I observed this middle school Chinese class in Saratoga. Students all can handle simple daily conversations and are capable of discussing important concepts from the textbook with the teacher and their peers. First, they talked about a short history between a famous writer and a musician. Then, the teacher randomly picked some students to answer her questions, while at the same time using a very serious way to manage the class, for some  students seemed to be restless in the second half of the class. Once there was someone talking and apparently disturbing her teaching flow, she would stop and just waited silently for the students to quiet down. However, this only worked sometimes (some female students did quiet down, but some male ones kept chatting).

The teacher provided the class with plenty of extra-curricular knowledge, by using the grammatical rules students were already familiar with, which made things much easier for them. Every student got at least one chance to practice with the teacher by answering question prompted up by her. The teacher connected the textbook’s core content and the extra-curricular materials well.

Reflection:

The way the teacher managed this class, such as just “looking” serious and harsh, waiting there silently without any actual actions, might be more effective with a senior class. However, the teacher seemed seasoned and skillful when leading her students to learn the basic knowledge in the textbook, and to explore extra-curricular materials.

-Chung-Hui Kim Liao