ARP Journal

Reflections on ARP / Personal Growth

2005-05-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

I submitted my cycle reports to the headmaster, dean of faculty, department chair, and a couple of foreign language teachers of the Bishop's School, and received very positive feedbacks from some of them. The headmaster sent me an email and commented: "... I liked the data that proved collaboration over individual study brought significantly better results...." His comments were really encouraging as I was told that the headmaster had never sent e-mail to any teacher. This shows me that my ARP is important to the development of education at the Bishops' School.

My ARP is going to complete soon, but I feel the learning is continuing. The Bishop's School asks me to introduce my ARP to the whole school faculty next year. I feel there is a lot to say and there is a long way for me to go.

Looking back on my process of learning from the beginning of OMET, I think this Action Research Project has been an eye opening, enjoyable, and positive learning experience for me.

This project has actually changed me. I went from an instructionist to a constructivist educator，from a didactic teaching style to encouraging social learning. In applying these educational theories in my classroom I experienced social constructivism and learning by doing. I have witnessed the effects of the change in my students and myself. My students are happy with how they learn and are delighted with what they have learned. My job was made easier and more effective. I am enjoying the process of facilitating, and role of "Guide on the Side." I am teaching less but my students are learning more through discovery and through the help of their fellow students, and their peers in China. I feel students have never learned so much and so enthusiastically without me walking them through it. I was able to set up the learning environment in such a way that they took charge of their own process. My practice has improved tremendously and my students process of learning and understanding has improved as evidenced in their own reflections and actions. For the first time I have discovered that digital portolio is so powerful. I think if students present their portfolios to their parents, parents are then able to see so much more than a grade marked on a paper would have told them. The data collected have shown me that the projects students designed allowed them to get a new sense of themselves as learners - that setting a goal and working together to achieve it was something valuable to them. Self knowledge and reflections have deepened their learning.

The OMET program has provided new lenses in which to see and understand how people learn and the applicable theories on which to base actions. What a worthy and productive Action Research Project!

ARP Reflection - Learning and Teaching with Passion

2005-04-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

Through my ARP experience, I have discovered that the learning environment created by a teacher in class is a great influence on how a student views a subject. To create a postive learning environment, teachers should have a passion for the subject which they teach. Their attitude toward the subject matter and toward the students should reflect a love of their job. This positive attitude then gets reflected in the way they set up the class, which influences a student's view of the subject. As teachers, their responsibilities entail passing on this passion and love for knowledge to their students. In order for pupils to want to learn about a subject matter, they need to observe their teachers' excitement for it. If teachers do not seem to enjoy the material they teach, then the students can come to the assumption that it must be boring. For this reason, an important way teachers encourage students to learn depends on presenting information as interesting and relevant to society.

If students do not think educators enjoy what they teach, the students do not feel compelled to try to learn the material. If educators do not view the information they teach as interesting, many students conclude that the material must not offer excitement, and therefore do not feel encouraged to learn. They might consider the subject boring and a waste of time, so their attitude becomes negative toward the class. Educators without interest in their jobs give students the message that what they teach must be worthy of interest.

As educators, teachers strive to bring a refreshing and positive attitude to their subject and to students. If they do, their attitudes will help them create a class structure that students find enjoyable and stimulating. Teachers have the opportunity to give their students one of the most important skills and gifts in life: a passion for learning. With guidance from teachers with the right attitudes and classroom structure, students can flourish into knowledge --- hungry individuals. A love for learning can stimulate not only a successful educational career but also the basis for a successful career, because education provides the key to success.

As for grades, students always think grades are important to them, especially those who want to go to a prestigeous institution of higher learning for their post secondary education. They need the good grades to realize their dreams. For some students, it is the grades that motivate them to learn. I don't know what to say about this. I am still struggling with this.

Inner Stillness

2005-04-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

"Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together" is an interesting book that MM recommended us to read. During the trimester, I was busy with my ARP, mentoring process, and curriculum project; so did not really have time in reading. Now at the end of the trimester and before the start of the next trimester, I think this is a good time for me to read.

As I read, a section "Stand Still" struck me. The author states in this section that to stand still means listening from silence, listening for and receiving the meanings that well up from deep within us. These creative pulses may move in us, but often we are too busy to pay attention. Stand still.

There are many traditions worldwide that encourage people to cultivate inner silence. In the book Tao monitoring - the Tao of Giving and Receiving Wisdom, the author talks about the Chinese virtues, and one of the virtues is inner stillness. A person cannot see his or her own image in running water but sees it in water that is at rest. Only when one has realized growth and potential through inner stillness can one experience meaningful relationships and understand the universal laws of self-expansion. We all deserve sanctuary and time out along the way, a place where openness and wonder truly exist.

Another Function of Video Tech in Language Education

2005-03-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

I recently discover that showing students videos of native Chinese speakers conversing in real-world contexts can enhance the listening comprehension of the students. They must carefully observe the video, looking for important pieces of information that they use to construct a solution. Constructing the solution requires that they continuously articulate what they know about the problem and reflect on its sufficiency for solving it. Obviously, video is more engaging to the students than textbooks are.

I am going to get some movie clips in which native Chinese speakers talk some daily subjects that my students are familiar with, and I will see how the students react to the movie. Although this activity will not be part of my ARP, it will certainly enhance students' listening capability.

Cycle 3 Inquiries

2005-03-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

An interesting activity in cycle 2 was that students participated in e-mail exchanging activities to build good rapports with their e-pals in China. They have exchanged emails with their Chinese friends, and some sent to each other pictures. Some students designed virtual gifts using technologies to introduce the American culture to their e-pals before the Christmas holiday. The purpose of this activity was to learn the language and culture from the native speakers.

