As we recently confirmed, due to the current global situation, we are unable to hold our Annual Conference as planned this year. However, we still want to share some of the wonderful workshops that we had prepared for.
We are thrilled to offer an online series of workshops led by experienced practitioners from our Mandarin teaching network, opening with a keynote speaker, Professor Zhao Xia, an expert in Contemporary Chinese Children’s Literature from Zhejiang Normal University.
Even better, we are offering these workshops completely for free, as a thank you to our community for all your hard work through this difficult time.
These will take place throughout June 2020 – please find the schedule below.
PLENARY
Contemporary Chinese Children’s Literature
Tuesday 9th June at 16:00-17:00
Presenter: Professor Zhao Xia, Zhejiang Normal University
WORKSHOPS:
1. Project-Based Learning – Culture and Interest Included!
Thursday 11th June at 17:00-18:00
Presenter: Elliot Hsiao-Williams, Teacher of Chinese at Escola Internacional del Camp, Tarragona
2. The Mandarin Classroom: Combining student engagement and parent power.
Tuesday 16th June at 13:00-14:00
Presenter: Paul Edwards Head of Mandarin at Cowley International College
3. Let’s do something different in Year 7!
Thursday 18th June at 16:00-17:00
Presenter: Finlay Davidson, Leader of Teaching and Learning for Mandarin at North Gosforth Academy
4. How to prepare students to stand out from the crowd and score highly in the GCSE writing paper.
Tuesday 23rd June at 11:30-12:30
Presenter: Yadi Luo, Head of Mandarin at St Mary Magdalene Academy
BOOK HERE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annual-conference-2020-workshop-with-yadi-luo-tickets-103803440886
5. The Creative Classroom: Sharing the curricular lessons and activities (primary focus)
Thursday 25th June at 13:00-14:00
Presenter: Simone Haughey, Confucius Classroom Manager at Robin Hood Primary School
Whilst it is a shame that we cannot get together in person as we usually do at our Annual Conference, we hope that you will still enjoy the opportunity to join as many workshops as possible online. On a positive note, you could in theory join all of the workshops, and not have to make that difficult decision about which to miss out on as is normally the case with schedule clashes!
Further information:
- Some of the sessions will be preceded by an exciting student performance from a school within our network – details will be confirmed shortly.
- There is no limit to the number of sessions you can attend, however there is a limit of 70 spaces per session, so do book soon to avoid disappointment.
- All sessions will be held online and joining instructions will be sent a week in advance to those who have booked a ticket.
- Should a session be over-subscribed, the UCL IOE CI reserves the right to give priority to practitioners in mainstream UK schools, and cancel tickets booked by those who do not fit into this category.
Below you will find a more detailed description of each event and speaker
Plenary: Contemporary Chinese Children’s Literature
Tuesday 9th June at 16:00-17:00
Presenter: Professor Zhao Xia, Zhejiang Normal University (in conversation with Dr Frances Weightman, Leeds University)
We are delighted to welcome Professor Zhao Xia to our conference this year, and are excited to hear from her about the boom in contemporary children’s literature in China, some of her favourite authors, and how she works with teachers in China to include literature in the classroom.
Xia Zhao trained for three years as a future elementary school teacher before she enrolled at Zhejiang Normal University to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Chinese Language and Literature. This developed an interest in children’s literature, which she studied at Masters level, graduating in 2006.
In 2010, after four years as editor of the journal China Children’s Culture at ZJNU, she started her PhD at Zhejiang University and graduated in 2013, with her doctoral dissertation An Aesthetic Critique of the Contemporary Phenomena of the Cultural Consumption of Childhood, published in 2017, which won the Key Grant of the Zhejiang Federation of Social Science Associations Fund For Academic Publication. She’s now Associate Professor at ZJNU, where she teaches postgraduates on Theory on History of Chinese and Foreign Children’s Literature and undergraduate courses including Canons of Children’s Literature and History of Chinese and Foreign Literature.
She has concentrated her study on children’s literature and culture for over fifteen years, and has published seven books on the subject. She received a fellowship from the International Youth Library in Munich in 2008 and did a project there for three months, and has since then been entrusted with the selecting and reviewing of Chinese children’s books for the annual White Ravens: A Selection of International Children’s and Youth Literature published by the IYL.
She is on the editorial board of the revised versions of the New Elementary Reader (12 volumes), acknowledged as the most influential extra-curriculum reading material for Chinese elementary school children today. Xia Zhao has published eight books and over a hundred articles on children’s literature and culture, edited or joined the editing board of a number of children’s literature books and primary readings, and translated twelve books (English to Chinese).
Workshop 1: Project-Based Learning – Culture and Interest Included!
Thursday 11th June at 17:00-18:00
Presenter: Elliot Hsiao-Williams, Teacher of Chinese, Escola Internacional del Camp, Tarragona
This workshop will consider how to ‘immerse’ our learners in the UK/western countries in Chinese ideas and culture, whilst understanding that sometimes learners disengage due to the lack of cultural relevance to their daily life beyond classroom. Since learning is often most effective when learners feel related to the topics, we will explore the possibilities of sourcing more localised materials to be applied into project-based learning, wherever the learners are, to more easily contextualise the Mandarin they learn. We will do this by:
- Discussing the reasons and potential benefits of project-based learning and culturally relevant topics.
