Sunday, June 22, 2008

Week Six Assignment Response

As usual, the following plans are intended for intermediate level high school students.

In my varied anticipations surrounding living and teaching in China, walking into my first class on my first day is surely the anticipation that brings about the most anxiety. As such, I spent my efforts this week in making concrete plans for that first week, so as to envision what it will be like and come prepared with practical activities and plans.

The theme of the first week will, intuitively, be “Getting to Know You”

Day 1: I am concerned with providing students with a plentiful silent period, as I believe this will both promote more intensive classroom participation at a later date, and it will give them the time necessary to get used to my particular pronunciations and syntactical flow. Therefore, the majority of the first day will be me introducing myself. I will do this is simple dialog style with a lot of pictures, charts, maps, etc. and it might go as follows:

Me: Hi! This is English 222. I am your teacher for this semester. Do you know my name?  

Class: No. 

Me: Do you want to know my name?

Class: Yes

Me: My name is Rebecca Conklin (write on the board, say again, pointing) Rebecca Conklin.

Class: (some may voluntarily repeat)

Me: Do you know where I am from?

Class: No/ Yes, the United States.

Me: Yes, that’s right. I am from the United States. (bring out map) I am from a state called North Carolina. (point to NC on map)

            Et cetera, et cetera.

This type of simple dialog would continue and touch on personal topics, such as family, like and dislikes, hobbies, etc. I would take great care to speak slowly and annunciate all words while still maintaining my natural style of speaking, as this is what they will hear, by default, for the rest of the semester. This time will also allow me to gauge the personalities of students in the class. Are there cliques? Where are the quiet students? Are there one or two students who seem more advanced than all the others? This will give me some advanced knowledge concerning potential future dynamics in the classroom, and will help me to determine an appropriate seating arrangement to adopt for the semester.

Day 2: I will greet the class, and then say in a concerned but funny manner, “You know what? Something is wrong here! It is just not right! Yesterday, I spent all day telling you about me, but I do not even know your names!” This is the intro to the day two activity: name tags! I imagine that learning dozens of Chinese names will be one of my biggest challenges, so anything that might work as a crutch for the first week or two sounds good to me. I will bring out the supplies for the nametag activity (colored paper, markers, stickers, magazines etc) and then explain instructions. The students will write their names on the tag. In addition to this, I will ask them to draw one thing on the paper that is significant to them. For example, I love to read, so I might draw a book. I will give them about 5-10 minutes to complete the writing, drawing, and decorating and then instruct them get into groups of two or three. However, they will have to form these groups by finding someone who has drawn something that somehow (and this can be very loose) relates to theirs. They will spend about 5 minutes with their partner preparing a VERY short presentation about their names, their objects, and the relations between the objects. I will walk around and help out A LOT, since this is only the second day and I am still trying to gauge individual ability levels. During the presentations, we will stop for clarification and write words on the board that are new to other students.

Day 3: Choosing an English name. I will bring to class a long list of English names and their ascribed meanings. For example, Rebecca: dutiful, captivating. I will let the students peruse this list and choose a name that they like. Again, we will make nametags for their new English names, and repeat the activity from the day before. I will then assign homework, which we will begin working on with the time left in class. The assignment will be to write about how their name meaning (the one listed on the handout from the previous activity) either is or is not representative of their personality.

Day 4: Acrostic poems and name circle. Using their chosen English name, I will show students how to create acrostic poems. For example, an acrostic poem for Rebecca might look like this:

            R espectful

            E nergetic

            B eautiful

            E nteratining

            C aring

            C ute

            A ffectionate

Each student will make one, and decorate it with markers, stickers, etc. I will collect each of the poems, and then create a little book for the class of all of our names. This is a good exercise because it introduces a whole slew of new vocabulary, and although it is out of context, discussing each poem and the meanings of unknown words can help to create some context.

Again using our new English names, we will play an Eastern sensitive version of the name circle. In this game, students pair a pantomime with a descriptive word that begins with the same letter of their names. For example, I might say “Reading Rebecca” and pretend to hold a book, flip through the pages, and look inquisitively at it. We do this activity standing in a circle, and go through the whole series of words, names, and actions for each new name and each name we have already learned. I call it “Eastern sensitive” because rather than putting the pressure on each individual to memorize and repeat (the bulk of the pressure landing on the poor person at the end of the circle who has to attempt to repeat them all. I know, I have been there all too often!) we would do this as a class, and help each other remember words, names and actions. This gets students moving and speaking, but within the anonymity of a large group.

Day 5: Introduction of Theme Cycle. I really liked the idea of the theme cycle, as it breaks down the barrier between student and teacher and engages everyone in the process of asking and learning. As a culmination of the week’s activities, I thought it would be effective to introduce the theme cycle “Our Class.” On the board, I would write, “What we Know”/ “What We Want To Know.” On the “What We Know Side” we might have basic facts, such as “There are 15 boys and 12 girls” or “Five people are from France.” Then on the “Want to Know” side, we would have more personal questions, “Does anyone know another language?” “Has anyone traveled outside the country?” “Who has the most siblings” etc. I would use this list for an immediate assignment, but as a semester long project as well. The immediate assignment: we would pick what we want to know first. That question would become the topic of their first substantial writing assignment for the semester. I would ask them to write a short paragraph about the topic. I would use this format to address other questions from the list throughout the semester, and they would present (read verbatim) in groups of three or four every two weeks. This way, I could gauge both writing and pronunciation, as the activity lends itself well to grading. Also, I would collect all of the responses throughout the semester, and in the end we would have the masterwork for the theme cycle “Our Class”—a book that described a multitude of interesting facts and experiences from students in the class. 

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