Tag Archives: Jewel

11.03.23
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Check-In with TNCS’s Elementary and Middle School Mandarin Chinese Program!

Multilingualism is a cornerstone of academics at The New Century School. The Mandarin Chinese program is therefore a “jewel” in the school’s crown, along with the Spanish and ELA programs. Speaking of jewels, the current TNCS Chinese team has the ongoing support of Xie Laoshi—aka “Jewel! Xie Laoshi is a veteran TNCS instructor, having led the classroom and multiple summer camps, including StarTalk! Xie Laoshi is very pleased to have mentored the newest member of the elementary/middle school Mandarin team, Jia Liu (“Liu Laoshi”).

Meet Jia Liu!

Liu Laoshi came to the United States in 2021 to pursue a master’s degree in Music Education at the University of Auburn. After graduating, she moved to Baltimore with her partner. As luck would have it, her neighbor turned out to be TNCs’s K/1 Mandarin immersion teacher Cui Laoshi, who recommended she apply at TNCS for the 2023–2024 school year. Xie Laoshi was immediately impressed with her work ethic, and she is now fulfilling what is known as Optional Practical Training during her time at TNCS.

Liu Laoshi is originally from Luoyang, an industrial city in central China’s Henan province, where evidence suggests Chinese civilization originated.

She plans to bring her musical prowess into the Chinese classroom in various ways to make learning fun and well-rounded for her students. Although she teaches Mandarin Chinese at TNCS, she has a rich background in teaching music—her family owns a music school (Golden Vienna Academy of Piano) in Luoyang, and Liu Laoshi still helps run it long distance.

Mandarin Chinese Curriculum

Together, the Mandarin team (that also includes Cui Laoshi in K/3 and Wang Laoshi in preschool) have ensured that the curriculum is up to date and effective. As before, Xie Laoshi’s approach aligns with that of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). ACTFL continues to promote the 5 Cs—an ingrained part of the Mandarin program at TNCS from the very beginning, but they have adapted and innovated over the last decade to promote additional effective language instruction and assessment practices that align with current research in education and language acquisition. Among these, two prominent instructional approaches are “backward design” and “project-based learning” (PBL).

Xie Laoshi explained these two approaches in detail and how the Mandarin Chinese team implements them in the classroom.

Backward Design

The essence of backward design is to start with the desired results (end goals or objectives) and then design instruction and assessment to achieve these goals. This ensures that educators first identify the desired outcomes and proficiency levels for students, then they design the learning experiences and assessments to achieve these targets. ACTFL’s standards emphasize performance goals, which align well with the backward design model. By first determining what students should be able to do in the target language, educators can then plan meaningful instruction to help students reach those performance goals.

Project-Based Learning

In PBL, students work on a project over an extended period, which challenges them to solve a real-world problem or answer a complex question. PBL encourages authentic language use in meaningful, real-world contexts and promotes the integration of the three modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational). It encourages students to research, collaborate, communicate, and reflect in Mandarin Chinese, which makes the learning experience more engaging and relevant.

Part of PBL is the “can-do” statement: these are performance descriptors that articulate what language learners can do in terms of communication at various proficiency levels. They offer a clear way to describe language skills in the domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. They also serve as benchmarks for assessing a learner’s progress and growth over time; they help educators and learners to understand where a student is currently and what they need to work on to reach the next level of proficiency. In essence, can-do statements act as a bridge between the theoretical framework of the proficiency guidelines and the practical application in the classroom.

Want to see PBL in action? 

For their first-quarter project, TNCS students were asked to create characters and elaborate on who these characters are and what their lives look like. To familiarize students with what they were trying to achieve, Xie and Jia Laoshi used teaching language proficiency through storytelling (TPRS). They start with a one-word image and collaboratively build on that (such as with a name, gender, age, personality, and so on) to tell a story. Their launch visual was “door.” “Each day you circle around the image, building first maybe the appearance and continuing from there,” explained Jewel. Lots of repetition happens, and students start understanding grammar patterns and how to use conjunctions. They love this character, so they want to keep talking about it.”

Then, they were let loose to create their own individual characters! Part of the genius of this TPRS project is that students had to read, write, and think in Chinese, and they also had to present their characters to the rest of the class. As one student described it, “I thought it was a really fun project. It was really great to make our own characters. I learned a lot, and it helped improve my comprehension.” This student, by the way, is learning Mandarin Chinese for the first time! (Xie Laoshi credits the prework they did as a class as well as the concept of “comprehensible input”—a linguistic theory that states that second language learners need to be exposed to linguistic input slightly above their current language level so that they can understand new inputs—for this student’s success so far).

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And here is a sample presentation!

 

Other projects that TNCS students have been working on are what Liu Laoshi calls “mini Chinese dramas.” Fortunately, she is an accomplished videographer and captured one on film for us.

