How often should the morning and afternoon classes switch?

The truth is, classroom teachers never have enough time to teach everything. Especially the 50/50 model Immersion teachers. 50/50 doesn’t mean using the target language in the Immersion classroom. It means students spend half of the day in English and the other half in the target language class.  To teach and to review in half of the regular teaching time is hard. All the Immersion teachers will agree on this.

To make the matter worse, the children often have a harder time focusing and learning in the afternoon (including adults). As teachers, we also feel tired in the afternoon, which is not fair to the students. In the fifth year of teaching, my partner teacher and I finally made a change that hopefully can reduce some struggles.

A previous partner teacher, who now has retired, and I used to switch the classes every month. We still could see the struggle but were too overwhelmed to come up with a solution. This year’s new partner teacher and I decided to switch every two weeks.  Then eventually we switched every week.

We both like the change very much and feel the change has helped most of the students.  Teachers have asked if it was too much trouble for the kids; the answer is no. The students basically remember it better than the teachers do. They know where to go in the morning. A few children forgot, but the others will remind them where to go.

The benefits of switching weekly are many. Due to the busy schedule and extra curricula classes such as library, computer, PE, music or art through out the week, students normally will miss some target language and English instruction time.  By switching every week, the students can miss the instruction equally in the afternoon or in the morning instead of the same students missing it all the time.

Sometimes there will be volunteers or aides who come in to assist.  Often their schedule is limited and they can only be there at certain times.  If the classes switch only once a month or even longer, one of the classes will miss this extra help for as long as it takes to switch.

The afternoon is harder for students to learn and for teachers to teach. Too exhausted students trapped in the same time for a month or longer, it is not fair. Both English learning and target language learning suffer in the afternoon. By switching classes weekly, the students can get instructions equally.

I have learned that some Immersion schools never switch morning and afternoon classes. Some switch once a year and some switch every quarter. However, every teacher who talks about this all has the same complaint: “afternoon class is so hard to teach.” Then they will add that schools won’t allow them to switch classes often enough.

I believe if everyone looks at the benefit to the students, and the help it provides teachers,  classes will be switched more often.

Marty Chen

Don't be afraid of changes

Don’t be afraid of changes

So the seating arrangement doesn’t work? Change it.  Use actions and simple words to let students understand what you want. Demonstrate it first; of course, and then show them what your intension is.  Physically help them move so they understand. Always say thank you when they listen. When students are not listening during whole group instruction time, change their carpet seating arrangement right away.

座位安排有问题？马上换。用简单的词汇和动作来让学生了解你的意思。示范一下动作，让他们知道你要他们跟着做什么。实际上帮他们搬移座位上的东西也可以让他们了解。记得说谢谢。如果学生在地毯讲课区吵闹说话，马上换。让他们知道每一个行为都会有特定的结果。

Take lining up as an example.  Give clear directions.  Count to three; a quiet line should form.  If it doesn’t happen the first time, ask the students to come back and do it again.  Keep doing it until a quiet line is formed.  There will be students who are obedient and know how to be quiet. Walk up to them and say “thank you for being quiet.” Ask the whole class to go back and form the line again. Pretty soon, the children will understand that you are expecting a quiet line and nothing else. They will start reminding each other so they don’t have to repeat this action too many times.

拿排队做例子。清楚说明要学生安静迅速的排队，数到3 然后看这队伍是否安静。不安静？回去再排一次，再一次，再一次，直到队伍安静为止。不用大声说话，只要轻声跟听话的学生道谢，然后要全部的学生继续努力排队。很快的，学生就会知道并提醒彼此安静排队，免得要再多跑几次。

Good learning habits need to be created and practiced so a teacher’s can be effective.  When fostering good habits, don’t worry about spending time on it because language will be reinforced and behavior will be molded.  Henceforth, teaching will happen.

好的学习习惯需要被创造也需要持续练习，如此老师的教导才会有效果。养成好的 学习习惯时，不要在乎花费的时间因为语言也会被学习到，好习惯养成后，教书的工作才可以真正开始。

Teachable moment

Teachable moment

Any moment is a teachable moment.  When a teacher only has three hours or less a day to teach all subjects, it is a challenge.  So, any tiny moment can’t be wasted. When choosing lunch, math can be added to the counting. Gradually, a comparison can be made.

Do students yell out things in English? Instead of telling them not to use English, just repeat it in Chinese and put it in a sentence.  The language comes from the students, and it’s in a context they can understand.  They will remember it better. 

