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Teacher as Thinker

Teacher as Thinker
MACT Synthesis Paper

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Curriculum and Teaching Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Fan Zhang PID A44 22 5156 March 18, 2014

Teacher as Thinker

Introduction My mother is a retired elementary teacher with thirty years teaching experience in China. She does not quite agree with me about being a teacher as a thinker, which I believe teaching is a continuously reflective and analytical thinking process. She is more into that teaching is about successfully breaking down the standards and fitting them into daily teaching plan. She is more a follower, but I am a thinker. Besides conducting daily lesson plans within the curriculum umbrella, I like to think about the rationale behind it what the benefit our students gain from learning, what is the goal for teachers to achieve, or is there any better way to do it, etc. After I came into MATC program, I have been trained to sharpen my analytical and critical thinking ability. I start to think more deeply about my teaching philosophy, my subject teaching which is Chinese as a foreign language, and what counts as an accomplished teaching and professionalism.

My Education Philosophy Why do our children go to school? Our children go to school every day at the same time, take the same routines, follow the directions, and there are assignments and homework waiting for them probably every day. But why do they do these? In what way does this benefit them? Questions like these always stuck in my head since I start teaching in the States. Reflecting on my MATC courses learning, I believe our children go to school for two important reasons, cognitive skills development and non-cognitive skills development. Studying Childhood & Adolescence Voyages In Development, Spencer A.Rathus, from CEP891 Educational Psychology & Teaching, I learned that students cognitive skills are the skills to process information, to store and recall information, and to effectively communicate them. To successfully process information, students need three skills, and they are inquiry skill, problem-solving skill and critical-thinking skill. It is

Teacher as Thinker

the rationale of these skills needed to be trained that stay behind the packs of assignments and drive the teachers instruction. Of course it guides my teaching as well. The other non-cognitive skill is also very important because it impacts students literacy and learning. I gained this knowledge from TE843 Secondary Reading Assessment & Instruction, the article of Noncognitive Report Teaching Adolescents to Become Learner. Academic performance is not only the result of the students intelligence, actually it is a reciprocal relationship among students mindsets, perseverance, academic behaviors, social skills, and learning strategies. Teachers play a vital role in helping students move from being passive recipients of academic content to active learners who can manage their workload, assess their progress and status, persist in difficult tasks, and develop a reliable set of strategies to master increasingly complex academic content as they proceed through school.(p.12) The above philosophies drive my instructions. On the first hand, to help students build up their cognitive skills, my strategy is to engage and challenge students in a supportive learning community where everyone is collaborator and be able to communicate confidently and effectively. My experience was shown in Artifact 1. Engaging them includes more challenging contents, strong and productive classroom culture, and more critical thinking skill needed activities. It also includes breaking down the steps to model, to assist, to let them do by their own, and pushing more and more of the cognitive work out to students as soon as they are ready, and using various format to check the understanding. To develop cognitive skills, my lesson also conducts many problem-solving related projects, such as Mini Skit project, which is shown in Artifact 4. On the other hand, to build up non-cognitive skills, my strategy is to conduct a learning community where routines and procedures are clear to follow, rules are there for everyone to abide with, and prizes are always available for high-performance achievers. Artifact

Teacher as Thinker

2 describes the details of my classroom management strategies, and my expectations for teacherparents cooperation opportunities as well. Through reading the book Teach Like A Champion, Doug Lemov, from TE807 Professional Development & Inquiry, I realize good teaching was not only about clear routines and procedures, firmly conducting rules and consequences, but also about creating interior influence, maximizing engagement, and building character and trust. This shows that my opinion about good teaching changed by reflecting on the classroom management strategies within two years. I used to think good class indicator was being firm with rules and consequences, but I realized that warmth and strictness were both important factors. This is shown again in Artifact 1 Building a Good Relationship with Students. Another teaching philosophy is to help pave the roads for my students to their future life. I expect my students to be able to successfully apply what they have gained, either content knowledge or learning skills and strategies in the classroom, into their real lives, to contribute to a better future. This philosophy drives my instruction for a big deal because it serves as my professional goal. As a Chinese language teacher I hope students will be able to employ Chinese as a language tool to communicate, to work, to live lives once they step out of my classroom. In all, I want language to be functional. I gained this concept during the learning of Communicative Language Teaching Today, Jack C. Richards, from TE891 Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. Under this overarching philosophy, I like to design real life related task-based assignments. One example is Artifact 4. Last teaching philosophy is that I believe every student will be able to succeed. Every student has talents; therefore motivation and differentiation are important in my classroom. Motivation is one of the most determinants for second/foreign (L2) learning. I gained this knowledge through learning the article of Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Class, Zoltan