- Looking at examples of ‘learning projects’ and evaluating the purposes and effectiveness.
- Exploring how an engaging learning project could work, incorporating standard learning components of applying reading and listening skills, independent learning, cultural interest, homework, assessments, etc.
- Peer-feedback on some learning project outlines, which delegates will have brainstormed together.
Please come ready with your thoughts and ideas, as we will have plenty of opportunities for group discussion!
To read Elliot’s recent blog for the IOE CI, on the topic of remote teaching, please follow this link: https://ci.ioe.ac.uk/2020/03/31/case-study-teaching-mandarin-remotely-in-spain/
Workshop 2: The Mandarin classroom. Combining student engagement and parent power.
Tuesday 16th June at 13:00-14:00
Presenter: Paul Edwards MEP Manager and Mandarin teacher, Cowley International College
This workshop looks at two key (interlinked) areas that create a successful Mandarin classroom.
We’ll look first at behaviour management- starting as we mean to go on by creating a learning environment that emphasises learning Mandarin is fun. We’ll consider how to create an exciting experience for students and set high expectations with this unique opportunity for students.
Secondly we’ll discuss parent power and how we can harness this- setting up a parent’s class, bringing the parents on board, raising the school profile- making your school stand out from the crowd.
The participants will consider and discuss:
- The value of regular and consistent routines
- The many opportunities for student engagement in the lesson
- How to stimulate and maintain parental interest
- How to self-promote Mandarin in the local area
Last year, Paul was named Teacher of the Year at the Educate Awards. To read about this, and his experience teaching Chinese and his experience of working at this time, please read this article: http://www.educatemagazine.com/paul-edwards-teacher-cowley/
Workshop 3: Let’s do something different in Year 8
Thursday 18th June at 16:00-17:00
Presenter: Finlay Davidson, Leader of Teaching and Learning for Mandarin at North Gosforth Academy
This workshop is inspired by action research Finlay is conducting in the classroom this year with a new Year 7 module in his scheme of work, based entirely around a Chinese language Youtube series. It is designed to increase motivation and interest in the subject and to solve the motivation drop off experienced in year 8/9 Chinese lessons. The pedagogy behind the idea will also touch on the ‘why this, why now’ OFSTED criteria, asking teachers to think about why they are doing a certain module beyond “it is the next one in the textbook”. Finlay will explain the origins of the ideas and the motivations, show the resources and explain their uses.
The aim of the workshop is for participants to see a different way of viewing the year 7 Chinese curriculum, potentially reviewing the purpose of a year 7 curriculum, given that there are many schools in the country that teach to GCSE level in 3 years through 9, 10 and 11. Participants will come away with practical resources with ideas about how to teach Chinese in new ways as there is a class booklet that accompanies the relevant module.
Finlay last presented at our annual conference in 2015, and we are excited to share his development in his area of interest around new styles of assessment in MFL. To see his conference workshop from 2015, please click here:
Workshop 4: How to prepare students to stand out from the crowd and score highly in the GCSE writing paper
Tuesday 23rd June at 11:30-12:30
Presenter: Yadi Luo, Head of Mandarin at St Mary Magdalene Academy
This workshop will look at ways to teach extended vocabulary without introducing new characters. We will see how to use a simple template to help students develop their basic open-ended opinion writing skills in Mandarin. With specific reference to the AQA GCSE writing paper we will:
- Mix and match Chinese characters for extended vocab
- Understand the AQA GCSE writing Marking Scheme
- Consider the possible writing paper questions for each topic taught
- Introduce the simple template of open-ended opinion essay
Yadi is a key support for the Confucius Classroom, MEP delivery and ITE PGCE mentoring at SMMA. She has previously contributed to a teacher training workshop on the teaching of characters for the UCL IOE CI, and delivered a workshop in 2018 on writing – this workshop is intended as a development, reflecting with new information gathered from teaching the first cohort through the new GCSE. https://ci.ioe.ac.uk/2018/04/26/2018-conference-workshop-interview/
Workshop 5: The creative classroom – Sharing the curricular lessons and activities (primary focus)
Thursday 25th June at 13:00-14:00
Presenter: Simone Haughey, Confucius Classroom Manager at Robin Hood Primary School
Simone is a regular contributor to our annual conference, sharing her inspiring ideas for the primary classroom. This session is no different, introducing fun and creative hands-on ideas for practical primary teaching activities. She is an active and enthusiastic blogger of all things teaching Mandarin, her blogs can be found here: https://robinhoodacademymfl.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/mandarin-basics-lesson-2-greetings/.
You can also view previous workshop presentations from Simone at our Primary Toolkit website: https://ciioeprimary.com/language-skills/
She has also created a website where you can find her resources: https://www.mrsmandarin.co.uk/
We look forward to you joining us online for these sessions!
