Language Immersion Schools and Reading Levels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you want your kid to continue to be so far ahead? There certainly are merits to a second language whether they are ahead or not. I guess it comes down to what you think is more important. I have a kids in dual language and he is ahead in both, but my priority is for him to learn the second language, so as long as we are happy with the school we will stay.

I never said that I was unhappy with my son's school. In fact, we're quite pleased with what he is learning--and he loves school. I was just wondering if perhaps he would be further ahead in a monolingual school--despite his above-grade reading levels in K. Why wouldn't I want my child to reach his full potential?

Breathe. Full potential is not reached by racing through these silly reading levels. It's like making a toddler try to run a 5k just because they mastered walking at 9months. Future reading comprehension ability is not at all determined by how fast they progress through these levels in the early grade. In fact, going too fast can actually be a detriment to reading comprehension in the 4th/5th grade years when they start having to read dense texts of non-fiction. Just enjoy reading with your child, let him/her read what captures her interest and all will be well. Your child is an advanced reader but that's really not a big deal. Everyone gets there in their own time given smart and appropriate instruction

Definitely this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you want your kid to continue to be so far ahead? There certainly are merits to a second language whether they are ahead or not. I guess it comes down to what you think is more important. I have a kids in dual language and he is ahead in both, but my priority is for him to learn the second language, so as long as we are happy with the school we will stay.

I never said that I was unhappy with my son's school. In fact, we're quite pleased with what he is learning--and he loves school. I was just wondering if perhaps he would be further ahead in a monolingual school--despite his above-grade reading levels in K. Why wouldn't I want my child to reach his full potential?

Breathe. Full potential is not reached by racing through these silly reading levels. It's like making a toddler try to run a 5k just because they mastered walking at 9months. Future reading comprehension ability is not at all determined by how fast they progress through these levels in the early grade. In fact, going too fast can actually be a detriment to reading comprehension in the 4th/5th grade years when they start having to read dense texts of non-fiction. Just enjoy reading with your child, let him/her read what captures her interest and all will be well. Your child is an advanced reader but that's really not a big deal. Everyone gets there in their own time given smart and appropriate instruction

Definitely this.

This is a fantastic attitude not only for dual language programs but for elementary education in general.

[Anonymous]

Our son is in an immersion program and reads several levels above grade in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid attends Yu Ying. He is three grades ahead in reading in English but below grade level, does not meet bench marks in Chinese. His reading level in English has stayed ahead since K but his Chinese has not advanced at all this year and he's fallen behind. He's in second grade.

We got him a Chinese tutor recently. We don't do anything for English and Math.

I've also heard that immersion kids have a delay in reading/writing skills but never seen any backup for this. I doubt DS's English skills would be more advanced if he attended an English only school but he's only in 2nd grade.

How far behind is he in Chinese? Why do you think his Chinese has fallen behind?

He's 1 level behind according to one assessment and very behind according to the Circle assessment that the school uses. I give more credence to the Circle assessment since this is a standard assessment used for Mandarin. The reason he is behind is bc Chinese is harder than English reading and writing wise and he only gets to use Chinese at school.

His tutor thinks his deficits are correctable. She was tutoring a similar child who caught up.

Honestly, we are not particularly concerned since he does well in English. We consider any Mandarin he learns a bonus. His receptive Chinese is much better than his expressive Chinese according to his teachers.

We go to YY and had a similar issue. We caught up quickly by buying all the FWC flashcards and going over 10-15 flashcards every night until they knew every single one. A lot of memorization but we made it fun by acting out the words. Just a thought.

Thanks. He's doing this with the tutor. Since he's in second grade, his lack of proficiency in Mandarin is affecting other areas, example he could not do word problems in math bc he could not read the problem. Since half the curriculum is taught in Chinese, we need to get him up to speed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you want your kid to continue to be so far ahead? There certainly are merits to a second language whether they are ahead or not. I guess it comes down to what you think is more important. I have a kids in dual language and he is ahead in both, but my priority is for him to learn the second language, so as long as we are happy with the school we will stay.

I never said that I was unhappy with my son's school. In fact, we're quite pleased with what he is learning--and he loves school. I was just wondering if perhaps he would be further ahead in a monolingual school--despite his above-grade reading levels in K. Why wouldn't I want my child to reach his full potential?

Breathe. Full potential is not reached by racing through these silly reading levels. It's like making a toddler try to run a 5k just because they mastered walking at 9months. Future reading comprehension ability is not at all determined by how fast they progress through these levels in the early grade. In fact, going too fast can actually be a detriment to reading comprehension in the 4th/5th grade years when they start having to read dense texts of non-fiction. Just enjoy reading with your child, let him/her read what captures her interest and all will be well. Your child is an advanced reader but that's really not a big deal. Everyone gets there in their own time given smart and appropriate instruction

Definitely this.

This is a fantastic attitude not only for dual language programs but for elementary education in general.

I totally agree with this, great attitude and totally true!

[Anonymous]

My child is at Yu Ying in first grade. Tested as F in English in Nov/ Dec, which is a little behind. It's in the comprehension/ retell -- seems DC is at a higher level than this, but that's the official level.

