Mei's blog

Observation & Diary

2005-04-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Observation
Date: 94/04/07
The length of observation time: 10 minutes
Class: R1C

I intended to taste sense testing in today’s class. I brought lettuce which was washed to class. When the foreign teacher and me presented the dialog, we showed the lettuce which was put in a plastic bag to students. At the beginning, they didn’t know what it was, and we stimulated students’ motivation by using the lettuce for rewards. They participated very well just for that unknown stuff. We chose the greater performers to taste and smell the stuff. They didn’t like it very much! When they went back to their seats, they implied other students that it tasted bad. When we finish the teaching of dialog, I gave all the students pieces of lettuce because I would like to see their reaction for it. For its smell, they just felt so-so because it was lightly pleasant smell. For its taste, 3 students liked the taste, (They said they like to eat vegetables.) the other 10 disliked it. I took pictures for them as well, some students knew I was going to take a picture for them; they gave smiles to me when they tasted the lettuce. However, they didn’t like it at all!!

J

Diary
Date: 94/02/17
Class: R1C

My co-worker and I, we decided to give R1C’s students something surprised for today’s class. I prepared the healthy food which was the lettuce for them, and I put it into a plastic bag. Before the break-time of my co-worker’s hour, I entered the classroom in order to achieve my taste and smell observation. When my co-worker, who is named Sabrina, presented the dialog of the textbook, she showed the students the bag and told the students:” If you are doing very well with me, you can get this reward.” Her words stimulated the students; they tried their best to draw teacher’s attention. They participated very well. Then Sabrina chose the greater students to come near her to get the chance to taste it. I took pictures for that moment. They smelled it first and tasted it. You could tell from their faces, they didn’t like it! There was an interesting thing: one of the tasters went back to her seat, others students asked her what it was and how it tasted, she gave them the sick face. After the presentation, I gave all of the students the chance to taste and smell it; they asked me whether they could give it up?! I said,”NO!” So they followed my order to finish the lettuce. They showed the disgusting and funny faces to me. I asked:” Who doesn’t like it?” 10 students raised their hands; only 3 students felt it was not bad because they like to eat the vegetables. That was a funny experience.

Rhythm is more than a heart beat...

2005-04-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Date: 94/02/19
Class: R8
Observation time: 12 minutes
Sense: Auditory

Time for class once again...never a boring day when it comes to my R8 class. Learning how to read different vocabulary and some grammar patterns is never easy. I used rhythm in this class to enhance their reading skills and help them retain the knowledge. Through this type of strategy I was able to intise their interests and even make them move. The students clapped to the beat I chose for them. It was a mixture of slow, fast and medium. Once they were comfortable with these beat I would stimulate the auditory sense by making them close their eyes and listen to a certain beat: that represented a word previously presented to them. Most students were quite responsive and provided the correct answer. Once this was done, I would ask the students to spell the word and clap at the same time. This also helps with auditory syllable recognition. Example: in/te/lli/gent was the break up of the word and thus we clapped four times for this word. If some were words were similar in beat I would sound out the first letter, in order help them guess the right answer. I enjoyed this method. The students were interested but after sometime their hands were soar, I then changed to stomping or verbal sounds from the mouth: bla bla bla bla four times for intelligent. It was quite comical and the students interest was once again captured. I was quite pleased with myself.

Diary:
The class was exhausting and the students just demanded more of my energy. I guess I was feeling a little tired after all that clapping and verbal weird sounds. I did start my class on a high note and ended a little low..meaning that older students can also suck the life out of you. I didn't let them know that but it was how i felt, even after such a successful class. I will certainly be using this method with other classes in the futur. I think I could have used other items to create some other rhythms. The students did respond well to the strategy, but you always have to have those few students who are just not motivated enough to have a good time when learning a second language. They get discouraged even at doing fun things while learning. I am wondering if this is because of the competitiveness within the classroom. I do not favor one student over the other. They are all treated as equals. Sometimes I even have to remind the students that I am the teacher and they are the students. Teenagers, they think they are invisible at times, but truly they are just trying to maybe impress others.

Diary of Healthy Food

2005-04-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

Date: 94/02/23
Class: R8
Diary

Even though I used the food, I was very much encouraged by the student's responses. I will certainly be trying this again soon. I hope that I can have some more chances to do this type of thing in my classroom. I know that as a new teacher I can learn from my students and even myself. Therefore, if I find a method I enjoy, then I guess I should act upon it. I do fear that at times my strategies might not be as successful as using food for a reward. Its hard to distinguish the feelings of both classes. R1 students are easy to please but when you look at R8 you see a bunch of young adults who seem to know what they want....most of the time that is. I guess it is like at trial and error issue when teaching two different levels. You have to see what they like as much as what you the instructor likes. I even enjoyed participating with the students. I too, ate the lettuce and liked it of course. Its really healthy for me and I hope that the students were able to maybe make up their minds about if they liked the lettuce or not for futur experiences. The smallest things can affect our choices...even if it is the taste of a small piece of lettuce.

Healthy Food Isn't So Bad

2005-04-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Date: 94/02/23
Period of Observation: 10 minutes
Class: R8
Sense: Taste

Some days you just don't want to use healthy food to your advantage especially if you love chocolat! I decided to use some lettuce in class today, to try and to motivate my students. I hid the bag from the students, until it was time to use. I had the lettuce in a clear bag. They were able to see the color. It proved to be interesting to them. The lesson concentrated on learning actions such as surfing, flying etc... The lettuce was used as a reward. When the students would spell the word or use it in a sentence, they would then get a piece of lettuce. The first student was quite eager to try this "NEW" food. It was one of the more influencial students in the class that tried it first. The student really seemed to like this "HEALTHY" food. I would then just wave the food in front of them... like a bone in front of a dog. Most students' eyes were on the mysterious bag and just seemed to follow it...as I went up and down. It was quite funny at first. The second student who tried the food, seemed unsure about the whole thing. Having something green in her hand and then putting into her mouth, didn't seem all to appealing to her. She proceeded to eat the lettuce and made the funniest face, in disgust of course. I laughed and the other students did the same. So it was a 50/50 chance of yes it tastes good and no did doesn't. The following students were eager to try it and were very much excited when given the lettuce. As time is short in class, I decided to give each student a piece, so that they might all hav a chance to taste it. It also gave me a chance to observe the class as a whole, instead of focusing on just a couple individual tastes. I gave them no choice in the matter, they HAD to eat it. Even if they didn't like it. Before the class, I did ask if any of the students had serious food allergies, in order to prevent any problems. I also observed that each time I used the lettuce the students eyes became bigger and their mouths were open when they had their hands up. It was almost like as if they were drooling! The less eager students did refrain from answering at times, until I named them and that's when they had no choice. I enjoyed using this type of food. Go good food...

Observation & Diary

2005-02-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/02/17
The length of observation time: 30 minutes
Class: R1C

Today was hot, so we turned on the air conditioner. After 20 minutes, I could see that some of the students were crossing their arms in front of their chests to keep warm. They couldn’t concentrate on what I was teaching them. They were focused on their coldness. I used colored markers and wrote down large words on the whiteboard on purpose. Most of the students gave me the “Wow” sound and stared at me. One whiteboard for two words. So I had to erase the board several times to finish the whole sentence. When I finished, I saw confused faces. They did not understand what I wrote about because I erased the first words of the sentence. I used flashcards to test their memories as well. I used picture sides and word sides at the same time. They could match both of them well. I played a chant and a song from the textbook. I did the song with movements and touch sense. They really were kinesthetic students. They like to move and be active to learn. I brought a tiger puppet and I asked them to touch parts of its body. Like: eyes, nose, mouth, etc. And they couldn’t wait to touch it! I turned the CD player to quiet volume; they looked at me with curiosity. Some of the kids said to me that they couldn’t hear the music. Then I turn it to loud volume, I got fewer complaints about it. (Although I turned the volume to maximum.) I turned it down a little bit; they still felt O.K about that. Then I tried to use different kinds of music to sing the original song, I tried R&B type. ^^” They just laughed loudly; younger students among them did the gestures and sang the unique song with me. The older students thought it was funny but just sang it by whispering.
By the way, I brought one dish of the French Fries and Tenpura（天婦羅） to the classroom. They couldn’t stop the smell and tried to ask me if they could eat it. I said: it’s for you, but you have to wait until break time. During the whole hour, we all could smell the pleasant smell; they looked at it all the time! Until the break time came, they all waited and begged me to give them the food to eat. Strong smells affect them, no matter it is pleasant or unpleasant. Children are honest and open about how they feel.

