Objective: To engage students in thinking and discussion using art. Student Development:
In November last year I wrote about art appreciation and Chicago's Concordia University art lessons. At the time I was using the art lessons with a weekly group of grade sevens I taught during the school's weekly "English Corner". Since the art appreciation lessons were so well received with the grade sevens I decided to introduce the lessons to my grade eight class in the second term of the school year. I selected several pieces from the Concordia lessons and had them printed on card stock to use as handouts, which would then be put on the wall as a collection of pieces we had looked at. Each lesson started with a brief introduction of the piece where I would give the title, artist's name and the date it was created. Then, showing the piece on a projector and providing one printed on card stock, students were asked to fill in the attached handout and start to analyze the piece. I encouraged students to get up and walk around the room, viewing the piece from different angles. The handout provided prompts to guide student's thinking. At the bottom of the handout I asked students to consider their feelings when they look at the piece and why they think it was created. After about 25mins I would provide students with biographical and historical information about the artist and the piece. To conclude the lesson we would have a class discussion about the piece, discussing points from the handout and exploring thoughts and opinions of the peice.
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This term one of the units in my student’s textbook is themed “Endangered Animals.” Using the theme I made an assignment where students had to create fact sheets for different endangered marine animals. Students were first in groups of 2-3 and then in larger groups of 4-6. Attached is the lesson plan I used for this activity, along with the factsheet template and grading scale I used. To narrow the focus in class I chose to have students write about marine animals, however there are many options for this lesson. In the PDF I have provided some good websites for endangered animal resources.
Objective: To introduce students to common idiom expressions and have them actively build expressions into sentences for deeper understanding. To first understand the reason why teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) idioms is important we first have to understand what they are. Idioms are cultural phrases, which cannot be understood by knowing the individual word meanings alone. For example, “raining cats and dogs.” It is understood that the sky cannot literally rain cats and dogs, but what then do cats and dogs have to do with the rain? In the meaning of this idiom they represent large and heavy raindrops. To say, “it is raining cats and dogs” is to mean, “it is raining very heavily.” Idioms pose a challenge for ELLs because often they have not been raised in the culture the idiom is being used in. Not being able to understand the meaning of phrases can lead students to misunderstanding and confusing situations. When I have taught idioms with my classes I have first developed a definition I feel is appropriate for their level of understanding and then provided them with an Idioms List Handout (see attached). Students can record the definition on the handout and read pages of idiom examples with their meanings. The Idiom List Handout was compiled using idioms from Idiom Site. There are several other good websites for idioms; including Idioms The Free Dictionary and Using English-Idioms. Once students have had a chance to explore the idioms on their own I introduce the Idiom Activity Handout (see attached) and provide and exemplar, using the idiom “back to the beginning” (see attached). Each student should choose, or be assigned a different idiom to complete the activity. The activity sheets can be displayed in the classroom or put into a book. This is a basic activity that can be built into expanded lessons or used as filler between units or lessons. Students can also be put into pairs to complete the activity. There are many options…enjoy!!
Happy New Year! The calendar New Year brings in a fresh year of possibilities and in China marks the winding down of the first term before the winter holiday and Chinese New Year celebrations. This term I have spent a large amount of time doing a study of The Hunger Games story with my two grade 8 English classes. The novel written in English was going to be a challenge for my EFL students and so our study also combined the Chinese translated version of the novel and the 2012 film adaptation with Chinese subtitles. One of the wonderful things about the program I work with is the opportunity to try new things and challenge myself as an educator to think of creative ways to bring content, interest, discussion and learning into my classroom. I chose The Hunger Games with the aim of taking our study of the book more from the perspective of a Social Studies class where we look less at the language, and more at the content. I wanted to engage students in a widely popular story within North American teen (and adults as well) culture which has high interest content and would challenge them on a critical thinking level to explore the dystopic world created by Suzanne Collins. Yesterday marked the official end of our study and ended with groups of students presenting a Power Point presentation and a theme project on one of the larger themes within The Hunger Games. Students had a week worth of class time to find their themes, find examples from the story and prepare their presentations. Over the week as students worked on their projects I took time to reflect on how this term long study went. If I were to do this again I would in reflection change a few things, however when I think of the two basic aims I had, which were to create interest and an opportunity to think critically I am incredibly pleased with the results. I observed students actively involved in the content, the characters, interested and wanting to know what happens next in the story. They were thinking about the story on a deeper level and really exploring the themes and lessons they had learned. As we went through the story I used three versions of the story; the English novel was primary