A San Fran success story: from the chopping block to a stunning success
POSTED BY PAMELA YOON DRAKOS
Chinese language program a stunning bilingual success
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
First grader Olivia Young stood in front of her classmates at San Francisco's Starr King Elementary as she read her story out loud, the words written in Chinese characters above a hand-drawn picture of a little girl.
The story, told completely in Mandarin, was about two friends, Olivia and Jade, who go to the forest and see a snake. Then the two girls become ghosts.
The other Room 5 students listened closely and giggled at the strange tale before clapping at the end.
Later, 7-year-old Olivia translated the tale. "Sen lin means forest," she said authoritatively.
Two years ago, Olivia and her classmates entered the San Francisco school district's first Mandarin immersion program, most with little or no background in Chinese.
The Chronicle followed this first batch of students through kindergarten as the Potrero Hill school went through the ups and downs of a new program.
Now, the students are a year older and a few inches taller, with sweet gap-toothed smiles and a swagger that comes with nearly being in second grade.
And, with just three days left of first grade, the students are jaw-droppingly proficient in Mandarin - reading and writing characters, speaking and listening during long conversations with their teacher, and giggling over jokes incomprehensible to non-Chinese speakers.
Of the 25 students who started as kindergartners two years ago, only one has left, and that was because of family logistics, said Starr King Principal Christopher Rosenberg. Another 13 students joined the class as first-graders, some with a Mandarin background, but most without, which required some catching up.
The two first-grade classes are now full - almost 40 kids. Coming up behind are two full kindergarten classes, and the demand for the fall's kindergarten spots exceeds the 40 seats available.
The program has pumped new life into Starr King, which was considered for closure a few years ago given an enrollment of 150 students, who filled only half the school.
With the addition of the Mandarin students, enrollment has jumped. "We're going to be 120 kids above where we were three years ago," Rosenberg said.
Mandarin is an increasingly popular language given the importance of China in the world economy. An increasing number of schools and colleges across the country are now teaching the language.
In San Francisco, educators also hoped the Mandarin program would increase diversity at the school, which had predominantly low-income, Latino and African American students. The voluntary form of desegregation has seemed to work.
White and Asian students from across the city travel to Potrero Hill for the Mandarin program, which also includes children from the neighborhood's public housing units.
While the program was meant to be a dual-immersion program - bringing together Mandarin-speaking English learners with the Chinese learners - the classes have mostly catered to non-Chinese speakers.
"It's still an issue," Rosenberg said. "The problem is a lot of those (Mandarin-speaking) families choose English-only programs."
While the district and school try to recruit native Chinese speakers, it's an uphill battle.
"I don't know really if we're ever going to crack that nut," he said. "But the program doesn't live or die on that." The overall demand for the program, however, has surged, Rosenberg said.
When the first students started two years ago, they were the guinea pigs and few families wanted to be in the first batch. This year, the tours of the school and program are jam-packed, Rosenberg said.
The students learn math in Mandarin, using mostly numerals rather than characters, and they have one hour of English language arts instruction every day so they can simultaneously learn to read and write in their native language.
Back in Room 5, Jet Tan, 7, took his turn to read his story. His was about going with his father to a camp where they will fix bikes, he said in English later. While it's sometimes hard to tell if the students comprehend everything going on around them, Jet said he understands everything his teacher, Helen Tong, says in class. His actions and long-winded responses in Mandarin leave little doubt about that. After all the students read their stories, they started drawing self-portraits. Lilly Jue, 7, finished her art project and headed for the rug where she sat cross-legged with a book in Mandarin. "It says, 'I Go to School,' " she said of the title before starting to read out loud in Chinese. The book had both Chinese characters and Pinyin, which is Mandarin written in the Latin alphabet. Lilly, however, was reading the characters, not Pinyin.
After the students filed out for lunch, Tong pulled out some of her students' work, showing the progression of their writing in journals throughout the year. Durrell Laury, whom The Chronicle profiled last year, used basic characters in September. One of his last entries this spring was a comprehensive story about a bird.
"It's just amazing," said Tong, who never speaks English in front of the students. "It's pretty complex in terms of sentence structure." Tong stared at the characters on Durrell's page, a year's worth of class work in Chinese filling the walls around her. "They're sponges," she said as the day and school year wound down. "It's amazing."
