Here is a bottle for you

Earlier in this blog, I wrote that I would not bore you with mundane details about what I am doing on my trip. I noted the blog would be crisp, fast paced and full of energy. Actually, I didn't note that at all. But, I definitely need to describe the details of my trip to Shaan'xi Normal University's Elementary school on campus, called Shida Elementary School. (Shida is short for Shaan'xi Shifan Daxue, the Chinese words for Shaan'xi Normal University.) I observed a second grade English class and a 4^th grade English class.

Second Grade English: "Here is a bottle for you"

Class started with a guest from America introducing himself in both English and Chinese. He did not embarrass himself. He would not be so lucky the next day. He will also stop writing in the third person. The children understood English very well. They had to because the teacher spoke English the entire class. Even though this was a so-called "common" class and not an immersion class, I spoke the most Chinese during those 50 minutes. Here the 51 children are answering the question, "Did the American visitor sound funny?" The teacher didn't really ask that question. But, if she did, you can rest assured that nearly every hand would raise, just like in the picture.

The teacher was very enthusiastic. It was all high 10s, all the time. Class started with a song about the weather. Then the teacher asked the children some basic weather questions. Then, on to the main topic for the day: containers and their contents. The teacher put four bottles in the front table: a bottle of milk, water, juice, and soda. She asked the children what was the same about these. "They are all bottles". Then she asked a number of drill and practice questions: "What is in this bottle?" "Can you hand me a bottle of water?" etc. Next, she introduced the box as another container. The children got nearly every question right leading to more high 10s. I was impressed with how well they could mix and match words, identify items and call them by name. A box of this. A bottle of that. Quite often, the teacher would say "Guess, only guess".

There were two exercises that involved some student-student interaction. In the first, the teacher whispered a sentence into the ear of four different students. At the word "Go", each student told the student behind them their sentence. This continued to the back of the classroom where the student in the last row stood up, and said the sentence. Sort of an educational version of the game "Post Office". One team cheated. When the teacher was not listening, the child in the back said the sentence wrong. But the kids in the front told him the sentence again. By the time the teacher paid attention, he said the sentence correctly. It is good to see that kids are the same all over the world – trying to get away with whatever they can. For the second exercise, children had to draw something on a piece of paper than they knew the English word for. They, then, said to their neighbor "Here is a (whatever they drew) for you". The neighbor responded "Thank you".

My overall impressions: First, the teacher had to do a tremendous amount of preparation for the class. Kudos to her! Second, the kids have a high level of knowledge of English language vocabulary. Third, most the knowledge exchange was from teacher to student or student to teacher. Perhaps the children could have practiced simple conversations with each other integrating knowledge they had learned from the day or week before.

Fourth Grade English: The Nine Suns

Coming soon to a blog near you!