and I would read aloud as students followed in their own copies, the Chinese translated novel was used to ensure understanding of key parts in the story and then the film adaptation was used to provide a visual understanding. I did hesitate in the beginning to include the movie, as I wanted students to use their imagination to create the visuals as they read, yet I found students had a difficult time with this (I believe because of the challenging vocabulary) and it would have taken us much longer to get through the story. At the front end I started to see students not interested and “checking out” and needed a hook to grab their attention and the film worked well to hook them. Also, I knew a couple of students had already seen the film, and the second film Catching Fire was due to release in November. The inclusion of the film was the first of several moments when I told myself to “go with it and embrace the change and make it work.” In making it work I was able to then use the film to create a character wall, which over the term has been very useful as students got up and wondered over to see who a character was or what their role in the story was. As well, I started with the English only version of the film and then added the Chinese subtitles. I did this because I have a range of students in the class, many are within the same level, however I have a few who are at a high level (beyond their grade) and a few who are at a very low level (below their grade) and with this in mind I was aiming the create opportunity for both groups on the extreme ends of understanding to be able to follow. Overall combining the three different sources of the story was supportive to their understanding and I ensured after each Chinese translated section or film clip students had questions to think about and answer where they would use their English skills to answer the questions. Throughout the study we explored many questions and students did smaller assignments to deepen their understanding. One assignment was to think like a Gamesmaker and create their own Capital mutation, like Jabberjays and Tracker Jackers. As well, I found some great websites where teachers posted various things they had done with their classes and I was able to bring in some interesting activities. One website provided a list of field style games which could be played; the most popular one I did with my class was a style of freeze tag where some students were Tributes, some Tracker Jackers and a few were the antidote leaves. At the end of this post is a link to a website I found very useful and below are some pictures from my classroom to show some of the things we did throughout the term. With The Hunger Games complete and seven classes till the final exam I am looking towards next term and will be using the momentum and interest created by our study to introduce silent reading in class. The parents group from both my classes has been very generous to provide funding for the creation of a class library and over the winter holiday I plan to build a library with a range of different reading levels. My aim is for students to engage with new stories, share their thoughts on what they have read and again look at the theme or lesson, which can be learnt. I plan to create a reading wall and when a student completes a book they will fill in a square where they will rate the story out of four or five stars, provide their opinion and what they thought the theme or lesson was. I am looking forward to next term and curious to see their engagement in new stories.
Lesson Notes: The Hunger Games study was a term long project and when I think of what I have learnt as an educator I can’t help but see the parallel of teaching with my personal life. This past December I successfully completed my first full marathon here in Shenzhen and have been personally reflecting both on the training and the race. My race training followed closely along with my teaching of The Hunger Games and there were times, many times, I had to adjust for the ebbs and flows of a good training run or well received lesson and those runs where I hit the wall both literally and figuratively and the lessons where I asked myself “what have I gotten myself into.” Yet, in the end by sticking with something that seems so long and daunting whether it’s a marathon, a moment you wish would pass faster or a challenging lesson there is something great that comes from seeing something through. Although at the beginning of our class study I didn’t know how we would get to the finish I did know it was something I wanted to try, I saw value and potential and stuck with it. I am grateful for my students who also trusted me enough to stick with something challenging and so pleased with their hard work and all they have achieved. A great posting on the website From Surviving to Thriving called Teaching With The Hunger Games is a solid place to start looking if you are interested in doing The Hunger Games with your students. Also feel free to email me if you are interested in learning about the questions I asked, assignments we did and games we played. Recently I completed my first marathon. I had completed several half marathons and decided I was ready to take on the challenge of a full 42.2K run. After completing the race I thought my experience might be worth sharing with my students. Teachable moments can come in many forms and I saw an opportunity with my experience. After some personal reflection and planning on what I wanted to share with my students; I decided I wanted to share the overall experience of setting a goal and working towards completing it. Finishing the race meant many things to me. There is something unique about setting out to run a marathon and both the physical and mental commitment that goes with such a goal. In class I shared my story with my students, and we talked about setting goals and working towards something. In education there is a term called modeling, and as it sounds, it means to model or demonstrate the behaviour, task or activity the teachers wants to see from their students. By sharing achievements and goals I set with my students I am modeling the behaviour of goal setting. By discussing the training process with my students I am modeling behaviour that demonstrates what it takes to make goals a reality. I truly believe all people