Working with Teachers in Qing Zhen

Working with Teachers in Qing Zhen

The teachers we are working with in Qing Zhen face many challenges every day in their classrooms.  Looming over every moment is the reality of the examinations.  The exam scores are made very public, posted all over town, from best score to least best score.  Names of students attached to the scores. 

Teachers, too, are largely judged by the scores of their students.  Their students’ scores on exams become a part of any interview process when seeking a higher position. 

The textbooks are antiquated, formula-based, and essentially mind-numbingly boring.  They are developed by textbook producers in England and focus primarily on grammar.  There is very little conversation practice, and the reading passages are very limited.  The teachers I am working with, who teach middle school, have asked me to develop activities to go with each unit of study in their texts.  Mostly, they want me to create lessons that keep their students awake in class.  Their students are often from the countryside, and the learning of English doesn’t seem to fit logically into their lives.  Many of the students will work on farms in the countryside, as generations of their families are often farmers.  Learning English seems to be a waste of time to them.  As a result, teachers have “naughty students” in class, students who see no practical application of learning English.

Today, I introduced several activities that have direct connections to the units of study in their texts.  To accompany the “skills we have” unit, we played a game that has to do with professions.  I placed occupation names on several sticky notes.  Then, I affixed a sticky note to each person’s forehead.  Their job was to ask yes or no questions of their classmates to figure out what their profession was.  This was great fun…and everyone ended up figuring out their profession. One of the jobs – Funeral Director – elicited much conversation.  Most people in China are now cremated, due to lack of land for burial.  We talked about funeral customs and what people do with the ashes once a body is burned. 

Another activity I tried with my students today was the one I’ve used with the Material World photographs periodically.  I gave students a large piece of paper, with flames in the center.  They were to imagine that their home was on fire.  Knowing that all people and animals were safe, they were then to determine what ten items they would rescue from their home.  This is clearly an activity that requires students to think about what really matters to them, what they value.  Most of the teachers rescued documents related to their profession, their finances, their marriages, etc…   Many rescued their computers and cell phones.  One woman rescued a pen that had been made from her son’s hair when he was a child.  Many also rescued books that they keep related to a family tree.  Some rescued all of their dresses.  Very few rescued photographs.  Perhaps the photos are stored on their computers.  Many also saved jewelry, usually pieces which were given to them as gifts by special people in their lives. 

Part of the fun of this activity is that they must name as well as draw the items they chose to rescue. 

I’ll continue to create activities that connect directly to their text.  There is a unit on food, so we will be engaging in a Poetry Picnic later this week!!!!  Many of my former students are familiar with this lesson, which I often assigned in the middle of winter…