Diary
Date: 94/02/17
Class: R1C

Today was hot, so we turned on the air conditioner. After 20 minutes, I could see some of the students just shrunk their arms in front of their chests and told me they were cold by eyes. They couldn’t concentrate on what I taught. They focused on their coldness. So I turned it down to 25 degrees. That was much better. They all could look at me naturally. I wrote a large word: eye. It’s almost as big as the whiteboard. When I was writing, I could hear the “Wow” sound behind my back. That was a good way to draw their attentions. Then I tried to use the large words to present the sentence pattern. But it was not effective as the medium size of writing; my students showed the puzzled faces to me because I had to erase the board for several times in order to finish the whole sentence. That was embarrassed because they regarded my behavior as a strange action.
Then I used CD player to play a song and a chant from text book. I turned to quiet volume first, they felt confused and said they couldn’t hear the music; next I turned to the maximum volume, they seemed feel O.K with that. We sang to together with different speed rhythms. Then I tried to use the unique music to present the same song. I tried to use R&B type of music. They all laughed loudly when I was doing the demo to them. Second time, I asked them to follow me, the younger students were happy and did with me; but the older students (4-6 grade) just sang and felt embarrassed to perform that. For the chant, I did it with the movements and brought one tiger puppet with me. We did clapping, stomping and physical movements. I asked them to touch each parts of the puppet when I said “Stop!” such as eye, nose, etc. (We passed it around when we were chanting the chant.) They looked enjoy touching things.
I also brought on dish of the pleasant food for them. It was the French Fries and Tenpura（天婦羅）. When I entered the classroom, they all stared at it and asked me if they could eat it or not. It smelled strong for them, I could tell from their eyes. During the whole class, they all took turn just could not help looking at it. Some of the students even stood in front of it unconsciously during the activities.
How powerful smell sense it was!!

Mei's response ^^"

2005-02-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks for responsing my observation. ^^~

I think the row seating arrangement is our tranditional seationg. Because it's kind of stereotyping in our minds, so we will have "We are in class" this kind of feeling unconciously. When I did the first seating change for my older students, they complained that it was just like their elementary seating. And I also have to admit U formation arrangement can give the teacher and the students much space to do the following activities after my observations.

Observation & Diary

2005-02-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/02/14
The length of observation time: 30 minutes
Class: R1C

I changed their seating arrangement to three straight lines today. They looked excited but confused. I thought the reason was: that’s not usual thing we do every time. They had their own partners, so they wanted to sit together. I noticed that they had less space to practice the things I taught in class because of the space limitation. They couldn’t focus on my teaching because they were close to their classmates. Some of the students started to play, touch and whisper to each other.
The teaching activities were limited as well because of the space. Some of the students didn’t show their happy faces to me because they only could see the back of their classmates’ head and just like in the elementary school seating. The whiteboard became a bridge to me and them. For the instructor and students, it was the better way to let each other know what I was talking about. For the younger kids, I think they need more space to move in order to practice the things they are going to learn in class.
For the Auditory Sense, I tried the training aids --- rhythm and volume today. I tried to sound a word with different speed of beat and change the volume of beat to hard, medium and soft. If I used unusual way to talk or present, they regarded as their teacher was doing something funny to them. They are easy to loss self-control. My experience is the regular auditory presentation is better to them.
They are beginning learners of English; they don’t know how to deliver the feelings of taste and smell in English. So I decided to take the objects of taste sense to be the rewards. Sweet things, like candy, chocolate and cookies are their favorite. The assorted stuff just enhanced their interests for a while. They really stimulated my students’ abilities of learning. My students could participate in class very well because of the extra rewards.
And I had to thank God especially. During the experiment time, there was a strong smell floated in the air into the classroom. It smelled like a family was preparing for their dinner. Some of the students started to call teacher Mei (that’s me. ^^) and showed their unpleasant faces to me. For me, it’s very pleasant smell to me. And they couldn’t concentrate very well surrounding by the “unpleasant” smell. They tried to look around to find out where it came from.

Diary
Date: 94/02/14
Class: R1C

I finally find a proper time to change their seating arrangement to three straight lines. But I couldn’t do it all the time because “U formation” seating arrangement is the ad of our cram school. And I can feel the benefits of U formation through the days passing and the experiment I had. Three straight lines made less space to students to practice. And they feel no differences with the elementary school. They are easy to feel bored unconsciously.
I asked my students to sit with three straight lines today. They asked me “Why?” “Just try different feeling.” I replied. They did and they asked the classmates they like to sit near them. Boys sat with boys, girls sat with girls. That is common thing in the age of elementary students. I used the whiteboard to present the vocabularies and grammar points, and I did the activities to practice the things we learned. For me, it was a little bit hard to design the suitable activities for this kind of seating. I asked them to do the writing relay and passing game. For example: when I asked them, “Is he your father?” I pointed to one of the boy; I gave the writing boards, markers and erasers to the last students of each line, and asked them to write down the answer word by word, one by one. When they finished the answer, they had to show me their answers. They complained the seating space was too narrow to pass. And I noticed that some of the students played and whispered to each other during my lecture because they were closed to each other. The only communication way between teacher and students is whiteboard. They are easy to feel bored unconsciously.
I tried the training aids --- rhythm and volume today. I tried to sound a word with different speed of beat and change the volume of beat to hard, medium and soft. I sounded the fast rhythm at the beginning of presenting the word; they gave me the puzzled faces, so I slowed down to use the medium speed to repeat them several times, made sure they all knew how to pronounce the words, then I did changes of the rhythm and volume of beat. That’s not a good idea to do so. Just like I did the instructional tones last time. They couldn’t help regarding me as presenting a funny teaching way to them. Most of them were lack of self-control. They became wild and active.
Then I took the sweet foods for rewards to them. If they were the winner of each activity, the winner team could get one of the sweet foods. I prepared candy, chocolate, cookies and assorted foods for them. When they looked the foods, they looked excited and got ready to try their best. You could see the lights in their eyes. J They were willing to try their best for the rewards.
During the experiment time, some students called my name, they smelled something different. They smelled it before I smelled. Wow! How sensitive they were!! There was a smell floating in the air into the classroom. I thought it was a family preparing the supper. For me, it was really pleasant smell. Apparently, my students didn’t think that way cause they couldn’t concentrate on what we did just now. They tried to find out where the smell was from and they whispered to the student who sat next to them to talk about that smell. I had to stop them by using the loud voice. Thank God helped me to get the smell sense experiment. J

Observation & Diary

2005-02-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/02/03
The length of observation time: 15 minutes
Class: R1C

Since my students felt no differences with colored markers, I used four colors of the markers in my class. Red and green markers just had them to draw their attentions and underlined the key points, blue and black markers were the main colors on the board to write down the vocabularies and the grammar points. Even I used the only color to write down anything on the board, they didn’t complain any words about that. I didn’t see any question face on their faces. They (for the lower grade students) still regard teacher as the highest status in the classroom.
For the Auditory Sense, I tried the instructional tones to them today. I changed my voice to soft, medium and loud to them. During the experiment time, they thought I was making fun to them. Most of the students felt funny to hear my voice was changed and they tried to imitate their teacher --- me. They started copying my voice to answer me. Under this kind of the circumstance, the classroom rules were hard to keep. They couldn’t help being high because they felt it’s the fun time and experience. I was shocked to see that. When I got the results, I was back to the normal voice. And for the pitch voice, I got the same reaction from my students. Some of the students even screamed in the classroom because they thought teacher allowed them to do so. I was stunned by those results. Those results were totally different from R8 students --- the older students. It was interesting.

Diary
Date: 94/02/03
Class: R1C

I decided to try the instructional tones to my R1C’s students. I couldn’t wait to see the result. I asked them to spell the vocabularies which I taught to them last time with the little word cards (from a to z, I put them on the ground.). I asked them if they finished the spelling of the word, they had to say “teacher, me!” and spelled back to me again. I changed my voice to soft voice to make the order. They felt unusual about hearing the tone and some of them showed the puzzled faces. I kept using the same tone to say the words; they couldn’t help laughing but still finished the spelling of the words. Then I changed to the loud voice, they laughed to finish the job and spoke loudly back to me. They felt high with the voice change. Then I did another experiment --- pitch. I made my orders with different pitches of the tone. From high pitch, low pitch, monotone pitch to the last one --- fluctuation pitch. They thought I was making funny things to them, so their emotions were getting higher and higher. Some of the students started imitating my tones, some of them were laughing all the way, some of them even were screaming out answering my question. That was a mess during the experiment time. It was hard to keep their classroom rules well at that time. I was very shocked to get this kind of results. I thought they thought I was playing voice game with them. They pretty enjoyed that and they still could answer my questions under this kind of the circumstance. But they couldn’t control themselves being active! Maybe it’s the natural of kids. Kids like to play and try something funny. I just inspired their instincts unconsciously. When I was back to normal tone, they finally cooled down. And I felt relieved. Wow~ what an unusual experience!