can achieve great things and setting goals and then taking the steps to achieve those goals can be a rewarding experience. By sharing my race story with the class, students were able to learn from something I did and possibly connect my experience to their lives and something they want to achieve. Lesson Notes: Teachable moments can come from anywhere. In the day to day there are many opportunities to bring learning experiences from outside the classroom to enrich discussions and shape learning beyond course content. On Tuesday afternoons I do a forty-minute class with the grade sevens at my school during the English Corner block. The idea of English Corner is to engage students in the English language through activities, discussion and interaction with the teacher; and in my case a native speaker of English. For the first couple Tuesdays I did songs with the students, similar to my other posting on Friday Songs. There are other teachers from the foreign teaching group who also do activities during English corner so I am able to plan activities for a small group of students (1-8 max). Although I like the song idea and will continue to alternate the weeks with songs I wanted to find something else to bring as the focus. Upon reflection of topics, which interest me and might engage students I was reminded of an art history class I took in university. I loved the subject and found the topic engaging and the dialogue with others in the class very interesting. I have done art history or art appreciation activities with student before and so decided to include this into English Corner. The first painting I did with the students was The Girl With The Pearl Earring by Vermeer and it was well received with the students working to practice their English by sharing their thoughts on the painting. Often, one of the challenges I have had with bringing art topics into the classroom is the time consuming research aspect of gathering information on the piece, the artist and the academic dialogue or debate around the piece. I like to have my students first connect with their own understanding of what they see and then as we go into discussion I like to share information that is known about the artist, the piece and then if it is widely discussed in academia, bring in the debate. However, to prepare this on a regular basis is challenging and time consuming. What I wanted to share in this posting is a fantastic resource I came across while preparing for my art appreciation lessons. It comes from Concordia University in Chicago Art Lessons and includes full lesson plans for grades 1-8 with a paintings, sculptures, or art pieces for each month of the school year. There is information about the artist, the piece and ideas on how to use the artwork in your lessons. The content is very transferable and could easily be applied to teaching higher grades and adapted in many ways. Throughout my search for teachable art appreciation resources I have not come across a more well put together collection of art pieces, information and applicable ways to bring art into the classroom. Lesson Notes: I was really excited to see such a fantastic collection of lessons and had to pass it along and ask; have you come across any other great resources for teaching art history or art appreciation for grade k-12? The school year has started again. I am still with the Richmond School District’s International Program, yet no longer at Nanshan Experimental School where I have been for the past two years. I started this September at First Foreign Language in the district of Bao’an, Shenzhen, China. I am teaching two groups of grade 8 students this year and so far the experience has been very similar to Nanshan in many ways, and different in many ways also. These differences have been positive and will provide for a very good experience! I have had a few weeks with my students and we are starting to settle into a routine. I have started a challenging project with them, which I plan to carry throughout the term till the January Chinese New Year Holiday. For this project we will be reading Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games and doing activities with the content of the story. Before reading I told my students I wanted to try something challenging with them, yet I promised they would learn. I asked for everyone to agree to this challenge and only had one boy say he wasn’t too sure of this plan. After talking with him and encouraging him to ask questions when he doesn’t understand he agreed. We have started reading slowly and I provided a large amount of pre-reading information, as well as put information about characters, a timeline of events, and vocabulary on the back walls. After reading the first ten pages and showing clips from the film I gave questions to see what their level of comprehension was and I was very pleased to see they understand key elements of the book discussed early on. I am looking forward to planning the upcoming activities and projects for The Hunger Games and think it will be a great learning opportunity for my students and myself. I hope through engaging them in such a well written story it will encourage them to want to read and in turn practice their English reading skills. As I have over the past two years I will continue to post topics from my classroom and experiences here in China. Lesson Notes: Doing The Hunger Games with my students is a reminder to myself to never pass by a challenge for fear of it not working. Everything can be adjusted and re-evaluated along the way, nothing is set in stone; and so a challenge is really an opportunity to be creative. Congratulations Class 4, A big congratulations to Class 4 at Nanshan Experimental School on their success on the English Zhongkao. The Zhongkao is scored on a letter grade scale ranging from A+ to C. There are only a certain percentage of students who can receive each score within the city. Here is how the breakdown works: A+ 5% of the city A 20% of the city B+ 25% of the city B 20% of the city C+ 25% of the city C 5% of the city I am very happy to announce my students in Class 4 scores very well. I taught 32 students this year and because one of them is going to America next year I had 31 writing the Zhongkao. The whole class scored in the top 50% of the city, with most in the top 25%. The total class break