The students are excited about the learning opportunities with the native speakers. With the technologies available for the distanced learning, they want to gain the authentic learning experience. Now I have been thinking of building a project for my students to collaborate with their peers in China, and my inquiry for this activity is whether this project will help my students learn better.

Previous research suggests that it increases learners' opportunities to use the target language, induces a series of negotiations of meaning (Blake, 2000 ), and improves the quality of written and spoken language (Sotillo, 2000 ). With collaborations that involve the native speakers, students will have real-life purpose and accelerated motivation to construct their knowledge and develop their language skills.

Department Meeting

2005-02-27T17:04:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I introduced the Narration Recording function of PowerPoint to the department. Some teachers were really interesting the function. I could see their excitement about the learning. Some were not so interested. I guess there were some problems with the microphones and the connection.

The reason I introduced this function to the department is becuase I think it is an effective and efficient way for the foreign language students to practice their speaking and their pronounciation. If they make any mistake, they can hear it when they play the show, and they can re-record their voices and correct the mistake. It is also a good tool for assessment. If the students record all their speaking for every lesson from the beginning of the term to the end of the term, they should be able to hear their own progress at the end of the term.

I also showed the movie that my students made during their project learning. After watching the movie, I received some positive feedback from the teachers. They enjoyed watching the movie, and thought it was an interesting way to motivate students' learning.

Cycle 2 Reflection

2005-02-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

Findings and Insight:

It was an incredible thing to watch students so engrossed in the learning activities that they didn't want to stop. I felt students had never learned so much and so enthusiastically without me walking them through it. I was able to set up the learning environment in such a way that they took charge of their own process.

When I was in Florida for the Educational Technology Conference, a substitute was assigned to teach my classes. The substitute does not speak Chinese. How did my students learn from a non-Chinese speaker? A student from Advanced Honor Chinese 5 class taught Chinese Intro II when she was in her free period, and another student taught Chinese III. The most exciting thing was about the Chinese IV student's learning. They had class discussion by themselves through Tapped-in. I was surprised to receive the transcripts from the Chinese IV student's Tapped-In session when I was in Florida. From the transcripts I was very glad to find out that the Chinese IV students learned the new vocabulary of the new lesson and together as a group constructed their new knowledge through Tapped-In. I was so proud of my students for their own learning.

The insights of cycle one are still true. The synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies have still served as tools to facilitate students' learning activities. In project based learning, the students have collaborated around meaningful projects and powerful ideas that allow them to get a new sense of themselves as learners - that setting a goal and working to achieve it is something valuable to them. Student-centered learning has enabled the students to control over their own learning, and thus they have learned for deep understanding. As a student states: "This year has been much more beneficial than the past few years just because of the way we have been learning Chinese."

I was very excited to discover from student's learning activities that PowerPoint could not only serve as a presentation tool, but also it could be an interactive teaching tool. I also found out that video recording was not just for presentation, but it could be a powerful assessment tool in the language education.

Self knowledge and reflection reveal and deepen student learning. When students collected their semester's work and began to reflect they realized how much they had done in the first semester. The review also seemed to remind them of their knowledge and helped them retain it. Learning to practice meta cognition helped students to take responsibility for their own learning. The students were thinking about their learning. Since portfolios cause dialogue and reveal perceptions, I became aware that discussions about their reflections would be a good way to further understanding. I think if students presented their portfolios to their parents, parents were then able to see so much more than a grade marked on a paper would have told them.

Self Knowledge

2005-02-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

Dr. K asks: "what is it that you are really assessing and how are you going to be sure you are assessing it appropriately? "

We have some discussions about assessment in Madre's class recently. Now in Dr. K's class since many of us believe that assessment is a crucial part of curriculum, the questions about how and what to assess were raised again here. With those questions in mind, I read Chapter 6 of Understanding by Design, How Is Understanding Assessed in Light of the Six Facets? (pp 85 - 97) The chapter gives me some new insights. It tells me how the six facets of understanding inform and guide our assessment of understanding. For each facet, the chapter gives us some suggestions or strategies for getting at the heart of the topic.

I really like self-knowledge (facet 6). I think self-assessments is one of the powerful ways of learning. The reflective questions can make students look back to their learning process and see how they have learned and where they should improve.

Meta cognition refers to people's abilities to predict their performances on various tasks and to monitor their own levels of understanding. The meta cognitive approach to teaching includes activities that focus on sense-making, self-assessment, and reflection on what worked and what needs improving. ( Bransford, Brown, & Cockling. 2000 ).

Portfolio reflection provides a means to make learning visible. This in turn becomes the bases for deeper learning. The reflection piece requires some meta cognitive work; that is, students thinking about their learning process. When talking about what assessment should look like in a project-oriented classroom or school, Papert contends that portfolio-based, so-called authentic assessment is very good. ( Papert ).

After entering the OMET program in the Fall of 2004 I became more aware of the importance of reflection and metacognition. Although reflection invites introspection portfolios have an audience and so do the reflections included in them. This dialogue about the learning process can profit students in ways to help them learn more. Hence, students learn how to learn. (Murphy, S. 1998) The importance of thinking about one's own learning is of utmost importance. Bransford (2000) gives the example of a person who reads through a passage once, takes a test, and fails it. The pattern repeats itself unless he/she stops to think about his/her own learning, and that it may take more than a mere one time reading to master the material. Many students of my classes are always very eager to get their graded homework or tests back, and when they do so immediately look at the grade and put the homework or tests into their backpacks. They usually do not take time to see what mistakes they mady, and think how they made the mistakes. I asked them if they wanted to complete the tasks to receive As or they wanted to learn to have the ownership of the knowledge. They said that they wanted to learn to really understand the materials. In the first semester I asked students to write reflections in their blogs on all major activities.

Metacognition - Self Assessment

2005-02-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

Learning can be improved by helping students become more aware of themselves as learners who actively monitor their learning strategies and resources and assess their readiness for particular tests and performances. I have used this approach in my classroom and received very positive result.

