Extended Role-play Project to Assess All Skills 延伸情景表演测试所有语言能力

Role play is one of the top activities, which is engaging and enjoyed by students.  It gives students an opportunity to show their skills as well as their creativity.  It also encourages collaboration.  More than that, it allows the teacher to use authentic materials or give students authentic tasks.  Finishing authentic tasks gives students a level of confidence that is different from completing worksheet exercises.  I'd like to share an extended role-play project that incorporate multiple themes and assess interpretative, interpersonal, and presentational skills of a student.

Recently we are learning to give description, a more advanced language skills.  Students are required to present details and organize these details to support certain statements.  The topic we used is to describe places in communities, especially stores.  The other topics incorporated in this lesson is shopping and describing locations.

To set up the stage for the role-play project, students had done a writing and oral presentation on their favorite stores.  Students write the first draft.  Then we build rubrics and requirements as a whole class.  Using such guidelines, students did peer editing and re-writing.  Each individual later presented their own piece.

After honing skills on describing a place through this activity, students were in groups of three or four to design a store in a market.  The classroom was transformed into a bazaar.  The teacher played the role of the bank.

During this activity, students needed to decide what kind of store they would build, the store locations, the merchandise items, and the pricing.  They also prepared questions they could ask other shops when they went on shopping and questions they could ask the shoppers who came into their stores.  The teacher could use these tasks to assess students writing presentational skills.  When each store is ready, have students make a map of the market as a whole class and also come up with essential phrases/sentences for shopping.

When preparation is finished, the market was open.  Shoppers withdrew money from the bank.  Within the group, members rotate the roles as shoppers or as shop assistants.  The teacher could float around the market to observe students' interaction or play the role of shoppers in order to make specific assessment of interpretative and interpersonal skills.

One major outcome of this extended project is the high engagement of each student.  Even those who are usually quiet are more willing to participate and get engaged in several different conversations with the teacher and peers.

小心别做了边缘化的中文老师

最近中文项目火爆，和国内经济发展以及政府全力支持推广中文不无关系。开始一个新的中文项目不是特别大的难题，如何让中文项目经久不衰，日渐壮大才是今天我想讨论的话题。无论什么项目和事业，可持续发展性是大家最关心的一个问题。

中文项目的核心人力资源当然是中文老师。中文项目的不断发展需要中文老师在专业上不断提升自己的核心力量。很多老师在教学上很勤奋，也有创意。可是我们的成就却不一定在整个学校社区受人注意。分析起来有不少原因。可能您在学校是唯一的中文老师。这种情况可以解释为什么不少中文项目开张时轰轰烈烈，几年后却变得默默无闻。因为只有一个老师，宣传力度不够。即使中文老师人数超过一个，常常也不占教师人数的多数。

这是不少老师们忽视的一个问题。有时候，兢兢业业的工作并不是取得认可并进一步发展中文项目规模的全部要素。因为中文老师是教职人员里的少数派，更要注意防止处于一个边缘的位置。老师之间在专业方面互动是维系个人职场关系的一个重点。作为中文老师，这些专业上的互动更为重要，因为不只帮助自己更好地融入教学团队更可以让您发现支持中文项目的同仁。专业互动形式各种。在校级系院级会议上，努力提出自己的想法；在必要的情况下，勇于提出问题。时常想一些新活动新课题，找机会和不同科目的老师合作教学，可以一起做课程项目，也可以一起组织教学性郊游。和别的同事们一起吃午饭也是个好方法，有时候休息时间的闲聊给您带来灵感。工作中遇到困难时，虚心向同事领导请教。如果是第一年的新老师还是新到一个学校工作，找到一个良师益友极其重要。这个人应该既是您可以信任的朋友也是您的导师，帮助你了解学校小社会的文化，帮你出谋划策。怎么找到这样一个可以支持您的人要从问问题开始。不是泛泛地问问题，而是问有针对性的您的确需要解决的问题。最后一点很重要，让大家都感受到您对自己所从事的工作的热忱。除了在职业关系中建立自己的一席之地，老师们也要注重扩展自己的专业人际资源，参加专业组织以及专业活动。有教学经验的老师可以考虑是否向别的同事们介绍课堂上的实践经验，而不只是做听众和学员。

中国人的传统是不爱出头，可是作为美国学校的中文老师，必须突破这个传统，才能更好地了解美国的教育体制，和同事们更好地沟通。把自己的名声打响的同时也把中文课的名声打响了。