down was: A+ 11 students A 14 students B+ 6 students I congratulate all of Class 4 on their hard work and excellent results. I wish you well in your new high schools next year. Enjoy the rest of the summer! Another school year is ending and I will be changing to a new school here in Shenzhen, China next September. I wanted to share my reflections from the past two years as I consider what I plan to take with me from my time at Nanshan. One of the greatest experiences to come from my time at Nanshan Experimental School was the opportunity to teach the same group of students for two years in a row. I taught the International Class 4 from September 2011 to June 2013, which were their grade eight and grade nines years. I was supported throughout my time at Nanshan by my class’ wonderful head teacher Tom Yuan who was always willing to support me with projects and encouraged what I was doing. I have been fortunate to have an exceptional parents group whom I appreciate for taking the chance and enrolling their students in this program. As well, I built relationships with other English teachers from my grade including Carson, Sophie, Cathy, Karen, and was supported by other staff members at the school who embraced the Richmond Nanshan partnership; including, former principle Mr. Li, Mr. Su, Ms. Wang, Mr. Hu, Mr. Zhou and Ms. Hao. A week ago I asked my students to think about the past two years of having me as a teacher and asked them to think about what they had enjoyed and/or learnt-even if at the time it was not their favorite assignment, they could now see the benefits. Many commented on the group work and projects we did, saying how much they enjoyed learning something new. Something I did throughout the two years was to bring in articles on a wide range of topics from environmental sustainability, social responsibility, different education systems, history, global issues, such as elephant poaching in Africa, and many more topics. My students said they enjoyed learning more about the world. With every article I asked questions, which challenged them to think about what they had read, not the memorize-able content, but critical thinking questions. They said, although the questions could be difficult they enjoyed them and it helped them to think differently. At the end of my first year I introduced what became known as “The Friday Song.” Every week I brought in the lyrics to a song, which I chose based on its message and had students look at the lyrics and then after some discussion we watched the music video. This became a popular activity and many commented that they enjoyed the music and it was something I should keep doing with my next class. My students also enjoyed the games we did while learning or reviewing grammar, projects where they were asked to make posters or do a drama. As well, they greatly enjoyed baking projects where we made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate brownies. Food was always a very popular addition to any lesson. When I think back on where we started at the beginning of grade eight and now see how far they have all come because of all those extra projects, articles, and opportunities to learn a different way I am so happy to be able to say I was their teacher. As an educator one very rewarding moment came after finishing one of the last articles I did with the class. The topic was on Blood Diamonds and their effect on conflicts within African countries. As part of the article I also did a presentation to give them a better understanding of what they were going to read. When they submitted their answers to the questions I asked I was so impressed with their depth of thought; I actually hand copied several of their responses because I didn’t want to forget what they had said. Below are a few of their answers to two of the questions: Q. What are your feelings about what you have learned? A. “I can’t understand why people love money so much, why they can kill people just for diamonds, it’s ridiculous.” Leo L. A. “I feel very disappointed about this. The human’s communication (I asked him to clarify, and he said “human’s choices”) are very sad. The people are fighting about money.” Edric A. “I feel sad about the blood diamonds. Many innocent Africans were killed by rebel groups for diamonds and I think it’s unfair and violent. Also, I’m glad to see that many international organizations take steps to help Africans get rid of the rebel groups. I think it’s difficult for many Africans to forget this kind of horrible experience.” Holly Q. Do you believe it is important to understand what is happening in the world? Why or why not. A. “Yes I do think it is important. Though sometimes I just want to know the things which are beautiful and good but in the real world it is also important to know the things that are bad. Only in this way can we help solve it and to make the world more wonderful.” Miranda A. “Yes, it is important to understand what is happening in the world. If we are just satisfied by our lives but never try to know more about the world, we’ll loose our sympathy.” Dorathy A. “I think it is important for us to understand what is happening in the world. Such as the blood diamonds, I think it is a disaster to Africa. Africans can’t change their situation to have a better life, so we need to understand what is happening in the world and we can help them.” Holly After reading the class’ answers I was so pleased to see how thoughtful, compassionate, and grown up their responses were. As I said, one of the greatest experiences I have had here at Nanshan has been the opportunity to teach the same students two years in a row. I have watched them grow as I have challenged them to question, express their thoughts, feels, and opinions; and I am so pleased to see how far they have come. I know what they have learnt in my class is a foundation which will support them in the future as they grow, not only as citizens of China, but of the global community. Over the past two years my students have put in hard work and effort to achieve the successes they have. As the International Class my students were watched as an example and I am pleased to say they always performed well. It was not by accident however. As a Canadian teacher I blended both the Chinese style, which is concentrated in large part on test taking and exam preparations, with