My response to question .... ^^"

2005-02-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

I am afrid that you cannot get the message, so I put it here as well. >"<>”< :
I am a computer idiot. ^^” I always feel confused about the internet stuff. I even don’t know how to see the messages. (Fortunately, I have Joy… ^^) Please forgive me for leaving message so late…
About message 112, my point of view is choice 3 is more effective for me. That is what I learned from my cram school. When I was new teacher in my cram school, I had to observe the experienced teachers’ classes in order to get the teaching experience. Then I recalled my memory of previous teaching or something I learned from the teaching courses, and combined with my observations to present my own teaching to students. I like to observe the classes from the experienced teachers because they always give me many inspirations of teaching. We do discussions all the time to exchange the teaching experiences. Theory is one thing, it gives us the brief idea of teaching; but putting it in practice is another thing. By exchanging the experiences we gain, we all can gain the real needs of our students. I think that’s pretty good for me and my students. ^^

Observation & Diary

2005-02-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/02/02
The length of observation time: 15-20 minutes
Class: R8

Today I gave my students free choices to choose markers; they could choose whatever color they wanted to draw pictures. I noticed that they cared nothing but the marker ink. I gave them the chance to draw something on the green floor of the classroom. They used one color to draw and they enjoyed the drawing time. When I wrote something on the board with the lighter color of the marker, like red or green color, some of the students complained they couldn’t see clearly. That’s really different! I found that they really enjoyed drawing; you can hear every student’s laughing and see their smiles. That was wonderful. I also put numbers on the board as well. I wrote down the number with both clear and not clear writing (you can still see the traits of the number, but they were not full of ink actually.), they didn’t say anything about that.
For the Auditory Sense, I did the instructional tones for them today. When I used the soft voice to speak, they felt funny and said that’s not like me. When I change to medium voice just like usual days I do, they felt familiar with that; next I changed to loud voice, they couldn’t bear it! Some of the students thought I was angry because they did something wrong. They stared at me without saying a word. Next I changed my pitch to high pitch, most of the students covered their ears, a few students asked me to stop doing that, a few students laughed; then I changed the pitch to low and monotone pitch, they regarded it as noise. Next, I did the fluctuation voice, they said “Mei, stop, please.” That was interesting to see their reactions and I got what I wanted to get. During the show time, especially boys, I found they regarded those different tones as the tricks I did it on purpose, so they were easy to fool around in class. So without normal instructional tones, students couldn’t concentrate very well, that’s what I gained from this experiment.

Diary
Date: 94/02/02
Class: R8

I was nervous today because I decided to do the Auditory Sense for my students today. R8 students were older that R1C students, they were more sensitive than R1C students. That was why I worried about their reactions. But I still had to do it.
At the beginning of the class, I used the soft and vivid voice to start my teaching; I played a waitress to serve the cookies for them with soft voice; they felt funny because that was not like the usual days I do. They kelp asked me to give them cookies until the breaking time was over. (About 10 minutes.) Then I turned to loud voice, some of the students thought I was angry maybe one of them did something wrong and they stared at me with scared eyes. Some of the students thought that’s one of the funny trick that teacher Mei had. So they laughed hard. Neither soft nor loud voice could enhance their reading ability because they couldn’t focus on my teaching.
Then I asked them to open the book and we followed one of the activities from the text book to do the sentence pattern writing practice. I asked one question and called one number of the team, and the students of the number I called had to write down the answer on the floor as soon as possible. Another show time was coming. I started to change my pitch to high pitch; they couldn’t bear it right away! Some of the students even covered their ears!! Some of the students asked me to stop making the voice. I said “OK, OK.” When we moved to next question, I used another low pitch to speak, some of the students said: “Are you going to intone poem to Buddha, Mei?” They all laughed. I said: “You don’t like that? I do it for you.” They said no loudly. Then I changed to monotone pitch to speak. They just looked at me with helpless eyes and all hoped that could be stopped. Next I gave them the fluctuation pitch, they couldn’t bear anymore. They showed anxious emotion and begged me to stop making those kinds of ridiculous pitch to them. When I was back to normal tone, they felt comfortable. I could tell from their faces. And I found normal tone is the only way can make them concentrate on your lecture.
Next step, we were going to make a story together. I asked them to assign one student from their team to draw the sentence picture for their team. They could choose whatever color they wanted to present the sentence we were going to deliver one by one. I noticed the only thing they concerned about was the marker’s ink. And I also put numbers on the board to be an activity with both clear and unclear (lack of ink) number. They did not say anything about that. They still could see the trait of each number, which might be enough for them. Everyone had to say one sentence in order to finish our story. They had to take turn to do the story sentence relay. And the painters of each team had to finish what their classmates said in time. They all chose one color to draw. The fast team could roll the die to decide which step they could take on the board. Because the time limitation we couldn’t finish the game and the story, so I decided to use it to be my warm up activity of next class. That was very good to have their hearty laughs.

Observation & Diary

2005-02-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/01/31
The length of observation time: 25 minutes
Class: R1C

Today for the learning environment, I turn off one set of lights. At the beginning of the teaching, there were some students felt curious about that and tried to ask me why. The temperature was reduced outside, but it was not too cold in the classroom. The seating arrangement was U formation, they did OK with that.
For the Visual sense, I used colored markers -- red, blue, black, and one by one. Each of them I used it for 10 minutes (only for one color), and they didn’t complain much of that. I chose small size of writing on purpose, they asked me why but I just insisted that because I would like to see their reaction. Most of them were OK about this change, but a few of them narrowed their eyes in order to see the words I wrote. One of the writing activity, I asked them to write down the vocabularies, and I noticed most of the students wrote either medium or large size of writing on the board. None of them wrote the small size of writing. Interesting!! Maybe we have our own standards of the word size, even kids.
I used large size of writing to remind them something, and I thought it drew their attentions. No more narrowing eyes, they looked at me and the words easily.
I used drawing activity that was fun to them. Kids like to draw and they like to see teacher draw as well. Even just used one color to present the drawing, which was good to my students.
For the Movements (touch sense), there was a chant on the book and we did the physical movements. But this time I focused on the slow and the medium speed of the physical movement, some of them felt a little bored to go on, some of them felt O.K. When I changed to fast speed, I could see the smiles from them. Fast speed made them more excited to learn.

Diary
Date: 94/01/31
Class: R1C

Today was getting cold outside the cram school, but it was O.K. in the classroom. When I came in the classroom (I came in early.), I start to write the chant on the board with red marker and small size of writing. They noticed that right away and complained the words were too small to look clearly. One of the back students said. I ignored her words. They felt strange about that. I kept writing and they stopped complaining. I also turned off one set of lights. They felt curious about these and asked me why. I said I just wanted to do that. Some of them said: if you can bear that, I can bear that too. Then we started to do the physical movement of the chant. I choose easy to be memorized movement for them. Like: “bus” --- we did a big movement with S shape pretended we were controlling the steering wheel. We did the chant with medium and slow speed at the beginning; half of the class did it well but just followed me without happy faces. The rest of them thought it was funny. Then I tried to use the fast speed to stimulate them to enjoy it. It did work but not all of the students. A few students still thought it’s not fun enough.
Next, I used drawing to teach the vocabularies. “Hand”, I drew a hand; “foot”, I drew a foot; “arm”, I drew an arm and “leg”, I drew a leg with one color. They felt funny about my drawing because I was not good at drawing. They were ugly. >”< After they knew the new words, I asked them that were their turns to draw the word I said. They were excited to do that. I could tell from their faces. When I called the number of each team, they had to draw the right word which I just said. (If I said “Hand”, they had to draw a hand on the board and repeated the word.) Some of the students drew uglier than me or their classmates, we all laughed about our bad drawing skill. That was funny. Next was the numbers. I wrote down from 80-89 on the board. When I said”81”, they had to find the right number to eraser it. I divided the board into 3 parts. I tried to use the not clear number to them, they complained it without thinking. “Teacher, no ink!!!” Wow ~~ How sensitive they were!!! So I changed to clear numbers, we finished the activity successfully.

Sorry.....Dear teacher... ^^"

2005-01-24T22:53:00.000-08:00

Dear Adien:

Sorry I didn't see the message right away. I joined in the Yahoo group today. >"<

I will update my observation and dairy on here after I finished my strategies. Any comments are welcome..... ^^"
By the way, for your dissertation, please tell me what I can do to help as clear as you can. (Because I am not a smart girl... I have never participated any similar activity before... ^^")

TKS!!!

Observation & Diary

2005-01-23T22:11:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/01/22
The length of observation time: 15 minutes
Class: R8

The learning environment of the students were like usual, it was warmer than before. The seating arrangement was U formation.
For the visual sense, I used colored markers to write, red and green markers were just for me to emphasize the key points. And they felt OK with that. Most of the time I used blue or black marker to express my idea. And I tried to use large words to present the key points, which were totally fine for them. If I wrote large words, the students who sat at the back of the classroom were clearer about what I taught. I used the real objects to present the sentence patterns. I tested their 5 senses with real person and different kinds of foods. They could learn better through this way.