I often make a crazy laugh to the kids during early October and expect them to scream “Witch!” at me.  “How perfect” I will tell myself, and I will point at myself and keep repeating “巫婆”.  Now, they learn a word that is useful during Halloween but has never appeared in the textbook. The best part is that they won’t forget about it due to the context and the way they acquired this new vocabulary.

任何时候都是教学的时刻。当一个老师只有3个或不到3个小时来教所有学科，是个极大的挑战，一分一秒都不能浪费掉。

选午餐，数数可以加进来，等学生熟练数字后，可以趁此机会来比较多少和多几个，少几个。

学生大声喊出英文，无须浪费时间来纠正，顺势把中文词汇丢给他们，这是学生自己提供的语文，用在情境上，他们比较不会忘记这个词也不会忘记用法。

十月初，我会故意对学生奸笑，他们往往会喊出“witch”，正合我意，我总是指着自己反复再说几次“巫婆”，要他们跟着说“陈老师是巫婆”.一个万圣节有用的词汇就简单学会了。

Once, several students talked about one student being a “smarty-pants”.  How exciting! I asked the student to come to the front. I asked him questions, and then expect his “smart” pants to answer me after putting the microphone to his pants. Of course, there was no sound from his pants. I asked him the same questions, and he could answer everything. I turned to the students and asked in Chinese “who is smart, he or the pants?” Everyone laughed and learned to say, “pants are not smart,” “he is smart” in Chinese. Of course, there will be students trying to answer for the pants.  Ignore this naughty behavior and reward positive behavior and let the students know your expectations.

一次，几个学生形容另一个学生是个 “smarty-pants”。机不可失，我请这学生站到前方, 把麦克风放到学生膝盖附近问了几个简单的问题，当然裤子不会回答，我问学生同样的 问题，这个学生回答了每个问题，接着我问所有学生，是裤子聪明还是他聪明，笑得开怀的学生大声回答“他很聪明，裤子不聪明。”当然会有几个调皮的学生想替裤子回答，故意忽略，然后表扬听话认真的小孩就可以让学生知道老师的态度和期许。

When something drops, say it out loud.  When thinking of something, say it out loud. When you can’t find something, say it out loud.  When you find something, say it out loud.

When the students match your actions with words, everything makes sense to them and they have a better chance to remember the words.

东西掉了，大声的说出来 “啊，掉下去了。”在想事情的时候，也说出来 “我想。。。。” 找不到东西时，也说出来，“我的东西在哪里？”找到了，也大声说找到了或是在这里，学生自然可以从你的行为和言辞找到连贯，由此知道也学会一些课本上不容易教到的词汇。

Students need social language; they need to hear it in daily life and in the most natural setting in order to remember and reuse the language.  So, when to teach these social languages? Any moment is a teachable moment. Students are learning all the time. Look for these teachable moments.

学生需要知道生活上的用语，他们从自然的环境，生活周遭听到这些语文时是最容易记住的。何时教才对？任何时候都可以教，学生无时不刻都在学习。善用这些时刻。

Teaching starts now! (And some free templates for classroom.)

After the mind is prepared, the actual work starts.

Immersion teachers have so much to do it’s not funny. However, don’t expect to teach alone. Here are some suggestions on how to start teaching.

Talk to your teaching partner and grade team, which means every teacher in your grade, and have the whole year curriculum mapped out. Don’t worry about the detailed lesson plans yet, just the big picture.  Map out the year’s plan for every subject.  Here is the simple template to spread the subjects throughout the year. Think about the holidays and the different months while planning.

At the beginning of the school, the pace of teaching should be slow. Procedures are really important. Set the rules while teaching subjects slowly. Often, it appears the children don’t understand the subject, but actually, it is because they don’t understand the language well yet.

If the plan isn’t complete at the beginning of the year, it can always be done later. Then it can be recycled for the next year, with your changes that can improve the next year’s plan.

After the year map is complete, think about the monthly plan.  Then a weekly plan should follow, and finally, a daily schedule. There are several reasons for planning curriculum this way. First, we should have an end goal in mind. Backward design is the key.  When we see the goal or destination, we can adjust our steps and walk toward the goal. Second, simplify the whole year and make it more manageable.  We want to see the whole year curriculum as a big beautiful cookie: it’s better to cut it into bite sizes so we don’t choke and we can enjoy the cookie elegantly.

Immersion teachers know how short instruction time is everyday. No matter how short the time is, all the required subjects need to be taught. The best way to teach them all is to have a good plan and well thought out steps. Integrate subjects together. When you have the whole year’s map done, you can see what language to use for each lesson to better prepare the students and integrate subjects while teaching. Math lessons need Chinese language for support. Chinese language can be combined with math concepts. Science lessons also need Chinese language support.  

