The Primary School’s Chinese language group has always paid close attention to teaching and research activities, remaining committed to giving full play to the positive role that research has in improving teaching quality. Our research activities are held regularly and mainly focus on homework design, experience sharing, teachers’ Open Classes, regular invitations to educational experts for guidance and more. Through the innovation of teaching methods, integrating different teaching styles, becoming more effective at reflecting and summarizing, and devoting enthusiasm to teaching and learning, the Primary Chinese language group has been constantly polishing their craft.
Ms. Liu Guixiang, Assistant Principal and Head of the Primary School, joined in the teaching and research activities as the senior Chinese teacher and former leader of the Chinese teaching and research team. She listened carefully to each teacher’s lesson and gave valuable teaching guidance. She remarked that the Primary Chinese language group had made remarkable progress since the normalization of teaching research! Whether viewed from the perspective of the organization and arrangement of teaching and research, or of the comprehensive reflection of classroom teaching, Ms. Liu witnessed throughout the activity the dedication of the teachers and the growth of the team. Ongoing educational developments have always given Chinese language teachers more challenges and missions. She reminded the teachers that a good teacher needed to not only provide classes of good quality, but to also improve teaching and learning through collaboration with one’ colleagues, so as to constantly broaden horizons, improve teaching standards, and enhance students’ cultural literacy.
On November 22, teachers Zhu Fenglian and Yan Shanyu provided an open class lesson during the first and second periods respectively, teaching the 21st lesson (“The Sound of Nature”) from the Grade 3 first volume of the official Chinese textbook.
Teacher Zhu Fenglian, with profound teaching skills and unique teaching methods, taught the “The Sound of Nature” lesson in the first period. She integrated different life scenes into the curriculum, inspiring children to look at and pay attention to life. Teacher Zhu spoke elegantly with gentle and amiable diction, guiding children to listen carefully and think proactively in the lesson. Teacher Zhu, with her heart embedded in the classroom and her attention given to all directions, listened carefully to each child’s answer and gave targeted and encouraging comments. In her class, the children learned to observe life, listen to nature, and pay attention to the beautiful things that surround us.
Teacher Yan Shanyu taught “The Sound of Nature” lesson in the second period. Teacher Yan is always full of passion and has a broad appeal in her teaching methodology. She led the children to think, accumulate and comprehend while reading aloud. By immersing themselves in different situations, the children’s imaginations and divergent thinking were inspired. In reading aloud repeatedly, they could feel the beauty and profoundness of Chinese language and characters, so as to use the beautiful language to express what they see and think.
On December 9th, Ms. Ma Anqi and Ms. Han Xuan taught the 19th lesson (“Where is the Fog?”) from the Grade 2 first volume and the 7th lesson (“Frogs Writing Poems”) from the Grade 1 first volume respectively. The two teachers have different teaching styles, each with its own merits.
Ms. Ma Anqi put great enthusiasm into the classroom. She has a firm gaze, a gentle tone, and an intentional teaching style. She is very good at setting rules for the children. In her lesson, the children sat upright, followed Ms. Ma’s thoughts closely, and were eager to answer questions. Ms. Ma guided the children to learn to discuss in groups, think positively, and solve problems independently by setting questions, which greatly cultivated the children’s ability to think and learn.
Ms. Han Xuan is both ingenious and innovative in her teaching methods. She carefully grasped the school-age characteristics and psychological characteristics of the Grade 1 children, designing many interesting activities such as animation literacy and classroom games. The lesson content was rich and colourful, and the teaching process was assembled layer by layer so that the students could learn and enjoy their experience.
After the Open Classes, teacher representatives from each grade group took turns to express their feelings and opinions about the Open Classes. They not only affirmed the teachers’ shining points, but also put forward suggestions for areas that require improvement. The teachers in the group communicated with each other, learned from each other, expressed their opinions, and often provided sparks of wisdom. In the after-school seminar, intense and in-depth discussions were held on how to innovate teaching methods, how to mobilize students’ enthusiasm and initiative in learning, and how to exercise students’ thinking ability. Each teacher put forward their own views, and everyone brainstormed and learned from each other’s strengths. Many teachers gained new teaching insights during the seminar.
The two Chinese language team leaders, Miao Kewen and Gu Liming made the final summary. They suggested that teachers should keep their eyes and hearts on the children while teaching. Where there are children, there is education. The fundamental purpose of differentiating teaching methods and the continuous improvement of teaching is to promote children’s better growth and help them to learn more effectively. While continuously polishing, exploring, and communicating, Chinese language teachers at SUIS Qingpu work together to blossom through hard work and collaboration.