Diary
Date: 94/01/22
Class: R8

When I entered the classroom, my co-teacher, Sabrina told me that my students totally turned off this morning, they didn’t give her many responses and she didn’t know why. It made me worry. When I start my teaching, they were O.K. We chatted and smiled. Gee! Thank God. >”<
They had to learn some comparison sentences today, such as:
A is as tall as B.
Is A as tall as B?
Yes, A is as tall as B.
No, A is not as tall as B.
So I prepared some foods for them. They were cakes, fruit, and cookies with salty and sour flavors. When I showed them to my students, they complained that I was the reason that they might get fatter. My God! That really broke my heart. (But the truth is: they ate them all at the end of the class and asked me if I had more or not.) When they saw the fruit --- date, they said they didn’t like it because they ate too much in this season. But still I gave them each kind of the food individually, and waited for my command to taste or smell or look it. I divided them into 3 groups. Then I asked the question, like: “Is the cookie as sweet as the cake? “ “Number2!” They had to write down the right answer on the writing board. Which team got higher scores from this activity; they could have the rest of the foods. So they worked hard on it and had fun. And I had the observation result that I looked for as well. ^^

Observation & Diary

2005-01-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/01/15
The length of observation time: 35 minutes
Class: R8

Today the learning environment of my students was all lights, and that enhanced the learning ability; the temperature in the classroom was reduced because it was cold. Most of the students just couldn’t concentrate very well. They shrank themselves into their jackets. It was too cold to focus on what teacher taught. The seating arrangement was U formation, they did OK with that.
For the Visual Sense, I used colored markers -- red, blue, black, green were included, each of them I used it for 10 minutes (only for one color), and they complained green marker was too light to look clearly. I chose medium size of writing, they could see the words clearly, and medium size of writing could cover all the words in one sentence without cutting it into two sentences. I always use the flashcards for my training aids. I use both sides of them; picture side can draw their attentions right away and understand the words easily; the word side can help them memorize the word in terms of phonics. But for R8 students, due to their age, they get better comprehension of learning; they did not count on the picture side much. But still that enhanced their learning abilities of English. I used the whiteboard to help them read the words, sentence patterns as well.
I used drawing to describe the sentence pattern, such as: Mary is as tall as Mike. They appreciated the drawing; some of them could draw very well, too. I used one color to draw, and that didn’t affect their interests.
For the Auditory Sense, I used CD player to play different kinds of music. The volume meant nothing to them. No matter I turned it into quiet, medium or loud volume. Using different kind’s music can stimulate their auditory sense because they can feel the different kind’s music peacefully. I used some unique music in class, such as Chinese folk music. Real objects really can enhance children’s learning and reading ability.
For the Touch, Taste and Smell Sense, this unit included the 5 senses teaching, so I brought various foods to class. Sweet --- candy, chocolate, cookies, assorted foods; good and bad tasting foods; pleasant and unpleasant --- strong and light smell foods to them. They could feel, sound, taste, touch and smell each food individually. Every food did enhance their reading ability and learning comprehension.

Diary
Date: 94/01/15
Class: R8

Today I was a little bit nervous because today’s lesson was very important to me. This unit mentions about the five senses which are related much with my research paper. I discussed with my co-teacher name Sabrina last night. We prepared many real objects for our students to feel, to listen, to look, to taste and to smell. Visual way is everything, so I did have my students look every thing that I brought first. “How does it look?” “It looks good? Bad? Or….?” I asked them to say something they have learned to express their thoughts. And I also wrote down the key words on the board in order to help their reading abilities, such as: feel, look, taste, smell and the sentence pattern --- How does it feel/taste/smell/look/sound? It feels/tastes/smells/looks/sounds + adjectives. I prepared candies, chocolates, cookies with different taste and smell, CD player and various music, etc. I asked them to write down the feeling they had after they really felt/tasted/smelled/looked/heard. They all liked the sweet foods, but I brought a can of mustard which belongs to assorted food, and had strong, unpleasant smell, it really impressed them. They didn’t want to smell it, but they had to smell and taste a little bit because of my order. That was funny to see their funny faces. ^^” I also brought some pleasant, strong foods; I didn’t expect they will like it, but most of them loved it and asked me to give them more! The rest of the students could accept it but didn’t like too much.
For the auditory, I prepared different types of CD to them. One was the opera CD, one was the Chinese folk music, and the other was the pop music. Apparently they liked the pop music. They regarded the opera and the Chinese folk music as the bad music.
Finally, I showed the flashcard to them. When they saw the picture side of the word, they could say the word right away without thinking. Then the word side of the word, we did the spelling with phonics together. That was a great experience of my teaching.

Observation & Diary

2005-01-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/01/20
The length of observation time: 25 minutes
Class: R1C

I didn’t change the original environment today. The weather was warmer than last week. But I can see some of the students wore the jackets to the class.
For the Visual Sense, I used the green marker to write down the sentence pattern, but nobody complained that to me. I used the small size of writing to present the sentence patterns, most of the students were squinting their eyes, and some older students reminded me that the size of the word was too small to look clearly. So I changed to the large word to teach, they didn’t say anything but the sentence was easily to be cut into half, it’s hard for them to follow, when I tried to explain the sentence pattern, I noticed some of the students’ head just followed my point. (Finger) I did use the both sides of the flashcard to teach the new vocabularies. And I used the chant which was from the text book; they all enhanced their reading abilities.
For the Auditory sense, the instructional tone was voice. I tried to use soft and loud tone to teach, they thought I was funny, and they couldn’t help laughing. So they just worked for a while. Then I went back to medium tone, they felt O.K with that.
For the movements, I used the physical movements to help them read the chant. It worked well, but my students were more interested in the fast or slow movement. They regarded these as an activity and felt fun. To the medium physical movements, I couldn’t find the smile in everyone’s face.

Diary
Date: 94/01/20
Class: R1C

Today my students were active. They couldn’t wait to learn new things. Most of the students help me collect the homework and tell me who hasn’t come to the class. I felt glad about that. It was sweet. ^^ I used the green marker to write down the sentence pattern of the chant, but nobody complained that to me. I used the small size of writing to present the chant, most of the students were squinting their eyes, and some older students reminded me that the size of the word was too small to look clearly. They used the body language to show their thoughts. That was cute. So I changed to the large word to teach, they didn’t say anything but the sentence was easily to be cut into half, it’s hard for them to follow, when I tried to explain the sentence pattern, I noticed some of the students’ head just followed my point. (Finger) Then we did the physical movement together. I gave each word different gesture. When we said the chant, we had to do the gestures at the same time. First, we did it with medium speed, then I changed to the fast speed (we had to read and do the gestures fast.), some of the students couldn’t catch the right way, then I asked them to do it with slow speed (we had to read and do the gestures slowly), they felt funny with the change. Next I divided them into 3 groups, to see which team performed well to get the higher scores. Make it be like a competition. They enjoyed that contest.

Observation & Diary

2005-01-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

Observation
Date: 94/01/13
The length of observation time: 15-20 minutes
Class: R1C

Today the learning environment of my students was all lights, and that enhanced the learning ability; the temperature in the classroom was reduced because it was cold. Some of the students just couldn’t concentrate very well. The seating arrangement was U formation, they did OK with that.
For the Visual sense, I used colored markers -- red, blue, black, green were included, each of them I used it for 10 minutes (only for one color), and they didn’t complain anything of that. I chose medium size of writing, they could see the words clearly, and medium size of writing could cover all the words in one sentence without cutting it into two sentences. I always use the flashcards for my training aids. I use both sides of them; picture side can draw their attentions right away and understand the words easily; the word side can help them memorize the word in terms of phonics. That really enhanced their learning abilities of English. I used the whiteboard to help them read the words, sentence patterns as well.
For the Movements (touch sense), I created the movements of every letter in one word by using clapping, stomping and physical movements to help them memorize the words. We followed different speed to practice the spelling: slow, medium and fast. And they enjoyed this kind of movement very well. Fast speed made them more excited to learn.

Diary
Date: 94/01/13
Class: R1C

Today was cold. When I came in the classroom, my students complained about the weather to me. I kept the lights all opened because it was darker in winter. At the beginning of my teaching, I noticed that many students put their hands into their jackets’ pockets to keep warm. So I asked they to stand up and rubbed their palms. The seating arrangement was U formation that gave us a lot of space to do the movements. So I present the new words in picture sides first in order to draw their attentions and connected with the pronunciation of the word easily. I divided them into 3 groups. When I said a word and called a number, like: eraser, number2! Every number 2 of the group had to look for the right word, stamped on it and repeated it. They didn’t feel cold any more.
Then I turn the flashcards into word side. I gave every letter of the word a movement by clapping, stamping and gestures to help them remember the spelling of the word. For example: pen. We did “p”— clap, “e” –- show your teeth, like smile, “n” -- make two fists of hands. They enjoyed every movement, and the most surprising thing was, they all could remember each different movement of the letter. (I mixed them sometimes….. >”<) We had 7 new words for today’s lesson. That’s really amazing. I think most of the kids are kinesthetic students. They are active. We had a great time!!

