1. Gestural Prompts. One strategy in direct instruction that I use in my teaching consistently (and is common for world language teachers) is gestural prompts. For example, I ask students to turn on or off the lights verbally in Chinese. While they may not know that phrase yet, I gesture toward the light switch with a downward motion with my hand (meaning off) or upward (meaning on). If they still are unsure, I point toward the lights (in the ceiling), and open and close my hands (to indicate flashing, or on and off).
2. Physical Prompts. Another direct instruction strategy I use in teaching (especially for learning how to write Chinese characters) is physical prompts. Stroke order is critically important when learning to write Chinese characters. Many students can imitate the shape of a character, but don’t always catch on to the specific order of writing the various strokes. That is when I would use my hand to guide the students in the correct stroke order as they are writing the characters.
3. Feedback and Correctives. When learning to speak a language, it’s critically important to have an opportunity to practice speaking. However, just speaking without feedback would lead to the likelihood that the student will learn bad habits or practice the wrong pronunciation. When teaching Chinese, I provide students immediate feedback and correctives. The pronunciation for Mandarin Chinese is so different from the way we speak English, that I give feedback the students consistently and often. I will often go around the room and have each student repeat a word of phrase, and give them feedback about their pronunciation right away and then have them repeat the word or phrase a few more times until they are able to speak it correctly.
4. Essential Questions. Essential questions can be written in a way that promotes critical thinking. Probing, open-ended essential questions encourage students to think beyond the specifics of the lesson and look at the broader aspects of what is being learned. Well-written essential questions are:
- Broad in nature.
- Central to the content of the unit or subject.
- Have no single correct or obvious answer.
- Invite higher-order thinking, including analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating.
- Provoke student interest and allow students to draw from experience.
(adapted from http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/research/additional.html)
An example of an essential question that I have used in class is: What is a myth? How can you tell that some traditions are based on myths? Or, “Why is it important to learn proper stroke order when writing Chinese?” Or, “Why is Chinese New Year on a different date each year?”
5. Integrating Curriculum or, making connections between what’s being taught in the world language classroom and what’s being taught in the grade-level contained classrooms. This includes using the same language and verbiage in the world language classroom as the homeroom classes. For example, when analyzing a story or myth in Chinese class, we can use the same terminology to discuss the story (Main Character, Setting, Problem, Solution). Other examples include incorporating Singapore Math terms and techniques (number bonds, for example) into the way we teach numbers in Chinese.
6. Formative Assessments. In my classes, I typically assess my students at least twice in each class, and usually more. At the beginning of class, I begin with a greeting or phrase that I say to them, and they need to answer correctly. I assess based on whether their response is correct, and whether their pronunciation is correct. During the lesson, I will use queries to assess for understanding, and then before the class leaves, I will usually give another “exit question” or assessment, which usually involves saying a new phrase learned in the lesson, or comprehension/gained knowledge from the material learned in the day’s lesson.
7. Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Active Learning. There many different ways students can use technology in active learning. Interactive whiteboards are a great way to involve the class in active learning, as a lesson can be taught to incorporate interactive elements, such as puzzles, vocabulary matching, and even games. Simple worksheets can even be made active when it is projected onto the interactive whiteboard and students are given the opportunity to take turns and complete the answers on the board. Lessons can be taught using the interactive whiteboard using animations and videos, and the teacher can be in front of the class but the students are actively engaged, rather than passively listening.
8. Use of iPads to Help With Research. More students now have the opportunity to use iPads in the classroom. iPads are useful for the applications that have been developed for them (many excellent educational apps have been developed for a myriad of subjects—with many more continually being added). iPads are also useful for its capability as an Internet browser. In this case, iPads in the classroom may be more convenient than bringing students into a computer lab. An example of teaching students to do guided research is to provide subject “tracks” (pre-selected websites on a specific subject) http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ and then have the students find specific answers to questions from the selected websites. Once they have found the information, they can take the assignment further by writing about what they have researched, or giving the students another way to present the information they learned from researching the track. Similarly, iPads or computers can be used when writing or designing a Webquest.
9. Writing an Objective-Based Lesson Plan. When one designs unit or a lesson based on what the objectives are, it refocuses the activities that a teacher may select for the lessons. It helps the teacher stay on task, and a well-designed lesson plan guides the lesson to make sure the learning objectives are met, and also defines resources that are needed, so that the teacher doesn’t have to scramble at the last minute to round up materials or space. In my class, I wrote a Unit plan for Chinese New Year. By laying out the different lessons, I was able to give specific dates and projects to our PTA, so they were able to provide volunteers to help with providing assistance before and in my classes for those lessons (the ones that involve crafts and need extra hands).
10. Developing, Practicing, and using Procedures in the classroom. In my classroom, especially for my youngest classes, the students learn 3 classroom rules from a song. It involves “sitting properly,” “be quiet” and “raise your hands.” We practice the song together and we do the gestures to reinforce their understanding. Then we rehearse the actions without the song. Last week, we took some time to practice “be quiet” in class, because the students were becoming too boisterous. I explained the proper procedure when they hear the Chinese phrase for “be quiet,” and then we practiced it several times, until the students all got it right and the class became quiet right away.