WPP

      The purpose for my project is to promote students communicative as well as writing skills in mandarin. Moreover, to take this opportunity to foster a Mandarin learning communities for my 8th grade class through the usage of technology.

      According to “20 Ways to Use Edmodo”it allows students to communicate with each other anytime, anywhere in different ways. I would like to take advantage of that. Therefore, I designed a writing activity through Edmodo. The topic is posted through notes. Students can turn their writing work in by “replying”to the post. Then, they need to read their peer editor’s work and give suggestions on grammar errors, good points and how can the writing be improved. Later on, they need to go back to their original writing, revise it according to their peer’s comment and then finalize it. To complete this assignment, they need to have two writings, one is the original writing, and the other one is finalized writing.

    What’s more, students can also practice Chinese character typing, which is a crucial skill nowadays for 21st century learners. I also chose a topic that students are interested at “Describe an animal you like the best.”

     This project is designed based on the following information:

     Content Knowledge (CK): The process of mastering a language develops from Listening-speaking-reading to writing. This activity combines reading, writing, editing, reflecting. These four skills foster a cycle of learning while students collaborate on one another’s ideas.

      Technology Knowledge (TK): This activity requires students to be able to type in Chinese character, to give respond to one another’s post on Edmodo as well as to gather information from the resource that I provide online.

     Pedagogical Knowledge (PK): To ensure a smooth transition from learning the new language points to the accomplishment of the work, I scaffolded students from the usage of the words and sentences to analysis of the short context and then to short story writing.

      Moreover, I provide detailed questions that guide students on commenting on one another’s writing. The implication of my project is overall a success. My students were very excited from the beginning of the activity. They definitely put in their biggest effort. They loved typing Chinese characters in computer. As they worked on their writing, most of my students keep themselves challenged by choosing sentence structures that are complicated. Based on the commenting that I received, they all took responsibility to help each other on doing a better job. The comments they provided are meaningful as well. All these really surprised me and I have decided to keep this writing activity as part of my writing assessment for my students.

     In the process of the activity, I made a minor change.While I was designing this activity, I planned to let my students comment on 3 other students. However, I have 16 students, if they all respond to 3 others, the posts might be too long. So I decided to let students comment on 1 other classmate using our clock partner chart. These two students will be editing peers. In order to evaluate, I asked them to write what they like about their peer’s writing, what mistakes. Also, they need to contribute at least three more sentences to make their peer’s writing look better.

     In my WPP presentation, I have given an example of one of my student, Eric’s work. In his writing, he describes giant panda, such as its looks, what food does panda like, where does a panda live. His peer editor suggested him to give some information on “where does panda originated” as well as the activities that a panda likes to do. So in Eric’s final writing, he added the sentences that Maddie suggested and it not only makes his writing interesting but also develops some depth of the usage of this language.

This is my WPP presentation.

Professional Learning Plan

This is a prezi that I made for my ideas of professional learning plan. I used Jing to capture the video while I was making it. So the whole idea of my professional learning plan is to make connection with the technology we have learned; integrate them into different part of my teaching based on my teaching purpose. In this video, hopefully you can not only see the ideas, but also see how to make a presentation with Prezi :D

Group Project-Weebly Tutorial

This is the website that our group used to demonstrate the usage of Weebly. It includes five different tutorials, which focus on different aspects of Weebly editing. It also has a Sample page and a page that readers can give Feedback.

Wicked Problem Project: Part D - Findings and Implications

The goal of my project is to develop students' writing skill in mandarin, nurture their interests in literacy in a foreign language as well as form a community of collaboration in my 8th grade class by using Edmodo. The project achieved my goals. First, all my students were very engaged in the whole process of writing. They feel convenient to write with computer also, it is a useful skill to type Chinese characters. They had an easy time adapting to Edmodo and finding valuable materials there. They think Edmodo is easy to use. Also, they felt cool when they edited their peers' writing online. Since we use to read books or contents printed on paper, this is something novel and fun. When they provide feedback to their peers, the sense of responsibility is developed. They can also learn new things from their peers' writing. When they finally submit the edited version of writing, they can definitely see how much they have grown, which gave them a sense of achievement. I am really glad that I chose to work on this project. I will keep it as an activity that we do regularly. For me, the most important thing that teacher needs to do for this activity is to give students enough reference online to help with their writing as well as a meticulous guidance on how to use Edmodo as well as how to install the Chinese typing keyboard. Teachers also need to explain to students about the purpose of this activity. In the future, I would ask my students to brainstorm the topic of their writing assignment according to what we have learned and the objectives of what we are learning. I wish that this activity help my students to see how far they have went in Mandarin learning as well as motivated in the coming days!