The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.
In Wenlai Middle School, Shanghai, the 6th grade learners are excited to start reading the book My Childhood by Gorky. Some can’t wait to start over the holiday. Reading is no longer a task but a present! Reading more becomes their new year’s resolutions.
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The teachers used Pre-Texts’ pedagogy to integrate play, custom activities and assessment with 210 6th grade students at Shanghai Wenlai reading Maxim Gorky’s My Childhood together. The students discussed the author’s relationships with his grandfather and grandmother and showed their interpretations through drawings, drama, and sound performance. During these sessions, East China Normal University, Shanghai Education Bureau, SH Public Examination Authority and principals of top schools conducted classroom observation of eight teachers, these are some of their appreciations:
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Before school started in September, Doris Sommer and Clement Chung facilitated a 5-day intensive workshop with teachers from Shanghai. They used the school’s chosen text, Maxim Gorky’s My Childhood to illustrate 1. Integrate skill sets, 2. Play, and 3. Customize activities.
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I discovered that language is only the medium. What we experienced and gained was the improvement of concepts, protocols, and rationale; I thought two hours would be long, but later I discovered that it went very quickly, and when it finished, I thought it was not enough. It shows that the activities were exciting and fun, welcoming and catering for diversity, lighting sparks for learners, creating an embracing atmosphere for learning and appreciation. Principal Bai, head of Shanghai Wenlai Middle School |
In August, we held a workshop for teachers conducted by Regina Heung in Hong Kong to help teachers integrate their English language curriculum with customized activities. Teachers are now planning to implement Pre-Texts in their English reading class.
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In February-March 2021, a group of passionate principals and teachers from Hong Kong met with Professor Doris Sommer as a part of the Language Out Loud program, sponsored by ThinkSeries Hong Kong. Together, educators mixed reading, custom activities and fun, and came up with new possibilities. No one wanted it to end after six continuous sessions.
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Nord Anglia Chinese International School Shanghai (NACIS), Shanghai Minghang Zhu Di School, and WF Joseph Lee Primary School in Hong Kong are integrating Pre-Texts in their school-based curriculum.
Pre-Texts at NACIS and Minghang Zhu Di School in Shanghai
Pre-Texts at WF Joseph Lee Primary School in Hong Kong
