Happy context "learning by doing" efficient English learning model

TWGHs Leo Tung-hai LEE Primary SchoolDetermined to cultivate new wisdom and teach people to learn from others. The school's first priority is to help students establish a solid foundation of biliteracy and trilingualism. On the one hand, it innovates the junior high school assessment system and creates a flexible and efficient learning model. On the other hand, it hires a number of foreign English teachers to deepen the English context in the school. Principal Lu Zhenhe leads the teaching team to implement "high participation", "high interaction" and "high interest" inquiry-based theme learning, and takes "Learning by Doing" as the English education policy. In recent years, it has not only successfully improved the admission level and allocation performance, but also rooted the seeds of "love to learn and self-confidence" in the hearts of students, cultivating talents for society.

Cancel primary school exams and advocate International English Proficiency Test

Under the influence of the epidemic, the connection between kindergarten and primary school has become crucial. Therefore, the school not only offers a complete "P1 connection course", but also cancels the examinations for P1 and P2, and uses "unit assessment" and "class performance feedback" to assess students' ability, so as to provide teachers with more flexible and efficient teaching space. "Unit assessment" and "class performance feedback" effectively reduce students' learning pressure and enhance positive learning motivation. Principal Lu said: "The purpose of learning is to seek truth and seek truth, not to memorize by rote. In order to achieve better learning performance for students, the school waives traditional examinations in junior and primary grades, allowing teachers and students to free up more time for diversified inquiry learning, deepening the course content through inspections, off-campus visits, lectures and activity-based learning, so that students can become willing to learn and confident, so that teaching complements each other."

After reforming the assessment system, the school pays more attention to curriculum development. In order to improve teaching quality and balance teaching content, the school cooperates with the "Primary School-based Curriculum Development Section" of the Education Bureau, listens to professional opinions, and vigorously optimizes the English school-based curriculum for senior primary schools. The optimized English courses are based on professional theories and are supplemented by the "Three Highs" teaching strategy to promote a "high participation, high interaction, and high interest" learning atmosphere and guide students to engage in class. The course also includes a large amount of chapter language teaching and reading and writing training, so that students can establish the habit of thinking in English from an early age and gradually master the skills of expressing their opinions in English. In addition, in order to strengthen the test-taking training of high school students, the teaching team actively encourages students to participate in international assessment tests to check their personal English proficiency. Over the years, many students have achieved good results in the "Cambridge Primary School English Test in the United Kingdom", the "TOEFL Primary School English Test in the United States" and the "International Joint School Subject Assessment of the University of New South Wales, Australia". Principal Lu said with a smile, "Under the new curriculum and system, students' performance has improved significantly in recent years. Last year, 96.2% of students were assigned the top three choices for secondary school, and 92.4% of the students were assigned places in the independent stage or the first choice in the centralized allocation stage. Nearly 40% (39%) of the students were admitted to English secondary schools. The results are encouraging to the whole school."

Interdisciplinary collaboration to promote “inquiry-based learning”

The comprehensive learning environment attaches great importance to creating opportunities for active learning and application. The teaching team is committed to promoting interdisciplinary learning and breaking the knowledge framework, allowing students to cultivate the spirit of inquiry, promote learning motivation, and develop unique potential through thematic interdisciplinary learning. Principal Lu explained: "The teaching team regularly understands students' learning difficulties through assessment, and then provides top-notch supplementary courses to ensure that they do not fall behind. Then, the time originally spent on examinations and paper review is spent on real teaching, and promotes 'inquiry-based learning' so that students can internalize knowledge and turn it into happy and beautiful learning memories." "Inquiry-based learning" is student-centered, and through guided and open topic inquiry, it can not only take care of students' multiple intelligence development and learning needs, but also arouse their interest in learning. In the classroom, teachers will also incorporate elements such as group discussions, role plays, drama learning, and project studies, so that students can achieve the results of "eyes on", "hands on", and "hearts on" at the same time when learning.