930105- Diary

2005-01-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

Level R1C
Focus: Visual and movement
The length of observation time: 15-20 minutes

Today my students were eager to learn. You could see it on their faces. This is why I love to teach. Children who are eager to hear what you have to say makes you feel invisable. I reviewed some previous lessons. I started with the vocabulary portion of my lessons. The flashdcards - but instead of showing the picture first I showed the word. At first, the students just looked and made no attempt to answer. I began to draw... I stopped and put the word under the half drawn picture. Then the students began to answer. I did a few more but with the help of the students.(they drew) It turnde into a guessing game. They relied on their recognition of the picture, in order to associate the word. Following, I made the students spell each word using phsical movements. They really like to do the physical movements with any kinds of activity. They are kinesthetic children. Then we had a speed contest. The students were quite eager to beat the teacher! The rest of the lesson went well and I enjoyed my class. " Responsible, react, recognize remember " strategy used today.

Responsible: to create something unique to capture them visually.
Recognize: through the association of movement
Remember: by doing these movements, to recall the knowledge.

940103- Observation notes

2005-01-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

Level R1C
Focus of the lesson: visual and movement
The length of observation time: 40 minutes
Look for: interests, reactions and distractions

When I first walked into the classroom, I noticed some students still playing or talking. Once they knew I was there their attitudes changed from talking to sitting down and looking at me. As I got ready some students were just staring intently at me waiting. In the first five minutes of class, impression, facial expressions and voice will determine the mood of the class. Visual is everything to younger students. Once they know your happy they're happy.

I observed that its mostly the male students who like to disturb others or just crave the attention. It's almost like a security blanket for them. To secure their social status in the class. " Look at me, look at what I can do."

Visual sense observed
I used a lighter color while writing and saw most students straining to see the words. They never expressed themselves but their eyes were doing weird squinting actions. Some students even came forward without a word, just to look!
Secordly, I observed the students participation in the movement portion of my lesson. Most students except 2 were focused on me visually and they listened closely to what I had to teach them. They all reacted in unison. Then once the movement was completed the students laughed because they were delighted. A few even orally expressed that they want to do it again.

Auditory Sense observed
I played a CD with up beat music. The reactions observed were bobbing heads, tapping feet and one student got up to dance. This obviouslly stimulates the physical movements through the auditory sense.

Touch observed
Without using the visual sense the students have to rely on their sense of touch. I made them put their hand in a box. They had to pick an object and guess what it was through their sense of touch.
The reactions and facial expressions were unique with ezch students. I obseved the following:

Student #A
Object hidden: ball
Reaction observed: the student kept saying " Um,Um" While he was thinking. Used only one hand.
Facial Expression: his lower lip was curled in.
Guess : He guessed right. His sense of touch helped him recognised the object and say the word.

Student #B
Object hidden: pen
Reaction observed: the students looked up at the ceiling
Facial Expression: She chewed on her top lip and looked at me for reassurance.
Guess: She guessed right! Her sense of touch helped her in guessing the object.

Student #C
Object hidden: dog (finger puppet)
Reaction observed: The student hesitated at first and wasn't to sure about putting his hand in the box without seeing the object first. He closed his eyes, maybe to help him visualize while he used his sense of touch.
Facial Expression: His eyebrows came together a few time. No sound! His eyes also remained closed! This student seemed rely heavily on his visual sense --- or in his mind.
Guess: He guessed wrong. The guess was a cat or another animal! The texture of the puppet was soft and the shape was not to obvious.
His sense of touch combined with his visual in his mind wasn't enough to produce an answer.

Reply for the punishment

2005-01-05T01:01:00.000-08:00

For the punishment ---
When I changed the seating in to 3 lines, they became closer to each other, two of the students talked a lot, so I asked them to leave their chairs , stand near the class door and couldn't join this activity for a while.
Because they are older girls, I could see from their eyes and behaviors that they felt shameful.
After one round of the activity, I asked them if they wanted to join the activity without talking to each other or not, they agreed with me right away.

I will renew my posting with this paragraph. Thank you for reminding me this..... ^^"

931229 observation notes

2004-12-31T18:35:00.000-08:00

The length of observation time: 45 minutes

Today I changed the usual seating arrangement.(U formationg to 3 straight lines) At the beginning of the class, they did not get used to it and kept complaining it to me.
And I also noticed:

For the visaul / auditory sense
Some of the students they standed up in order to see clearly what was happened front. They kept moving their bodies in order to catch my teaching pace. I can tell from this point most of my students are visual students.
They concentration were raised, too. Because I counld see all of them in this kind of seating. It was easy for me to have their attention. And they also could hear better because they had no where to hide. ^^ I think 3 lines seating also helps my classroom management.

For movements and touching
They became closer to each other, so they could talk to each other easily and got along well during the class. That explained why I gave two girls little punishment.
And I also noticed it was not easily any more to come to the front because the paths of each line are narrow. They couldn't do big movement. So did my activities.

931229 Diary

2004-12-31T18:15:00.000-08:00

I intended to show you obseration & comprison charts and pictures, but they can't be put on the blog. I don't know why. I guess I just can show you next Wed. >"<>3 straight lines)

Class: R8
The length of observation time: 45 minutes
Focus: Visual, auditory, movement and touching

Today me and my assistant teacher-- sabrina, we decided to change the usual seating arrangement into 3 straight lines. When I entered the classroom, some students have already waited for my lecture. When I asked their helps to arrange the seating, they felt surprised and kept asking: " Why do we change the seating?" " The seating -- U formating is your cram school's advantage. Why are you doing this?" I replied : " You will see later. I just want to do some different activites later. Isn't it similar like your elementary school? Don't you like it?" Actually, they reminded me : Did I disobey the " regulation" of the cram school? But I still did it. ^^"
More and more students came, every student looked shocked when they got in the classroom. I really felt interesting. In the first five minutes of class, they complained this change to me. They are closed to me and I always allow my students to express their opinions, (but they can't over the line.) one of the students asked :" Are we going to stay this way forever?" (That was funny... ^^) so I explained to they it was just temporary, we wouldn't do it all the time.
Then I started my lecture, most of the activities that me and sabrina did were all designed for this kind of seating, they stopped complaining and started to join these activities.
I called the students who sat in the last of each line to come to me. Then I told they a word, they had to go back to their seats and got ready (When I said "go".) to pass the word to the front student, one by one. The students who sat in the front of each line had to write down the word on the board. They couldn't turn back until the last student touched the front student's shoulder. That was the passing signal.The faster team can get rewards. When the first student wrote the word, they had to go back to their line to be the last student who was going to pass the word. They felt excited and did it well.

But some of the students talked to each other very often, so I asked them to leave their chairs , stand near the class door and couldn't join this activity. When they standed there and watched the rest of the students playing, I could see from their eyes and behaviors that they felt shameful. (They stopped talking....)
Furthermore, their teams still had to spend more time on their empty chairs to finish this competition.

When I wrote down something on the board, a girl raised her hand and asked me: " May I change my seat?" I asked the reason. She said the girl who sat in front of her was too tall to see my handing writing clearly. I promised next time it wounldn't be happened again. And she tried to fix this problem by standing up in order to see the clear words.

After passing words, I changed to practice the grammar patterns. I asked question, such as : Where were you yesturday night? They had to pass this question one by one, and the first students wrote the complete sentence on the board. They got used to this seating already.

Finally, I gave them a test and did the regular correction of their homework.

sample for my methodology... ^^"

2004-12-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Aiden:
I am not sure if I do wrongly or not. I am afraid of going wrong way, please take a look at my methodology and give me advice. Then I can keep doing it... Tks... ^^~

I will show you my whole outline of methodology on Wed. If it is O.K, I can follow it to do my observations, experiments and comparisons. Furhermore, I can start to record the results based on the plan(outline) of the methodology as well.

By the way, why can't we use " I " in the methodology? It's I who do the these observations, it is really confused me when I try to write statements....
And I didn't get what you called " form" (or document) which are related with your dissertation .
^^ Thank you!!!

Methodology
2092100077 Mei

Have you ever made a cake? Methodology of this simple procedures is to collect data on how to make it. Once this has been established you can mix the measured variables together and set it in an environment of 200℃ for twenty minutes. Will it cook properly? Will it taste good? All of these questions will be answered only when the process is complete. In this research there is a case study that involves two separate learning levels of the English language. For example: Level 1 and Level 8. Level 1 is one lower English level learner who has just begun to learn English as a second language. Furthermore, Level 8 has students who have been studying the English language from 1 to 2 years. Therefore, the methodology of this research also involves a comparison of these 2 distinct levels. Making this kind of case study cake and comparing the different layers through various strategies using the five senses as the main ingredient had an effect on the rising of the cake.
A good case study cake will be determined by the ingredients rise. But if the ingredients don’t mix well the cake will then cave in. (bad results)

(Illustrations for good and bad results of the case study cake will be put here.)

