DC PYP Chinese Programme

Discovery College aims to provide a program that will allow students to achieve a standard of proficiency over their time at the school that corresponds with their ability and commitment. It is important to understand that while we are committed to providing a comprehensive Mandarin program, our language of instruction is English. We do not provide an immersion program, in which some subjects are taught in Mandarin, neither are we a bilingual school.

What is the Mandarin pathway system?

The Mandarin Pathway system is common to all ESF and PIS schools. The range of Mandarin ability is very wide, as some students enter the school with no experience of the language while for others it is their mother tongue and they are proficient at speaking and listening when they enter Year One.

At Discovery College we have three pathways that are decided on by the following criteria:

Pathway 3

• Students who have demonstrated a level of proficiency (oral and written) through our formal and informal assessments
• Students with Chinese background (i.e. one or more parent speaks Cantonese or Mandarin)

Pathway 1, 2

• Students who have demonstrated a beginning or developing understanding through formal and informal assessments
• From Year 1 to Year 3, school merge Pathway 1 and 2 students and have mixed proficiency class.

Students are assessed either at the beginning of the year or in some cases at the end of the previous year to determine the most suitable pathway. Ongoing assessments throughout the year also determine whether a child may need to shift Pathways. If this is the case, we will notify you of the changes.

Teaching and Learning

Curriculum
Our curriculum design is based on the ESF Chinese curriculum, and the PYP Language scope and sequence. We also have a Chinese overview document that highlights the coverage of our Chinese curriculum over this year and connections to Units of Inquiry. These documents can be downloaded from the link in 'Downloads' box above.

Chinese Classes
Developing vocabulary, character knowledge and sentence patterns are an important element of each lesson. These are always related to the topic we are currently focusing on, with opportunities for students to practise new words or phrases in conversations at their level throughout the lesson. Wherever possible, we aim to integrate our lessons with each year level unit of inquiry to ensure learning is connected. We also use a co-teaching model where classroom teachers also support the teaching and learning of Chinese.

Homework
We give out homework on Monday and collect the previous week’s homework at the same time. It would be helpful if parents can assist in reminding your children to bring their homework each week.

Stationery
There will be two Chinese folders; one for homework and one for classroom work. The classroom folder will be kept at school and made into a learning portfolio at the end of the year.

Resources for Home

Online
There are some helpful web links for Chinese learning.

Online Dictionary

http://us.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
MDBG is a free but very useful online Chinese-English dictionary. This website offers dictionary both in Chinese to English and English to Chinese, flashcards, quizzes, text annotation, Chinese text input and more. (Suitable for PW1, 2 and 3)

http://www.zdic.net/
汉典 is a dictionary website for looking up Chinese character origins, words meaning in Chinese or English, four-word proverbs (成语) or even poems. (Suitable for PW3)

Online Reading

http://flash.78baby.com/list/ertongxuexi/4_hot_1.html
78Baby is a great website for children learning Chinese as mother tongue or foreign language. It includes many interactive readers, animations, and games. From folktales to Pinyin or Characters, it has great variety of collection for kids to enjoy online. (PW1 & 2)

http://www.61w.cn/
中国儿童文学网 is designated for children with intermediate to high level reading proficiency to promote their Chinese literacy. (PW3)

Books
For students in PW1 & 2 we recommend the support books called “Chinese Made Easy” from Joint Publisher. These can be purchased in the PTA shop.

With students who are in Pathway 3, teachers resource from 小学华文. Each selected lesson will be copied for students. The publisher of 小学华文is called 人民教育出版社. The distributors info are as following:
SAP Publications (HK) Ltd.
23 Nam Long Shan Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Tel.: (852) 2553 9188 Fax: (852) 2533 0099

Times Publishing (Hong Kong) Limited
Educational Publishing
9/F Block C, Seaview Estate, 2-8 Watson Road
North Point, Hong Kong
Tel: 2945 7239

Contacting the Chinese Teachers

Debbie Tai (Chinese Team Leader) This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Suvy Shu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Susan Peng This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it