Teacher Evaluation:
Teacher Gu Liming
Classroom teaching is a bilateral activity between teachers and students. Our teachers at SUIS Qingpu have always been focused on the development of students, making them real discoverers, explorers, and researchers in the classroom. Teacher Wu, Teacher Yan, Teacher Han and Teacher Ma’s Open Classes were all based on these principles. Before the Open Classes, the teachers in the lesson preparation team, together with the teaching and research team leaders, held many discussions. The teachers kept improving themselves by reviewing, revising, and teaching lessons again and again, aiming to provide the best quality lessons for students. I was amazed by their professionalism. In order to find the right audio track for rain, Ms. Yan got up in the middle of the night to collect materials. Ms. Zhu, Ms. Han and Ms. Ma watched countless videos in order to find the most suitable ones to help children experience and understand the text. Because of this spirit, their classrooms were most exciting, creative, and memorable. The teachers were so involved in their teaching. We saw them showing different expressions as the contents of the text changed, blinking their eyes thoughtfully, and communicating and discussing animatedly in groups. They were learning, thinking, exploring and cooperating through active language practice activities and real language situations. In the end, their core literacy was deeply considered and effectively improved. Our teachers at SUIS Qingpu will continue to teach every class with enthusiasm and focus, so as to promote the better development of students.
Teacher Wang Zihan
Teacher Zhu and Teacher Yan’s classes were lively and interesting, allowing students to learn and enjoy these wonderful sounds at the same time. There were many things worth learning. Teacher Zhu had a very precise grasp of the learning situation. Her transitional and evaluative language during the lesson led the students to think more deeply and to appreciate the charm of the Chinese characters. Ms. Yan’s class was full of vitality. Many exquisite speaking exercises were used in her lesson to allow children to flexibly use onomatopoeia and parallel sentences, and to link the text with real life experience. Ms. Yan also cleverly combined multimedia to let students experience the differences between gurgling streams, rivers and rushing sea water. On this basis, she guided students to read aloud, allowing them to feel the beauty of sound in nature through repeated readings. I believe that after taking part in this lesson, children were able to see the world with a more delicate childlike innocence, and in the process discover the beauty of nature.
Teachers Ma Anqi and Han Xuan were full of personality and passion, showing us the charm of teaching in the lower grades. Teacher Ma’s teaching style was like the spring breeze: Her persuasive, appealing, and flexible methods not only enriched the students’ language acquisition, but also cultivated their language expression ability. Teacher Han paid special attention to the students’ reading training. She taught students various forms for reading aloud, guiding them to dive more deeply into the artistic conceptions described in the text. Although the two teachers had different strengths and weaknesses in their teaching, their students displayed the same good habits in the classroom, such as sitting up straight, following teachers’ rules, and raising hands to answer questions. They cooperated with their teachers well and in the end presented to us two great Open Classes.
Teacher Huang Yun
The lessons provided by Teacher Zhu and Teacher Yan were really eye-catching! Taking the development of students and the improvement of Chinese literacy as the starting point, and as a leader and collaborator, Ms. Zhu led students into the text to explore the beauty of language. She also attached great importance to mobilizing students’ interest in reading aloud by comparing the reading of different key sentences to experience the subtlety and charm of language. Teacher Yan’s teaching style was much like flowing clouds and water. With clear stages and a gentle voice, she brought us into her wonderful class. Her professional approach to teaching new knowledge led the students to learn effortlessly and willingly, and at the same time experience the connection between knowledge and life. The two teachers created rich and colourful situations, which played a decisive role in the students’ exploration of new knowledge and the completion of the set learning tasks.
The text “Frog Writing Poetry” taught by Ms. Han was lively and engaging. Based on the textbook and the age characteristics of the students, Ms. Han was able to combine reading and literacy teaching with the help of bright pictures, and maintained her focus on literacy teaching through an emphasis on both the concentration and dispersion of understandings. Appropriate expansion and extension activities were carried out in order to enrich her teaching content as well. Her teaching was flexible, adopting a variety of reading methods, so that the classroom was filled with a “Chinese learning atmosphere.” She interacted with students naturally and harmoniously, and respected their emotional experiences and differences. She also used a variety of methods to evaluate the students.