Teacher as Thinker

Dornyei, from TE818 Curriculum Its Social Context. It is critical for good teaching to spread a positive, energetic, and happy Big Mo, where the interior influence mainly comes from. Chinese is fun, I love it and I want to learn it well. Only in this way will students truly improve their achievement. So is differentiation. Through the studying of Differentiated Instruction from TE891 Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, I gained the concept that students have different learning styles, interests, and different levels of cognitive skills; therefore I design tasks with the consideration of students mixed abilities. I like to conduct centers or interest groups activities to implement the lessons, in which students have options to choose their favorite topics and presentation ways, either writing a storyboard or playing a skit. In conclusion, my education philosophy is to engage and challenge students in a positive learning community where students are able to develop their cognitive and non-cognitive skills for better future. I see each of my students has talent to be successful, and my job is to find it and strengthen it. Students may not be able to remember their elementary Chinese teacher when they are older, but I played an important role in shaping them towards success during their growing up. What I understand my subject Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in elementary level is like rolling a snow ball, and I am at the beginning stage with a tiny snow ball in my hand. My job is to roll them bigger and bigger and finally to use it in making a snow man. This was what my Professor told me in TE891 Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. I heard the same statement when I attended the STARTALK workshop in Texas. (STARTALK program is a national foreign language teacher training program.) Reflecting on the two-weeks learning in Houston University and connecting with what I learned from MATC, I strongly believe what my professor said about

Teacher as Thinker

rolling a snow ball cannot be more right. Foreign language teaching should always connect with the previous knowledge, making small verbs and nouns become phrases and sentences, making small dialogues into big projects, turning pieces of words into functional and communicative language, using an important tool which is called contextualizing the words. Upon reflecting of what I learned from TE842/843 Reading Assessment and Instruction and workshops I attended outside program, I synthesize a chart to present my understanding about students language learning process and the appropriate activities/assignments accordingly with the connections of 5Cs standards from American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages. 1 Words and Vocabularies/ phrases Contextualized? 5Cs Communication De-contextualized Interpretive Presentational Visual/Audacity/Acting/ Feeling/TPR/, listen and draw, pair drill, back to back, loud and soft, Simon says, flyswatter, Bingo, ,,, , songs and chants. TPRS 2 Sentences/ Short dialogues Semi-contextualized Interpretive Interpersonal Presentational describe pictures , find out differences, stretch it, competitions, cooperative learning forms: information gap, insideoutside circle, think-pairshare, round table, clusters/corners, small group projects: interview/role play, small group inquiry and collaboration, TPRS 3 Functional expressions Contextualized Interpretive Presentational Interpersonal Performancebased -- mini skit: scripts on the wall + rehearsals + differentiation+ problem solving + social skills+ rubrics/checklist+ peer assessments+ rewards related I am the reporter TPRS

L S

Activities/ Assignments

Teacher as Thinker

R W

5Cs Culture

Mnemonic strategies, story books, TPRS Make mini books word play with radicles, make up sentences using with pictures, flash cards, clusters, character block, Write a letter to graphic organizers: make guided writing with blanks, your Pen Pal in character connection or comprehension: questions to China comparison, be answered, charts to be Design a Menu hands-on: drawing completed, diagrams to be TPRS character/concept map, constructed, pictures to be drawn, responses to be draw , written. sight words list, small group inquiry and character block, collaboration,(find radicals) character wall, word-rich environment. TPRS Wonder Wall/Wonder time, role-play holiday story, Jigsaw(eating dressing holidays), Jeopardy, debate/discussion, small-group inquiry task (city comparison), Chinese traditional games: ink painting, paper-cutting, fan dancing, tai-qi, shuttle cock, etc. (rewards related)

What I Understand about Accomplished Teaching Through three years teaching and MATC programs learning, accomplished teaching for me means being structured physically and timely. In my classroom, when I start to think over structure, I will think about the physical classroom setting including seat arraignment and the walls, which are the two primary parts that need my attention to structure on. They are very important because they are closely connected with the way I deliver the lesson, how I design activities and how the students learn. On the time wise, being structured means creating clear routines and teaching paces and methods, so students know clearly about what they are expected to do, which helps teachers save precious teaching time. This experience is shown in Artifact 3. My class time structure is as follows: Agenda on the board / Bell work on the board Discuss the objectives Warming up Reading Leader Walls Review

Teacher as Thinker

Content Review Activity 1 Teacher model Guided practice Independent practice Assessment Activity 2 (same structure) Activity 3 (same structure) Closure Assign homework/ Hands-on project/ Parent-Teacher partnership opportunities Assessment: Exit Ticket Marking marbles

