The mission of the Bridgeport Public Schools and its supporting communities
is to graduate all students "college-ready" and prepared to succeed in life.
Friday, February 18, 2011
"Learn"
Students at Winthrop School
Learn Mandarin Chinese
From back to front: Dominique Delva, Malik Marseille,
Michael Rua, Nicolin Goodin and Shemar Anderson
This academic year several 8th grade scholars at John Winthrop Elementary School had the
opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese. The students are engaged in mychinese360, an online
Mandarin Chinese course being used in the TAG (Talented and Gifted Program) at Winthrop.
Statistics show that Chinese increasingly stands shoulder-to-shoulder with English as a global
language. In fact, Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world with 1.1 billion speakers
just in mainland China. The mychinese360 program is an opportunity to bring back some of the lost
world languages to Bridgeport middle school students. Mandarin Chinese is currently taught at the
high school level at Central High School and the Vocational Regional Aquaculture School.
The mychinese360 program blends the latest
technologies to create an educational
experience that is not only fun but engaging
and extremely effective. Scholars develop
language skills that will eventually help them
succeed in our ever-changing global economy.
The technologies include: a computer, webcam,
and headsets for classroom use. Through the
computer the students have class with a live
teacher in China who communicates with them
in English and Chinese. Students devote 2 1/2
hours per week to live instruction in the
classroom, as well as 3 hours on their home
computers for homework. They are also
learning to write Chinese characters.
The students are supported by their TAG teacher, Gary Peluchette at Winthrop. "Students were so
engaged at the outset that they asked for additional headsets to practice their emerging language
skills at home," Peluchette said.
As this is a pilot, the district is still gathering data about the program’s success rate. Meanwhile,
students and staff are excited about being engaged in something new and challenging.
The initiation of this program came from BPS Superintendent, Dr. John Ramos, Sr. who was
interested in expanding world language learning in the middle grades. The actual implementation of
the program has been collaboration between the Department of Learning and Teaching,
specifically the World Languages Department and John Winthrop School led by principal,
Randolph Dixon.