E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
Chinese language program a stunning bilingual success
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
First grader Olivia Young stood in front of her classmates at San Francisco's Starr King Elementary as she read her story out loud, the words written in Chinese characters above a hand-drawn picture of a little girl.
The story, told completely in Mandarin, was about two friends, Olivia and Jade, who go to the forest and see a snake. Then the two girls become ghosts.
The other Room 5 students listened closely and giggled at the strange tale before clapping at the end.
Later, 7-year-old Olivia translated the tale. "Sen lin means forest," she said authoritatively.
Two years ago, Olivia and her classmates entered the San Francisco school district's first Mandarin immersion program, most with little or no background in Chinese.
The Chronicle followed this first batch of students through kindergarten as the Potrero Hill school went through the ups and downs of a new program.
Now, the students are a year older and a few inches taller, with sweet gap-toothed smiles and a swagger that comes with nearly being in second grade.
And, with just three days left of first grade, the students are jaw-droppingly proficient in Mandarin - reading and writing characters, speaking and listening during long conversations with their teacher, and giggling over jokes incomprehensible to non-Chinese speakers.
Of the 25 students who started as kindergartners two years ago, only one has left, and that was because of family logistics, said Starr King Principal Christopher Rosenberg. Another 13 students joined the class as first-graders, some with a Mandarin background, but most without, which required some catching up.
The two first-grade classes are now full - almost 40 kids. Coming up behind are two full kindergarten classes, and the demand for the fall's kindergarten spots exceeds the 40 seats available.
The program has pumped new life into Starr King, which was considered for closure a few years ago given an enrollment of 150 students, who filled only half the school.
With the addition of the Mandarin students, enrollment has jumped. "We're going to be 120 kids above where we were three years ago," Rosenberg said.
Mandarin is an increasingly popular language given the importance of China in the world economy. An increasing number of schools and colleges across the country are now teaching the language.
In San Francisco, educators also hoped the Mandarin program would increase diversity at the school, which had predominantly low-income, Latino and African American students. The voluntary form of desegregation has seemed to work.
White and Asian students from across the city travel to Potrero Hill for the Mandarin program, which also includes children from the neighborhood's public housing units.
While the program was meant to be a dual-immersion program - bringing together Mandarin-speaking English learners with the Chinese learners - the classes have mostly catered to non-Chinese speakers.
"It's still an issue," Rosenberg said. "The problem is a lot of those (Mandarin-speaking) families choose English-only programs."
While the district and school try to recruit native Chinese speakers, it's an uphill battle.
"I don't know really if we're ever going to crack that nut," he said. "But the program doesn't live or die on that." The overall demand for the program, however, has surged, Rosenberg said.
When the first students started two years ago, they were the guinea pigs and few families wanted to be in the first batch. This year, the tours of the school and program are jam-packed, Rosenberg said.
The students learn math in Mandarin, using mostly numerals rather than characters, and they have one hour of English language arts instruction every day so they can simultaneously learn to read and write in their native language.
Back in Room 5, Jet Tan, 7, took his turn to read his story. His was about going with his father to a camp where they will fix bikes, he said in English later. While it's sometimes hard to tell if the students comprehend everything going on around them, Jet said he understands everything his teacher, Helen Tong, says in class. His actions and long-winded responses in Mandarin leave little doubt about that. After all the students read their stories, they started drawing self-portraits. Lilly Jue, 7, finished her art project and headed for the rug where she sat cross-legged with a book in Mandarin. "It says, 'I Go to School,' " she said of the title before starting to read out loud in Chinese. The book had both Chinese characters and Pinyin, which is Mandarin written in the Latin alphabet. Lilly, however, was reading the characters, not Pinyin.
After the students filed out for lunch, Tong pulled out some of her students' work, showing the progression of their writing in journals throughout the year. Durrell Laury, whom The Chronicle profiled last year, used basic characters in September. One of his last entries this spring was a comprehensive story about a bird.
"It's just amazing," said Tong, who never speaks English in front of the students. "It's pretty complex in terms of sentence structure." Tong stared at the characters on Durrell's page, a year's worth of class work in Chinese filling the walls around her. "They're sponges," she said as the day and school year wound down. "It's amazing."
E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
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