonymous
| Hello! Does anyone know if full language immersion students have the same opportunities for math acceleration in elementary school as non-immersion students? My neighbor (whose kids recently graduated from high school) said that they were told that they should expect immersion kids to be behind in math because of learning the subject in a second language... |
Anonymous
I can't speak to your specific school or district, but my kid at an immersion school did qualify for math acceleration in elementary; however, I supplemented math at home because I wouldn't say I liked the idea of them only learning math in a second language, and I ended up switching to Beast Academy, which is rigorous and teaches deeper thinking, so I think that is why my DC tested so high. I doubt DC would've scored high on tests without the work we do at home together, as DC is bright but not profoundly gifted. Beast Academy is cute, and we quite enjoy doing it together, so it has never felt like homework. |
Anonymous
|
At my child's school (SCES French Immersion), the kids are able to receive compacted math in the target language.
My FI child has consistently scored well in district assessments and MAP-M (both of which are delivered in English), so I would not assume that immersion always leads to lower scores. |
Anonymous
| My child had math in target language through 3rd grade and compacted math in English. Parents requested compacted math in target language but the school wasn’t able to provide at that time. Sounds like different schools do this differently. |
Anonymous
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That’s good to know full immersion students can be in CM. I believe starting in 4th grade they start teaching in English as well?
My child is top 1 percentile (MAP) in ELA and math while being in full immersion, so I’m not sure I would agree immersion students are behind in either subject. We really dislike Beast Academy, but everyone’s different. |
Anonymous
Both of these things can be true....most schools with full immersion programs do offer compacted math in the target language, but may tend to have fewer kids in the compacted math class than the non-immersion kids in the regular english compacted math class, since handling word problems in a second language does add another layer of difficulty. |
Anonymous
| My kids had compacted math - taught in Spanish - while attending Spanish Immersion at RCF and are now in honors math in middle school. |
Anonymous
No, not at SCES. |
Anonymous
They start having a bit of English in 4th at SCES, but not math in English |
Anonymous
One instruction block per week in English to begin covering gaps and differences in reading/language, starting in the second half of 4th. A full daily English language block in 5th to go with the usual French-instructed blocks for math, science, social studies and language. Specials (Art/Music/PE, etc.) throughout K-5 are taught in English. That's SCES/French. Other programs may differ. Not sure how they do things at RCF (full Spanish) or Maryvale (also French). Mandarin immersion is partial -- math & science, with language & social studies in English, though I'm guessing other Mandarin mixed in somehow. Two-way immersion (some days/weeks in Spanish, some in English) is significantly different. Each can presents one or other challenge with the handling of accelerated math at the school. Hopefully none insurmountable, but there have been examples over the past few years. At SCES, the immersion class sizes are a bit bigger than the non-immersion ones. Numbers worked out to have in-person Math 5/6 for immersion, but paired-school virtual Math 5/6 for non-immersion. They didn't combine them because of the expected delivery in French for the immersion students. |
Anonymous
| Mines in compact. The beginning couple of years yes there is a little bit of a challenge at least for my kids but by third this cleared up and they were fluent and toggling languages. |