About+Us

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Welcome to Ni Hao FLAP - King Chinese Immersion Program歡迎光臨馬丁路德金小學中英雙語項目／欢迎光临“马丁路德金小学中英双语项目 “The Chinese Immersion program will offer great new learning opportunities for Cambridge students. I view this as the first step forward in an overall plan to strengthen our school district.” — Superintendent Jeffrey Young

马 丁路德金中英双语项目计划是一项荣获美国联邦教育局的认许和资金赞助，在麻省公立学校中首次创办以中英作教学及学习语言的项目. 中英双语浸入式教育的宗旨 是让学生最大限度地发挥学习潛能，使学生们在中英语言上迈进的同時，能运用双语精通其他的学科. 本项目已获得校区批准在2011－2012年度开始在幼儿 园，并在往后的每年加一年级进行双语授课. ||
 * The NiHao FLAP-King Immersion Program is the beginning of the first dual-immersion Mandarin Chinese program in a public school in New England. A dual-immersion Chinese language program is designed for both native Chinese speakers and native English speakers to develop speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in both languages while realizing their academic potential in all of their academic subjects. The program has started instruction at the junior/senior kindergarten levels in 2011-2012.

//Summary // The Dr. Martin Luther King (King School), Jr. K-8 School in Cambridge, MA provides a challenging and nurturing learning environment, dedicated to putting the educational, emotional, and social needs of children first. The diverse school population represents many different world cultures, and King School’s multicultural, linguistic, ethnic and racial diversity is considered to be an outstanding resource for learning and personal development.

In August 2010, the King School received a grant from the Foreign Language Assistance Program in the amount of $1.5 million that spreads over a 5-year period to implement a Chinese-English dual-language program. The Ni Hao Language Immersion FLAP grant project seeks to improve and transform the existing Chinese FLES Program at the King School gradually over a five year period while continuing to provide daily Chinese FLES instruction to the classrooms. It is the intent of King School to initiate a dual language program in one strand in grades K-2, starting in 2011-12 school year, and Chinese content immersion in grades 3-4 with the purpose of eventually expanding the program after the FLAP ends to Grade 8 in 2018-2019.

To address the requirements of the Department of Education’s General Education Provisions Act (GEPA), the Martin Luther King Jr. School ensures that there will be no barriers to program participation on the basis of gender, race, national origin, color, age or diverse needs. Provisions will be made for students with special needs to receive tutorial assistance, thus, the program will eventually serve all students in the program.

//Mission Statement // Our mission is to provide high quality education in Chinese and English through dual-language immersion instruction. Students will acquire verbal and written linguistic competence as well as cross-cultural understanding and the skills required to be a successful citizen in a global community. 本双语项目的使命是为在剑桥公立学校的学生们提供高水平的中英双语课程，使学生们在通过两种语言吸收知识，不断进步的同时，也能对多种文化得到深入的认知，为孩子们长大后成为优秀的世界公民而努力.

  Program Goals and Outcomes
 * Short-term outcomes: Provide a high quality of Chinese instruction in content curriculum that is aligned to state and national standards, increase home-school communication, and incorporate technology in daily instruction. Ensure children in the program be an integrated part of the entire school.
 * Mid-term outcomes: show increased curricular rigor, shared best practices among teachers, sustained language development and performance, and formative assessments in daily Chinese immersion in classrooms to inform teaching and learning.
 * Long-term outcomes: build sustainable strong immersion program through high school. Develop partnership with other Chinese immersion programs in the U.S. and start an exchange program with a Chinese school in China. Ensure real-life application and relevance in students’ educational experience in school.

The bigger picture
 * Where FLAP fits? [|http://www.djusd.net/learn/flap/NSLI.JP]
 * Culture in Second Language Teaching []

Language Policy. Article describing the Foreign Language Assistance Program [] by Rebecca Richey.

Nihao-FLAP description, goals and GPRA requirements.

