The section on Chinese Native Language Arts was developed to serve
the Chinese bilingual programs in New York City high schools. According
to the New York State Department of Education, the Native Language Arts
Learning Standards should be set at a level of performance approximately
equivalent to that of English Language Arts. The Learning Standards include
reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing, language conventions,
and literature. At the high school level, two more standards have recently
been added: public documents and functional documents.
This curriculum will give students an opportunity to read a wide range
of government records. It is an excellent opportunity for students to
study literature, where they will explore and critique their reading materials.
Based on their reading, students will engage in different kinds of writing
practice, including the writing of reflective essays. They are expected
to produce high quality writing, which will require a great amount of
editing and revision to demonstrate their mastery of the grammar and usage
of their native language. Organized around a variety of social situations,
students will have numerous activities such as one-to-one interaction,
group discussion and dramatization, during which they will develop their
listening and speaking skills and other communicative skills.
Since most of the archival and other historical materials are in English,
teachers using this curriculum will have to do a great deal of translation
for their students in their Chinese NLA classes. They may also ask their
students to translate some parts of the material into Chinese. In the
classroom, both Chinese and English languages must be used to discuss
the instructional materials and social issues.
To youngsters of high-school age who have recently arrived in our land,
immigration is often a frustrating experience because of their limited
English. We hope that by providing our Chinese immigrant students with
archives and other historical materials whose content is closely related
to their own immigrant experiences, we will be able to genuinely reach
them and engage them in intensive studies. In this way, we will help those
students compete with their English proficient peers in meeting the New
York State new learning standards.
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