Reading is a splendid encounter. Open your book, you will meet the story, the character and the author; Close your book, you will learn truth, kindness, beauty and a new yourself. There is a kind of book which is suitable for almost everyone ranging from kids to the elderly, that is picture book. A small picture book contains incredible possibilities. On the 7th September, teachers in WUIS discussed and studied picture book teaching together with the famous primary Chinese teacher Zuqin Zhang, the children’s reading researcher and promotor Yuehua Gui and the leading famous teacher in Tai Zhou Yubing Leng.
1.Mr Zuqin Zhang’s “ Two teaching styles for one lesson”
Mr Zhang showed two different teaching styles of the picture book<Fantastic Flying Book>. He said “The same materials can have different possibilities when facing different kids.” The first lesson focused on “reading” while the second one focused on “expression”. Mr Zhang used the picture book as an example to prepare writing for students. In the class, the students all engaged actively and participated a lot. The kids not only experienced the fantasy of the book but also summarized many philosophical sentences.
2.Brainstorm between WUIS teachers
Teachers in WUIS did group discussion after observing Mr Zuqin Zhang’s“Two teaching styles for one lesson” demo class and expressed their own opinions of “Picture book teaching”. Quite a lot of wonderful teaching ideas sprung out through communications. Mr Zhang made some comments and thumped up for teachers’ creative thinking. Meanwhile, he also helped teachers reevaluate and reflect on their own classes.
3.Mr Yuehua Gui’s “Picture book appreciation”
Mr Gui lead all the teachers to lean about the development history of picture books, know about children and clarified them into different groups according to the presenting style. Going through the “point, line and aspect “of picture books, Mr Gui told teachers about how charming and beautiful reading can be by sharing his own life experience.
4.Young teachers’ “Show Time”
Ms Jing Wu and Ms Qian Feng of WUIS demonstrated two different styles of picture book teaching. Ms Wu taught <The taste of the moon> and connect it with <The enormous turnip>. She set up a context and let students move, speak and play. Ms Feng taught <The little rat who wants to eat apple> and designed a “Guess the plot” part, which helped students imagine and practice speaking. Students all had fantastic performance in class. Mr Zhang and Mr Gui spoke highly of the two lessons.
5.Mr Leng’s “Picture book philosophy”
Mr Leng guided teachers to explore children through picture book teaching. He linked picture book to P4C and analyzed it deeply and theme-based. Mr Leng also studied and discussed about picture book with all the teachers and answered questions. He pointed out that “The meaning of education is in the future”, which hopefully could encourage teachers to insist in reading and normalize reading .
The Chinese department of WUIS has been contributing to a reading campus and promoting students to read in depth. The professional development of teachers has always been the core of Chinese team.
“Good education is a soulful treatment for students.” Teachers in WUIS always remember to be a learning teacher while guiding students’ reading. On the way of education, wish to provide “the most soulful treatment”.
