New classes in 2009-10

1. High school Chinese course: Chinese III.

High school Chinese III is for high school students who have finished Chinese II (or equivalent). Our Chinese I and II are credit courses. Chinese III is pending for approval by Pleasanton Unified School District. There will be a placement test. Dates for placement test: May 31, 11:00 - 12:00 PM (in Amador); and August 22, 2:00 - 3:00 PM (Pleasanton Public Library).

2. AP Chinese Prep Course.

The AP (Advanced Placement) Chinese Preparatory Course is designed to help high school students take the AP Chinese test. This course follows the guidelines set by the College Board. Upon a successful completion of the course, students should be capable of taking the test of AP Chinese. This is not a credit course. Students are required to take a qualification test. Dates for test: May 31, 11:00 - 12:00 PM (in Amador); and August 22, 2:00 - 3:00 PM (Pleasanton Public Library).

3. Easy Learning Level III

This course is designed for students who have finished Easy Learning Level II and wish to continue studying Chinese. This course is taught in English.

4. Chinese Calligraphy (中国毛笔书法)

Chinese brush calligraphy is a unique Chinese art form. It has long been traditional culture to illustrate and exchange calligraphy. This class introduces basic Chinese calligraphy methods and knowledge. In addition, it teaches students how to use different brush techniques to achieve high level of artistic form. This class will enhance students? interest and passion on Chinese brush calligraphy. This is a beginner's class.

5. Singing Art Basics (歌唱艺术入门)

Anybody interested in singing is eligible to join this class. This basic singing course is aimed at enabling students to acquire overall knowledge and the basics about singing. This is a one-semester course (16 lessons). Vocal instructor: the renowned tenor Bainian Tan.

6. Singing Technique Training (歌唱技巧训练班)

This is a master class and is focused on singing technique training. Any singing-lover who wants to improve singing skill and ability is eligible to join this class. In this class all the time is spent on training students' singing technique. This is a one-semester course (16 lessons). Vocal instructor: the renowned tenor Bainian Tan.

7. Senior English Level II (老人英文)

Students who have finished Senior English Level I are encourage to enroll into this class. This class is designed to help Senior citizens for basic daily communication in English.

8. Math Olympiads Level II (奥数), (MO-201, MO-202).

Math Olympiads is a class for 4th ~5th grade students. The purpose of the class is to stimulate students' interest and enthusiasm for problem solving. Like Level I, students who pass a pre-test are qualified to enroll into this class. Test dates: 4/26/09 and 5/17/09 from 11:00am~11:45am in Amador.

A good news

Dear teachers, students and families,

I am very pleased to let you know that Pleasanton Unified School District has approved our high school classes Chinese I (C-HS1) and Chinese II (C-HS2) as credit courses in the U.C. category of language other than English, the (e) requirement. That means that if you are a Pleasanton high school student and are studying Chinese I or Chinese II with CACC Chinese School, you can earn credit. The credit can start from this school year, 2008-09. We will let you know how to apply. Rules and details will follow.

The availability of credit is a wonderful opportunity for our students. This is why. In order to be qualified to apply for University of California, high school students are required to take a foreign language course. Currently high schools in Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and some other school districts only offer French, Germany, Spanish, etc, but no Chinese. With the approval of the Chinese course in our school, students now have one more choice for their foreign language needs. They can study Chinese in our school, earn credit, and meet the foreign language requirement, the (e) requirement. For your information, we are planning to open Chinese III, Chinese IV and AP Chinese next year. All of them are intended to be credit courses and therefore are helpful for students' application for UC schools.

If you are from other school district and are interested in applying for credit, please talk to your school counselors or call your school district (you may want to talk to the Director of Curriculum of your district). At the same time, please also let us know. We will work with your school district and try our best to get our courses approved by them too.

This credit opportunity is only available for high school students.

Feel free to let me know if you have questions.

Thanks.

Richard Xu

Principal

CACC Chinese School

- Nov. 5, 2008

Update on high school program

Dear students and families of high school classes:

The school will start on Sept 7. I understand that some students/parents may have some questions about our high school program. I'd like to take this opportunity to give you an update and try to answer some questions.

Our high school program is designed for high school students (students who are entering their regular high school in Fall 2008 or are already in high school) with or without Chinese language experience. It focuses on Chinese language learning, culture, and history. Unlike our other Chinese classes, this program is created in accordance with California high school course requirements, i. e. 75 hours per semester, including classroom hours, projects and labs. The course is intensive and students are expected to be fully engaged, just like a high school course in public school.

One of our goals for this program is to have Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) approve it as a credit course. We've been working closely with PUSD and they are very supportive. The course outlines have been reviewed/revised several times by PUSD and now they have been submitted to University of California for review/approval. We don't know when we will receive response from UC. While there is no guarantee that our program will be approved, I am glad to say that we are making progress toward that goal.