We can’t expect students to understand the new language and the new concepts simultaneously. Gradually introduce the language and teach the meanings before asking students to master the learning.  

Everything needs to have a meaning so the students can remember and maintain the language.

I am sharing some templates here and hope they can be of some help in your teaching. 

The first and second ones are for the year map. You can easily make one for science or change the name.  Third one is what I used for first grade table top. It comes in handy when I ask students to do math on their own. The money reward sheet is for good behavior. Mark one cent for good behavior and the children get to practice money concept at the same time.  The last two are daily schedule I made. Very top part is for time then below it is for the daily teaching subjects. Under each day, I can quickly list objectives or important events on that day to remind myself. 

Hope these help some new teachers out there.

At the beginning!

On Immersion Teaching Goals

By Marty Chen

After teaching for several years now and talking with many experienced teachers and administrators, I have developed a list of goals that I believe can help teachers to a better start in the immersion classroom.  There are more goals than this list contains, however I think we should keep it simple to start with. Being overwhelmed is not a healthy and productive state.  

See it as an all-you-can-eat buffet: the purpose is to satisfy your hunger and fill your stomach. Everything might look yummy and tempting at first glance, but we should only put what we can eat on our plate. We should have a variety of food that can nourish our bodies.  We arrange our choices nicely on our plates so we can observe, eat, and enjoy every bite. We can then go back for more after we finish the first plate.  On the second trip, we might try something new, or we might stick with what we like as long as it works for us.

The Chinese often say:水能载舟亦能覆舟: the tide can bear the boats but can also swallow them. Too many rules, principles, or goals might be as bad as none at all.  But consider these important ones:

1.    Believe.  

Belief is what you tell yourself.  You believe you can or cannot achieve something.  If your belief is positive then you will swim above the water; if your belief is negative then you might drown.  As a teacher, you need to believe that you can teach and that students can learn.  When a teacher shows doubt, students can sense it. Believe in yourself and stay confident. One important belief is to believe in teaching 100% in the target language.

2.    Stay 100 % in the target language in the classroom.

This is the only way to do it. Students will try to figure out the message. English is their safety net. The students won’t take risks during learning if they can fall back on English. Let them survive in the target language.  Help them foster survival skills, and stick with teaching 100% in the target language.

3.    Be a role model. 

What happens when students see and hear you speaking English? If you do, make sure it’s not in the classroom.  During my fist year, students thought I didn’t speak English. I later realized it was not entirely necessary, as long as I only spoke Chinese in the classroom. I believe in demonstrating positive behaviors. If I only speak one language, what reason do I have to ask my students to become bilingual? I want the students to know that I speak their language well and can teach and live in a foreign country. I wish to inspire them rather than fooling them.

4.    Integrated teaching.

Time is limited, so do things efficiently. Make subjects connect with each other. Recycle the language throughout the day.  Show students that the vocabulary they are learning is not lifeless. Use vocabulary in meaningful sentences, and use vocabulary in real situations.  Act it out, make it fun, make the words part of their lives.  Generate interest in vocabulary so they use the words in different subjects and different situations.

5.    Caregiver speech.

Students only can hear the target language from you and in your classroom.  Provide as much context as you can. Weather changes? Talk about it every day. Clothing items are different, mention and point them out everyday.  Think out loud and invite students to do the same. Describe things in detail and invite students to say it. Describe events in sequences and invite students to say it too. Offer warm and comforting words when they are hurt or sad.  Offer funny comments and laugh with them.  Students have strong memories of emotion.  Let students know you care and let them hear your caring voice all the time.

6.    Comprehensible input.

Don’t assume. Use gestures, pictures, realias, TPR, multimedia and props to teach the message. Check their understanding and listen for responses in the target language. When I show you an eggplant picture and I say “murasaki”, what did I just teach? Purple or eggplant in Japanese? When I have many different purple objects and I say “murasaki”, can you make the connection that I am teaching the color purple?

7.    Backward design.

Have the end goals in mind. Think about the purpose of each lesson first. Don’t teach because it’s cute or it’s fun for you. Think about what you want your students to hear, say, read, and write.  Think about how can you evaluate the learning outcomes!

8.    Communication. 

Don’t assume! Talk to your partner teacher.  Talk to other teachers.  Talk to your principal.  Talk to your staff.  And talk to the parents.

Does this seem like a lot to keep in mind? Integrate these goals, just like you teach.  Together, all of these goals can be combined into a single act: effective teaching. 

Remember your main purpose:

·      Teach contents to your students

·      Students’ language production in target language

·      Inspire your students to love learning

Teaching is rewarding. Enjoy every moment!

