Content based lesson
Here are some of my notes taken during the professional learning day--What does it mean to be an influent speaker?
-We are talking about interesting thing to require language;
-We constantly put content in the language to create motivational outcome;
-We stay in the textbook where some content and concepts are chosen, grabbed, that the textbook is used as a resource, but we do not want to be used by textbook.
-There are reasons to learn vocabulary and grammars.
-Language teachers are not waiting for the students to talk aout something interesting untill they are proficient in the target language;
-Language functions like a transparent window to see through-that viewers see things through window without being aware of its existence. When students speak that language, they are talking something so interesting that they are not aware of the language itself and focusing on the content of that language instead.
By what tools, methods and instructions, can we polish this window to make it transparent?
The power of video storytelling
Automatically I am thinking of this project-Chinese Idiom Video Story.
To embed media technology into language teaching is not for the sack of the use of techonology itself, it is a powerful tool by which the teaching and learning activity can be lifted up to a brand new level.
" The focus on technology and software features often distracts us from what we should be examning. Many of us spend too much time fidgeting with and worrying about bullets and images on slides instead of thinking about how to craft a story which is the most effective, memorable, and appropriate for our particular audience." -Presentation Zen
" ...Just possessing information alone is hardly the differentiator it used to be. What is more important today than ever is the ability to synthesize the facts and give the facts context and perspective....human being who teaches us, or inspires us, or who stimulates us with knowledge plus meaning, context, and emotion in a way that is memorable. And this is where story comes in. Information plus emotion and visualization wrapped in unforgettable anecdotes are the stuff that stories are made of...What people want is something fundamentally more human. They want to hear 'the story ' of your facts." - Presentation Zen
" ...digital storytelling combines the best of two worlds: the 'new world' of digitized video, photography and art, and the 'old world' of telling stories...digital storytelling is more than a technique. In fact, it has become something of a movement among artists and business people."
-Dana Atchley
What I found exciting in this "Chinese Idiom video story" project is the students' engagement in the process of producing the story, combining the idea of their story with the particular media tool they choose, videoing, editting subtitles, recording story in one's own voice, inserting music...Meanwhile teacher needs to allow students to make mistakes, and create a conducive learning environment where everyone can learn from each other including teacher's learning from studnets, giving them adjustable timeline and showing care and understanding of their frustration and difficulties arise in both use of target language and digital technology areas.
" The best methods are therefore those that supply comprehensible input in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production." Krashen
This is one of the Chinese Idiom video story made by my Mandarin Level 3 students-Christian Fam and Nelson.
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