Montgomery County Chinese Immersion

[Anonymous]

All the discussion of Chinese Immersion in the DC Schools (thank you Yu Ying people, but I'm specifically asking about MoCo schools here) has me wondering about Chinese offerings in Montgomery Country. I know that supposedly there are two Chinese programs, but I think Potomac Elementary is ONLY for families in the school's boundaries. Is that true? Is there anyone on DCUM whose family has been through it? And, what about College Gardens? That's supposed to be a county-wide lottery, does anyone know how many students apply and how many get in? Are they still in portables or has the facility been upgraded? I'm having a hard time finding anything current on the program. Any information would be appreciated!

[Anonymous]

The Post had an interesting article about the program just about a year ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/25/AR2007112501361.html

[Anonymous]

College Gardens:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/collegegardenses/ChineseImmersionFAQ.htm

Potomac Elementary School
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/potomaces/chineseimmersion.html

Chinese Immersion - General (elementary level)
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/immersion_chinese_elementary.shtm

For specifics about each school, look at Schools at a Glance. It will give you information such as number of portables.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/

[Anonymous]

I think it's an interesting idea, but the fact that it only goes up to 4th grade is discouraging and ultimately we didn't apply. We don't speak Mandarin in our home so we really don't have a way to support it and that stretch between 4th grade and freshman year of college is a long time to let the language ability lie fallow. That's why we're pursing Spanish instead - it's an easier language but at least it's something that we can find support for in the community and other schools.

[Anonymous]

Actually, the MoCo program goes through high school, although from what I understood from the Post article, it's not very well organized. In junior high, it becomes a regular language class and prepares kids for regular Chinese classes in HS. One of the big flaws of the program, from what I read, is that it doesn't teach reading/writing Chinese until middle school

In contrast, in Arlington, where we live, the Spanish immersion program in middle school does science, social studies and Spanish language arts in Spanish. In high school, the kids take very advanced Spanish language classes.

In terms of support, it's more available than you think in this area. There's a large Chinese community but you'd have to make a bit of effort to find what's going on. Plus, you can easily find Chinese kids music, pop, and DVDs online.

[Anonymous]

To the PP (sorry if this is OT) is your DC doing Spanish Immersion at the middle school level? If so what do you think of it? It sounds like Arlington has a better plan at that level. Does DC find it to be a good bonding experience with the other students or does it feel too segregated from the rest of the student population? I am interested in this method for our DC but the article isn't very encouraging beyond elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP (sorry if this is OT) is your DC doing Spanish Immersion at the middle school level? If so what do you think of it? It sounds like Arlington has a better plan at that level. Does DC find it to be a good bonding experience with the other students or does it feel too segregated from the rest of the student population? I am interested in this method for our DC but the article isn't very encouraging beyond elementary.

Hi, I'm the PP. DC just started immersion in kindergarten so I can't comment directly about the middle school level. I do know that immersion schools in Arlington this year added more Spanish language arts, along with music or art (depending on the year) in Spanish to increase students' depth in the language (they did this by eliminating the early release on Wednesday that is typical at most Arlington schools); apparently, a lot of kids didn't have strong enough Spanish language skills to do middle school-level work in social studies for example. I also know that, in middle school, immersion is a program within a bigger middle school. The kids have some classes (math, English language arts) with kids from the wider school, but have their own social studies, science and Spanish language arts (as opposed to the Chinese as foreign language that the Montgomery County Chinese immersion program seems to switch the elementary school kids into).

Obviously, a lot can happen by the time DC hits middle school, but we'll probably plan on signing up for the middle school program. On some level, dropping out after elementary school is crazy because most kids will lose a great deal of the language - yeah, they can pick up regular Spanish as a foreign language classes (and probably get an easy A), but we happen to be big fans of the immersion experience.

Bottom line - from what I read of the Montgomery County Chinese program, it's very poorly organized. Good immersion programs teach language arts in the target language, and don't call a regular foreign language class in middle school an "immersion class." Arlington really gets an "A" for effort - they're very much on top of the program, value it, and have made changes as needed.