In the summer of 2018, I was asked to join a Migrant Student Summer Teaching Program led by a small group of parents and students at Concordia International School Shanghai. I would be the lead teacher for the mathematics program, leading a group of high school students in preparing their lesson content, coaching them on teaching, and giving lessons together to the students.
The term migrant student refers to the children who accompanied their parents when they migrated away from their home province. One of the key reasons of migration is so that the parents have better job prospects or earn an income that can better sustain their large family as a whole. However, because the "hukou", a residency registration document, is from their home province, not the province they migrated to in order to work, these children often do not have the same opportunities for education. The group's intent was to assist the local community by providing opportunities for informal education. My understanding of these regulations is very poor because I neither studied nor discussed education policies of the Shanghai municipality or the Republic of China itself. I therefore cannot form an educated opinion on the pros and cons of the education or hukou system, I simply saw an opportunity to contribute to the local community and took it as a learning experience.
This project proves to be extremely challenging for a number of reasons. Firstly, the teaching project does not occur in an official institution and will be administered as a summer program. As such, student discipline can be a major issue since the lectures do not take place in a formal academic setting where students are familiar with each other and the teacher. Secondly, the students do not all share the same level of mathematics despite being in the same school grade. The lessons must be tailored for a wide range of math levels to engage students that have an excellent grasp of the concepts and students that have extreme difficulty in understanding the material.
I find myself being challenged with an entirely new problem set of pioneering a completely new teaching program for a group of students with a wide range of competencies in the material, in an informal class setting where discipline must be maintained to ensure success, with a team of student teachers that I have never led before.
The Challenge of Classrooms with High Disparity in Academic Progress
In the Migrant Student Summer Project, the teachers faced the challenge of tailoring the mathematical lessons to the ability of the students. The issue was further compounded by the fact that the migrant students possessed varying degrees of mathematics aptitude, even amongst students of the same grade. Knowing the grade level of each student provided no use in gauging what each student had already learned or not yet learned. To tackle this challenge, a diagnostic test was created where each question was linked to a specific modular lesson plan. The teaching team analyzed which questions were missed by the majority of the class to select the lesson plan that was created prior to the start of the program. These lesson plans were modular in nature and did not follow a specific course flow and only had basic prerequisites, allowing teachers the flexibility of choosing what topics to teach on which days. This allows teachers to identify the primary gaps of learning in the students as a group and cater the lessons to reinforce those topics.
The Challenge of Retaining Class Discipline over time in an Informal Setting of Instruction
One of the greatest challenges the teachers faced during the Summer Teaching project was the issue of class discipline. Given that the classes were not taught in an official academic institution, students enter the program with the expectation that it will be a summer camp and that "school rules need not apply". This project did not have existing teachers who could help the new student teachers enforce the rules or maintain class discipline, so the responsibility for maintaining order and a positive learning environment fell upon the student teachers. Near the end of the two week program, students would often talk over one another, raise their voices, speak without raising their hand and have conversations with other students that are not related to the class. This causes the teacher to face monumental difficulties in retaining attention of the students as well as speak in a manner that can be heard by everyone in the class. Based on observation, the following factors seem to be the most important in determining class discipline:
Familiarity
Familiarity has to do with how acquainted the students are with the teacher. The longer the teacher has taught the students, the more likely they are to misbehave or lose focus. This effect has to do with how comfortable a student is with the class and how familiar the dynamic of the lesson is to the student. In essence, a student is most attentive and focused in the very first few days he/she is being taught by a group of teachers. Instructors should capitalize on this effect by making rules and expectations very clear in the first few days.
Lesson Competence
The competence of a teacher has significant impact on class discipline. A well-prepared lesson would engage the students well and captivate their attention for the duration of the class, which fosters a positive learning environment and minimizes distraction. Teachers should note that even a well-prepared lesson cannot ensure positive class discipline, as some students will get distracted or become disruptive no matter how effective the instructor is at teaching. A poorly prepared lesson is a surefire method to losing class discipline and losing the attention of the class. When the instructor is stumped on an explanation, takes long pauses to think about what to say and how to teach, or is unable to clearly and coherently explain a concept effectively in a short amount of time, students will lose focus in a matter of 10-20 seconds. It is near impossible for a teacher to hide their lack of preparation. The only solution to ensuring that the lesson is successful is by having the discipline to prepare and plan the lesson ahead of time. A lesson that is not prepared ahead of time is practically equivalent to having an adult mouth off and rant while forcing students to listen and pay attention.
Clarity of Rules and Initial Impression
Continuing with the concept of familiarity, the first impression made by teachers often sets the expectations of the students for that particular class. If the teacher is unprepared or ignorant of rules being broken, students may expect to be bored, and will anticipate that they would not be disciplined if they break the rules or get distracted. It is important for every teacher to clarify the rules of the class and the expectations for each student in the very first few days, so that students are clear on what to expect and how the course will be run. This minimizes the risk of students believing it is acceptable to break the rules or disobey the teacher in the long run. Based on observation from the migrant summer teaching project, it takes roughly 3-4 days for students to "test the waters" and deteriorate in discipline.
