The document summarizes the goals and progress of a project to develop Mandarin immersion curriculum with a STEM focus for elementary schools. The project aims to 1) develop interdisciplinary units integrating language, culture and content, 2) provide teacher training, and 3) assess student language proficiency. It discusses lessons learned from adapting an existing STEM unit to the immersion context. Key considerations included strengthening the curriculum team's expertise, rethinking language and literacy expectations, focusing first on content then language objectives, and ensuring lessons support effective immersion instructional strategies.

1. Global Literacy Through Mandarin Immersion and STEM Molly Wieland, Ph.D., Hopkins Public Schools Tara Fortune, Ph.D., CARLA - University of Minnesota

2. Presentation Overview Introduction to FLAP Grant Project Focus: Immersion Curriculum Development Language, Culture, Content Integration (immersion education) Engineering is Elementary (our interdisciplinary curriculum base) Group Work and Debriefing What We’re Learning

3. Overview of our FLAP Grant Project The Minnesota Mandarin Immersion Collaborative Hopkins Public Schools Minnetonka Public Schools St. Cloud Public Schools The University of Minnesota

4. The Impetus for the Project Lack of curricular materials in Mandarin for elementary immersion that align with local standards Inexperienced teaching staff Need for proficiency assessment to monitor progress

5. Why STEM? Need for articulated K-16 Mandarin immersion pipeline State of Minnesota’s new engineering standards

6. Why Mandarin Immersion? Goal of advanced proficiency in Mandarin by the end of grade 12 and superior level by the end of grade 16 Four pre-existing Mandarin immersion strand programs

7. Why LEA-IHE Partnership? Need for many kinds of expertise Established research-informed expertise in language immersion education at university Successful history with collaboration between K-12 sector and university

8. Project Goals Curriculum Development Develop and implement two interdisciplinary units in Mandarin with a STEM focus for one grade level per year starting with grade 3 Staff Development Provide quality immersion-focused staff development for teachers Assessment Develop a system for assessing oral proficiency in K, grade 2, grade 5 Secondary Program Framework Develop a framework for continuation of Mandarin immersion and STEM

9. Immersion Curriculum Development Integrating Content, Culture and Language Learning

10. Just Passing Through: Designing Model Membranes Engineering is Elementary (EiE) (Boston Museum of Science) STEM: Using science, technology and math to design solutions to real problems Overview of the Membranes Unit Interdisciplinary Connections FOSS Science: Structures of Life Social Studies: El Salvador, rainforest, cross-cultural connections Chinese Language Arts: The story of Juan Daniel Math

11. Adapting EiE Lesson 1 for the Immersion Context Group 1 Look through the original EiE version of Lesson 1. What curricular and instructional adaptations would you need to make so that this lesson would work in a Mandarin immersion context? Group 2 Look through the redesigned lesson (5 or 6). What lesson design features can you identify that help to make the lesson more appropriate for the immersion context?

12. The Process What We Have Learned

13. Lesson 1 It Takes a Village!

14. Form a strong curriculum team with members who bring: Expertise in curriculum, instruction and assessment practices for immersion contexts Proficiency in oral and written Mandarin and knowledge of cultural similarities and differences Mandarin/English proficiency and knowledge of vocabulary, structures, and functions that may pose problems for English speakers Knowledge of STEM curriculum and standards

15. Form a strong curriculum team with members who bring: Experience with grade-level curriculum and standards in all content areas Mandarin immersion classroom teaching experience and familiarity with our students and programs Expertise in learning technologies, especially SMART Board

16. Lesson 2 Re-think Language and Literacy Expectations

17. EiE Lesson 1, Step 1: “Read the story Juan Daniel. ” That won’t work in the immersion context!

18. Lesson 3 Immersion Curriculum Development Begins with Content

19. Create a Curricular Map for the Unit Expand the unit into more lessons Original unit: Four lessons: The story + three engineering lessons Immersion unit: Fourteen interdisciplinary lessons with story chapters integrated throughout the unit

20. Create a Curricular Map for the Unit Include interdisciplinary connections to science, math, social studies/cross-cultural learning, Chinese language arts/literacy Develop standards-based lesson objectives for additional content areas

21. Lesson 4 “Interpreting” the Story Juan Daniel into Mandarin is a Balancing Act

22. Strike a Balance Keep the text rich, but comprehensible Scaffold with visuals, but not too many

23. Invite Teacher Feedback What to do with the Spanish words? Word choice: Mainland Chinese or Taiwanese Chinese?

24. Lesson 5 Use a Common Framework to Design the Unit/Lessons

25. Lesson Format Materials Needed Time Learning Objectives for Content, Culture, Language (Content obligatory and content compatible vocabulary, functions and structures) Learning Strategies

26. Lesson Format 3 Lesson Phases, divided into learning activities: Pre/ “Into” Phase During/ “Through” Phase Post/ “Beyond” Phase Evidence of Learning

27. Lesson 6 Well-designed Lessons Can Be a Tool for Teacher Development

28. Components of Effective Immersion Instruction Cooperative pair and group activities that give students opportunities to use vocabulary, functions and structures in all skill areas Numbered heads Four corners Describing a membrane with a small group Matching people and their jobs/functions Post-it story summary Role-play the story chapter Joint writing activities Matching cards (e.g., animal + environment)

29. Components of Effective Immersion Instruction Scaffolds for language and literacy development integrated throughout Oral interaction frames Language objectives: CO and CC Highlighting characters/radicals for noticing/awareness raising Predicting with pictures, K-P-W-L Sequencing and “playing cards” to retell story

30. Components of Effective Immersion Instruction Use of visuals and graphic organizers to support learning New vocabulary with visual support, realia Frayer Model Concept Map for defining “membrane” Thinking Maps (National Urban Alliance)

31. Components of Effective Immersion Instruction: Culture integrated into the lesson Symbols of luck Greeting/leave-taking practices Food National bird, rainforest

32. Lesson 7 An Immersion Curriculum Developer’s Work is Never Done!

33. Content  Learning Activities  Language Next Step: Language Objectives

34. We invite your feedback! [email_address] [email_address]