Is My Child at the Right Level?

Gisela Jia

If you feel your child is at the right level in CCBG, reading this post may give you some affirmation. If you are unsure about whether your child's level is right, reading this post may help you take more targeted actions.

Placing a student at the right level is critical. When in doubt, sometimes our teachers advise parents to let their children go to a higher level than parents have expected; sometimes our teachers advise parents to let their children go to a lower level than they expected. 

Teachers' advice come from having taught many students of the same level and have seen how students with different degrees of performance in the grade level have fared 1 year, 3 years, and even 10 years later.

Parents' judgment come from their knowledge of their children and their learning experiences. 

When teachers and parents are in agreement about the level,  the case is easy. This applies to 75% of our students. Let's call this group A.

When teachers feel a student can go higher than parents expected, some parents may agree, and this covers 5% of our students. Let's call this group B1. Some parents disagree, and would rather their children staying at a lower level of their choice, and this covers 10% of our students.  Let's call this group B2. 

When teachers feel a student should go lower than parents expected, some parents agree, and this covers 3% of our students. Let's call this group C1. Some parents disagree, and would rather their children go to a level higher than teachers recommend. This covers 2% of our students. Let's call this group C2.

How do these groups fare year after year?

Students in the B2 group do super well. Students in C2 group struggle a lot. The suppressed ones win out!

Taking it easy in the beginning sets up a strong foundation - psychologically and technically.

Psychologically, a student feels that every step of the way he/she is swimming on top of the waves along with the forwarding moving currents, instead of struggling every step of the way just trying not to be drowned. 

Technically, a student has the time to build a true foundation, being instilled with the importance of tones, stroke orders, grasping the narrative structure particular to Chinese storytelling, having fun combining two words together to make a totally new word, and gaining flexibility in creating endless number of new sentences. We have Level 1 and 2 students who happily compose poems and write stories in Chinese.

In my 15 years of teaching children Chinese language, if there's one thing that I hope that I do with a stronger resolve, it is not to let children go to the C2 group. 

I want to thank many parents who have taught me this lesson over the years, a lesson that has benefited current students.

In Sept 2017, when Ellie joined our program placed in Level 1, I wrote to her mom Sally to say that we could put her on a faster track to speed up to Level 2. On Sept 28, 2017, Sally wrote to me - 

Hi Gisela - Thanks for your email! To be honest, I don't mind her being on the regular track. She's really enjoying herself and this language learning thing will be a marathon not a sprint, I'm sure :)   - Sally 

Ellie is in our Level 5 this year. She has been such a powerful and happy marathon runner, as her mom expected and predicted.  I have no doubt that she'll reach a level of infusing the language and culture in her life and career to a degree beyond the imagination of her most ambitious Chinese teacher. 

May all your children be such marathon runners!

*For privacy purposes, the student and parent's names are made up.