After our OPI activity, I asked my students to write reflection on the activity. Here is a reflection from one student:

Yesterday and today we had the oral proficiency exam. I think that this is an excellent part offer new type of learning. Being able to speak the language is something that is very different than just knowing vocab and grammar. It is also a skill that comes only through practice. I would really like to continue working on our speaking because I thought that it was definitely challenging and something that I would like to improve on. I also realized that my method of preparing was not very effective. I attempted to memorize answers for each question, but then when I was speaking if I forgot one of the words or the exact order then I was stuck. Speaking is something that needs to "flow" and therefore I do not think that memorization is a good study techniques. I hope we continue to work on speaking - I definitely feel that is one of my weakness and is something that I really would like to improve!

How powerful the self assessment is! It does not only help the student look back to her learning process and found her learning problem, but also helps me to think what other venues we should take to help students learn speaking in a more effective and efficient way.

Reflection on the Student Centered Learning

2005-01-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

As the first semester ended last week, I want to look back on the new approach this semester, and see what were good and what we need to improve. Since this was the first time it was attempted, there were a few things that were not clear and complicated while everyone tried to figure out how everything should work. Going forward, however, I think that we can use the results from this quarters various approaches as a base, and continue to develop a rich learning environment. Whenever you attempt something new, there is always a transition and learning period. In the future, I think it will be easier because everyone will be better understanding of what to expect. In order for this approach to be successful, I think that it is very important to have a clear outline of what is going to be done. This includes plans for projects, homework, oral proficiency, written proficiency, etc. Now that everyone knows what really works, I think we should put together a complete timeline for the next semester, laying out all of the different activities we are going to have. In doing so, we can clarify the things we think were successful and revise the things we think were not so successful. I really enjoyed the learning with my students. They were creative, and the lessons that they taught to their classmates were authentic and challenging, as well as fun. The students all said that they liked the new approach and wanted to continue this type of learning.

Oral Proficiency Interview Was a Success

2005-01-16T16:46:00.000-08:00

Last Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 10 and 11), I conducted the Oral Proficiency Interviews in Chinese IV class. We all sat in a circle. By turn, I asked each student a question, and after he/she answered my question, she/he asked me a question. Then all other students and I gave the students scores on the questions answered and asked. We went around for five times so that each student answered 5 questions and asked 5 questions.

It took two days to complete this activity. It was the first time we tried this activity, and it turned out great. All the students felt like it and would like to do it in the future.

I think that this is an excellent part of the students new type of learning. Being able to speak the language is something that is very different than just knowing vocab and grammar. It is also a skill that comes only through practice. All students would really like to continue working on their speaking because some of them thought that it was definitely challenging and something that they would like to improve on. Some students realized that their methods of preparing were not very effective. They attempted to memorize answers for each question, but then when they were speaking if they forgot one of the words or the exact order then they were stuck. Through this activity, some students realized that speaking was something that needed to flow and therefore memorization was not a good study technique. Some students felt that was one of their weaknesses and was something that they really would like to improve. I am very proud of my students' learning process and reflections. I hope students would continue to work on their speaking.

Reading "Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together

2005-01-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

Although my ARP at this time does not directly relate to group communication, I still found the book Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together interesting and helpful. It guides me to learn how to talk together with people in honest and effective ways. In my later cycle, I will share my research findings and student products to my peers in order to introduce them in best practices for integrating technologies into their classrooms. To do this, I need to build a strong community of my peers. At that time I think I will come across some group communication issues. How do I solve those issues?

In the book, Isaacs pointed out that new knowledge and understanding are achieved as individuals share their knowledge and experience with each other. Sharing infomation promotes new connections and new understadings, which result in the construction of new knowledge. Perspectives are broadened as individuals see beyond the confines of their own classrooms and consider the organization as a whole. (p. 30)

The point that I have learned so far from this boook is that the more individuals practice dialogue, the more we develop a relationship built on a deepening sense of trust, the more we strengthen community.

How are individual and collective values clarified and enhanced through community?

My Presentation to The Bishop's School Faculty

2004-12-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

I made a presentation of my ARP report to The Bishop's School last Monday, Dec. 6. After that I have received very positve feedback from some colleagues.

I wanted to find out from those colleagues what they liked about my report. It seemed that it was not about the tech. It was the ideas of student's interraction and collaboration that played an important role in student's learning. The technologies were only the tools that could enhance the students' learning. Here is one colleague's feedback.

Dear Xing,

I really enjoyed reading your research report and listening to your findings today at our faculty meeting. You have inspired me to revisit the way that conduct my own grammar lessons to see how I might modify homework and in-class assignments to include collaboration. My tenth graders as a group span a full spectrum of skill level. I like the idea of utilizing the status of all students to enhance learning. I am about to look at the Tapped-In website to see how I might be able to do this. Thank you for your insights!
Sincerely,
Katie Rettaliata

Student-Centered Learning

2004-12-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

Again today was the two students taught Chinese 4 class. Today, they focused primarily on the vocabulary of lesson 15. They began as they did on the other day by asking the students if they knew the meaning of any of the words they were to learn that day. The students went through the list, word for word, defining the meaning, often by guessing. After the preview, the students were given handouts which contained three lists: pinyin (without tones), characters, and English. They were to fill in each of the characters and pinyin tone marks as they were written on the board. This was helpful because it allowed the students to not only visually see the word, but they discussed the meanings and wrote them down. After completing the list, the students participated in 10 "quick takes." After completing the worksheet, the students played a game. They sat in a circle, passing around a ticking bomb while translating prompted vocabulary words into English or Chinese. Then, unexpectedly, the bomb would "explode." The person holding the bomb at this time was to make a sentence with the vocabulary word they were given. This was a fun way to review the vocabulary and practice speaking the words. Overall, the students expressed that they have enjoyed the teaching of this group because their technique is easy and fun. I also see that they are excited to teach the students about the Chinese language and eager to utlize fresh, creative taching tools, thus enhancing the students learning and enjoyment of the class. I believe the students who did the teaching have gained the insight of the learning of the materials that they taught.

