On May 15, 2018, Wuxi United International School hosted the first WUIS Primary School English Reading Seminar. More than 200 primary school English teachers from within the Jiangsu Province attended the event. Featured attendees included Director of Xishan Government Education Supervisor / Deputy Director of Xishan Education Bureau, Meng Xiaodong; Dr. Huang Shusheng from the Wuxi Institute of Education Sciences; Qian Xijie, the special-class teacher of Jiangsu Province; Yang Min, the English Researcher in Xishan District; Liu Yun, the English Researcher in Xinqu District; and Pang Chengqing, the English Researcher in Jiangyin Area. These among other distinguished guests attended the event.
WUIS Principal Ms. Angel Lin gave an opening speech. She shared some of Primary School’s accomplishments achieved in English reading from the opening of the school in 2013 to the present-day classes. Ms. Angel also invited all teachers sharing a passion of teaching reading to sincerely enjoy the seminar contents. Then, Mr. Meng Xiaodong spoke highly of the accomplishments achieved by WUIS. He also expressed his increasing expectations as to the the development of the WUIS Primary School.
The activity was divided into two sections: WUIS English reading teaching discussion, and the English reading demonstration class / lecture from experts.
WUIS Fifth-Grade Reading Teacher Ms. Jenny taught students a picture book entitled Tadpole’s Promise. She encouraged her students to use key information from the text to support arguments in the corresponding debate section of the class. It was this portion of the class that was the most surprising and successful. Ms. Jenny fully respected students’ dominant role in the classroom, and she effectively challenged their thinking ability by asking a series of well-designed questions.
After Ms. Jenny’s demo class, all the English teachers went to a choice of 7 WUIS Guided Reading Lessons – as conducted by both local and foreign teachers. On one hand, the guided reading lesson has its own objectives and textbooks provided by the Wuxi United Education Group’s Pioneer Fusion Course; on the other hand, the students have a very clear concept about the course content and objectives. Differing from traditional whole-class teaching, Guided Reading lessons at WUIS divides students into mixed-ability groups. Local and foreign teachers together choose reading materials that fit students’ reading level. In this way, students’ needs are met and their learning abilities are promoted to the largest extent. During the observation, the teachers from other schools were so amazed by students’ reading abilities and the differentiated teaching strategy of WUIS!
All the teachers couldn’t help wondering after observing two English classes of WUIS: what is the secret behind this wonderful Guided Reading English class？
For the purpose of sharing how the Guided Reading class is set, Curriculum Coordinator Mr. Robert Steventon gave a lecture about the English reading lessons. In-class intensive reading is paired with out-of-class extensive reading. It is in this that teachers have been focusing on creating an immersive reading environment for each student. In the International Schools’ Assessment, Grade 3 and Grade 5 students achieved very high reading scores … surpassing the scores of similarly-structured schools. Some WUIS students earned marks exceeding students from schools throughout Asia / throughout International Schools all over the world.
Then, Dr. Huang Shusheng, Ms. Qian Xijie and Ms. Yang Min commented on this seminar. They spoke highly of students’ abilities and teachers’ teaching levels
In her comments, Ms. Qian Xijie was so impressed that students had the opportunity to express their ideas. She was also impressed by how WUIS teachers have been trying to develop students’ reading ability by creating such a good environment. She mentioned that WUIS reading lessons refreshed her thought about schools being luxurious. It is not only about the facility itself, but also about the ‘soft power’ of a school, which is also at a high level of luxury.
In the afternoon, fifth-grade students were treated to an encounter with Ms. Lin Li. From her lively and interesting teaching style, the children fell in love with her understanding of the teaching of reading. Ms. Lin combined insightful analysis with a clear interpretation of the process of reading to ensure students and teachers better understood how one learns within the English language.Overall, while there will always be difficulty, from today’s event the teaching of reading and the art of learning how to read has been well-presented and understood.
Then, Ms. Lin gave all the teachers a presentation about how to teach English reading well. Her idea was to combine teaching theory with detailed examples, and the result was that the teachers in the audience greatly reduced their respective fear of teaching reading. Indeed, everyone learned so much！
