After four class periods of preparation and lots of background research, finally, today we began watching the film. After 15 minutes of Free Voluntary Reading, I began doing "Picture Talks" with students. These pictures are screenshots of the important scenes from the film. First, I pointed out the location, time and the setting. The infamous annual college entrance exam (gaokao) in China, which takes place on June 7th, June 8th and June 9th. Anyone dreams to go to a college will only have one opportunity each year to give it a shot. Typically, two kinds of students who take gaokao...
Better Days – A Film Journey4
In the previous three posts, I journaled the preparations for this film class. Yesterday, we had our fourth class. Students were asked to do background research on the film director, Zeng, Guoxiang, the male lead, Jackson Yee, and the female lead, Zhong, Dongyu. After the free voluntary reading, we dived into soliciting background information. Here are what students shared. The inquiry process took up the most part of the class. After that, we played a Blooket game which I designed ahead of time, based on the research I did on these three people. Blooket provides different game modes. We played...
Better Days – A Film Class Journey 2
In the last post, I shared that we were beginning a film in class. I asked students to listen to the theme song to get a sense of what might be happening in the movie. Today I had my intermediate 3/4 class (I3/4). Here is what has been taken in place. First, I began the class with free voluntary reading (10 minutes). Students chose a reading of their own interests, read quietly and then keep a simple log of what they read. This record is for themselves to keep. I'll begin a check-in during the second week. Typically, I call...
＃3 手机
作者：姚远 如今，手机已经成了人们生活中的必需品。过去，大家出门带上钱包、钥匙就可以了；而现在，如果没有带手机，就会觉得不自在。也是，自从苹果手机的出现，手机的用处已经不只是打电话、发短信了。真是没有做不到，只有你想不到。 我很喜欢手机，因为手机带起来很方便，用起来也很方便。我是一个路盲，我走在不熟悉的路上时，我会用手机当做GPS。我一个人无聊时，喜欢用手机上网打发时间。我在外时，可以用手机马上看到电子邮件。 但是，有一天，我突然想到，手机对我的生活真的那么重要吗？ 我看到，在地铁上，从老到少，从男到女，个个都低头专心看着手机——有的在玩游戏，有的在看书，有的在看电影……甚至有些人出了地铁走在路上，也放不下手机。上海的地铁里有一句非常有趣的提示牌——走路时请不要低头看手机。如果一个人真的正在低头看手机，他怎么会看到这个提示牌呢？ 我看到，到了餐桌上，手机更是必不可少。每上一道菜，朋友们纷纷地拿出手机，伸长脖子端平手机拍上一通，直到拍完才能开饭。而到了吃饭时，又常常看到大家吃着吃着就开始拿出手机，走进了各自的世界，时不时地从自己的世界跳回来，分享些手机上看到的趣事。 还有一次，我在一家饭店吃午饭，看见邻桌的一个女孩一个人点了一碗面，接着拿出手机，插上耳机，看起了电视。吃完一碗面，电视也看完了。只见她收起耳机，捧着手机，低头走到了人群里。有了手机，一个人的午饭不再尴尬，也不再孤独。 看上去，手机给了我们很多，但是我们也失去了很多。我们失去了和朋友、家人在一起的谈笑时光，我们失去了每一道热菜最鲜美的一口，我们失去了和自己独处的机会。这，真是太可惜了！ 所以，今天我对自己说：我不想要手机成为我生活的重心。你也愿意这样挑战自己吗？ [audio m4a="https://ignitechinese.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Ignite-mix-3.m4a"][/audio]