Students Teaching

2004-12-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

The first day when Fan Xueli and Huang Lan taught out Chinese 4 class about lesons 14 and 15 was a real success. They began by teaching their peers the vocabulary of lesson 14. They began with a clever idea; each teacher would read out vocabulary words to introduce their students to them and test their knowledge of the meanings prior to learning them in class. I thought this was benefitial because the teachers introduced the new knowledge based on the students' prior knowledge. After the preview, the students were given a worksheet of three lists: pinyin, English, and characters. The teachers wrote the character for each vocabulary word on the board which the students wrote on theri character list simultaneously. Also, as each word was introduced, the teachers would pronounce it while stressing the pinyin, encouraging the students to decipher the tones used, which the students proceeded to write in our lists. After that, the students were given a worksheet to enforce the vocabulary they had just learned. First, the teachers told the students a sentence or phrase on English, which they were to complete in chinese using the characters recently introduced. This stimulated the students' critical thinking by forcing their brains to go over the vocabulary again in a quick, efficient manner. This activity showed the students how to use the vocabulary in context, making it more real and applicable to everyday life. The rest of the worksheet was a compilation of sentences, in which the students were to fill in the blanks using the new vocabulary. The students completed the sentences for homework, enforcing the vocabulary once again. The last event of the class was the most fun. Each student was given 22 index cards. Each student was to pick out a different colored marker and write all of the pinyin the students learned on the cards and write the characters on other cards. Then, they closed their eyes, and the teachers spread every student's pinyin cards across the floor. When the cue was given, the students scrambled across the floor in a race to match up all of the pinyin cards with the character cards. The first student to get rid of all of his character cards won. This activity was not only enjoyable, but it reinforced the vocabulary in various ways. The students reinforced how to write the characters and pinyin by making the 22 cards. Also, we learned how to think quickly by hurriedly matchine up the cards. One of the students says that I applaud the teachers for their creative, fun, entertaining ideas and fluent teaching. Way to go!

Rubric Development

2004-11-30T08:25:00.000-08:00

With the help from the learning circle, I have come up with the ideas of a rubric for the project-based learning. The grade should be spreaded out through Design Ideas, Timelines, Lesson plans, Collaboration, Homework and Work Habits, Vocabulary, Grammar, Comprehensibility, Oral Proficienct, Reading Comprehension, and technology. I have discussed the rubric with the students. This should work. The assessment will be made by student self, peers, and teacher.

What Have I Learned So Far?

2004-11-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

I completed the cycle one research and activities. I wrote about what I did and how I did in my cycle one research report. Looking back, I realize I have learned so much during these months, Distributed Learning Environments, Educating Today's Learner, Learning and Technology, and Participatory Action research. All of these classes are connected to support our learning. I need to reflect on what I have learned.

I become to understand now we have been laying the foundation to understanding theories from the readings and literature research, upon which our ARP is supported.

Situated Learning and other readings from Wenger: established the understanding of CoP. The reliance on experts, the learning by doing, the maturing in a practice, taking on more responsibility, and sharing with others. Why did I build a CoP with my students? I think CoP is important to us because my students and I should share the common goal and work towards the common goal.

Vygotsky's theory, Zone of Proximal, has affected my practice a great deal. Through the learning and practicing, I realize that social constructionist has played an important role in my classroom. As a teacher, my responsibility is shifting from teaching students to facilitating students' learning process and to coordinate the learning with others. Why did I shift my responsibility? I wanted to see my students to control over their own learning and construct their own knowledge.

The combination of group discussion in TI, blackboard, wiki, and Swiki, I realized, is our Knowledge Management, a reflection of our discussions on what we learned. We actually participated in a knowledge sharing community, but I didn't realize the term for what we have been doing until now, Discovery. Working together in groups I learned the importance of compromise, sharing, contribution, different levels of expertise, who to go to for what, participation, working for common goal. We experienced a sense of Community of Practice through discovery and constructivism.

The optional books provided for individualism and choice. As adults the importance of self direction came into play. From the book choices we were grouped to express the ideas so we had again a shared practice.

MM's class had us to think through the theories to support our ARP. Think about how we would want to improve our practice. Then what steps we would take to support those steps through theory. You and Your Action Research Project by McNiff, Lomax, and Whitehead and Doing Action Research in Your Own Organization by Coghlan and Brannick have guided me step by step during my cycle one research, and continue to impact on my future learning and research.

Gary's class had us to apply the technologies and learn the technologies. Reading of Children's Machine, Learning and Forgetting, and Rethinking High School left me wonder how I should create a real learning for my students, the learning where they don't forget, the learning where they take control, and the learning where they construct their own knowledge. Digital music composing with Finale Notepad, Exploring the Solar System with Celestia Solor System, patch and quilt, Pacman, and 3N + 1 with MicroWorlds provided us with concrete examples to learn how the learning process took place. Besides, these adventures were really fun.

High Tech High School

2004-11-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

As part of the preparation for my cycle two ARP, I visited High Tech High School (www.hightechhigh.org), the school that serves as a catalyst for reform within San Diego community by creating a model school and by encouraging many local educators, politicians and leaders to visit. There are only humanity and Math/Science Departments. The school combines English and History together, and they are talking about combining Math and Science as well.

The room that I was in was a Spanish classroom, but it looked like a computer lab to me. I did not see any Spanish textbooks on teacher's desk; instead, computers, CDs, DVDs, students' projects and portfolios are on the desk. I saw some students playing with computers, and some doing their projects with computers without being watched by teacher. In fact, there was no teacher there when I was entering the room. I believe that is the trust. The kids know the price of the trust and freedom is responsibility.