Layers represent Level 1 or Level 8.
Ingredients represent variables – strategies
Icing represent five senses

Case study
Ingredient 1: Environment
The setting of the classroom plays a vital role in the learning process; students are greatly affected when some thing changes in their environment. They must feel safe, comfortable and secure in order to focus on the material being taught.
Changing the environment provoked some interesting reactions:

A. Lighting: the classroom contained 6 neon lights.
1. Will turning on all the lights help stimulate the visual sense?
2. If you turn off on set of lights will it negatively stimulate the visual sense?
Comparison: Who will notice the change sensitively? The younger learners? Or the elder students?

B. Temperature: room temperature
1. Does room temperature affect the five senses?
2. What if you were to raise the temperate? Will a hot environment decrease the five senses reactions or learning responses in learning how to read?
3. What if you were to make it colder? Will you have the same problems?
Comparison: Will the younger generation have a higher level of tolerance? Or will the older generation have a higher tolerance?

931218

2004-12-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

Class: higher level (R7)
Gender: boys and girls
Strategy: visual and auditory

I pointed some pictures from the textbook one by one, I asked them : What can you see from this picture? What did they do there? How did they get there? .... etc. Something related with those pictures. In order to encourage them to talk, I gave them rewards if they answered the questions. They raised their hands to answer and got the rewards. I noticed some of the students didn't raise their hands at all,(especially boys) So I asked them on purpose to check their comprehension of these units. They could answer well, but answered passively.
Maybe my rewards didn't attract them. I have to seek for other rewards. >"< color="#3366ff">Although boys still were passive, they showed their answers to me so as to get the rewards. I gave the boys less rewards to encourage them. I thought that's better. ^^"

Observation note:
Maybe for the elder male learners, they are shier to speak out their answers. They are afraid of losing their faces. Some of the students they are afraid of saying the wrong answer in public. So they keep themselves with silent way in order to get more imformation to the next chance.
They are so we called " Slower students." They lose practices in class. I always try to find the right method to deal with them. I will keep trying ......

931213&931216

2004-12-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

Class-- lower level (R1C)
They still remembered the strategy that I did last time! When I asked them " How do you spell teacher(or student)?" Most of them answered with the gestures, rhytem and poses whice I presented in last class. It worked!! ^^

I think this really can help them to read and memorize.

931216
Class --- lower level (R1C)
Gender--- boys and girls
strategy--- visual and auditory
The length of observation time: 20 minutes

1. visual
First, I show the picture side of some flashcards(such as " doctor", that side has one doctor photo on the flashcard to show the image) and asked them :" What is it?" They answered me: " teacher" or " student" or " doctor" or "nurse" or" police officer". After several repetitions of those words, they answered fluently.
2.Visual and auditory
SecondlyI put those flashcards on the floor (still picture side up), I told students when I said :"doctor", they had to find out what "doctor" was and stamped on it. They did very well and stamped on the correct words quickly. The recognition of the word is good.
Then I turned those flashcards to the word side (like "doctor" print word), I still asked them to find out the word which I said to them. But some of the students hesitated, they couldn't find the correct word quickly like last time. After some repetitions, they were getting better to know the print words.

Observation note:
I think vivid picture with color really can draw lots of attention from children. And they can recognize better as well. The color of the print word is black (on the white paper). Next time I will try to use different color of the word (maybe write words with red or blue pen, or change the background color of the paper) to see what will happen. ^^~

931209

2004-12-11T05:45:00.000-08:00

Auditory and Movements Combined with Visual

R1C Class
The length of observation time: 30 minutes

Spelling: to teach new vocabulary to students, I decided to capture their attention first. Secondly I presented the new vocabulary by showing the student a picture of a student. It was an animation of a popular Chinese cartoon. (Something they recongnised) Using this visual tool, I placed it front of me and said "student". Then I pointed to myself (using movement) and said " teacher". Once I presented the difference between the two words the students were able to distinguish the difference between student and teacher. I then proceeded in involving the students by using movement. I would point to them and say student very loud. The students would then in turn point to me and say Teacher. After repeating this procedure a couple of times I purposely made a mistake and they were quick to react and then correct me. This is confirmation of their understanding. They were using auditory to hear me speak. They knew the difference!
The next fun procedure I did was the spelling part. I used my hands and feet to make a rhythm to spell the word TEACHER. It was a catchy beat and the students only laughed at first but this humour tactic also made them want to try it for themselves. I repeated this procedure at least 7 times before letting the students do it on their own. (I did the same with the word student but with different movements.) Once the students were comfortable spelling the word to the rhythm, I increased the speed. Starting slow and going to super fast... This strategy proved to be most effective. During the second hour the foreign teacher asked the students to spell the words and she said they were not saying anything but moving their bodies to remember the letters. It was quite commical. I will be ask the students to spell the words during a warm up in my next class. Will they remember? Does movement, auditory and visual help retain the information after a weeks time? I can't wait to try it. Looking forward to knowing the results.

931208

2004-12-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

Class: R7 They have learn English for1-2 years. They learn past tense of English this term.
Age: 8-12
Gender: Boys and girls (Total : 14 kids)
Strategies: Auidtory and movement
The length of observation time: 15 minutes

1. Auidtory and drawing:
I taught them the new vocabularies, gave them a piece paper and a color pen for each student. When I said a new vocabulary, such as : walk the dog, they had to draw it on the paper, the fast student would get the reward.
They did each of the vocabularies as fast as they can in order to get the reward from me. But one teacher V.S 14 students, that was too hard to take care of everyone! ^^"

Observation Note:
Some of the students who were not active like others, they just did it quietly and said " Teacher (Mei), I finished." with lackadaisical voice.

2. Auidtory and movement
I ordered the verb phrases and they had to do the action. Such as: Stand on the chair. When I said it, they had to act it out quickly. They all had fun with beeing commanded.

Observation Note:
I have to say the commands quickly, or they feel bored with this strategy.

931206

2004-12-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

I start to write down my case study journal.

YC- starter level . They learn what phonic alphabets are. Like a-[ ]- apple. They have already know the 26 alphabets.

age: 8-12
gender: boys and girls
group work: 3 people as a group
strategy: auditory and movement
The length of observation time: 15 minutes

I said a sound of the alphabet, such as B-[b]-bird, and they had to form the alphabet by their bodies. I also gave them the time limitation(6 seconds) in order to test their recognition of sounds and letters and finish this work effectively.

At the beginning, I said a-[ ]-apple, my students had to be apples, l-[l]-lamp, they had to become lamps, g-[g]-girl, they had to be like girls; but it's too abstract to act it out. So I changed my way to this. And it seemed more concret to them, so they did have a good time to form the alphabets. Maybe next time I will try to have them draw the sound they heard.

2004-12-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

LITERATURE REVIEW
2092100077 Mei

Imagine yourself riding along on your scooter. You’re stopped at a red light and someone pulls up beside you. You suddenly get a whiff of something very dreadful. It’s the person on the scooter next to you. Your immediate thoughts might be: “ Can’t that person smell himself?” or “Doesn’t he care about his personal hygiene?” The sensory data that was collected by smell and sight by this individual has influenced their ideals about how to perceive this person. They probably won’t want to touch this dirty person or want to converse with him, because of how he smells. In our lives we live by our senses and develop our own ideals and strategies to cope with everyday life. Without these senses how could an individual survive in the ever evolving world? Through the personal experience stated above, the senses play an important role in our learning process. Therefore, these senses can be manipulated in the classroom to effectively teach our children how to read. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” (Confucius,2004)

Multisensory

Jackie McLuckie [1], has already developed some basic theories that have produced significant results in the favor of how to concentrate on student’s strengths instead of their weaknesses. This process is done through their sensory abilities. She believes that through these senses we can better educate learners by concentrating on what they already know how to use.
Laurel C. Preston [2], has stated that the VAKT (visual-auditory-kinesthetic-tactile) is an approach you can use in the presentation of information to children. In her article, she also expresses how two other methods can be used to effectively teach children. She refers to the Fermald Method which involves teaching in stages and concentrating on whole-word learning. The Gillingham is another means which involves sound blending, repetition and drill. This particular approach is used to teach children who do not learn by sight words or tracing but through listening and writing. Through these authors ethics this research will engage the manipulation of the five senses to enhance the learning abilities of the younger generation.

Visual

Jamie McKenzie’s[3] article refers to Mary Alice White’s research has established the idea that younger individuals educate themselves of what they know from visual information. She states the importance of the development of how students should think or interpret visual data. McLuckie[1], also indicates the importance of the presentation of new information by using various techniques. These visual tools can originate from flow charts, to pictures, colors and drawings. Another sense that is essential to learning how to read is sound.