Was a little behind on his Fall CIRCLE but on grade level in MidYear CIRCLE assessment for Chinese reading and writing.

DC seems to be on track to me, considering DC is learning two very different languages!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you want your kid to continue to be so far ahead? There certainly are merits to a second language whether they are ahead or not. I guess it comes down to what you think is more important. I have a kids in dual language and he is ahead in both, but my priority is for him to learn the second language, so as long as we are happy with the school we will stay.

I never said that I was unhappy with my son's school. In fact, we're quite pleased with what he is learning--and he loves school. I was just wondering if perhaps he would be further ahead in a monolingual school--despite his above-grade reading levels in K. Why wouldn't I want my child to reach his full potential?

Maybe he would be further ahead at a monolingual school. But he'd also be monolingual. So you'd be nurturing one aspect of his potential to the detriment of another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid attends Yu Ying. He is three grades ahead in reading in English but below grade level, does not meet bench marks in Chinese. His reading level in English has stayed ahead since K but his Chinese has not advanced at all this year and he's fallen behind. He's in second grade.

We got him a Chinese tutor recently. We don't do anything for English and Math.

I've also heard that immersion kids have a delay in reading/writing skills but never seen any backup for this. I doubt DS's English skills would be more advanced if he attended an English only school but he's only in 2nd grade.

How far behind is he in Chinese? Why do you think his Chinese has fallen behind?

He's 1 level behind according to one assessment and very behind according to the Circle assessment that the school uses. I give more credence to the Circle assessment since this is a standard assessment used for Mandarin. The reason he is behind is bc Chinese is harder than English reading and writing wise and he only gets to use Chinese at school.

His tutor thinks his deficits are correctable. She was tutoring a similar child who caught up.

Honestly, we are not particularly concerned since he does well in English. We consider any Mandarin he learns a bonus. His receptive Chinese is much better than his expressive Chinese according to his teachers.

Thanks,

This is helpful information. A few posters on this thread have noticed their childrens' reading slide in the target language in the upper grades (despite being advanced readers in K). However, it's also good to hear that many of the advanced English readers remain so as they move up in school. It's a reminder that we need to make sure our son has as many opportunities outside class and school to speak/read/write in Spanish. This can be a challenge since we don't speak Spanish at home, but we'll have to be creative.

-OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you want your kid to continue to be so far ahead? There certainly are merits to a second language whether they are ahead or not. I guess it comes down to what you think is more important. I have a kids in dual language and he is ahead in both, but my priority is for him to learn the second language, so as long as we are happy with the school we will stay.

I never said that I was unhappy with my son's school. In fact, we're quite pleased with what he is learning--and he loves school. I was just wondering if perhaps he would be further ahead in a monolingual school--despite his above-grade reading levels in K. Why wouldn't I want my child to reach his full potential?

Maybe he would be further ahead at a monolingual school. But he'd also be monolingual. So you'd be nurturing one aspect of his potential to the detriment of another.

Op here. Yes, I agree. It's very difficult (perhaps impossible) to have it all at one time.

[Anonymous]

There is proven science to illustrating the relationship between bilingualism and reading skills.

http://dcimmersion.org/research/cognitive-skills/

[Anonymous]

I guess DCPS wants to keep wards 7 and 8 children monolingual and in the dark. No language immersion east of the river. There is no interest in making children east of the river competitive. language immersion = superior cognitive skills.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/12/01/language-immersion-programs-growing-in-d-c-but-only-west-of-the-river/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess DCPS wants to keep wards 7 and 8 children monolingual and in the dark. No language immersion east of the river. There is no interest in making children east of the river competitive. language immersion = superior cognitive skills.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/12/01/language-immersion-programs-growing-in-d-c-but-only-west-of-the-river/

Not just DCPS. Are there any immersion public charter schools in wards 7 and 8?

[Anonymous]

My child started immersion in preschool 3, with two years of full immersion. Now in first grade, she tests at T (fifth grade) for English, and M (early 2nd grade) for Spanish. I don't think that immersion has had any affect on her reading level in English at all, but I am very happy that she is starting to be Spanish-literate as well.

[Anonymous]

My kid is just starting to read and in a Spanish-English dual language school, i.e., at the "reading with help" phase in PK4. The kid is balanced between the two languages (a first-language/home language Spanish speaker who swung way over to wanting to speak English ALL THE TIME).

Spanish books are easier for the kid to handle as they are almost always phonetically workable. The English reading requires learning a lot more "sight words" because phonetically English spelling is totally medieval! (still spelled like bad middle French or Chaucer's English)

However at that age learning sight words and word patterns is a lot of what they are doing in both languages. The kid is doing fine in reading books in both languages.

I think the main issues are in not neglecting one language or the other, or if one language gets no support outside the classroom.

[Anonymous]

There are cognitive differences between monolinguals and bilinguals, but I think it's a stretch to regard one or the other as "superior" cognitively (although bilinguals have the language advantage, obviously).

Bilinguals are better at tasks requiring extended use of executive function; switching tasks, focusing attention, inhibiting external stimulus.

Monolinguals are quicker at word recall. But at a slightly greater risk of dementia.