The teacher who invited me wanted to show me a project (http://projects.hightechhigh.org/?project_id=13&action=projmain&x=116&y=54) that the 10th graders made. He did not really know exactly how the kids made it. From time to time he had to ask the kids to help him show me the process. That tells me that he gives the kids a sense of control over their learning, and the kids construct their own knowledge. That's totally a new way of teaching and learning to me, very interesting.

The Children's Machine and My Action Research

2004-11-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning of the OMET, we have been reading quite a few readings that are very inspirational, especially The Children's Machine and other Papert's writings.

As a teacher, I ask myself sometimes how I make my students' learning a real one, the learning where they don't forget, the learning where they take control, and the learning where they construct their own knowledge.

To apply the learning to my practice, I am conducting an experiment to allow students to get a new sense of themselves as learners - that learning is something valuable, that setting a goal and working to achieve it is something important to them.

The experiment is a project-based learning where students in small learning circles are allowed to present their own design ideas, set their own goals, timelines, and standards of excellence. It started from last week and ends before the Christmas holiday.

It has been going on very well so far. From my observation, I found that when students were working in the computer lab planning and discussing their projects, and solving their problems, they were deeply involved in the learning. Sometimes they were so serious that they did not want to leave the computer lab when the class time was over. They sometimes came to see me after school discussing their ideas with me. I had never seen such situation when the lessons had been conducted by me in a teacher-centered environment.

Students enjoy learning when the learning makes sense to them We should provide students the opportunity to have a voice in how and what they learn, while building intrinsic motivation towards learning.

The First Quarter Survey

2004-10-31T22:41:00.000-08:00

Friday was the end of the first quarter. I administered a survey to Chinese 4 students. All Chinese 4 students participated in the survey. The survey result looks very positive.

Question 1: Do you think Tapped-In (online synchronous chat) activities have helped you practice Chinese more efficiently? Why or Why not?

71.4 % of the students felt practicing Chinese in a virtual chat room without pressure.

57.1 % of the students felt making a dialogue online easily without worrying about making mistakes.

57.1 % of the students indicated that they could receive feedback from their peers immediately.

100 % of the students stated that they could build their new knowledge on vocabulary and sentence structure deeply.

85.7 % of the students felt like they wanted to speak Chinese when they entered into the virtual room because it created a Chinese language environment for them.

100 % of the students thought chatting improved their communication skill effectively.

Question 2: Do you think blog activities have helped you practice Chinese typing and writing effectively and efficiently? Why or Why not?

43 % of the students indicated that reading other people's blogs helped them form their own thoughts.

28.5 % of the students stated that reading other people's blogs helped them gain insight of their learning materials.

85.7 % of the students indicated that reading other people’s blogs helped them improve their reading.

57.1 % of the students agreed that reading other people's comments on their blogs helped them receive feedback from their peers quickly and easily.

42.85 % of the students indicated that reading other people's comments on their blogs helped them refine knowledge.

85 % of the students agreed that writing and translating blog messages helped them improve their writing and translation.

Question 3: How do you like the Chinese class this year?

I like it a lot. There is a lot more work, but I feel that I have learned a lot more. It is more interactive and the varied activities keep the class interesting.

I like it a lot. I think that the interactive Chinese on the computer is a good new step and it has helped a lot.

Chinese is a great class this year. It is one of my favorites.

I like the methods of teaching this year more than just memorizing for the quizzes each day (that we did last year).

Fun and good for leaning.

Yes because I think the way of learning Chinese is more efficient and enjoyable.

Question 4: Do you think the new teaching methods have worked for you? Why or Why not?

Yes. Not only have I learned more, but I have learned it better. I am not just memorizing vocab and following structure patterns to make sentences, but Iam actively gaining an understanding of the language.

Yes. I feel that I learn better when I am interacting with my classrooms about schoolwork. It makes it more enjoyable and I remember more.

I think it has worked. I have better understanding of material.

Yes, instead of just learning words, we learn how to use them in a real dialogue.

Yes because I can constantly using words and structures.

Yes... I am doing well in the class.

Cycle 2 Action

2004-10-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

I want to find out if group project lead to better student's collaboration and construction of community of learning? I want to design a project that enables students to design their projects, ideally collaborating with students from Mercersburg or schools in China if possible. With collaborations that involve an outside audience, students will have real-life purpose and accelerated motivation to construct their knowledge and develop their language skills. I hope this can be my cycle 2 action.

With the help of MS, I have got touched with the Chinese teacher at Mercersburg. She was excited about my plan for collaboration, but she seemed to have some problems with the Chinese computing capability at Mercersburg. We will talk more details later, and I will see if I can help her. While preparing for the cycle 2 action, I am thinking the project we can work on is probably something like "My School, Your School" or "My City, Your City". The Chinese language students from one school write a questionnaire to the students in another school to find out the information about the school or city. Such information can be student activities, sports, timetable, weather, clubs, etc. After the students answer the questions, they can compile a table to list the similarities and differences between the schools.

I have been also trying to contacting a high school in China, but have not received any reply yet. It is always slow in China site. I hope to work out a way to collaborate with China.

Cycle 1 Actions

2004-10-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Tapped-In activities have been going on well, and are well liked by the students so far. The students felt the virtual classroom did provide them with a Chinese language environment as they were required to speak Chinese only in their chat room. In the mean time, their tones have improved greatly that was reflected on their face-to-face speaking and paper-based tests. Another advantage is that language interactions can easily be recorded in the form of logs. Unlike the chat session itself, which is transient and dynamic, the log provides a stable reference for discussion later. These logs may be used post-chat for discussion and analysis, by the student alone, through pair work, or through teacher-student discussions.

