On the afternoon of 19 October, SUIS Qingpu held the themed seminar: Study of New Curriculum Standards for English subject instruction in Qingpu District primary schools. More than 180 teachers, including Grade 4 and 5 teacher representatives from primary schools across the Qingpu District, gathered in SUIS Qingpu’s Sunken Theater. This seminar focused on how to carry out “three readings of one article”, and promoted discussions and exchanges on thematic teaching under the guidance of skills-based learning.
The event was organized by Genmei Zhou, a primary school English teaching researcher from the Qingpu District Continuing Education College. At the beginning of the seminar, she delivered an opening introduction on the theme for this training. Teacher Zhou first provided some background on the fundamental mission of “building moral character to cultivate people”, and then shared about the interpretation and importance of the concept of ‘core literacy’ in the recently released “2022 Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards” and how to practice essential skills in primary school English courses.
SUIS Qingpu’s Principal, Ms. Sunny Huang, also provided an opening speech. After warmly welcoming all the teachers who came to participate in the event, she also expressed her gratitude and support to the young, energetic English teachers. She said that in the past few years, the English group in SUIS Qingpu’s Primary School has actively engaged in the practice of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in English, founded on solid teaching, research activities and projects. SUIS Qingpu’s PBL efforts have also used drama and theatrical teaching strategies to promote a love of literacy. Reading can promote ability and cultivate English subject literacy, and this in turn serves to continuously develop and refine the teaching team.
Later, the Deputy-Head of SUIS Qingpu’s Primary School, Ms. Michelle Song, explained the theme for this training activity. First, Ms. Song introduced the theme’s background, elaborating on how SUIS Qingpu continues to practice understanding of a skills-based instructional approach through the school’s curriculum. Teachers Vicky, Catherine, Neva and Isabel then explained the use of unit plans and how to effectively incorporate single lessons into an overarching whole. They described their analysis of three dimensions of “three readings of an article”, namely the breadth of understanding language and knowledge, the width in exploring content and emotions, and the depth of constructing culture and learning abilities.
In this teaching session, Teacher Amy and students from Class 5A delivered the second lesson of PLE-5A Chapter 5, “Going on a Study Tour – Check!” Ms. Amy designed a series of activities in the classroom for the children to experience different emotions. Students had demonstrated emotions through performances, stimulating sparks of thinking in questions and answers. Also, students practiced core language abilities in a story re-tell, continuing by collaborating and communicating in group discussions. After sorting out the different views of the younger sister and older brother in the story, the teacher raised the question of “Why does the younger sister have so many different ideas?” It became clear that all behaviours stemmed from care and love for the brother who is about to study abroad. At the end of the lesson, the teacher shared a video which brought the lesson to an exciting conclusion. In the video, the students experienced the daily moments of tenderness between themselves and their brothers and sisters and were deeply touched. Through such a series of progressive, integrated and related learning activities, students not only improved their language skills in an upward spiral around the theme and through discourse, but also thought and expressed themselves by improving their abilities, developing their thinking, and achieving their expectations.
Teacher Jessica and the students from Class 5E then presented the lesson: “It’s your turn!”, the third lesson under the same umbrella theme. In this third lesson in the sequence, Ms. Jessica led the students to explore the text to search for the reasons behind the characters’ actions. By implementing rich classroom activities and providing a variety of auxiliary texts, Ms. Jessica guided students to relate learning content to their own lives and to express themselves independently. By refining the meaning and cultural context of the theme, students were inspired to think independently and gradually construct ideas based on the text. Furthermore, they were challenged to think more deeply and to reflect on their attitudes and value judgments surrounding the unit theme.
After watching the two lessons, the guests from other primary schools shared and exchanged their own opinions on what they have observed. Teacher Zhou also commented and shared thoughts, lauding these two demonstration lessons. She pointed out that these two lessons reflected the four aspects of core literacy requirements in terms of unit objectives, thematic meanings, context, and activities. At the same time, she also shared the specific implementation path of subject teaching using the two lessons shown as examples. With the help of this activity, teachers obtained a more intuitive understanding of the implementation of key skills. The teachers not only gained a lot but were also deeply inspired to further promote research through teaching.
Let us review what teachers had to say after the seminar!
Julie
The different teaching content and teaching styles of the two teachers left a deep impression on me. Teacher Amy’s class relied on textbook articles and cleverly-designed classroom activities. Through a role-play teaching method, students were helped step-by-step to clarify the main thread of learning, while allowing students to be immersed in the moment, perceiving the different emotions of the characters. The creative design and integration of WeChat Moments and other activities connected with students’ real lives and brought the book content closer to students, expanding their thinking. Teacher Jessica’s teaching content adopted a multimedia approach to teaching and showed Chinese culture through various forms such as pictures, videos and audio clips. The approach was well-suited to the age of the learners and the learning content.
Suzy
This teaching seminar gave me a deeper understanding of the place of thematic teaching in whole-unit lesson preparation. When processing the text, the students’ English thinking was openly exercised in the activities, deepened the students’ ideological understandings, and allowed the students to apply what they learned, laying a solid foundation for future study tours in the UK.
Caroline
To lead a successful class, you must fully prepare lessons, students, teaching materials, and teaching methods. You need to understand the text thoroughly, and even dig into the text deeply to clarify your own understandings. By observing the two open lessons of teachers Amy and Jessica, it was not difficult to see the solid teaching skills of the two teachers and the inherent strength of the overall teaching team. After continuous refinements and polishing, they presented two amazing classes.
赵清
This training gave me a more concrete understanding of the implementation of thematic teaching.
Topic-led, problem-driven-learning and role-plays improve students’ language and learning abilities, encourage students to deeply understand the text, and promote the further development of their thinking quality. It is important to activate students’ existing life experiences, enrich their emotional expressions, and enhance confidence in their culture.
Helen
Both Amy and Jessica showed us excellent skills-based learning experiences today that demonstrated how well single lessons can form part of a greater whole within the learning undertaken by students. The children enjoyed the variety of pedagogies, reacting well and with enthusiasm to the topic at hand – Going on a Study Tour. I feel that my understanding of the new educational standards has increased as a result of my experience.