In my project, I want to discover the biggest advantage of using Edmodo on helping my 8th grade students with Chinese language and culture learning. Edmodo is the communication tool our school district has chosen. So far, I like it a lot. Edmodo is user friendly and both teachers and students can get familiar with it very fast becaue it look like facebook.
By working on this project, I would like to use Edmodo to assist my students in Chinese writing and reading, as well as to make it a resource center for my students to learn about current events in China.
Target Students: 8th grade students
Subject: Mandarin Chinese
Student Background: They have been learning Mandarin for 3 years. I was their 3rd Mandarin teacher. Students can understand most of the daily using language. They also do a good job in communicating in daily life conversations. My next goal is to promote their literature skills as keep working on their listening and speaking. In order to do this, students' Chinese language thinking should be developed and the sense of Chinese language need to be practiced. These goals can be achieved through constant reading, writing and reediting.
According to "20 Ways to Use Edmodo", there are many benefits that teachers and students can achieve through using Edmodo. I picked out two ways that I wanted to try with my students in order to promote their skills in Mandarin learning and another way to foster a Chinese learning community outside the class. The latter one will be my long term project. So in the following 4-6 weeks, I will be focused on the following two activities.
1. To Practice Mandarin Chinese Typing and Communication
How do students practice writing and communicative skills in Mandarin through Edmodo?
Edmodo allows students to communicate with each other anytime, anywhere in different ways. I would like to create discussion boards in Mandarin and students need to type Chinese characters to reply. This allows them to practice typing since it is such an important skill nowadays. While posting the topics, I would like to choose something that is related to the topic that we are currently learning. For example, if we are learning Chinese Rare Animals, I would like my students to write a short story of an animal in first person point of view. Then they have to read other people's post and give feedback on editing suggestions, things they like about it and something they feel interesting of.
Assessment:
This activity has two parts. The first part includes students' individual writing task. This part will be treated like the regular writing homework. So students will be graded on the correction usage of the words and sentences and the sufficient length of their writing. At the same time, I will provide them with suggestions on reediting the writing.
For the second part, each student will read at least three posts from their peers and give feedback. Since my students are not able to write feedbacks in mandarin, I would like them to pick out the sentences and the words that they liked in their peer's writing. This way, they can learn from different people. In order to make sure each student can get feedback from one another, I will ask students to comment on their "clock partners". (We have made clock partners in class, so whenever there is practicing activity, I would just tell them to go to your partner in a certain hour. For example, go to your two o'clock partner for the interview activity.)
If this project is successful, my students' Mandarin writing and reading skill will be increased greatly. Also, they will be able to learn from different peers as well as from the teacher.
2. To Keep Up with the Current Events
Living in the most authentic environment allows students to achieve the most in language learning. In class, I always try my best to share experiences and stories about Chinese people and their lives. However, it is still limited. The events that I share are purposeful and linked to their learning. Also, these events are selected and organized from my perspective. If students go to China one day, they might be interested in different things. Therefore, I want to guide my students to learn about Chinese culture through RSS Feed Tool. This allows them to choose what they want to learn about and explore with it.
Assessment:
There are 16 students in my class. They will be divided into 4 groups. Every week, one group of students will be in charge of our "Chinese News Bulletin Board". Within the week, they need to read about the important events happened in China. Then, on Friday, they need to print out their news, and give a short report to the class about what is happening in China. After their report, students might ask questions. These questions will be assigned to the next group, so they need to find out the answers with the teacher's guidance. When the sharing is done, they can post the news on our News Bulletin Board.
Other than the two activities above, I also want to work on this following activity.
3. Culture Exchange Projects
Edmodo gives students opportunities to learn from peers, who are from different communities and culture background. My 8th grade students are facing graduating from Middle School and going to High School. In High school, they will continue Mandarin as their foreign language. Therefore, it might be a good idea to connect them with a group of 9th grade high school students who are also learning this language since the 9th grade students just left the middle school, this activity also allows them to communicate with their old friends and teacher. This way, they can communicate with each other about what they have been learning, their interesting thoughts, concerns and wonders. This way, they have someone else to learn from other than their teacher and it will give them a much smoother transition from middle school to high school.
Assessment:For this activity, I just want to provide my students with someone to go to other than myself when they have questions about Chinese learning. I will not actually evaluate it. I hope this activity can give my students an opportunity to see another Chinese classroom in another school, and to know that they are not along, in turn to motivate them in Mandarin learning.
Supportive Resources
-http://help.edmodo.com/edmodo-in-action/
-http://blog.edmodo.com/2012/05/16/organize-your-edmodo-library/(How to organize your Edmodo Library)
-http://help.edmodo.com/twenty-ways-to-use-edmodo/ (20 Ways to Use Edmodo)