My unit structure is as follows: Introducing Content instruct Vocabularies Listening and Speaking activities Sentences Pair dialogue Asking questions drill Character recognition Reading and Writing drills Character block Radicals box Reading Comprehensions Group read/partner read/video watch Cooperative learning formations Mini skit Supplemental reading comprehensions Storytelling Songs/chants/videos Cultural related Reading assessment (pencil-paper tests) Speaking assessment (performance-based) Writing assessment (performance-based)

My increasing knowledge about assessment during MATC program is a good evidence to show how I reflect on my content learning. In the first year of MATC, I took TE818 Curriculum in Social Context, I was a little confused about different types of assessments described in the Teachers Handbook Contextualized Language Instruction. I started to realize there are many

Teacher as Thinker

other types of assessment other than pencil-paper tests which I was used to in China. After I took TE891 Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, where I learned performance-based assessment, and TE842 Reading Assessment & Instruction, where I learned how to design checklists and rubrics in a more practical way, I was be able to show evidences that I was approaching accomplished teaching. Artifact 4 shows the experience.

How do I understand about professionalism? After I came into MATC program, especially after taking TE870 Curriculum Design and Development in Schools, I have been thinking about how teachers present their professionalism. I think professionalism in the education field means teachers show the ability of accessing and evaluating information, and applying different theoretical perspectives to analyze the issues. My experience was shown in Artifact 5. Mandarin Chinese Immersion programs has caught more and more attention recently, and since it is a very new curriculum practice, I learned few from my MATC courses makeup. I am very interested in immersion model, and my personal thoughts are that successful foreign/second language acquisition needs immersion typed teaching curriculum. However, Chinese immersion programs are very brand new in the States, and people hold big hope about it, yet are skeptical about its limited teacher training and support. In addition, professionalism also refers to the participation. Accomplished teachers are proactive members of the broader professional community. I took professional initiatives to reach out of my own school to the organizations in other states, to attend STARTALK program in other states, maintain the network with my Chinese teacher friends, so that I will be able to receive up-to-date Chinese learning pedagogy, presenting professional image. Last but not least, professionalism for me means teachers take leaderships and collaborations at schools. My school just held a welcoming event for a group of administrators from schools in China. They came to

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Teacher as Thinker

Michigan to visit my school because they want to build a residential campus with capacity of 500 people for exchange Chinese students later in the future. I as the Chinese teacher in my school, collaborated with school staff, took responsibilities of organizing the event, decorating the school, and hosted the welcoming show. My experience of this is shown in Artifact 6.

Conclusion Reflecting on the good and bad, thinking about why, and synthesizing what I gained is the biggest benefit I received from three years learning from MATC. It shapes my philosophy and makes clear of my goals. Like what I wrote in Artifact 1, MATC indicates me the purpose of education. My teaching may not ideally end up with everyone a master of knowledge, but it will pass along the tools for them to gain learning ability in the future. As a Chinese old saying goes, Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day; but if you teach him how to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. Being able to this helps me be more professional and a better educator.

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Teacher as Thinker

References Spencer A.Rathusv (2010). Childhood & Adolescence Voyages in Development 4th Edition, Wadsworth, Inc The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (2012), Non-cognitive Report Teaching Adolescents to Become Learner, The Role of Non-cognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance: A Critical Literature Review Doug Lemov (2010) Teach Like A Champion, 10th Edition, Jossey-Bass, Inc. Jack C. Richards (2006) Communicative Language Teaching Today Cambridge University Press Zoltan Dornyei (2008) Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Class, Department of English, Eitvos Universit Carol A. Tomlinson (2001) How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, 2nd Edition, University of Virginia University of Houston Chinese Study STARTALK program, 2013 Site: http://www.uh.edu/class/mcl/chinese/startalk/about/index.php National Standards for Foreign Language Learning from American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages: Site:http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/StandardsforFLLexecsumm_rev.p df Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language games collection, cited from http://page.renren.com/600922691/note/761765696

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Teacher as Thinker

Harvey & Daniels (2009) Comprehension and Collaboration, Heinemann Lesley Mandel Morrow, Linda B. Gambrell (2011) Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, 4th Edition, Guilford Press, 2011 Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling, cited from www.tprstories.com/ Judith L. Shrum & Eileen W. Glisan Teachers Handbook Contextualized Language Instruction. 3rd edition, Virginio Polyiechnic Insiiture ond Stote Universiry and Indiono University of Pennsylvon What Should Parents Know About Performance Based Assessment? Cited from http://www.projectappleseed.org/assesment.html
MATC Standards and Goals, cited from http://matcadvisor.wordpress.com/3-matc-program-goals-and-standards/