On November 8, Mr. Zhu Pu, Secretary General of the Shanghai Primary and Secondary School Foreign Language Teaching Committee and Shanghai Master Teacher and Moderator of the National Primary School English Teaching and Research Base, visited and guided SUIS Qingpu’s Primary School English team on their “Research and Exploration of Goal-oriented Discourse Teaching”. SUIS Qingpu’s Co-principal Ms. Sunny Huang, Assistant Principal Ms. Helen Liu and Executive Deputy-head of Primary School, Ms. Michelle Song, participated in the activity.
Promoting teachers’ professional development through theme-based teaching and research had been previously introduced to SUIS Qingpu’s English team. This teaching and research activity was carried out with the theme of goal-oriented discourse teaching research and exploration. The lesson observation team integrated and designed the content of the unit by studying the “2022 English Curriculum Standards”. After many lectures and class observations, the teachers continuously adjusted the teaching objectives and optimized the instructional designs. Meanwhile, Ms. Zhou Genmei, a teacher and researcher from the Qingpu District, was invited to offer constructive criticism on the lessons observed.
The activity consisted of three parts: team lectures, teaching demonstrations and expert guidance.
– Team lectures
Ms. Isabel Yu started the activity by introducing the background of this training based on the school’s resources and the contexts of our students’ classrooms. Subsequently, Ms. Amy Fu, Ms. Lily Gao, Ms. Katherine Zhao and Ms. Jessica Tang described the teaching materials, the objectives of teaching materials, the objectives and topics of the lessons, as well as the design and implementation of the teaching process for a single lesson period.
– Teaching demonstrations
In the actual lesson, Ms. Vicky Wang actively interacted with the students. In the process of searching for information and the role play, students experienced how to order food in a fast-food restaurant. Led by Ms. Vicky’s questioning, the students gradually experienced the emotional changes of the characters in the story. Finally, students expressed and re-told the story naturally in fluent English.
– Expert guidance
After the class, Mr. Zhu highly praised the teaching and research activities that the combined team had engaged in. Students could fastidiously participate in and enjoy learning in a student-centered and highly integrated classroom atmosphere. Moreover, Mr Zhu demonstrated the teaching instruction by interacting with the teachers so that the teachers could really reflect and gain. What’s more, Mr. Zhu provided valuable suggestions and detailed implementation strategies for the ‘multi-modal’ discourse teaching. This teaching and research activity was a valuable opportunity in that it effectively promoted the in-depth study of discourse teaching for the SUIS Qingpu Primary English team, and made English teachers more clear about the teaching ideas of goal-oriented discourse teaching. At last Mr. Zhu’s affirmation of the SUIS Qingpu Primary School English team built up the team members’ confidence as they go forward in their personal teaching paths.
Let’s take a look at what the teachers thought after the activity: (Selected)
Cora
The demonstration class presented by Ms. Vicky was not only an extension of an ordinary English class, but also a masterpiece polished by the team. We had decided to bring this lesson to Mr. Zhu, which was not only a presentation of results, but also a sample lesson from which teachers can learn a lot. By reviewing the design of the entire lesson, Mr. Zhu illustrated the rules of formulating lesson goals and the design principles used for preparing the display of teaching content with examples, turning incomprehensible theories into vivid deductions, and setting an example for teachers’ normal teaching.
Katherine
The essence of education is to promote happiness in life! Ms. Vicky reproduced a real-life scene and guided students to order food in a civilized manner, which achieved the development of students’ language skills and improved their learning ability in a relaxing way. Mr. Zhu’s deductive evaluation enlightened me a great deal! The accuracy of lesson objectives and the effectiveness of pragmatic tasks play a crucial role in the implementation of core literacy in English subjects. This teaching and research activity has offered me a deeper understanding of the practice of goal-oriented discourse teaching in the context of the new curriculum standards. More importantly, I am more passionate about my teaching career!
Isabel
It was an honour to have a face-to-face talk with Mr. Zhu, a maestro who previously could only be seen on the screen. As a rookie teacher, it is inevitable that I will be confused when facing the teaching of discourse which demands a large amount of input, but Mr. Zhu’s simple and vivid explanations made me ‘see the light’. Through lesson studies, I have a clearer understanding of specialist teaching, with effective expression as the goal.