For example, in the past Primary One curriculum with the theme of "Getting Close to Nature", students went on a field trip to Yuen Long Park, felt the touch of soil with bare feet, and created paintings using fallen leaves, exploring in-depth the relationship between man and nature through multi-sensory learning. Not only that, teachers will also place Chinese and English books about nature on display shelves in classrooms and libraries so that students who are interested in related topics can read them at any time and establish a habit of self-study. The school hopes to promote "living education" through all-round teaching strategies, and help students establish "Voice", "Choice" and "Ownership" through inquiry-based guidance, thereby changing their learning attitude, allowing them to come to the classroom with "expectation" and "curiosity", and then through questioning, data collection, analysis and thinking, regain the autonomy of learning, enhance the sense of ownership of knowledge, and create a happy, active and relaxed English learning environment.

Increase teaching resources and bring foreign teachers to campus

Reading can expand knowledge and is also an important training for independent learning. Therefore, the school sponsoring group actively invests resources to renovate decommissioned buses into interesting "reading buses". There are a large number of Chinese and English books placed on the facility. As long as students read enough books and complete reading reports, they can collect game coupons and exchange them for the opportunity to simulate driving a bus, further creating a reading atmosphere in the school. In addition, the school has also allocated additional English teaching resources and hired 4 additional foreign English teachers to promote English context. In addition to being responsible for the school's regular curriculum and organizing different English activities, they will also serve as class teachers at the primary level, allowing students to master the bilingual learning model in a classroom environment where both Chinese and English are taught, and build their confidence in English through frequent English exchanges.

Featured electronic textbooks: "Reading" can turn into gold

The epidemic has made electronic teaching more popular. Seeing that online classes have enabled students in schools to establish good independent learning habits, the school has also added a number of English e-learning platforms in recent years, such as "Edmodo World" and "Raz-kids". After classes resume, it will strengthen the application of "Padlet", "Edpuzzle", "Kahoot!", "Nearpod", "Quizizz" and other teaching software to enrich classroom interactive elements. In order to fully comply with the trend of electronic teaching, all classrooms in the school have been replaced with electronic whiteboards, so that multimedia teaching materials can be used in daily classes to enhance classroom interaction and sharing, or class content can be converted into QR Codes for students to download and review on the spot. Moreover, the teaching team simultaneously integrated the “Audio Ting Pen” into the school-based curriculum. Principal Lu added: "Different from ordinary 'clicking pens', the 'Audio Ting Pen' not only has the function of making sounds to explain, but can also be used in conjunction with school-based reading comprehension textbooks to provide prompts during slightly difficult reading exercises to increase students' confidence in self-challenge."

Wonderful activities to cultivate positive values

In order to increase enthusiasm for English learning, the school often creates opportunities to use English in daily life and sets up interest groups such as "English Drama", "Recitation Training" and "Student English Ambassadors". Teachers also recommend students to participate in off-campus competitions and performances from time to time to increase the effectiveness of peer learning. For example, the school has participated in the "Rugby English" organized by the "Standing Committee on Language Education and Research", allowing students to experience the spirit of sports under the leadership of foreign rugby coaches, and at the same time enhance their interest in English and learning motivation. In addition, the school also incorporates learning elements of English, mathematics, general knowledge and values ​​into campus planting activities. For example, before harvesting watermelons, an "inter-class watermelon guessing competition" will be held, where teachers and students can estimate the weight of watermelons in a class-based format. The closest class will receive a watermelon, sharing the taste. Principal Lu said with a smile, "By personally participating in the planting process, students can simultaneously understand scientific knowledge such as the English names, shapes, life cycles, habitats, variability, differences, and interdependence of different plants. Through donation of works, students can go deep into the community to conduct service learning, develop empathy for the disadvantaged, learn to cherish food, be grateful for life, and practice life education."

The school also follows new trends in education and integrates English education with STEAM education. Through new diversified learning activities, such as "Special Inquiry", "Programming Education", "Science Exploration" Robot Top-notch Course, etc., students are encouraged to use English, understand the development trends of innovative technology, and at the same time, through hands-on operations, feel the impact of technology on human life, so as to prepare for the changes and challenges of future society.