Auditory and Movement

Anytime anybody asks you to sing the ABC song you know exactly how it goes and what letters to say because you’ve remembered it by using your auditory sense. Ruth Harris[4] clearly states that through music you can stimulate prior knowledge. If students enjoy learning they will retain the important details such as those of a foreign language: English. “Music can function as a mnemonic device to aid recall of information.” (Harris, 2004) When educating students how to read, we can use this sense to draw their attention, keep their interests and motivate their responses. It’s critical to keep the students thinking in a positive manner towards learning English. We as educators must always move in the right direction in order to enhance children’s reading skills.
Hap Palmer[5] strongly suggests that we must use the children’s energy and put it into a learning process that involves fun with movement. Every child wants to move or do something active. Sitting in a chair will not activate a higher learning process. This author is in favor of using the auditory sense and working with the children’s desire to move, in order to create an interactive environment. “While the children are having fun important learning is taking place.” (Palmer, 2001) The younger generation is always interested in something new or fun. Therefore, when learning a new language these techniques involving our senses help us to achieve a higher pedestal of learning. We are at times so close that we can taste it and we can smell it.

Taste and Smell

Children consume knowledge as if it were food, once they get a bite of it, they’ll always come back for more. Recently, some educators have adopted the sense of taste as a motivator in their classrooms. But one must smell first before tasting. According to Dr. June Brown, Ed.D. and Dr. Deanne Camp[6], “food can serve as an instructional motivator”(Goodman, 1986). These authors clearly support the idea of “A FEAST ACROSS THE CURRICULUM”, Hence they are in favor of manipulating the taste and the sense of smell to enhance the learning of youths. To want to learn how to read or not to learn how to read that is the question? How to make them want to learn how to read that is the true challenge. Thus, by using the stomach and the nose as our bate, we can lure the students into participating more actively in the process of reading.

Touch and Movement

Through tactile and kinesthetic students can enhance their learning skills. The sense of touch is a very important sense in our lives. We have felt our way through evolution by using this sense of touch. The Nanoscale Science Research Group[7] has recently done extensive and have stated that “The addition of haptics* affords students the opportunity to become more fully immersed in this process of meaning-making; taking advantage of tactile, kinesthetic, experiential, and embodied knowledge in new ways.” (Nano, 2004) These groups of individuals have integrated the sense of touch as a very vital to the students learning experiences and processes. A blind person will use touch to read, a person who can see will use touch to further explore the feeling or texture of an object. In manipulating this sense we can use touch to teach children how to enjoy learning how to read. It’s telling a story by using more than just pictures but the real thing. “Show me something I can see, touch, smell, taste and hear and you shall have my undivided attention.” the thoughts of a normal child.

In this research paper I shall prove that teaching reading strategies involving the five senses will enhance Taiwanese elementary students’ reading skills.

Brief idea... ^^"

2004-11-27T18:39:00.000-08:00

Thus, learning to read is supposed to be a wonderful and exciting time, a time when children want to discover and fall in love with words. They're also supposed to discover how words can connect them to other kids from the past.
Simply said, teachers are supposed to use this time to create a desire to learn to read in children.
So what makes kids connect to words in this way, in a way in which they want to learn more?
Learning visually with stories; in other words, being taught to see the pictures these letters represent.
More over, they are also supposed to be taught to draw these pictures on the screens of their own minds. And on paper. Why? Because by drawing these pictures on the screens of their own minds, these letters, and the words they form, come alive.
This, then, is what I'm suggesting. Making letters and words come alive in "living" kinds of pictures is what inspires children to want to learn to read. And write. And this is also how kids in the present can learn to connect to kids from the past. And to the lives people once lived. And to the world all children share

Outline + thesis statement

2004-11-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

Thesis statement
Strategies involving the 5 senses enhance Taiwanese children’s reading skills.

Outline

I. Introduction
A. Importance of reading
B. Facts or statements about learning how to read
C. Thesis statement

II. The five senses strategies
A. Auditory
1. Hearing plays a big part in learning how to read.
2. Sounds
3. Musical stimulation --- rhythm
B. Visual
1. How to keep the interest of the students?
2. Visual stimulation --- colors --- bright vs. dark
3. Size of the letters
C. Touch and movements
1. Kinesthesia --- through action
2. Touch --- index finger --- following each word they read
3. Manipulation of touch and movement in games or actions
D. Smell
To help remember certain things you can use smell to enhance their learning process.
E. Taste
1. (Pavlova’s research could make a dog drool at the song of a bell.)
What about stimulating taste and combining it with reading. (Learning how to read)
2. Positive Reinforcement and a bag of cookies or a food the children like.
When they give an answer they get rewarded, this keeps their interest and stimulates them to answer.

Ⅲ. Case study based on the 5 senses strategies (The strategies may be changed to adapt the needs of my students)

Ⅵ. Summary Report

Ⅶ. Conclusion

My thesis statement ...

2004-10-31T07:20:00.000-08:00

I think my thesis statement will be like:

To teach taiwanese children to read English, will open many doors of opportunity such as, vast knowledge, various strategies and the development of interpersonal relationship with their peers and superiors.

How to enhance children's interests in reading?

One more for apa style...

2004-10-20T09:35:00.001-07:00

There is something wrong with my last post. Maybe the post is too big to include.
So I post another one to complete my work.

I will try to find out more informations which are from internet and periodical.
If I find some, I will put them there with APA style or detail things to have your
comments. Thanks a lot.... ^^"

By the way, here is Joy's new blog address: joychou2092100074.blogspot.com
She asked me to put it here in order to let you get it... thanks!!

One more for apa style...

2004-10-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Detail about my topic---book part

2004-10-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

Today I spent 4-6 hours in searching for the more useful information, (I must be a stupid girl because I took so much time... >"<) I only could roughly finish the book references from library.(Below...) There are some ideas in my brain but I can't organize them now. Maybe I need time to read the books that I chose from the library. Then I will get more details about my content. But now I would like to mention " Read-aloud" is also part of reading. So is "Pleasure reading". I also found some reading part (read-aloud) involved with parent cooperation. That is not bad. Because I want to mention the relationship amond students, parents and teacher. (That's my personal experience!) About the survey that Aiden you suggested in your comment last time, I am willing to do it because I teach the elementray students. But for this part, I don't exactly know how to do it.... Maybe you can help me to give me some advices. I will put my thoughts in my blog. If you check it, any comments is the most welcome... ^^ Should I defind the age of children in my research paper ? Or "Children" means elementray school students? Thanks a lot.... >"<

1. Laura Robb
3. Reading strategies that work--- teaching your students to become better readers
4. part of book used:
5. title of series the book is part of: <~~ I don't really know what it means... >"<

Laura, R (1996). Reading strategies that work --- teaching your students to become better readers. New York: Socholastic Inc.

B.
1. autor: Jeni Riley
3. book name: The teaching of reading --- the development of literacy in the early years of school
4. foreword(Introduction), Part I -- charpter1-5
6. Introduction xi, p1-74
7. book
9. Paul chapman Publishing LTD. A sage publications company london 11,1996

Jeni, R. (1996). The teaching of reading --- the development of literacy in the early years of school. Lodon: Paul chapman Publishing LTD.

C.
1. Jim Trelease
3. the read-aloud hand book
4. Introduction xxiv-xxvi, chapter 1 --- why to read aloud? p26-60
charpter 2 --- when to be read aloud? p26-60
charpter 8 --- sustainde silent reading: reading aloud's natural partner. P193-223
7. book
8. penguin books U.S.A Inc. New York second revised edition,1989.
This third revised edition published 1995

Jim, T. (1995) . The read-aloud hand book. New York: Penguin books.

D.
1. perry nodelman
2. 劉鳳芯
3. 閱讀兒童文學的樂趣 the pleasures of children's literature
4. charpter 4 --- 閱讀文學文本的策略 part I, p 61-85
7. book
8. 天衛文化圖書有限公司 Taipei 01, 2000

劉鳳芝. (ED.) . (2000) . 閱讀兒童文學的樂趣 the pleasure of children's literature. Taipei: 天衛文化圖書有限公司 .

E.
1. Beatrice S. Mikulecky/ Linda Jeffries
3. Reading Power (It's for pleasure reading)
4. forword, examples from this book
7. book
8. Addison Wesley Longman Inc. 1998

Beatrice, S. M, & Linda, J. (1998). Reading Power. NY: Addison Wesley Longman Inc.

F.
1. Beatrice S. Mikulecky
3. A short course in teaching reading skills
4. Introduction, Part I --- What's reading? p13-22, Part II --- pleasure reading, part III ---teaching reading skills, P25-145
7. book
8. Addison Wesley Publishing Company Inc. 1990

Beatrice, S. M. (1990). A short course in teaching reading skills. NY: Addison Wesley Publishing Company Inc.

G.
1. William F. Russell
3. Classics to read Aloud to your children
4. foreword P3-7
7. book
8. Three Rivers Press, a division of crown publishers,Inc New York U.S.A, 1984

William, F. R . (1984). Classics to Read-Aloud to your children. New York: Three Rivers Press.

H.
1. Robert B. Ruddell / Martha Rapp Ruddell
3. Teaching children to read and write
4. chapter
6. The national picture of elementray reading instruction p-11, Reading and writing processes p-14, Beginning Reading and writing steps p-14, Reading comprehension P14-15
7. book
8. Allyn and Bacon U.S.A, 1995

Robert, B. R. (1995). Teaching children to read and write. U.S.A: Allyn and Bacon

I.
1. Susan B. Neuman/Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp
3. Learning to read and write
4. charpter
6. Ensuring children's reading and writing success p103-110
7. book
8. NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) Washington D.C, third print 11, 2002

NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) . (2002). Learning to read and write (3th print.). Washington, D.C: Author.

