expanding access to chinese language instruction

Confucius Institute of the University of Kansas: Sheree Willis, Executive Director Kevin Liu, Associate Director Jin Xiaonan, Chinese Instructor Shi Ai, Chinese Instructor ciku@ku.edu, With special assistance from administrators and educators of Maize, Kansas

school district

ALL students deserve opportunities to learn languages

4/13/12 2

Including  rural,  inner  city,  and  other  underserved  students  

Expanding access to underserved students despite shortage of teachers,

funding, curriculum

A Successful Strategy: Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) videoconference delivery

(IDL, IVC, ITV, …)

What is IDL?���Interactive Distance Learning

•  Interactive; Real-time, synchronous instruction, NOT asynchronous “online” •  Uses advanced videoconferencing technology, NOT Skype •  Students and teachers see and hear each other, even with more than one remote site

Advantages of Interactive Distance Learning

Real-time, synchronous instruction Communities of learners over extended physical

space Regular schedule during normal school day Foreign language = “regular”academic subject, not

“enrichment” extra Satisfies contact hour, other requirements for high

school credit. Economic sharing of resources-teacher time,

curriculum development, etc. of teacher time, either by hub approach or distributed approach

Teachers concentrated at one location = sharing of experience, expertise, joint preparation

Chinese IDL teachers have greater access to expertise, guidance from higher ed (especially

useful in new field with inexperienced teachers) Students have access to certified, trained teacher

Higher Ed-based teacher hub: ���Quality of Instruction

Managerial Challenges

Scheduling

•  Multiple bell schedules across districts •  Multiple district calendars •  Connection schedules – sometimes with

multiple sites •  Capacity limitations – equipment and

teachers •  Substitutes •  Site visits

Communication

•  Policies – Homework & grades – Tests – Behavior – Teaching philosophy

•  Weekly schedules & changes •  Weekly reviews – from remote facilitators •  Grade reports – weekly updates and final

periods (quarters & semesters)

Communication, pt. 2

•  Class cancellations •  Calendars

– Holidays – Teacher workdays – Parent-Teacher conferences – Exams/Last day of school

•  Homework – faxed, scanned, or mailed (or Blackboard online)

Technical Support

•  Need support at the local site for multiple classrooms

•  Need to coordinate with remote site’s support personnel

•  Need to coordinate with network partners and/or infrastructure partners

•  (CIKU works with Southeast Kansas Educational Service Center (Greenbush), largest and most experienced IDL provider/network in Kansas)

Delivering High Quality Elementary School Chinese

•  47 sections of FLES Chinese, 20 min per day, 5 days/week, over 970 students (in KS, Ohio, Kansas Ciy, MO)

•  Two levels, adding new level each year –  ES Chinese 1(K, G1, G2, depending on school):

theme-based units –  ES Chinese 2 (G1, 2, 3, 4, depending on school):

story-based units –  9 CIKU instructors (some also do HS)

•  Assessment: SOPA, instructional team developed

CIKU ES Chinese Program

Xiaonan Jin

CIKU ES ChineseⅡ

•  Unit Curriculum Design

•  Class Activities

•  Class Management

•  SOPA Test

Curriculum Design    

Create  A  New  Story    

Addi9onal  Language  Points  

with  some  subsidiary  vocabulary,  materials  and  ac9vi9es

Expand  The  Story  Material    by  teaching  the  majorfunc9onal  language  points  with  

rela9ve  vocabulary,  companied  

by  appropriate  ac9vi9es  and  Chinese  children’s  song

Unit  Story  (with  the  basic  vocabulary  and  major  func9onal  sentences  included)

Activities Design

1. The rules of all activities should be simple and easy enough for kids at 5 to 8 years old to understand and follow, and teachers need to create a reason to use the target language.

Activities Design

2. IDL activities should enable teachers to reach through the screen and connect the teacher and students in the same space, ignoring the screen between us or transform it into something else we need.

Activities Design

3. Teachers should make full use of each activity and practice more than one language point in each game. Change some forms to make each activity adapt as to students learn new language points.

Activities Design

4. Teachers should try to lead the students into some language adventures in the activities while they are practicing the old language points. That way, they can discover new language in the activities. In other words, I do not need to introduce new language separately and then use it in an activity. I can just let the students discover the new language in the game.

Class Management

1. IDL teachers should control the content and rhythm of the whole class.

Class Management

2. IDL teachers should communicate with facilitators effectively.

Class Management

3. Materials should arrive at the target classroom in advance.

Delivering high quality high school Chinese instruction

•  23 (including combined sections) sections of HS Chinese, total 145 students

•  3 levels (plan to add Chinese 4 in Fall 2012) •  9 instructors (some also teach ES) •  Instructional teams develop/revise curriculum •  Units based on backward design principles: project-based,

growing emphasis on authentic materials (little use of textbooks)

•  Pedagogy: communicative, teach in target language, focus on form where necessary

•  Assessment: Instructional team-developed (includes pencil and paper tests and presentational projects); STAMP

• High school Chinese 1 • Shi, Ai

• 小chip

• 卢美

• 小罗逸

• 胖胖 • 黑虎

• Taylor  SwiI  

• Jus9n  Bieber  

• Jeremy  Lin  

你好！ 懂了吗？ 不懂！ 懂了！

……中文怎么说？

……英文怎么说？

有没有问题？

有问题！

没有问题！

谁是胖胖的好朋友？

• 胖胖有⼀一个好朋友。 • 他/她的头发很短。 • 他/她的眼睛很大。 • 他/她的头发是金色的。 • 他/她的T恤是蓝色的。 • 他/她的裤子……

你喜欢吃奥利奥吗？ 奥利奥是什么颜色的？ 奥利奥今天多少岁？

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谢谢！