Sheila老师对上周六课程的反馈及相应教学计划调整
Sheila老师给我发邮件谈了谈她对上周六试听课学员们的印象，现转发给各位父母（这里我就不翻译了，就当你们孩子的家庭作业，让他们来翻译吧）。看来国内学校的孩子们需要在阅读和思维上加把劲儿！
Here are my ideas about the classes:
First, I'll tell you about my reflections on the students I met on Saturday and how my interactions with them will help determine the content of the class.
The third graders I met with seemed to have handwriting that was legible in regular print. I definitely want to teach them cursive, so that will be the focus for the handwriting portion of the class. But their regular script, although not perfect, is fine for their age level. Next I want them to be reading more because they all need to work on that skill: based on a second grade reading level, they were all average or a little above average. But based on a third and fourth grade reading level, they were very behind; Tina, for example, would never be admitted to English track based on her current reading level. So there will be a lot of reading in class and out of class as well; I liked that the moms I met on Saturday had opinions, so I would be happy to recommend some books to them that they read with their children. We'll work on adjectives together because that, in their short writing assignments, was the area in which they needed the most vocabulary work. Their nouns and verbs were good enough, but they lack the vocabulary to be able to describe things well.
One important thing that I noticed during the class was that all the students could answer the easy questions I asked them, some could answer some of the middle-level questions I asked, and none could answer the hard questions I asked ("why" and "how" questions). After reflecting about what the mothers told me about how they've taught in local schools (by rote and without being asked critical thinking questions), I have decided that I want to structure each day with some critical thinking time in addition to asking harder questions in class and helping them answer them. This is a more international form of instruction, which is what you're looking for with your school, and this is an area in which each of the students had the biggest weakness. So I'm going to plan some games and question-answer sessions (very short, just about five minutes twice per two-hour class) that will tie in with what we're working on thematically. I also would like to speak briefly with the parents after the next class session about what they can do at home to help with the reading and with the critical thinking. After all, most learning occurs *outside* of school, so I want to help teach the moms what they can do to accelerate their child's progress the most quickly.
Okay, so the way I would teach the 3rd/4th grade class is this: There's an emphasis on reading both in and out of class and students will be expected to complete independent reading assignments on their own. I photocopy the Reading Log that I use for my current students and give it to these students on Saturday. Further, students will learn cursive handwriting, an important skill, and write inquiry-based short writing assignments to help them practice critical thinking and language skills at the same time. There will be a little vocabulary, but working on the reading and writing is top priority.
[ 本帖最后由 StarBugs 于 2007-4-17 23:29 编辑 ].
