Program Description

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    The Chinese Language and Culture Program at Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES provides students across New York State the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese. Instrution provided in our courses is provided via Interactive Video Courses (IVC) to students at schools across New York State. This program has two distinct pathways for students:

    • Our Mandarin Chinese Course Sequence provides up to seven (7) years of New York State and ACTFL standards-based instruction for Mandarin Chinese. Student begin their language sequence in grade 6 or 7. 
    • High School Elective courses in Mandarin Chinese afford high school students the opportunity to study Chinese as an elective course. This can be done either independent their study in other language(s) OR to earn the Languages Other than English (LOTE) credit required for students to earn a New York State Diploma.

    In the past, this program has been supported, in part, by two grants from the US Department of Education, Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP). In fact, the OHM BOCES Chinese Language and Culture initiative was so successful in its onset, our organization was one of only twelve in the United States that were awarded a second FLAP grant. In addition, our Chinese program is one of just over 100 others in the United States that has been recognized as a member of the Asia Society Confucius Classroom Network.
     
    Current Mandarin Chinese instructors: 
    • Mrs. Dana Gaska
    • Mrs. Emily Balian
    • Mrs. Hui Chen
    • Mrs. Linda Yu
    • Ms. Shih-Han Wang
    • Mrs. WeiShu Chang

Asia Society Confucius Classroom Network

  • In 2010, the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES Chinese program was accepted into the Asia Society Confucius Classroom Network in recognition of the potential to build and sustain a high-quality Chinese language program. For more information on the OHM BOCES-Asia Society partnership, please click here.

Course Descriptions: Full Course Sequence

  •  
    The OHM BOCES Chinese program is a sequential, standards-based program leading to developement of New York State proficiency guidelines at the intermediate-high/advanced-low leve. See the list below for additional details.
    • Level 1 – three courses, one unit of diploma credit. Culminates in Checkpoint A exam to evaluate proficiency;
    • Level 2 – two courses, two units of diploma credit;
    • Level 3 – one course, one unit of diploma credit + six college credits through Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC). Culminates in a regents-equivalent Checkpoint B exam. Successful completion of the course and Checkpoint B examination meets World Languages requirements for a NYS Regents diploma with Advanced Designation;

      The OHM BOCES Checkpoint B exam in Chinese is approved by NYSED as a 4+1 Pathways exam, providing students additional flexibility to meet the State's examination requirements for graduation. 

    • Level 4 – one year, unit of diploma credit + six college credits through Mohawk Valley Community College. Students who complete Level 4 also have the option for additional independent study to prepare for the AP Mandarin Chinese exam and/or to pursue the New York State Seal of Biliteracy in Chinese. If any students choose to take the AP exam, college credit from MVCC can still be earned independent of their performance on the [optional] AP examination.

      The AP Mandarin Chinese exam is also approved as a Checkpoint C examination. Students who successfully complete this course and examination will have met core requirements for the New York State Seal of Biliteracy. For more information on the Seal of Biliteracy, please click here.
     
    The sequential program in Mandarin Chinese takes longer to learn compared to other languages because Chinese is a tonal language and the characters using in reading and writing must be memorized over time. To illustrate, the chart below shows various languages according to their difficulty level, which is based upon the number of hours of study typically required to reach the point of fluency:
     

    Level 1

    Level 2/3

    Level 4

    French

    German

    Italian

    Portuguese

    Spanish

    Bosnian

    Greek

    Hebrew

    Hindi

    Russian

    Turkish

    Arabic

    Cantonese

    Mandarin

    Japanese

    Korean

Course Descriptions: High School Elective Courses

  • Our Chinese elective courses are available to all high school students. This course afford students the opportunity to earn dual-credit: one high school unit of study for each course as well as six (6) college credits from Mohawk Valley Community College and/or a community college from the school district's local region. Local community college requirements may necessitate that college credit only be awarded to juniors or seniors. Each course serves to meet the New York State diploma requirement for students to earn one unit of study in a World Language, however, the course sequence does not meet diploma requirements for an advanced regents diploma because students can only earn a maxmimum of two units of diploma credit nor does the course culminate with a Checkpoint B exam.
    • High School Elective I: This course parallels an experience from our 1a through our 1c sequential courses, albeit abbreviated. This course is offered by MVCC at a 101/102 level and is worth a total of six (6) six college credits.
    • High School Elective II: This course parallels an experience from our 1c through our 2a sequential courses, albeit abbreviated. This course is offered by MVCC at a 201/202 level and is also worth a total of six (6) six college credits.


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