There are some interesting activities in students' blogs. This is a great way for students to learn and support each other, give each other feedback through their blogs. They are required to do some writings in Chinese in their blogs. Then they are required to write comments on or translate their peers' writings. The students told me that they really liked this way, and they felt it helped them gain better understanding. For my action research, these blogs have been serving as data and evidence. Here are some examples from a student's blogs and her classmates' translations and comments.

Chinese 4 Study
我常常和水，可是我最喜欢绿色茶。我不和啤酒。上个星期我去我的朋友家。我们先做功课。因为我们明天有中文考试，我们练习中文。我们做功课以后看电影。我们喝绿色茶。昨天晚上我去图书馆看书。在图书馆，我见到一个女还。她很漂亮。我跟她看书，和我回家才一十一点。
posted by liyu @ 9:01 AM

7 Comments:

At 8:45 AM, Wu JianFeng said
我常常和水，可是我最喜欢绿色茶。我不和啤酒。I often drink water, but I don't like green tea. I dont drink wine.上个星期我去我的朋友家。我们先做功课。因为我们明天有中文考试，我们练习中文。我们做功课以后看电影。我们和绿色茶。Last week, I went to my friend's house. We did homework first. Since we had a Chinese test tomorrow, we studied fori t. After doing homework, we watched a movie. We had green tea.

At 3:40 PM, Bo Si said
昨天晚上我去图书馆看书。在图书馆，我女。她很漂亮。我看书一起她，和我回家才一十一点。Last night I went to the library. I saw a girl at the library. I read books together with the girl, and I returned home later than expected at 11:00.li3 ye4, wo3 xi3 huan1 ni3 de gong1 ke4. Wo3 jin1 nian2 hen3 xi3 huan1 zhong1 wen2 ke4. wo3 bu2 dan4 xi3 huan1 shuo1 zhong1 wen2, er2 qie3 kan4 bie2 ren2 de websites. zai4 jian4! wo3 xi1 wang4 ni3 de zhou1 mo4 zhen1 hao3!!

At 5:10 PM, FanXueLi said
你的功课很好！我常常和水，可是我最喜欢绿色茶。我不和啤酒。I usually dink water, but i most like to drink green tea. I do not drink beer. (you just have one mistake which is that you want to use the character 喝 rather than 和 when talking about drinking) 上个星期我去我的朋友家。我们先做功课。因为我们明天有中文考试，我们练习中文。我们做功课以后看电影。我们和绿色茶。Last week i went to my friend's house. First we did homework because yesterday we had a Chinese test and so we reviewed Chinese. After we did homework we watched a movie. We drank green tea. 你想今年的中文课怎么样？

At 10:48 AM, xing king said
"在图书馆，我女。她很漂亮。我看书一起她，和我回家才一十一点。"How do you say "In the library I met a girl." in Chinese?How do you say "We read together, and I didn't go home until eleven o'clock" in Chinese?Please see FanXueli's comments for "和" and make correction.

At 11:42 AM, xing king said
Did you make any comments on other classmates' work? Or did you translate other classmates'work?Jin Lao Shi

At 8:56 PM, Wu JianFeng said
我常常和水，可是我最喜欢绿色茶。我不和啤酒。I often drink water, but I like green tea the best. I dont drink beer.上个星期我去我的朋友家。我们先做功课。因为我们明天有中文考试，我们练习中文。我们做功课以后看电影。我们喝绿色茶。Last week, I went to my friend's house. We did homework. Since we had a chinese test tomorrow, we practiced Chinese. After doing homework, we watched a movie. We drank green tea.

At 5:00 PM, Bo Si said
你周末最喜欢做什么？我周末常常做功课，跳舞，还有去Church. 星期一见！博思

Project Based Learning

2004-10-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

With MS's help, I got the contact info of Mercersburg's Chinese teacher. I have been thinking the students should do something useful so that they will find the learning is interesting. It is a good idea to let our students and Mercersburg's students collaborate on a project.

What project should we do? I just received a copy of Project Book from iEARN, an International Education and rescues Network. Having gone through the newsletter, I found a good one, Your School and My School. Students in different schools will analyze their school life and create a questionnaire to be answered by other schools on topics such as school facilities, sports, timetables, routines, and other sthat can be proposed by the schools unpopular. Once the questionnaires are answered students will create a comparative paragraph with the answers they received. This probably will work.

Learning vs. Completion of Task

2004-10-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

Most time when my students received their tests back, they only looked at the test scores. If the test scores were good, they were happy, and throw the test paper into their backpack; otherwise, they throw the paper into the waste basket. Seldom did I see any student look carefully what they had done wrong. In this way, they did not really learn with understanding. They simply completed the task without understanding why they made the mistakes.

In the book Theory and Practice of Online Learning, the authors think that mistakes create important teachable moments. Failure on any task is considered to be an opportunity to learn by determine what went wrong. They define teachable moments as the precise point at which a learner makes a mistake and wants to correct it. It is a brief window where the learner is most receptive to new information that is focused, personalized, and in context. I should seize this teachable moments to let them examine their own mistakes, and learn from the mistakes.

Blog is an Effective Tool to Help Student Gain Deep Understanding

2004-10-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

As I said in my last blog, I would have students use blogger.com to help each other understand the grammar points that they did not understand in the classroom. They did that on Monday. I asked them each to make two sentences with the grammar learned, and then commented on each other's sentences so to help each other better understand the grammar. It worked very well because the students who understand the grammar better helped the students who did not understand. The best thing was that one of the student's posts was commented by a native speaker in Canada. He just happened to visit the site. He not only made positive comments on this student's work, but also corrected the mistakes and suggested a better way in which a native speak would use in the sentence. My student was thrilled.

