Reflection On Peer Coaching Cycle

Overall Impression
Peer coaching is a process through which we can work together to reflect on
or current practices, expand, refine, and build new skills. My personal
experience about it is that I did benefit a lot from this form since I was able
to exchange experiences and information with Shuai Wei, another Chinese
teacher. The greatest benefit that I appreciate is that I was able to share my
experiences and opinions with another Chinese considering the fact that I am
the only Chinese teacher in my school which makes it hard to talk to another
language teacher who is in the same situation like me. Even though Shuai
Wei teaches high school while I teach middle school, I did get some useful
inspirations through his work and his idea such as incorporating Chinese
teaching with students' daily life to make it more authentic. But there is one
thing that I struggled with: what if two teachers with different school
background, students and field of teaching are peered? The reason that I
benefit from Shuai Wei's work is that we share the same subject and we've
known each other for a long time. But if two teachers with totally different
background are peered, even though they could share some ideas about
teaching strategies or something else, I believe it is very hard for them to
give each other some practical advices. Although I didn't have the problem, I
still consider it as a struggle for future teachers who are going to have this
peer coaching cycle.
Artifact Revision
Although Shuai Wei felt it difficult for a foreign language teacher to teaching
non-fiction reading in his classroom, I still believe that I have the
responsibility to help my students in the area of non-fiction reading. As for
the artifact, I will still use this kind of format: introducing the background
knowledge in English and have students connected to what they have
previously learned. After that, I will incorporate Chinese into it and I believe
this will enhance students' impression about what they are learning,
especially those cultural concepts that are difficult to present and
experience.
Response to Focus Question
My focus question is ' What are some other ways that can be applied into a
discussion with students who have limited Chinese competence?' I can
guarantee that I have the right answer to this question, but at least I can

mek sure this answer works: As for complex concepts or knowledge, teacher
can talk with students in English considering the fact that students have
limited Chinese competence.
Strong Area and Future Plan
I think one tiny point that I made while coaching Shuai Wei is consistency. I
asked him to make as much Chinese as he can in the worksheet and make
sure all the sections are in the same format in order to give students a
consistent language environment that they can involve themselves in. In
order to develop myself as a coach, my thinking is that I need to attend
different kinds of Chinese teaching workshops to expand my vision about it
and put more theories into practice to enrich my own experience so that I
will be able to give some practical advices when my peer needs any.
Possibility in My School
I would say that my school has the similar format as peer coaching: every
Wednesday, teachers in the same data teams or same department will meet
together to talk about issues or something worth sharing. I would say I will
follow this procedure first to see what I can do to improve it but since it is a
procedure that has been followed for a long time, I am guessing there are
more things for me to learn than to improve.

Initial Stance on Quality Teaching

Improving the quality of teaching seems to be an endless road for both researchers and teachers
to explore. Countless types of researches and theories are helping us to develop a better quality
teaching and here are my ideas about what quality teaching looks like:
As is known to us when we were students, we had to follow different rules in different situations
in school. School, and everything associated with it, was founded on rules, and I learned that I
could never know them all or manage to obey perfectly the ones I did know. i Without rules being
delivered and proper behavior being maintained, teaching will not happen in a classroom.
1. Classroom Management
It is my experience that having an excellent managed classroom is benefit for both students and
teachers is the consensus both in China and the USA. According to my two years' of teaching
experience in the USA, I have to key points that need to be paid attention to when it comes to
classroom management.