If our program is approved as a credit course, there are still some questions that we don't know the answers yet. For example:

1. Can students collect credit for the courses they've already taken from Sept 7 of 2008 to the day when the course is approved? Answer: possible but don't know for sure. We will work out details with PUSD by then.

2. Can a student from Dublin (or other school districts) get credit? Answer: It depends on the school district. If our program is approved, we will reach out to other school districts and try to have them approved it. I know that some Bay Area Chinese Schools did get their neighboring districts approve the similar program. But there is no guarantee that our neighboring districts will.

3. If a middle school student takes this course, will he/she get credit? Answer: First of all, we don't encourage middle school students to enroll. This course is designed for high school students. If he/she is mature enough to take on such intensive course, he/she may try. Regarding the credit, it may depend on the policy of the middle school where the student is currently in, or it may depend on the school district. These are the details we will have to work out with PUSD after our program is approved. Right now we really don't know.

I hope that I've covered most of your concerns/questions. But please feel free to let me know if you have further questions.

Thanks.

Richard Xu

Principal

CACC Chinese School

高中班 (High School Program)

高中班是为在校的高中学生而设计的,以满足其对学习中文的兴趣并满足UC和CSU的"e" course (World Language)学分要求(目前学分的有效性尚待Pleasanton学区批准)。 我们选用的教科书"Integrated Chinese"是目前 U C Berkeley和其它大学使用了近十年的成熟教材. 这个课程可让学生熟悉了解正规的中文学习系统. 该教材以学生在校生活及现实生活为主线, 注重语言的实用性, 让学生真正能在中文的语言环境中适应并运用所学内容. 它以口语对话为主要学习形式, 通过听说读写几个方面的系统训练, 并以适合高年级学生理解的形式对中国文化及社会进行多方面的介绍和学习，使学生能为今后进一步的学习打下坚实的基础。高中班在进行到后期年级时，还会介绍'SAT II 中文'和'AP中文'，为将来参加考试打下基础。

该课程在不久极有可能会成为被大学认可的高中外语学分课程(即'e'requirement course for UC and CSU)。目前我校正积极地与Pleasanton Unifited School District 联系并已经获得他们的支持。如本课程获得认可，学生所积累的学分将会成为被UC和CSU认可的高中外语学分课程。

该课程完全按照加州对高中学生的要求设置，即每学期(semester)75学时(每星期上4个学时课，还有projects 和 lab等等)，每学年2个semesters。 学绩按A,B,C,D,...打分。我们计划整个高中班将分为 Chinese I (不需要任何中文语言背景), Chinese II (要求学完 Chinese I， 或类似水平), Chinese III (要求学完 Chinese II，或类似水平), Chinese IV (要求学完 Chinese III，或类似水平)。每个班学期是一年。今年开 Chinese I 和 Chinese II。

高中生或在2008年秋季要进入高中的学生都可以参加，不需要任何中文语言背景。报名后要有一个placement test，以决定进入合适的班级。教课书和练习书附加费：$60 ，将会在第一堂课收取。

High School Program

The High School Program is designed for high school students who are interested in Chinese and want to meet US and CSU 'e' (World Language) requirement. Currently this program has been proposed to submit to Pleasanton Unified School District for approval. The text book for the courses is "Integrated Chinese", which has been used as the teaching materials by UC Berkeley and other colleges for more than 10 years. This program focuses on Chinese language learning as a system. The text book uses real examples as the main teaching materials, enabling students to position themselves into a real Chinese language environment. In the text book, each lesson starts with a real life conversation, plus extensive practices through listening, speaking, reading and writing. The materials are selected in order for a good understand of Chinese history and culture, therefore a better fit for high school learners. At later stage of the program, there will be introductions to 'SAT II Chinese' and 'AP Chinese', which should serve as a foundation for those students who are interested in taking the tests.

It is very likely that the program will be approved as a Foreign Language course for high school credit (i.e. the 'e' requirement course). We are in frequent contacts with the Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) and they have been very supportive. When this program is approved, students can collect the credits as a UC or CSU recognized course.

This program is created in accordance with California high school course requirements, i. e. 75 hours per semester, including classroom hours, projects and labs. There are two semesters per school year. The grading system is A, B, C, D, .... When this program reaches its full scale, there will be four levels of courses: Chinese I (no previous Chinese language experience is required); Chinese II (pre-requisite is Chinese I or equivalent); Chinese III (pre-requisite is Chinese II or equivalent); and Chinese IV (pre-requisite is Chinese III or equivalent). The duration of each level is one school year. We plan to open Chinese I and Chinese II this year.

Students who are already in high school or entering high school in Fall 2008 are welcome to enroll and no previous Chinese language experience is necessary. In order to place each student to a proper level, there will be a placement test after enrollment. Students don't need to prepare for the test. There is a $60 fee for textbook and workbook which will be collected during first class.