Traditionally, I have not promoted environments in which the students play an active role in their own education as well as their peers'. Vygotsky's theory, however, teaches me and students to play untraditional roles as we collaborate with each other. Instead of dictating my meaning to students for future recitation, I should collaborate with my students in order to create meaning in ways that students can make their own. Learning becomes a reciprocal experience for my students and me.

Blogger.com, based on Vygotsky's theory, provides work space for peer instruction and collaboration, and promote and encourage student interaction and collaboration. Thus the virtual classroom becomes a community of learning.

Blogging May Help Me

2004-10-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

I ask my students to do writing assignments in blogger.com. After they finish writing, I ask them to read each other's writing, comment on each other's writing, and reflect on what they learn. I found this is an effective way for them to learn from each other in a Community of Practice, and they learn ideas more deeply.

Last Friday, when I was introducing some new grammar points, some students seemed to be confused, and misunderstood the grammar points. In the past, I would explain to them again and again until they understood. Now I am thinking, instead of my repeated explanations, I will ask them to learn from each other in CoP using blogging. I will ask each of them to make three sentences for each grammar point they learn, then read each other's sentences, and make comments on these sentences for better understanding. I guess this is a more efficient way of learning for deep understanding. I believe CoP is more powerful than teacher-centered approach. We will do this on Monday.

Critical Friends and CoP

2004-09-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have two critical friends who are my colleagues in the same department. At the beginning of the school year, when I was talking with them about OMET and what I would do for my ARP, They were very excited. They both told me: "Let me know what happens to your project". I really keep them updated as I approach to the project. McNiff, Lomax, Whitehead state in the book You and Your Action Research Project:" These critical friends should be willing to discuss your work sympathetically." My critical friends not only discuses my work sympathetically, but also help me think critically. One of them once sent me an email asking me a few challenging questions, which helped me focus on my research questions and start cycle one. The other friend meets me weekly to discuss problems, concerns, and progress in my research.
Besides these two critical friends, I have built a CoP for my ARP. The members of this CoP are mainly my students that are valuable part of my research project as I depend on them for data and evidence, and receive feedback from them. I am taking part in a number of educational activities that involve the use of Tapped-In, Blogger.com, on-line vocabulary trainer, and other on-line resources. Students as part of their learning are required to reflect on what they are learning and how the technology is supporting their learning of Chinese. So far I have already received some positive feedbacks from my students either verbally or writing in blogs, "I like this year's Chinese class", "I like most the Chinese class", "This year's Chinese class is fun", "This year's Chinese class helps me understand better". These feedbacks are important to me as I can see from these feedbacks that my students and I share the same goal. I want them to help me understand how the use of interactive technology enhance their learning as a way to improve my teaching. They, of course, have a goal to learn Chinese in an effective and efficient way. This makes me realize the important role that CoP plays in my ARP.
What is Community of Practice? As I recall from the first reading of OMET at VirtCamp, it is a group of people with a shared set of goals and help one another achieve them. There is a "relational interdependency of agent and world, activity, meaning, cognition, learning, and knowing." (Lave & Wenger ) There is a feeling of "we are all in this together" working toward a goal. This describes exactly how I feel about my ARP.

Action Started Last Monday

2004-09-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

I introduced TI to two classes Monday. All students were excited about this virtual classroom where they could talk in Chinese. One student said in Chinese that he liked TI, and other students agreed with him. I felt the support from my students. From student's TI sessions I see the benefits of TI. TI keeps students active doing meaningful activities results in high-level processing. Students are able to use the strengths of other students, and learn from others. In TI, students construct their own knowledge rather than accepting that given by me, and they control their own learning process. As they interacts with each other and the content, they are developing their new knowledge and skills.

How do I collect data for evidence? In last TI session, one cadre mate suggested to use online survey. That's a good idea. Madre also provides us with some methods to collect data that are helpful. I think I will use action research journal, collection of student work including their blogs, transcripts of TIs, and questionnaires. I will discuss these methods with my learning circle mates tomorrow in TI.

What is my ARP question? My main research question is how I help students learn Chinese in a community of learning environment to gain deep understanding. Further questions arise as I have been thinking of adopting synchronous and asynchronous communication tools on the network for students' interaction and collaboration. Does the use of synchronous and asynchronous communication on the network provide an easier way in which students can learn by doing and receiving feedback, and continually refine their understanding, and build new knowledge? Does group project lead to better student's collaboration and construction of community of learning? I will also discuss these questions with my learning circle mates tomorrow.

Computer Lab, TI Accounts

2004-09-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to IT staff's permission, I installed the Chinese computing software in 20 computers in the computer lab og TBS. I also downloaded Java from Sun Microsystems. Now we are ready to go. Monday is the first day that lab is open to classes. I will start the activities that I have planned in the computer lab. First I will introduce Tapped-In, blogger.com, vocabulary trainer, etc.. preparing students to work on-line. Then I will ask each to create an account in blogger.com. Last, I will let them play around to be familiar with those websites. That's for Monday's lab activities.

Just now I created two more TI student groups. Altogether I have three groups there thanks to BJB's help. I created 24 student accounts that should be enough.

I will continue literature review. There is a lot of information on the net. I am trying to finish the timeline soon so that I will have a general map for my ARP. ARP plan is almost done.

The First Day of the School

2004-09-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

Before school started I had already prepared for a talk with my two classes that will participate in my ARP.

School starts on August 30th. I went into the classroom talking about this year's new activities that would focus on learning with deep understanding, student-centered learning environment, new technology as an interactive learning tool, and collaborating learning with multimedia. I told them that we would use Tapped-In for our synchronous chatting in Chinese, blogger.com for our asynchronous writing, translation, and reflection, and any multimedia for group project and e-portfolio. "COOL" was my students' feedback. After class, quite a few came to me saying that they liked the new ways.