(1) Efficient and Collaborative Classroom

As a teacher, I want my student to be able to master as much Chinese as possible in a limited
time and what's more important is that I believe students can learn new knowledge from each
other much faster than learn from teacher since they have similar abilities, almost the same age
which makes it easier for them to understand each other's thinking pattern, so this is why I think
that a collaborative atmosphere is vital to a well managed classroom.
(2) Disciplined and Productive Behavior
Behavior issue might be the most complicated and sometimes annoying problem for most
teachers. My experience told me that have students with disciplined behavior can improve the
efficiency of their learning and my teaching since both of us will not waste any time on the
behavior part, and what's more is that both me and my students are concentrated on our tasks and
I can apply almost any kind of teaching strategy or those advanced teaching content with those
students on task. My classroom will not be efficient and collaborative if I am busy dealing with
students with behavior issues and my students will not stay on task if they are sitting in a
classroom with their classmates talking and wandering around. Not only do students need
disciplined behavior, but also they need to have productive behavior through which they can help
to make the classroom environment productive.ii

2. Teaching Strategies
Quality teaching, we argue here, consists of both good and successful teaching.iii Learning
different teaching strategies and put them into practice in a US classroom together with my 16
years' of learning as a student in China enable me to feel the huge difference when it comes to
the area of teaching strategies between China and the USA. Personally I feel there should be two
basic aspects that need to be met when a teacher wants to make the quality teaching happen in
his/her classroom.
(1) Differentiated Teaching
Even if we were not teachers, we know that each person is different. Having students with
different backgrounds different cognitions and more different aspects requires us to apply
differentiated teaching strategies to enable them to complete tasks. Imagine a teacher is reading a
story which contains vocabulary that students need to learn. In this teachers class, some students
are 'readers' who is very good at reading and search information that they need while some are
'listeners' who need to listen to the teacher reading the book so they can figure out the story and
they can finish their tasks of understanding the meanings of new words. According to this
situation, it will be unfair and inefficient if a teacher gives each student a piece of paper with
story on it and students need to read and write down their thoughts about those new words since

those 'listeners' might not be able to complete this task considering their ability. So it is important
for a teacher to apply different teaching strategies in different situations or even the same
content.
(2) Students' Engagement
I believe that students' interest in one subject is the original motivation that pushes him/her to
spare no effort to learn it. It is so true that I found that once a student is no longer engaged in a
class, his/her learning efficient goes down rapidly and he/she might even reject to learn any
more. And The student who prepare a numbers... from experience gained in contact with pupilsiv
In order to make quality teaching, I think a teacher should engage students in his/her classroom
try different methods. One important thing is that student-centered activities need to be applied
into the classroom. Like talked above, students learn from each other very easily and we need to
use this advantage to let this help with our teaching. What's more is that student-centered
activities give students a feeling that they are the main characters in a classroom and this kind of
feeling will let them take care of things that happen in the classroom as their own thing which
make them more engaged in a classroom. Beside student-centered activities, there are more
things that a teacher can do to engage students in his/her classroom: a teacher can build up a
good relationship to show he/she does care about them, a teacher can make a song using what
students learned about chemistry and many more things.

3. Assessment
(1) Consistent Assessments and Proper Adaptations
Consistent assessment is required since learning is a process that goes on and on and a teacher
should make proper adaptations in order to adjust his/her teaching to meet students' different
needs. Routine assignments, quizzes, tests, projects and standardized assessments are important
to students' development in Chinese competence. vAs I am teaching Chinese, I always keep it in
mind that I need to assess my students from time to time in order to figure out their learning
which can help me to determine whether I should continue to teach or use some time to help
students review what they have learned. What's more is that consistent assessments can balance
my teaching: if all the students are good at write a journal but they struggle speaking Chinese, it's
time for me to put more energy on instructing students on speaking rather than keep them
working on writing.

i Tompkins, J. (1996). A life in school: What the teacher learned. Reading, Mass.: AddisonWesley Pub.
ii Great Teachers Arent Born Theyre Taught. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from
http://www.teachingworks.org/work-of-teaching/high-leverage-practices
iii Fenstermacher, Richardson.(2005) On Making Determinations of Quality in Teaching:
Examining the Meaning of Teaching
iv Dewey, J. (1904). The relation of theory to practice in the education of teachers,.
Chicago: University of Chicago.
v Great Teachers Arent Born Theyre Taught. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from
http://www.teachingworks.org/work-of-teaching/high-leverage-practices