Swiftness of Disciplinary Action
This particular aspect has to do with students believing they can "get away with it". If no disciplinary action is carried out when a student misbehaves, it shows the entire class that there are no negative consequences to misbehavior, which invites more students to "test the line" and misbehave. For example, if a student consistently gets distracted and refuses to pay attention to the class, other students may take that as an invitation to do so as well and lose focus. This is almost a "tumbling stack of cards" effect, as the number of disruptive students creates a negative effect on the learning environment and encourages more students to become disruptive.
In summary, teachers should clarify rules and expectations in the very first few days, should make adequate preparations for lessons, and should rectify misbehavior immediately (as well as award good performance as soon as possible) in order to retain a positive learning environment and positive class discipline over time.
Difference in Homework Structure between Elementary and High School
Many high school students do not notice the difference in assignment curriculum between Elementary and High School. At first glance, elementary school and high school homework simply differ in the academic content and workload. Upon closer inspection and analysis, many will realize that high school assignments are considerably more open-ended than elementary school homework. High school students who assume the role of teacher must keep in mind that elementary school homework should ask for specific answers. For example, mathematics problems tend to have the steps written out and prompts the student to fill in the blanks to complete the question. In high school mathematics, the equations may not even be given and the student is prompted to complete the problem simply with the initial facts given to them. It is important for high school students who assume the role as teachers to cater the homework to the grade level they are teaching. For younger ages, cater the homework to be step by step, and prompt for specific answers (where only one answer is possible).
No physical or verbal abuse is tolerated from teachers or students
Physical and verbal abuse from teachers or from students will absolutely not be tolerated. Firstly, teachers should be a role model for the students and must not demonstrate undesirable behavior, as students may interpret teacher's actions as a valid license to do the same. If a teacher screams at his/her students, the students may find it acceptable to scream at each other as well. Secondly, teachers should never be physically or verbally abusive to their students because of the immense trust placed in them to take care of the students. Not only does abuse carry criminal charges in many regions of the world, it leaves a permanent detrimental effect on the psyche of students as they develop into an adult.
Conditioned Tools for Instruction and Class Discipline
Clap Pattern for Attention (Elementary and Middle School)
Teach the students to respond to a specific clap pattern by repeating the clap pattern. This tool allows teachers to regain the attention of the students as well as stop what the students are doing. This clap pattern is important because it allows a teacher to regain student focus without raising his/her voice and talking above everyone else in the room. By using a clap pattern instead of temper or raised tone, a teacher can minimize the possibility that students will fear the teacher. A clap pattern is also arguably easier to execute compared to the alternative option of hollering over an entire classroom of students.
Raising hands before speaking
Instructing the students to raise their hands and wait for teacher acknowledgement before speaking has several benefits to class discipline and ease of instruction. Firstly, it minimizes the occurrences where a students interrupts a teacher in the middle of the lesson and disrupts the flow of the lecture. Secondly, it avoids situations where multiple students attempt to talk over each other to gain the attention of the teacher, which can escalate noise to fearsomely busy marketplace levels faster than teachers anticipate. Thirdly, it teaches the students to wait their turn to speak, to be patient, and to respect the right for others to speak.
Importance of Vocabulary Preparation
Preparation of vocabulary for lectures and explanations is crucial to teaching and plays an even more important role for instructors who are teaching in what is not considered as their primary language. By researching, understanding and reviewing key words related to the concepts of the lesson, teachers can avoid being possibly stumped by the limit of understanding of the language that the lesson is taught in. In the migrant student summer program, teachers instructing in mathematics found difficulty explaining simple mathematical concepts such as factorials, exponents and fractions because they did not know the words for related math terms in the language they were teaching in (for example, numerator and denominator). Specifically, teachers should spend ample time using Google Translate or any other translation tool and create a vocabulary list to ensure that they can successfully explain the lesson concepts in a language they did not originally learned it in.
During the first few lessons of the summer migrant student teaching program, teachers encountered difficulties explaining concepts because they did not know the translated terms related to the material. Specifically, the teachers knew how to say fraction, denominator and numerator, but they did not understand how to verbally dictate fractions, such as five eighths or four fifths. In Chinese, the denominator is spoken before the numerator. The teachers were better equipped and better able to teach the classes when they spent 5 to 10 minutes learning the related vocabulary in their lesson preparations, in conjunction with their mock lectures.
Mock Lectures
Mock lectures prove to be an effective method of lesson preparation because it serves as a rehearsal of concepts, explanations and teaching plans for the teacher. Mock lectures need not have an audience, need not be the same duration as the actual lesson and need not even be spoken aloud. The point of having a mock lecture, whether it is simply a mental exercise or an actual rehearsal given to peer criticism is to prompt the teacher to run through the thought process and explanation process of the course material at least once before actually "performing" it in front of a class. While some teachers found it more effective to speak aloud while pointing at his/her teaching notes, other teachers found it more effective to simply carry out a vocabulary preparation and imagine the lesson once through in their heads prior to the actual class.
Reflections
I was extremely grateful to have participated in this opportunity, as it provided yet another perspective, and additional insight, on the finer details of how to be an effective teacher in different situations. The program was enjoyable and I am glad to have spent my time teaching those students and working with my fellow Concordia students.
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