Introducing myself
teemunford
September 26, 2008, 07:00 AM posted in General DiscussionI teach Mandarin in London -- I teach in two schools (my pupils are mainly ages 14-18) but I also have a Mandarin club in a primary school (ages 5-11) once a week and a couple of adult private students.
I listen to Chinesepod a lot to improve my own Mandarin and I'd love to be able to use bits eg the new video clips as 'starters' in classroom situations, but naturally schools aren't in a position to pay 'premium rates' for resources, maybe there'd be a way of marketing the video clips on CD-Roms?
teemunford
October 13, 2008, 02:38 PMHi Kate,
Sorry, it's a while since I logged on so I haven't read your note until today.
I tend to use the Australian Ni Hao series for my 'on timetable' courses, in other words the students that opt to do Chinese in the main curriculum. These students tend to be aged 15-17. The books are a bit 'young' as the series is aimed at Australian children who start at about 11, but it's a good series because it weans them off pinyin fairly fast and there's good support materials in terms of workbooks, teachers books, audio CDs and computer games.
With students who do Chinese as an extra-curricula club and who tend to be younger (11-15), I use the Hanban/British Council series Kuaile Hanyu (sometimes called Chinese for GCSE). That keeps them 'pinyin' dependent throughout, which is okay for those students who haven't got the time of commitment to work at the written language.
With my sixth formers (16-18) I tend to use a variety of materials and often generate my own. Those and the 15-17 year olds are the ones who would most appreciate (and be old enough for!) Chinesepod materials. When you say Chinesepod lesson plans, what do you mean?
Hope this is of use,
Theresa
ktrinh87
October 14, 2008, 10:05 AMHi Theresa,
Wow, I'm amazed at the number of groups that you managed. That's a hand full. Anyway, back to your question:
When you say Chinesepod lesson plans, what do you mean?
Do you use, Chinesepod lessons like, Good night for Newbies, for your more advanced class? If so, which letter do you use and do you have them also listen to Qingwen for grammar and Dear Amber for cultural lessons?
Also, (sorry to bombarded you with questions), do you use Groups with your students, i.e. do you have a group for you class in Community?
Kate
teemunford
October 15, 2008, 05:48 PMAll my groups are small (between 3 and 10 students mainly) so it's not too hard to manage!
I don't really use Chinesepod for them yet -- I subscribe as an individual subscriber and will often feed back grammer points to them, for example from Qingwen. I've always presumed it would be breeching your copyright to use the materials directly in class?
I'll also point them to (free) Newbie lessons if there's a grammer thing we've been doing, and some of them log on and listen but as far as I know none of them have actually taken out a subscription yet as they're mainly school students so don't have that sort of cash. I'm not of the 'facebook' generation so I've never thought how to use communities for learning and I suppose our groups are too small to benefit from it?
I welcome your suggestions!
Theresa
ktrinh87
October 07, 2008, 09:43 AMHi teemunford, thanks for the comment.
I think we do have a couple of CD-Roms for sale, but I believe that are all audios. Videos are a recent feature of Chinesepod. I think, as of now, we only have a hand full of videos. But I will definitely take your suggestion into consideration.
I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions. Do you use a textbook for each of your courses? Or do you have specific lesson plans for individual groups? Have a ever considering using Chinesepod's lesson plans?
Thanks again,
Kate