the Canadian style of group based learning, projects, and critical thinking development. For example, in preparation for the Zhongkao I had my class complete a group project where I divided the exam into sections; such as grade seven grammar, grade eight grammar, grade nine grammar, correct form, composition writing and so on. In their groups students put together study information for their other classmates and found practice exercises, and created and led a game for the whole class to play, which would help them study the material they needed to know for the exam. The groups did a wonderful job and the games were excellent with large class wide participation and challenging questions, which made the games effective practice exercises. Class 4 has put time and effort into completing projects, learning to think critically, practicing their English, studying for exams, and taking on the challenge of having a teacher who only speaks English to them. Class 4 did not have the easy path to follow and they continually stepped up to the challenge. Throughout grade eight my class was always multiple points above the other grade eight classes and in grade nine they generally scored 13 points higher than the other classes on midterms, finals, and simulated practice exams. The class percent average from the last simulated exam before the Zhongkao was 89%, with almost half the class scoring 94% or higher. Looking at the numbers, it is clear Class 4 has done well, and more importantly they have be able to learn more than how to write an exam. They have grown to care more about the world around them while still working hard to score well on exams. I believe through blending the Chinese and Canadian style of teaching my students have received the best of both systems, and I believe they will be able to take what they have learnt into their futures and be much stronger students, capable of scoring well of exams, and able to examine the world around them. For myself these past two years have provided an opportunity for me to reach outside of the my country’s education system and my culture. It has given me a chance to question and grow as a teacher and as a person. The partnership I have been apart of between Richmond and Nanshan has been an experience beyond cultural borders and proved an international and intercultural exchange. I am grateful for the past two years and I look forward to taking my experiences into the future as I, like my students, will continue to learn and grow. I recently finished reading the novel Under the Hawthorn Tree by Ai Mi. The novel is set in China’s Hubei province in the early 1970s. The main character Jingqui is an intelligent, beautiful, if not a little naive, young woman who has already made great sacrifices and strides in her life. Set during China’s Cultural Revolution Jingqui’s father is being kept away from the family because of his land owner status and her mother, who once was respected has been labeled a “capitalist” and struggles to provide for Jingqui and her two siblings. The story begins with Jingqui being sent by her school to a small village to record the histories of the rural peasants along the Yangtze River. While there she is consider wealthier and to have more than the “peasants” in the rural areas, although what we learn is the peasants do not go hungry as often as those who live in the urban cities. Jingqui struggles to live her class position and as she spends time in the village recording stories begins to experience feelings for a member of the Geological Unit named Jianxin, nicknamed “Old Third.” As Jingqui and Old Third’s relationship grows we follow Jingqui back to her city as she works at temporary jobs and looks to her future and wonders what it will hold given her social background and her inevitable departure from the city to work in a rural region as part of policy referred to as the Down to the Countryside Movement. Opportunities, joy, sadness and ultimately Jingqui’s coming of age story drive the themes of this book. I enjoyed reading the book and found myself learning about China’s struggles through the Cultural Revolution by reading and understanding Jingqui’s thoughts. The struggles portrayed in the novel are real and heartfelt. Jingqui’s ever-steady desire to do what is best for her family if touching and the love expressed by Old Third is beautifully portrayed with a few poetic entries, which are simplistically beautiful and honest. The story, although not ground breaking or exceptionally provocative, is a story of a young woman seeking life and making choices even when their appears to be no choice. Jingqui’s story subtlety challenges the time in which she was living and challenges her to seek what she desires. It is a story, which will return to my thoughts even after I have forgotten the character’s names. Within the context of my position in China this book brought a few things to light. I first chose the book because it took place in China and discussed elements of the education reform during the Cultural Revolution. Having a background in history I thought the story would be interesting. What I discovered when reading was a history I knew very little about. I had heard the term Cultural Revolution and understood elements of what the time meant for those living in China, however did not fully understand the state in which they lived. I recognize that Under the Hawthorn Tree is one person’s interpretation of events and not a general agreed upon consensus, however I have come to appreciate more of the struggles the Chinese people have experienced in the past 47 years. The strong desire for children to have opportunity and the pressure they are under to perform is more understandable now as I see that only several decades ago was not possible. Lesson Notes: I was reminded of my strongly held beliefs through reading Under the Hawthorn Tree; it is very important to understand perspective and experience in order to gain a better understanding of the larger picture. Knowing the history helps to understand the present and where the future could lead. |
Ms. Kolshuk's BlogWelcome to my blog where I post about my teaching practice, ideas, findings and discuss topics of an educational nature. Please feel free to comment and/or email with any topic suggestions.
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