J.
1. Susan B. Neuman / Kathleen A. Roskos
3. Children Achieving
4. chapter
6. chapter 7 -- How can we foster children's early Literacy development through parent involvement?
chapter 8 -- How do we motivate children toward indepentent reading and writing
7. essay in book
8. International reading association Newoark U.S.A 1998

Susan, B. A. , & Kathleen, A. R. (1998). Childre Achieving. U.S.A: International Reading Association.

K.
1. Gunther Kress
3. Before writing -- rethinking the paths to literacy
4. chapter
6. chapter 3 -- Making sense of the world p44-63, chapter 5 -- a theory of children's meaning-making
7. book
8. Routledge taylor & Francis Grop London U.S.A Canada, reprinted 2000

Gunther, K. (2000). Before writing -- Rethinking the paths to literacy. U.S.A, Lodon, Canada: Routledge Taylor& Francis Grop.

L.
1. Dorothy S Strickland and Lesley Mandel Morrow
3. Beginning Reading and writing
4. chapter
6. chapter 1 -- Beginning reading and writing : Perspectives on instruction, p3-21
chapter 2 -- Becoming a reader a developmentally Appropriate Approach, p22-34
chapter12 -- Fostering reading comprehension, p143-154
7. essay in book
8. teachers college Columbia University New York and the International Reading Association New York, 2000

Dorothy, S. S. , & Lesley, M. M. (2000). Beginning Reading and Writing. New York: Teachers College Columbia University New York & the International Reading Association New York.

M.
1. Barbara J.Walker/ Lesley Mandel morrow
3. Tips for the reading team-strategies for tutors
4. chapter
6. all units are useful
7. book
8. International Reading Association New Jersey U.S.A 1998

Barbara, J. W. & Lesley, M. M. (1998). Tips for the reading team -- strategies for tutors. New Jersey: International Reading Association.

This is Joy's research paper....

2004-10-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Adien:
This post is belonged to Joy. She counld not get the comments from you. So she asked me to post this for her. Hope you can get it and give her responds... ^^"
Thanks a lot!!!
By the way, Joy's blog is : n2092100074.blogspot.com..

At 5:56 AM, yu-chun said...
research topic: surrogate mother?Q1.Q1.who's the mother of the child born to a surrogate?Q2.Is the surrogate interfered in family value?Q3.surrogate is benefit for recipient?Q4.whether the surrogate will be the way to get a lots of money or not?Q5. Is it a good thing(surrogate) for helping the couples to have a child?
At 5:57 AM, yu-chun said...
Chou Yu-chun (Joy)2092100074 Date Posted: Sep 29, 04 - 8:25 AM Email: yuchun.chou@msa.hinet.net Message: topic: betelnut beautyQ1.what differences between betelnut beauty and beauty on playboy' magazines?Q2.what kind of influences the betelnut beauty on our culture?Q3.because of the demand of betelnut what influences on environment by planting betelnut trees?Q4. How effects on betelnut stand make the street looks like?Q5.How can we do on decreasing the demand of betelnut?
At 5:59 AM, yu-chun said...
Chou Yu-chun (Joy)2092100074 Date Posted: Sep 29, 04 - 8:25 AM Email: yuchun.chou@msa.hinet.net Message: topic: betelnut beautyQ1.what differences between betelnut beauty and beauty on playboy' magazines?Q2.what kind of influences the betelnut beauty on our culture?Q3.because of the demand of betelnut what influences on environment by planting betelnut trees?Q4. How effects on betelnut stand make the street looks like?Q5.How can we do on decreasing the demand of betelnut?
At 6:37 PM, yu-chun said...
identifying Library sources/references references:Newshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604122262,00.htmlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1485000/1485494/htmhttp://www.nrlc.org/news/2001/nrl09/surro.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2001/law/08/13/surrogate.dispute/index.htmOrghttp://www.humancloning.org/discussion/posts/1320.htmlhttp://www.bornfree.org.uk/polar.bear/newshttp://www.adoption.org/adopt/definition-of-surrogate-mother.phphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/surrogate_motherEduhttp://www.hsph.harvard.edu/vt/procreative/robert.htmlhttp://www.udayton.edu/~healthhttp://www.tourolaw.eduhttp://www.buffalo.eduBookhttp://bookstore.childcarebooks.us/subject_surrogate_mother.htmlhttp://www.yourencyclopedia.net/surrogate_motherLibrary sources we can use:CD-ROMsJournalsMagazinesNewspapersComputersCopy machineEncyclopediareserved book in advance( fill application) Email: yuchun.chou@msa.hinet.netWebsite: http://n2092100074.blogspot.com

Revise my topic~

2004-10-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Aiden:
I tried another topic : Children English Reading Teaching in Taiwan.
Here comes my Qs:

Q1: What do we mean "children"?
Why should children read? (The importance of reading...)
What benefits will they get from reading?
Q1: How do they read? (Teaching reading strategies ...)
What are the methods to develop their reading for pleasure?
Q3: What kinds of roles do students, parents and teachers have in Taiwan?
Q4: What kind of relationship do they have? What kinds of expectation do they have?

Please take a look for me~ See if it can work or not. >"< Thanks a lot.... Sincerely!!

Rereferences from wenzao library

2004-10-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Web sites:
Etensive reading/Learn to read at startfall

I am sure there must be more, but I think it will be the better idea if you comment my research topic first. After that, I will get more clear orientation to keep going ^^"

I also found VCD / VHS/ TAPE which are related my reading teaching topic in our library

Periodical

“Child”
“Child development”
“Child Language Teaching & therapy”
“New horizon bimonthly for teachers 老師天地”
“Journal of basic education 基礎教育學報”
“Bulletin of educational research 教育研究集刊”

“Children’s literature in education”
“Language art”
“Journal of early childhood literacy”
文教新潮 New waves Educational research & development eng.
臺灣教育 Taiwan education review eng.
中正教育研究 Chung Cheng Educational Studies eng.

Books:(I made a form for this, but it couldn't be showed)

I have tried to look for books from different aspects, Ex: educational psychology, eduction, instruction psychology, teaching reading methods...

Book name
Chinese book name
author
Memo

Language and reading disabilities
Hugh W. Catts, Alan G. Kamhi

Book bridges for ESL students using young adult and children's literature to teach ESL /
Reid, Suzanne Elizabeth.

Children and books
Sutherland, Zena

On their own in reading : How to give children independence in analyzing new words
Gray, William S

99 Ways to Get Kids to Love Reading and 100 Books
Leonhardt, Mary.

Hey! I'm Reading!
Betty Miles

Learning from children who read at early age
Stainthorp, Rhon

Children's reading choices
Christine Hall; Martin Coles.

Beyond storybooks : Young children and the shared book experience
Judith Pollard Slaughter

Language and image in the reading-writing classroom : teaching vision
Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Linda T. Calendrillo, Demetrice A. Worley

英文閱讀方法 The reading methods 陳達武著

談閱讀 on reading
肯尼士‧古德曼(Kenneth S. Goodman)原作洪月女譯

人智學啟迪下的兒童教育
魯道夫‧史代納(Rudolf Steiner)著柯勝文譯

兒童及青少年的道德智商
作者柯爾茲 (Coles, Robert) 秦佩佩譯

兒童發展與輔導
顏靜怡編著

幸福童年的祕密
愛麗絲.米勒(Alice Miller)著袁海嬰譯

今日教育 Education today 66 eng
許雅鈞,黃芳誼總編

教學心理學
Guy. R. Lefrancois著李茂興譯

心理分析與教育
鄭石岩著

教導心理學研究
吳靜吉等著

教育心理學
吉布森(Janice T. Gibson), 詮德勒(Louis A. Chandler)著廖鳳池等編譯

教育心理學理論與實務
Robert E. Slavin原著王明傑, 陳玉玲譯

當代教育心理學
Thomas L. Good,Jere Brophy著李素卿譯

教育心理學教學取向
朱敬先著

Teaching children to read : Putting the pieces together

D. Ray Reutzel, Robert B. Cooter, Jr.

學習心理學教師指南
Michael J. A. Howe作李素卿譯

多元化的教學方法
黃政傑著

Children's literature in the elementary school
Charlotte S. Huck...[et al]

2004-10-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

9/30 Assignment :
Here comes my rough topic which is " The relationship among parent,teacher and student in teaching elementary school students --- The differences between Kao city and town in the cram schools."
試就補習班國小英語教學親師生間之城鄉差異探討

Q1: What kind of relationship among parent,teacher and student are there in Taiwan?
Q2: What kind of role do parents play with? What is the difference between city and town?
Q3: What kind of role do teachers play with? What is the difference between city and town?
Q4: What kind of role do students play with? What is the difference between city and town?