Our school has been working in consultation with Dr. Mary Cazabon (Independent Consultant from WestEd), and the China Center at the University of Massachusetts, the Applied Linguistics Department at UMass-Boston, the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), and in collaboration with the World Language Department in Boston Public Schools. The project calls for an annual evalutions as well as longitudinal data to guage student progress and to inform program delivery. // Stages // The King Chinese Immersion program will follow the following stages:


 * 1) Planning phase - Sept 2010- Aug 2011
 * 2) Implementation phase - from Sept 2011
 * 3) Feedback phase - ongoing

We also hope to strengthen the existing FLES Chinese program through this grant.

// Resources // Foreign Language Expectations and Standards [| http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html] National Standard (K-16)
 * What is ACTFL [] and what are the National Standards for Language Education [| http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3652] ? ( [|summary] )
 * ACTFL K-12 Performance Guidelines [] ; [|more] on ACTFL K-12
 * National Council of States Supervisor for Languages []
 * linguafolio [] - Formative language tool by the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages, aligned to the Council of European Language Policy [] and ACTFL.
 * AP Chinese alignment to ACTFL K-12 [|standards http://professionals.collegeboard.com/prof-dev/workshops/world-languages/ap-chinese]
 * Benchmarks & proficiency descriptors [] as per one leading proficiency assessment, the STAMP (see below)
 * Comparison of major proficiency scales Benchmarks & proficiency descriptors []

What do the ACTFL proficiency ranges, culture and world language standards look like in practice? See this examples of: Standards-driven performance-based assessments [| http://globalteachinglearning.com/cjwlpdi/assessment/assess.shtml]


 * = "One free lunch in the world is to learn another language in early childhood." - Stephen Pinker, Author of The Language Instinct ||

//Program Design // Families can choose to enroll their children in the regular non-immersion kindergarten classrooms or the immersion classrooms. The program will enroll 40 JK/K students in two combined JK/K classrooms. At least one third of the students in the program will be from Chinese speaking families. Immersion instruction will be 50% of the time in Chinese 50% of the time in English. Students will learn content-based curriculum in both Chinese and English languages. They will develop listening, speaking, reading and writing proficiency in both Chinese and English languages. The 50-50 immersion will continue from JK through 2nd grade and starting in 3rd grade and up, Chinese instruction would be at least 90 minutes daily. The school day will follow the King School's extended day of 2 extra hours from 8am to 4pm except on Wednesday when dismissal time is at 1:55pm. The extended school days allow students ample time to learn in two languages. Students will spend half day in English class and half day in Chinese class. Students will also have two recesses during the day, a longer lunch block, and longer blocks for each instructional subject.

(a) Xinxing Academy [| http://www.hopkinsschools.org/schools/xinxing-academy/xinxing-academy-about-us/curriculum], Hopkins Public Schools, Xinxing video [] NWCT Channel 12 [] (b) Pioneer Valley Immersion Charter School [] (c) NJ J World Languages Program Description [] ; [|State of NJ], NJ K-8 Project [] ; (d) DoDEA K-12 Language Program Features and Expectations [] ; (e) Pittsburgh Public Schools, [|kindergarten http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/143110127103037750/lib/143110127103037750/spanish_kindergarten_eis.pdf], 3rd grade [] , 5th grade [], [|other]. (f) [|Anchorge Public Schools, Elementary Language Immersion Programs]
 * Dual Language Program Description []
 * Other immersion programs:

Center for Applied Second Language Studies, Univ. of Oregon [| http://casls.uoregon.edu/index.php]

Review of Research and Best Practices on Effective Features of Dual Language Education Programs, [|www.lindholm-leary.com/resources/review_research.pdf] 2005 by Kathryn Lindholm-Leary

[|Current Rearch on Dual-Language Program]

Framework of Best Practices for New Mexico Dual Language Programs [| http://www.dlenm.org/archive/2007/dlenm/level3.html]

Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education [], by Center for Applied Linguistics

//Educating World Citizens // Why learn a second language? [] The Importance of Foreign Languages [] Global Trend in Language Learning in the 21st Century [] Why American Should Learn Chinese? [] Why Learning Chinese is a Smart Business Move? []


 * “If you talk to a man (woman) in a language he (she) understands, that goes to his (her) head. If you talk to him (her) in his (her) own language, that goes to his (her) heart.” - Nelson Mandela ||

Hiring highly-qualified teacher for the Chinese Immersion classroom. Please visit our district's employment opportunities website to apply online. = =

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