The First day of school -in an Immersion Classroom Management 2

My colleagues and I often say "we will try this next year!" Time really flies when you are in class. To avoid saying too much "we will do this next year", we can only plan and plan.

In the previous post, I mentioned about numbering everything. This can really save your breath. I even number all the papers that need to go home with the students. The reason? If you have taught younger grades you remember how easily papers disappear in thin air after you hand the papers to their tiny hands.  Another thing is if you pick up a note, a homework, or something you handed out earlier and ask to whom it belongs, the chances of someone saying they are the owner are thin. I numbered everything even in English classroom. No need to argue when I show the number to the student. Sometimes funny thing happens, the student might say they already have the papers in their backpack. Ask them to bring it out and you can see who took the wrong ones and who doesn't care about cleaning their mailboxes. A numbered work/document really saves your breath, just saying.

There will be materials you want the students to take home and some materials to stay in classroom.  Since many Immersion teachers have 2 classes share the same room, how to organize these materials deserve some thinking too. In my school, one class uses the desk to store materials and another class uses seat pockets. We bought some seat pockets from Really Good Stuff.  They are holding up quiet well. My partner teacher and I took them home and threw them in washer at the end of school year and they are ready for next year.

First few days or weeks are really for building relationship and routine (or procedures).  Students need to learn : how to walk in quietly, how to hang backpacks, how to choose lunch, how to sit down quietly, how to stand up, how to come to the front, how to line up, how to get out supplies, how to listen, how to react, how to walk in the hallway, how to help teachers, how to listen, and how to learn.  Students need to hear these things million times and practice million times. (Maybe not million times, but you get the ideas.)

Keep the language acquisition order in mind, listening, talking, reading, and writing. So, there is no need to give tons of reading and writing work at the beginning. Students need to hear and get used to the second language until they are comfortable with it.

The first day of school-in an Immersion Classroom Management 1

The first day of school-in an Immersion Classroom

Management 1

First day is a big deal！First day is always a long and a physically  emotionally draining day .

Students are afraid of the unknown. Teachers are nervous and worried about all the things that might go wrong. However, no matter how nervous and how scared a teacher is, do not show it. A prepared teacher can turn any opportunity into a teaching moment.

Even a well-prepared teacher is not fear free. Can you imagine how scared one must be if they are not prepared?

Take a look at the classroom before the school starts. Picture how the students come in, work, learn, study, and interact with each other in this classroom. Have you thought about the furniture arrangement? Have you thought about the flow when students need to move around in the classroom? Desks, chairs, mailboxes, cubbies (or lockers), instruction areas, and hooks for coats and backpacks. There are more. Walk into your classroom pretend you were your student, where to hand backpack and coat. How do you find your desk? Is there a name-tag on the desk? Or nametags will come later based on personal preference?

Students’ first day is the product of teachers’ many sleepless nights, hardworking days and preparations. I had no ideas how to start the first day. The trainings I attended were all about no English and content based curriculum. I wish to share my trials and errors experience here so new teachers can avoid the same mistakes. When you put yourself in your students’ shoes you may discover many useful tricks. Since our students are all different and unique hence the methods should be vary.

Students put their backpacks away, find their desks, and get their pencil boxes out. Students can do these as long as they have attended kindergarten. However, think about how can students find their desks and know where to put their backpacks? This is what I have learned from my mistakes. I assumed the order would fall naturally but no, plans and arrangement need to be there.

Where do backpacks go? My first year teaching Chinese Immersion had a very interesting experience. Hooks for backpack weren’t ready in my classroom. I had to lead the students to walk by other classrooms to the hooks located in the hallway by the office, and I could only speak Chinese to these American kids. It was unforgettable.

 Locker or hooks with labels or without labels? If the decision is not to label the hooks/lockers, how do you let students understand your intention? Will it interfere with the students who try to choose lunch or start morning self-start?

Are there nametags on students’ desks so they can find their desks easily? Nametag is a great tool. Have you thought more about it? I am planning to cover all about this topic later.

Many schools want students to choose lunch first thing in the morning. How do you make this chore easy to understand and don’t take up too much time? I use food’s photos to let them pick. First day, I will pick up their numbers and ask them one by one about their lunch choices. Then put the numbered magnet to the correct lunch choice. This routine will take weeks of practice to let the students get used to it.

I love using numbers. Numbers on magnets, numbers on mailboxes, and numbers on pops. It takes time to have everyone remember their own numbers but once it’s memorized, they won’t forget. Also, you don’t need to make new sets of names every year.

We don’t have a lot of time to teach in half day so I am always trying to find easier ways to do things to save time and save trouble.