 

All in all, Mandarin Chinese class is a highpoint of TNCS students’ day. Xiǎngshòu nǐ de xuéxí, TNCS students! 享受你的学习

07.05.19
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Chinese Immersion Camp 2019—Wǒ Kěyǐ (我可以)?

From July 1st through 5th, The New Century School hosted a Mandarin Chinese Immersion summer camp that not only boosted participants’ language acquisition and speaking skills, but also emphasized the importance of having fun while learning. Xie Laoshi (a.k.a., Jewel) believes that young learners will gain proficiency faster when they are doing something while learning a new language, rather than focusing just on the language itself. Thus, camp was built around activities, and specific lessons in vocabulary and grammar related to those activities. Did you notice the name Xie Laoshi? You read correctly! TNCS campers welcomed back their dear former teacher, and she brought along some new friends from her current school to join the fun. The group also included a raffle winner from Patterson Park Public Charter School (see more about that program in this post from summer 2018)! Students came from all over the city; other schools included Greenspring Montessori and Baltimore International Academy.

You may be wondering, with such a varied group of students, how did Chinese immersion camp come together? In fact, the 14 campers ranged in age from 4 to 12, but Jewel—like always—rose to the challenge. Instead of focusing on a single theme as past camps have done (see here and here), Chinese Immersion Camp 2019 took a slightly different approach and emphasized interaction. This meant lots of practice communicating with each other and partaking in various activities in groups.

Jewel has a lot of experience in teaching Mandarin summer camps for children. (She taught Startalk camp at TNCS in summer 2014 and again in summer 2015 as well as developed her own camp the following year.) She employs the 5 Cs of language acquisition developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) that TNCS has been using all along in its multilingual language program curriculum. Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities inform every language-learning activity the day holds. The most effective language program designs activities in which these five concepts intersect, which is exactly what Chinese Immersion Camp achieves, as photos throughout this post eloquently demonstrate. Now let’s take a peek at camp!

Camp Day to Day

This year, Jewel was joined by assistant Miss Pung, which allowed the camp to subdivide for part of the day, with older campers working on skits to be performed at the end of the week and younger campers practicing conversation while working on related art projects.

 

Although camp was not specifically themed, each day had a standard framework. Mornings were devoted to lessons, which progressed to applying what they just learned in practice.

 

Even the vocabulary lessons, however, were extremely interactive. See Jewel and her devoted students in action!

After lunch and recess, afternoons usually meant art (working with clay, making dragon fans, creating blue “porcelain” plates) and other cultural activities—singing, dancing, cooking, and so on . . . even some martial arts displays!

 

Building Blocks of Conversation

Key here is that everything was interrelated; vocabulary was specific to the day’s activities—in other words, campers were acquiring the tools they would be using throughout the day. In addition to placards and the whiteboard to teach language, Jewel also employed Chinese Buddy, a collection of YouTube video songs designed to teach discrete conversational units and grammar points. Campers watched and sang along, clearly enjoying them. Each unit built upon the next, and campers ultimately used what they learned to write, produce, and perform their end-of-week skits.

If your child is learning Mandarin, you’ll want to meet Chinese Buddy. The songs are funny, catchy, and adored by kids. Start with the very memorable, “Stinky Tofu Song (臭豆腐之歌)” that focuses on how to communicate “want”:

Now see TNCS campers!

How about the “May I/Can I (可以吗)” song?

Move and Learn!

Attendees really did learn by doing—another TNCS Chinese program tenet. Plenty of movement and physical activity took place each day, and multiple benefits accrue from this approach. Kids obviously need to move around and release some of their boundless energy, but research shows that learning while moving deepens learning. (Read more about this theory called Total Physical Response here.) In the following short video clips, you’ll see campers competing in short physical contests. They comprehend Jewel’s commands given in Mandarin effortlessly, and she mixes in new vocabulary with the Mandarin campers are already familiar with, like counting, which gives them both practice—so important for language proficiency—and new brain food to chew on. They are having so much fun they don’t even realize they are learning! And don’t forget the cultural component—in China, school children do daily calisthenics, much like what TNCS campers are doing here!

And Now, for the Skits!

In their skits, campers put it altogether. They were all, thus, variations on a theme, but each group put their own stamp on it! The basic premise was a child asking a parent permission for something, the request being denied, and the child moving on to another parent, who then grants the request. Some marital friction might ensue, depending on the group. Or, dad might be Captain America—again, it depends on the group. Jewel said, “They didn’t have a lot of practice, but they really did an amazing job and did everything by themselves.”

Míngnián Zàijiàn (明年再见), Chinese Camp!

Their last-day party was also an occasion to be remembered—campers prepared and gobbled up Chinese noodles with gusto! What did Jewel think of camp? “I was very happy to be at The New Century School and working with the students here again,” she said. The week went great, and we had fun together. I felt like I have never left. TNCS is always close to my heart.”

If you notice a bump in your child’s Mandarin skills over the next few weeks, you have the rich cultural experience of TNCS Chinese Immersion Camp 2019—and Jewel—to thank.