When the department chair and school administrators heard of my new plan, they were all excited about it. Well, I think, we really don't know if the new approaches will work until my ARP demonstrates the positive result.

In my last week's force field analysis, I listed IT staff of TBS as one of the negative sources. When I went to the computer lab this week, I found that the old computers were replaced by the new computers, and that the operating systems were upgraded to Windows XP. That's really great! The next step is to install or download Chinese language computing capability to the computers. I will make sure that IT staff gives me permission to do that next week.

Force Field Analysis - August 29, 2004

2004-08-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

August 29, 2004

Force Field Analysis

Direction of the driving force for the change: --->

Direction of restraining force to the change: <---

Step 1 - Describe the change issue and the desired direction of the change:

To improve my teaching so that I integrate the interactive technology as a tool to enhance student learning in my classroom. --->

Step 2 - List the political forces driving changes and those restraining them:

- The School Administration --->
- The Dean of Study --->
- The Dean of Faculty --->
- The Foreign language department --->
- The future study --->
- Xing King --->
- IT staff <--- -
- Some Prents and Sudents <--- -
- Other Teachers <---

Step 3 - Give a weighting to the forces, those that are stronger and more powerful than others (in top down order) :

1. Students weighting the heaviest of the restraining force. Their willingness to participate in my ARP, and performance in ARP has a direct impact on my ARP.

2. Parents' supports are important for student's participation in my ARP.

3. To upgrade and maintain the facility in the computer lab is very important. All computers in the computer lab are currently with Window's 98. The implementation of my ARP plan will depend on Window's 2000/XP and other network software. The support from IT staff is important to the implementation.

4. Since ARP focuses on my own teaching practice, the changes to other teacher's practice are beyond the scope of ARP. I am not sure at this point if I should include teachers here as restraining force.

Step 4 - Focus on the restraining forces and assess which of the significant ones need to be worked on:

The restraining force of students and parents should be worked out if they understand the purpose of my ARP is to improve my teaching and enhance student learning outcome.

IT staff can be worked out as long as they understand the nature of my ARP.

The restraining force of the teachers should not be a problem if my ARP shows a positive result, so the plan for ARP is very important.

Step 5 - Develop plans for reducing these forces:

1. Since ARP focuses on my own teaching practice, the changes to other teachers practice are beyond the scope of ARP. However, I will have to work at establishing the credentials and value of the ARP for my future project.

2. IT staff may be reluctant to upgrade the facility in the computer lab. If so, I will e-mail to the chair of the future project to solve the problem. If it does not work, I will get help from the administrators. Good communication is the key.

3. I will send Informed Content Form to students explaining why I do ARP. I will also talk to parents at open house night. If some parents do not understand it, I will call individuals to explain. As long as they know my purpose is to improve my teaching and enhance student's learning, they will understand and support me.

4. I need to build a community of practice to minimize the possible restraining forces. I will try to get continuous support from administration, foreign language department, future study, and other teachers.

August 23, 2004

2004-08-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

(This post was transferred from my ARP website for people's easy access to and comment on my ARP journal)

I just completed two required tutorials for ethical issues, IRB Tutorial http://cme.cancer.gov/c01/ and University of Minnesota Informed Consent Tutorial. http://www.research.umn.edu/consent/ .Both tutorials are informative and educational. The UM Informed Consent Tutorial was very practical. It guided me step by step to have created an informed consent form which is very important to me before I start my action research. The procedure part helped me shape my thoughts. How shall I submit to IRB for approval? How long does it take to get the approval? I will find the answers from tonight's TI.

I started to search literature for ARP this week, and I found a vast amount of useful information on the Internet. The only limitation for me is TIME. The school starts next week. I hope I will have time to read what I have found.

I joined k-12 student group of TI, and set up 15 student accounts there. I need to find out if TI supports double-byte characters. BJB told me it worked for Japanese, and then I assume it should work for Chinese as well.

Many thanks to Madre for sending me the wonderful website. iEARN is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables young people to use the Internet and other new technologies to engage in collaborative educational projects that both enhance learning and make a difference in the world. I am thinking to let my Independent Study students to collaborate with the students from China on a project.

August 16, 2004

2004-08-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

August 16, 2004

(This post was transfered from my ARP website for people's easy access to and comment on my ARP journal.)

I want to do my action research on how I can improve my teaching so that I integrate the interactive technology as a tool to enhance student learning in my classroom.

My current practice of teaching Chinese language is based on the traditional model of pedagogy, teacher-centered lecturing. Students have four 1-hour lectures each week. The activities involved in the daily lessons are listening comprehension, speaking and oral drills, reading comprehension, writing and grammar exercises, or translation practices.

The existing curriculum lacks interaction. "Interaction is as important in language learning as it is in language use. Just as effective communication requires interaction between the interlocutor, effective language learning too requires feedback, which is a form of interaction."(Zhang, 1998) .

My students are not given enough time to practice. "The important of practice entails not only the central role of the practice phase of the instruction but also the necessary recycling of material." (Zhang, 1998) .

My students students usually score high on quizzes and tests, but they do not do well on their final exams.They do not spend enough time in trying to understand the concepts. Simply memorizing vocabulary is not good enough. In the long run, they forget what they have learned. Learning "is affected by the degree to which people learn with understanding rather than merely memorize sets of facts or follow a fixed set of procedures.(Bransford, et,al. 2000).

Each class is scheduled to use computer lab for 30 minutes per week, and most of the activities at the lab time are memorization games, grammar exercises, and vocabulary drills. The computer technology has served our language curriculum in some ways, but simply using a computer does not mean that it has been integrated into the curriculum as an effective tool to support learning. How we use computer is more important than how much we use.
"Technologies do not guarantee effective learning, however, inappropriate use of technology can hinder learning." (Bransford, et .al. 2000).

I will start to plan my Action Research from these issues.