Task Five

In the foreign language classroom, the last thing you want hear the kids say is “it's boring.” Think about those young children having to listen and speak some strange language and not having any idea about the meaning; how can they engage the learning? Many articles about engagement suggest the use of movement to get kids to focus. In my class, I switch activities very frequently. In a twenty minute session, I normally have about 10 activities. As a teacher, I have to learn how to read students' faces. When you see “boring” on their face, they start to talk, wiggle around in their seats, and do something else. This is the signal that I “gotta move” to the next task. I have very limited time for each class (20 minutes for most sessions), there is not much time to waste.

Instruction is about teaching the subject material and managing the classroom. There are many issues that should be considered such as age, gender, learning style, cultural background, etc... The first step in building instruction is to learn about the students. If you want to keep them engaged, you have to teach in a way they like and accept.

For my inquiry plan I will focus on how to use movement to engage students since my students are at very young and my lesson periods are very short. I will try to develop age appropriate instruction, and try to address students' individual needs to keep them engaged in Chinese learning.

Task Four

I picked Domain 3 – Instruction. During instruction, there is an array of comprehension among students ranging from “don’t know” to “know”; “don’t understand” to “understand”. Students are learning and gaining knowledge. If an academically successful student is the product of a school, then instruction is the most important process to add value for the children.

The component of the domain that I would like to focus on and that I feel most comfortable with is Component 3c: engaging students in learning. I believe this most strongly ties to instruction.

As required for foreign language instruction in my district, most of my instruction much be given in the target language (Chinese). The communication between students and I will be mostly in Chinese. Of course, many props (puppets, diagrams, dolls, etc…) and gestures will help their understanding. Questions and discussions will help students to make the connection between Chinese learning and their background knowledge. I create various kinds of activities and assignments for students to engage in learning Chinese. They learn through singing, dancing, moving, watching videos, games, group work etc… Hopefully, each student will find a best fit to learn. I use a rubric and “can do” statements for students’ self-assessment. Most of the on-going assessments are oral. Frequently checking students’ understanding, students will receive points by successfully finishing the informative assessment; their learning is monitored.

In my classes, students display a very wide range of learning capability for Chinese. Some students learn very quickly. They become bored and lose interest if we spend too much time in review. Other students never remember what we learned in previous classes. I have to spend too much time reviewing fundamentals. I’ve heard the answer “aim for the middle.” To be honest, this response sounds like the easy answer – it doesn’t deal with the reality of my students. I’m still left dealing with students who either “get it” (want to learn) or students that are lost (probably don’t really care). How would you handle the pace of instruction in this situation?